MadCatz strikes again - Country Dance Craze?

Heffenfeffer · Trick Member Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Location: Las Cruces, NM

Hey folks, I dunno if this is a hoax (though stranger things have happened), but MadCatz, fresh from the rousing success that is MC Groovz Dance Craze has announced another game in this award-winning* series...

Country Dance Craze.

The only place I can find it listed is in this Wired News music game writeup...in particular, the last paragraph:

tekkie · Trick Member Joined: 19 Dec 2003 Location: Albuquerque

OMG I've always wanted to pull out super tight Wranglers and a cowboy hat and start square dancing BEMAMI STYLE!!!
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Agent J · Trick Member Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Location: Dimension X

I found another story that seems to substantiate this announcement. The story isn't about the game itself, but about Mad Catz' plans for the coming year. Personally, I'm still not convinced, but it's something to watch if for no reason other than the train wreck factor of a "Square Dance Revolution" if it's real. Does Mad Catz really think there's a market for this?

<heavy sarcasm>
Don't the kind of people who like country music mostly think video games are the devil's creation or something like that?
</heavy sarcasm>

Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

It's not a hoax, as they showed us this at the same time we were previewing PIU Exceed. It wasn't in playable form of course, but still...

Yes, there is a market for this.

You guys may not like country line dancing, but there is a very, very large demographic that does, and they haven't been catered to at all. As was said in the Wired article, the pad is doubles by default - that's how it comes with the game. That's about all I know about it, other than the fact that they've licensed a lot of big-name artists for the game. I don't listen to country music at all, but I recognized all the artists they mentioned.
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Sentient Mode is capable...

Agent J · Trick Member Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Location: Dimension X

I have no doubts about there being a huge demographic of people who like country music and line dancing. There wouldn't be a whole cable channel devoted to the genre if there wasn't. What I question is if there's a significant amount of gamers who like country music and line dancing, and whether or not they'd be willing to play one based on the concept. I suppose there is the possibility of this being a game that would make people who normally would never touch a video game get involved, like Karaoke Revolution or DDR.

Aside from that, I would say that the biggest problem would be that it's being made by Mad Catz. They can't even make a decent DDR knockoff. I can't see them making a game based on an actual style of dancing. However, bad quality has never stopped people from buying games before. I recently saw a couple of kids in Fry's buy the Bad Boys 2 game just because it was based on the movie. =\

JustJeff · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 8:25 am Post subject:

I'm going to assume that this game is for people who don't normally play dancing games. There are plenty of dance game options for those of us who like them already. They are not trying to get those people to play this game, but if they want to play it, all the better.

Let's also not forget that people who like country music, also tend to actually spend money purchasing it, instead of just downloading it for free by way of their favorite p2p software. Country music fans also keep their favorites on the charts for months at a time. Top 40 music is very fickle and 1, 2 or 3 weeks stints at the top spot are more common.

So, I think that if marketed correctly to the target audience, this game would actually do pretty well. If the game play is good, I'm sure they would naturally take the concept and pair it with a soundtrack that's more Bemanilike.

Sinistar · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 11:24 am Post subject:

I can't be the only person that laughed when Wired described the pad as "double-wide".
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CF cbox mods and more at the 'Pad'

JayveemoÃ±. · Trick Member Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Location: Cheshire, CT

Heffenfeffer · Trick Member Joined: 22 Apr 2002 Location: Las Cruces, NM

Tsuri · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 6:52 pm Post subject:

Hey at least they are co-publishing PIU Exceed SE...

Agent J · Trick Member Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Location: Dimension X

Terra (Red) · Trick Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

Thrill_Shakespeare · Trick Member Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Location: Macon, Georgia

The steps on most country line dances are very deliberate: step forward, cross over, dig your heel, etc. The dance game form would seem to work very well for it. A double-wide (

) pad seems like a good idea to duplicate the extreme lateral movement of line dancing (hence the name.) It's also brilliant marketing by Mad Katz to require yet more people to buy their pads. Wonder if they will be boot-tested?

Sadly, I'm such a dance game freak that I'll probably try it. Guess I'll need a double-wide sheet of plywood for another "Mad Katz pad-saving mod."

Tsuri · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:06 pm Post subject:

If you think about it.... MC Groove was a success...

-Unsuspecting parents purchased it for their kids on Christmas
-The game had a low budget
-It was the only dance game for GC at the time

At how low a budget was put into the game... selling of 1 copy = profit... lol

Bunnymoon · Trick Member Joined: 13 Aug 2004 Location: NODNOL, CANADA

I got MC Groove, if you think its bad.....
Well you dont know jack.

Its really BAD, and not in the good eighties way.
I think everybody who got conned into getting that game should get a refund or a discount on Pump it up. If anybody wants to set up a petition for those who got cheated buying MC Groove to get something out of it count me in. I thought nothing could suck as bad or even worse than Britney Dance Beat, well Madcatz proved me wrong.

Lobster Jesus · Trick Member Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Location: No thanks

Oh my god. If this is serious, i'm gonna die. If they think this is really gonna be a big success, they probably think that Exceed is gonna do horrible.

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