Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GameCube) review "It was only a matter of time. Mario has infiltrated a great number of wacky genres in his quest to spread the empire of Nintendo, and it was indeed only a matter of time before he started shaking his ass on the dancefloor. "

It was only a matter of time. Mario has infiltrated a great number of wacky genres in his quest to spread the empire of Nintendo, and it was indeed only a matter of time before he started shaking his ass on the dancefloor.

Your enjoyment of Mario DDR will depend primarily on two obvious factors:

1. Your appreciation for Nintendo and the universe of Mario.

2. Your appreciation of Dance Dance Revolution.

If you can't stand Mario or DDR, then it is a given that you want to avoid this one with a forty foot flagpole.

I had never played a DDR prior to this version. When it first became an arcade smash hit, my white ass was way too self conscious to give it a real try in front of the general public. When versions hit home, I hadn't built up any kind of excitement towards it in the arcade, so I skipped it.

Mario and I on the other hand, we go way back. I adore Nintendo and most of their strange and wonderful franchises. It is cute and quirky happy, but so what? I like to watch heads explode with the best of 'em. Diversity is the spice of life, and Nintendo usually provides me with my well-needed nutritional balance.

I am probably a rare case, but I probably would have never gotten around to playing DDR if it was not for the Mario factor. The thought of shaking and grooving (at home) to classic Nintendo tunes in a trippy and colorful world was simply irresistable to me.

So anyway, there is some trouble or something because some music keys of some sort have been jacked or some shit, and Mario has to dance his way to peace! Yeah, the story mode is for modest chuckles only and serves as a vehicle for the dance offs and wacky little mini-games. If you are fat, mini-games will generally consist of jiggling every ounce of flab in your body and well, if you are a female... well, surely you get the point.

The song selections could have been better. Some of the classic tunes have undergone really crappy remixes that I wasn't really "feeling" as I shifted my feet around on the mat like a madman. I would say that most of the soundtrack is plainly average. Unfortunate.

After all of the songs are unlocked, things wear really thin. Story mode becomes absolutely useless and most of the mini-games are only tolerable in the context of story mode. This leaves you with trying to beat your scores on the individual songs. That can be fun once in a while, but there quickly came a point when I no longer felt any need to be playing.

Still though, there is something oddly gratifying about working up a sweat while playing a video game. Nintendo fans should snatch this one up for rainy days.

Community review by atra_vortex (January 12, 2006) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.