Dance Magic - Bust a Move

So...a game about weaponized dance energy with custom soundtracks? OBVIOUSLY this was my first order of business!

Yeah this just hit PSN recently. While not perfect I am completely in love with it. Amusingly it was published by Gaijin Entertainment (the Blades of Time/X-Blades people) and half the ACTUAL soundtrack is from stockmusicsite.com! XD (Amazingly the default music is pretty good!) The game also supports dance pads and the Move and has a DDR and Dance Central-style mode as well, but the Bust-A-Groove-ish Battle Mode is the star of the show.

If you're wondering what the crap is going on? You input arrows to the beat of the music. Every 4 arrows is a command. Any random set of arrows results in a normal dance move that fills combo meter. The SPECIFIC ones listed do special things. From top to bottom:

Attack - Does damage based on how high your combo is and how on-the-beat you are
Rage - Stronger attack, but blocked by any shield
Shield - Generates a shield, can make 3, reduces damage
Deflect - Destroys one of your opponent's shields
Interrupt - Breaks opponent's combo.

Doing specific combinations of attacks results in character specific special moves that inflict status effects. The bar at the top of the screen is your Shocker which stuns the opponent when activated, like BAG's Jammers.

So basically it's a rythmic Pokemon battle. Oddly compelling to me! Paying attention to the action, strategizing, and doing the right moves while keeping the beat is an unusual challenge far removed from the typical arrow spam seen in the genre.

Also yes there is some light character customization. Hence the bunny ears.

...and yes there is blatant on-"disc" DLC. The computer is using DLC items not yet available and 7 or 8 of the songs are DLC locked for $2.

Oh and while it supports custom music (since it's based on the BEAT rather than any step charts), it's hard to calibrate the custom music 100% right as it must be manually calibrated (hence me screwing up a bit here) also custom music results in less flashy stage effects.

Still, I HIGHLY appreciate it! Thus far this is easily the best dance game with custom music yet! (I HAVE played Vib Ribbon, Dance! Dance! Dance! and Goo Goo Soundy)