Wii Boogie

Well check this out - isn't she cute? That's Bumper singing and dancing along to Wii Boogie.


Want to know what's not cute? My voice singing along to Wii Boogie.

I had no idea I couldn't sing until I cracked open the new Wii game and turned my boring old living room into a Karaoke Dance Bar. Not a clue.

And since the patrons of this new bar consisted of my entire family (uh, that's two adults and one toddler if you are keeping score), it quickly became apparent that none of us can sing. Like, at all.

But did that stop us from laughing at each other and having fun? Nope.

We love our Wii though it doesn't get as well used like some of our pre-bumper game systems. So when I was asked by the Parent Blogger Network to review a game, one where we could all participate and required physical activity, I decided to try it out (hello! excuse to play!).

Boogie is a dancing and karaoke game. SB first checked out the dance side of things, and using the Wiimote and nunchuk did some dance moves. I tried them out and due to incredible lack of coordination, suggested we move on to the karaoke feature - where I could reign supreme!

Yes, well this was the first time I'd actually ever done karaoke sober. Perhaps I sound better under the influence because I heard myself and instantly ranked all previous public singing a four on my "embarrassing moments" scale.

I was singing right in front of the living room window, which was wide open. Oh and did I mention we live over a busy sidewalk? Oh yes, the neighbours now just have one more thing to point and laugh about - but do I care? No! Because I was having fun...

And I reigned supreme!

I started with ABC - Jackson 5 which is so much harder than originally thought. After fiddling with the options (less echo, more of just my voice, those kind of things) and moving on to Culture Club's Karma Karma Chameleon I found my "space" - oh yes, I was an off-key, cat-killing diva.

Basically the Boogie karaoke is just like a good machine at the bar, except you earn points for singing along with the prompts and holding the notes for the right amount of time. It doesn't matter if you sound like you are killing a cat, you earn the points. Add in dance moves, and you score big time.

Points allow you to shop for your character: new bling, outfits, hair, new backdrop locations, and songs. I have already bought M's Pop Muzik and Brit's Opps I did it again because they are total shower songs for me (omg, did I just admit that?).

SB gave it a fair shake and we agreed that it could be fun to play with certain visitors. Bumper loved playing and even though she is too young to appreciate the objectives, she had fun commandeering the microphone and yelling out "it's me!" every time she heard her voice coming from the tv (btw, it came with the microphone that easily hooked into the console).

A huge bonus was the ability to capture, edit, and replay the songs and dancing. Oh yes, it was sometimes painful to watch but still fun.

The dance part is a great activity for younger and older kids, though honestly I just used moves to score extra points in karaoke. I think any game that requires kids to move (trust me, it's a cardiovascular workout), doesn't involve violence, and isn't lame gets my stamp of approval.

Overall, I found Boogie fun, I loved hearing Bumper demand we all sing, and I see great potential for playing this with her when she grasps the karaoke side of things. But for now, there is room for only one Karaoke Queen in this house, and that's me.