Red Bull BC One > Video Game News, Inc.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Red Bull BC One
By Sheep @ 11:40 AM :: 2005 Views ::

:: DS

Red Bull BC One is a very simple, budget priced rhythm game with puzzle elements for the Nintendo DS. In this game, you take on the role of an aspiring b-boy trying to win one of the world’s top breakdancing competitions brought to you by Red Bull. You spend most of your time connecting same colored dots on the lower touch screen, which then causes your dancer on the top screen to perform random, but always super duper fresh, breakdance moves. The challenge lies in the fact that the screen changes every few seconds so you have to make your shapes before the time runs out. You lose a life if you run out of time while trying to make a shape or if you accidentally connect two dots that are not the same color. I found myself accidentally running the stylus over a different colored dot simply because there wasn’t enough room to maneuver around. This became pretty frustrating and slowed the flow of the game down immensely. On the positive side, if you make three mistakes and fail the dance battle, you can continue right away at the beginning of the stage.

Once you get the main game play down and start racking up multipliers, which are received by creating “perfect” shapes using all of the dots, you start to progress pretty quickly. I made my way through the career mode, where you travel from country to country going up against new rivals, in a matter of hours. Along the way, you unlock outfits to customize your character and arenas to use when playing “Free Mode.” Neither the outfits nor arenas are anything special (I couldn’t even tell which outfits I had unlocked when going back into the character creator). You can also unlock 14 different mini-games, which to be honest, barely fit the legal definition of the word mini-games. The best mini-game I had unlocked was a “Simon says” clone. Once the career mode is completed, you’re forced to move on to the Free Mode; you literally receive the following message when trying to replay the Career mode again: “Career completed! To play more, go to the Free Mode.” Free Mode lets you go back and replay specific locations to try and improve on your score. There is also a multiplayer mode, but no single card download play. So yes, you need to know someone else that owns Red Bull BC One. Good luck with that.

As far as the presentation goes, the game’s graphics are adequate for a budget DS game. It features very simplified, faceless B-boys performing in their barely detailed arenas full of cheering stick people. There is also pre and post-battle trash talking with such classic exchanges as: “Your moves stink.” “Brush your teeth. Your breath stinks.” Ouch. The developers seem to have taken more time with the music, which is very well done and fitting for the theme of the game. Unfortunately, it’s the core game play that is really lacking. Playing a glorified version of “connect the dots” can only remain interesting for a short time. Breakdancing is the main theme of the game, but rarely can you watch your avatar bust his moves since you need to focus on the lower screen. To be fair, you can watch a replay of all the dance moves you performed after you win a battle, in case you want to try and teach your self the One Arm Elbow Airflare.

Younger players might enjoy the break-dancing aesthetic and have fun unlocking the various items, but anyone that can legally drive will find very little worth their time here. Each dance battle is basically the same as the one you just completed with slightly different, and always mediocre, mini-games mixed in. In order to top each successive rival, you just have to reach a higher score; new, more challenging game elements are never really introduced to evolve the game play. The game just adds more dots to clutter the screen and make it harder to create perfect shapes. Personally, I think a kid would have more fun with a can of Red Bull and a coloring book, but that’s not to say that Red Bull BC One is broken. It’s just a very shallow DS budget game that at least tries to blend rhythm and puzzle elements with breakdancing. Maybe one day, we will play the breakdancing game we deserve and not the one brought to you by Red Bull.

5 out of 10

Comments

By Video Game News, Inc. @ Wednesday, October 08, 2008 12:57 PM

Comments from the following blog entry: Review: Red Bull BC One, located at: http://www.videogamenews.com/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ArticleView/mid/625/articleId/716/Review-Red-Bull-BC-One.aspx

By madmex @ Wednesday, October 08, 2008 1:14 PM

Good review Sheep, love the reb bull coloring book comment.

By NutMan @ Wednesday, October 08, 2008 2:55 PM

I heard a rumor that the best thing that happened to you while playing was your DS battery dying. Can you confirm this?

By Sheep @ Wednesday, October 08, 2008 2:59 PM

Thanks Madmex and to Nutman: maaaaybe. : P