The dance mat game; attracting all manner of gamers from giggling teenage schoolgirls to hardcore Japanese arcade nuts*, it has always been seen as a niche market. Most casual gamers wouldn’t admit to owning a dance mat game let alone playing one. But we all know they love it really and they are usually the first in line at the arcade to pump their coinage into the latest Dance Dance Revolution arcade game. That is why I feel that I do not have to hide the fact that I indulge in a little dance mat shenanigans myself or even feel guilty that I do. So when Codemasters’ (yeah, I know; since when did they start making dance mat games?) latest effort in the genre, Dance Factory, came through my door to review I literally jumped at the prospect of trying it out. Why my enthusiasm? Why get excited over yet another dance mat game? Well this one is a little bit special...

The biggest problem with games of this genre - or even games in the karaoke-style for that matter - is that once you’ve played all of the tracks a few times you’ve seen all the game has to offer you. The few dance mat titles I own sit gathering dust and I was even unsure whether my dance mat peripheral would still work after such a lengthy amount of time without regular use. Wouldn’t it be great if you could delete the tracks that have started to bug you and replace them with say your favourite song from the radio? How many times have you played a dance mat game, then listened to the radio and thought ‘that would be perfect as a song to dance to with a dance mat’? Never? Just me then...

At least my wish has come true with Dance Factory in the sense that you can now dance to your favourite tune. In fact, you can dance to any song you have in your CD collection thanks to the game’s unique track generator! Just pop a CD in, go through the relatively short conversion process and hey presto – you can dance to the song which now has auto generated dance steps. You can even make your own mix CD and burn all of your favourite tunes to a single disk on your computer to import into the game. For all those gamers out there that have the attention span of a fish don’t fret! The kind programmers have included a little distraction in the form of a mini game to keep you amused during the conversion process. 3D coloured-cube manipulation has never been my strong point so I’m content to just watch the conversion progress as it happens.

When it is complete you even have the chance to name your CD, the artist and each track on the disc to save to memory card so you don’t have to go through all that conversion again. My only gripes with this are the c*bersome character input (you are using a dance mat to type after all) and the precious space that can be taken up on memory card if you are not careful. One or two CDs worth of saved song information are hardly noticeable, but get over zealous with the conversion process and you’ll run out of space fast.

The biggest question I bet you are dying to ask is whether the auto generated dance steps that are put on a track during the conversion process are accurate – or more specifically in time with the music. The simple answer is yes, pretty much. Of course it is not an exact science and some steps can synchronise with the vocals whilst others match the underlying beat of a song, but that is to be expected. I tested out Evanescence, Queen and Aerosmith albums and the track generator produced some fairly accurate results. There were a few blips in some songs, however these did not cause me too much trouble when I was dancing like a drunken hobo walking on hot coals (i.e. I was still rubbish). I should imagine that a competent dance mat gamer would confirm that the step placement was pretty accurate though.

Dance Factory sports some pretty standard visuals: colourful morphing backdrops, flying 3-Dimensional geometrical shapes and the obligatory on screen avatar that dances away to the song as it plays on screen. Mind you, we don’t want stunning visuals distracting you from hitting those arrows now, do we? I won’t treat Dance Factory harshly on its uninspiring looks as they are not a key factor in what makes this game fun to play – unlimited track possibilities. After all, not many titles are future proofed as much as this one is.
Speaking of said avatar, it is just another ‘random’ aspect to the game as they are uniquely generated along with every CD you insert. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to choose how they turn out and it is pot luck whether you end up with a cool looking alien or a rip off of Cheeto the cheetah. Still, you can make it look a little better by buying some limited accessories with your hard-earned points you get from busting some moves on the dance mat. These earned points can also be used to buy extra backgrounds as well to add to the variety.

So how the heck do you mark this title on sound? If the five pre-installed demo tracks in the game are anything to go by then it would score very poorly – owing to the fact that I detest manufactured pop. Use the game as intended and introduce your own tracks however and the sound score gets a perfect ten out of ten every time, as only your favourite tracks get a look in.

There are some other small criticisms to voice my concern about with Dance Factory. For a start there is a distinct lack of play modes on offer. You have your standard single player single track and full CD dance modes and special calorie burning mode, which is the same as the normal mode just with a calculation at the end of the song to tell you an approximate amount of calories you burnt off during the track. Nothing remarkable there then. Another quibble is with the two player mode in that there isn’t any real incentive to play it other than bragging rights on high scores which you can do in single player mode anyway.

Codemasters’ delve into the unknown has seemingly paid off with Dance Factory. They’ve addressed an issue screaming to be resolved in the form of the unique track generator, but unfortunately even this cannot stop the inevitable apathy that sets in after a period of time with this genre of game. Granted, this period takes longer to reach because of the ability to introduce fresh content whenever you want, but at the heart of the game it is still another dance mat title. Bring a few mates around on the other hand and this title can never get old – you’ll be collapsing with exhaustion and/or laughter before putting the dance mat away again. Although not an essential purchase, you can get far, far worse than this little bit of entertainment.

* This generalisation is in no way meant to pigeon hole or stereotype gamers and/or genres. ;)