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Breakdance

Shiuming Lai has a few rounds on Paranoia's contribution to the dance 'em up(?) genre...

There is a zany little game on the PlayStation which I'll avoid mentioning because I can't spell the name. It features a groovy cartoon dog and you have to make him rap and do dance moves (you know the one), all in wibbly Wobblevision. Quite hilarious and entertaining to play.

I don't recall many such games on any system but the concept has been tried many years ago in the 8-bit micro era, and this is where Breakdance unashamedly draws its inspiration. Actually based on a game by Epyx, where you have to remember and follow the computer's series of moves in ever increasing complexity, now we can enjoy this simple but fun game on our STs and Falcons.

The Paranoid has worked his STOS coding magic to bring the game up to date with swish graphics and strutting tracker music courtesy of MC Laser of tSCc. Up to six players can take control of the demo/game scene members on screen, including The Paranoid Meister himself, all represented by neat caricatures.

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Llama, excellent tSCc coder from Germany
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Sage, coder and hacker from Escape
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Grey, the most famous person of the polish Atari scene!
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A certain Miss Atari performs the dance moves to which each player must follow, it starts off easy and before long you begin to question what damage all those late nights out must have done to your memory. It gets really fun when you have some friends to play with, as you often lose track of who's playing what, while laughing at the bungling antics of the current player, until you realise you are the current player!

In contrast to the carefully-drawn detail of the graphics, their animation is ropey as a learner driver who hasn't mastered clutch control. Ironically this adds to the amusement factor, but also makes moves quite clear to remember. After all, this is meant to be a game design first and gee-whiz second.

There's a definite arcade feel to it as individual player's scores are blipped on screen, giving an incentive to thrash your opponents amid the anarchy of losing a round by some silly mistake. The tension mounts especially in competitive mode where the players are called randomly and have to extend the dance sequence with one extra move.
In normal mode, points are awarded to the player completing the moves fastest.

Minor complaints

While giving a polished shine, the fancy transitional graphic wipe patterns cannot be bypassed. Seeing them a few times is enough, after which you just want to dance! It's far too easy to lose a round due to the strict zero-tolerance of mistakes, which can be frustrating. Also, flicking my Falcon's CENTurbo II into screaming-demon mode shows where some of the code loops are not based on real time, making an excellent demonstration of its power but the game impossible to play. All game programmers should begin to take this seriously as acceleration becomes more popular.

I can see great potential for expansion of this game concept - how about developing it into a generic modular dance sequencer with add-on style packs? Yeah, let's have a funkadelic '70s disco plug-in. Ahem. Never mind. Anyway, download this and invite some mates over, it's free and it's a jolly good laugh.

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Breakdance

Author: Paranoia

Contact:
Email: heuno000@mail.uni-mainz.de
http://paranoia.atari.org

Requires: ST(e) or Falcon, 320x200 screen mode (ST low), 1Mb memory, friends recommended

Pros: Lasting simple fun, visually attractive, nice music, a good ambassador of the STOS language.

Cons: No head-spin! Lack of sound effects, slightly cumbersome menu system.

Scores:
75% Sound
70% Graphics
79% Gameplay

75% Overall
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