so the name’s gotta change; 989 were terrified by the last iteration so they’ve jumped

ship, forcing a pre-Square Enix to publish the game in the West, and - most infuriatingly

- there’s still no lag calibration. So this review’s gonna look just as bad as the last

one, especially since the timing seems to tighten near the end of any particular song

and it becomes more and more difficult to consistently hit a third of a beat early.

It goes against everything I came to know in a decade of marching band. And it pains

me. But, Bayani from PA foisted the game upon me, and there are redeeming factors to the

game... not the least of which is apparently a carhop, because all video games would be

better with carhops. I’ll have a bacon cheeseburger and a Coke. You want anything?

The gameplay remains the same as in the original; you need to serve your opponent (a bacon cheeseburger

and a Coke, apparently) by following the on-screen inputs and hitting the indicated button on

the fourth beat (or, as it’ll probably happen if you’re playing this on any modern system,

a third of a beat before the fourth beat.) The “jammer” attacks return, allowing

you to trip up your opponent if they’re not expecting a crane or a giant cake from

the sky, which are totally sanctioned dance moves as I am to understand. The multiple-input

options have gone the way of the dodo, though, in favor of more linear progressions through

your sick gesticulations. The cast has expanded, from 14 dancers in the previous version to

18 in this one, including a creepy panda-painted guy who may or may not be a pedophile and/or

an elaborate reference to a Yukio Mishima novel, and those who are familiar with Mishima’s

oeuvre know that’s pretty damn dangerous. You’ve been warned.

Like its predecessor, Bust A Groove 2 remains a ridiculously valuable game today, consistently

occupying a spot in the top 20 PS1 games. Unfortunately, also like its predecessor,

it hasn’t aged well at all, as changes in displays and hardware have wrecked the very

rhythm of this rhythm game. And that’s a problem that’s affected a number of games

in the genre, rendering this particular chunk of nostalgia kinda obsolete. I genuinely enjoyed

these games - back in the day - but today, if you want the same experience, you’ve

gotta jump through hoops to craft a legacy system, probably including an old TV (that

you were totally just using as an end table at this point, admit it) and that PS1 you’ve

been using as a doorstop. Granted, the best music games are, were, and always will be

full-size arcade systems, which don’t have these problems. Bust A Groove 2 doesn’t

bring the same kind of immediately-recognizable soundtrack, though, that larger-scale operations

like DDR can offer, and in fact re-recorded a number of the original J-pop tracks in English.

And you thought getting stuck with the instrumental version of After the Game was bad. (Though

I’m still waiting for an apology for the US version of DDR Extreme.)