Electronic Arts has slipped on a pair of bootie shorts and shaked its groove thang all the way back to the well, announcing Boogie SuperStar exclusively for the Wii. A follow up to last year's family-friendly rhythm game, Boogie, the game is the latest to be counted among EA's casual brand, and is being targeted specifically at girls – though how exactly the game will favor the fairer sex remains to be seen.

Once again being developed by EA Montreal, information about the game was first leaked last month, at that time indicating that Boogie SuperStar would have players dancing on the Wii Balance Board, though EA's official announcement makes note of no such functionality. What we do know is that Boogie SuperStar will allow up to four gals to keep rhythm, customize characters, and cut rugs using the Wii remote, all while being judged by the game on their road to win it big in the game's 'Boogie Star Show.' The sequel will also feature more than 40 different licensed tracks from groups and singers such as Maroon 5, Britney Spears, and Kanye West, though EA bills the music as being 'made popular by' these artists, so cheap imitations will likely be the order of the day when Boogie SuperStar ships in both North America and Europe this October.

The dancing-puppet game, Boogie, launches on the DS this "holiday" season. The portable version of the title has more game in it (read: objectives and losing conditions). But after briefly playing, it still seems aimed close at the casual market Boogie (Wii) courted; rhythm fans might want to pass.

Boogie (DS) copies rhythm game techniques, but it comes off as a casual, unfocused Elite Beat Agents. Maybe after hours of playing -- or a better fit with a gamer who's never tried a rhythm title -- it would feel more unique.

When we first heard about Boogie grooving its way to the DS, the expectations were not particularly high. And as the video above demonstrates, the little portable port meets these expectations quite nicely.

Gone from the game is any hint of a karaoke portion (which might be a good thing, given the quality of the DS's tiny mic). Instead, Boogie DS seems to be purely about a series of weaksauce rhythm mini games. Tap the tambourine! Strum the guitar! Step to the beat! It's every great music series mashed up in a mediocre milkshake. Of course, we'll hold off from making any strong assumptions until we can actually play the thing. In the meantime, anyone else care to judge the book by its cover?

As hinted at in May, EA has announced that the all-singing, all-dancing Boogie will be released on the PlayStation 2 (fake box art above) and DS this holiday season. When it debuted on the Wii in August, Boogie's musical sing-and-swing gameplay left some critics gyrating in pleasure and others convulsing in pain, the latter screaming "shallow and mindless" to the other group's "simple and accessible."

EA's press release claims that the DS verse-ion of Boogie will feature "the first 3D gameplay on the handheld system," a statement made less outrageous when it's followed by mention of special (and no doubt embarrassing) 3-D glasses. It also promises new gameplay modes, multi-card play and rather unbelievably, more minigames compared to Wii. The PS2 version isn't as thoroughly explained, though its content will likely differ less than its means of input.

It's days like this that make us pine for a time machine. Can you imagine being able to tell you from five years ago the the biggest release one week would be an original IP from EA where you sing and wave your arms around to dance? Oh, and also, you appear to be a giant pink squid-Travolta ... and it's called Boogie. This new release list doesn't just tell you what games are coming out, it reminds you that wonders never cease.

Electronic Arts' Boogie for Wii is not a very competitive game. You can stop grooving mid-dance to change your avatar's outfit (just with the push of the A button) and receive no penalty. The purpose of Boogie, though, is not to be involved. This game is very clearly targeted for that Wii demographic aged 5 to 95, and almost everything about it seems tailored to that push.

Playing the game involves the flick of the wrist to the beat of the song, which will subsequently cause your character to dance. You can move your dancer around the stage with the control stick, and at any time you can press a button to Strike a Pose, whereby you must maneuver an on-screen arrow (using the nunchuk) into a target. Singing is just what you've seen in other games, and there is a sliding bar to adjust the volume difference between the recorded vocals and your own.

Pull out your tapshoes and tambourine, the soundtrack for Electronic Arts' Wii rhythm game Boogie has just been revealed. There are 38 songs in all, spanning a rather eclectic list, from Jackson 5 to Jamiroquai, Kool & the Gang to The Black Eyed Peas. There's even MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" -- no, really.

Full list, as well as a new trailer for the game, embedded after the break.

Even though some of us have played Boogie, the title continues to confuse others. Today's video pick is the first time it made sense for this writer: instead of a dancing-and-singing game, it's a game where you control a dancing-and-singing puppet. Finally, the lack of direct correlation between controllers and avatars -- like left controller for left arm -- makes sense.

It's still too early to predict Boogie's success, but at least we finally understand the basics. And it took us long enough -- the title is close to shipping, with an August 9, 2007 release. See the video after the break.

It's been rumored for well over a year that the Wiimote houses secret microphone functionality. As recently as this month, additional rumor fodder came in the form of one unused "audio translator" sitting idly inside each and every Wiimote. It's too bad then that the upcoming Wii rhythm game, Boogie, is coming with the pictured microphone, as promised.

Sure, maybe some part of us believed that -- through the magic of technology (or just plain magic) -- our plain, unassuming Wiimotes would be transformed into super-powered Wiimote / microphone hybrids. Or maybe they still will and Nintendo's just not ready to share the magic with third-parties. Speaking of third-parties, note the generic EA branding, perfect for use with other EA-developed, microphone-enabled Wii games. Yes, we're thinking of you, Harry Potter.

The most pleasant surprise at this week's Nintendo Media Summit was the EA-developed rhythm/singing game, Boogie. I was pretty skeptical of the game from just the early screenshots that I had seen, and judging from the deserted EA booth, a lot of other people felt the same way. You'll understand then that I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying Boogie, not only for the gameplay but also the attractive and pleasant graphics. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Boogie is one EA's attempts to cash in on two current crazes at the same time -- rhythm/music games and the Wii. It combines a rhythm-based dance game with karaoke (via an included microphone) and a host of likeable, wacky characters and they pull it off surprisingly well.

Probably what impressed me the most about Boogie was the graphics; it had a really nice cel-shaded look to it, fantastic stages, and good animation. It was by far and away the best looking game at the show, with no other game except maybe Mario Strikers Charged coming anywhere close. The five different characters are attractively designed in a cartoonish way, and they're all well animated -- a key detail for a dancing game. The stages themselves were fairly small, but the backgrounds were huge and detailed. The forest stage in the below screenshots is probably my particular favorite. And the game gets extra points for being less aliased than any other title shown by Nintendo that day -- a huge plus for people bothered by the chainsaw-like jaggies on some other Wii titles (like me).

We're a little confused by Boogie. Is it a singing game? A dancing game with a lip-syncing character? Both? Where are the DDR-style arrows? While we soon anticipate getting some hands-on time with the title for our own opinion and overview, GameTrailers shows the game in action with a developer interview.

The possibly-not-Wii-exclusive title is different at the very least. We hope the risk pays off. See the video after the break.

Alfredo Chavez, Gameplay / Art producer for the upcoming Wii rhythm title Boogie, has confirmed that the game will come with a USB microphone.

"The Wii version comes bundled with a microphone, it's a USB microphone and it's probably going to be the first mic for the Wii," he said in a video interview with IGN. Does this mean we will have to sit in a close proximity of the Wii or will there simply be a wireless dongle that attaches to the back? We're betting on the latter, as being connected to a console while jumping around like a buffoon is a surefire way to destroy your system.

Another interesting interpretation of Chavez's quote, particularly "the Wii version," hints that developer Electronic Arts is readying the title for other platforms, as well. Of course, we're not surprised that Boogie is expanding to other consoles (this is an EA franchise, after all), but there have been no official multiplatform plans announced.



[Update: We were contacted by a spokesperson for Disney Interactive to let us know that High School Musical, which includes a microphone for the Wii version, will be coming out in August before Boogie.]

[Via Go Nintendo]

With Rayman's musical mini-games and the multi-peripheral DDR franchise already making passes at the Wii, it would seem that Nintendo's system gets along famously with the rhythm genre. The two are like a pair of dazed lovers skipping blissfully through a park, unaware that their uncontrolled flailing and unexpected gyration is leaving everyone in the nearby vicinity with bloody noses and swollen eyeballs. That certainly sounds like the ideal Wii experience, at least according to EA -- they've just announced Boogie, a Wii-exclusive rhythm game that wants you to dance, pose and sing your way to living room stardom.

On the heels of XBLA's Boom Boom Rocket and EA's announced intention to bust into music games "sooner than you think" comes a game which, at first glance, appears to be the result of Tim Burton drunkenly colliding with a Singstar demo kiosk. Boogie will see gamers producing the moves and vocals for a music video, presumably making use of that super secret Wii microphone. The nunchuck is also incorporated here, giving rise to the possibility that the microphone peripheral itself may also harbor motion-sensing abilities akin to that of the Wiimote. What's the use of a microphone if you can't twirl it about like a buffoon?