Dance Factory incorporates an original idea into the tried-and-true traditional dance mat game: after loading the game onto your PS2, you can insert any music CD you own and choose any track, and the game will generate dance steps for you so that you can rock out to any music you like.
The game also includes some other standard dance game features, such as multiplayer/solo modes, a workout (“fitness”) mode, and an endurance mode; as well as some unusual features, such as the ability to call forth unique “creatures” from your CDs (a la Monster Rancher) to dance with you, or the Tetris-like puzzle game Cubrix that you can play while Dance Factory is "converting" songs from your CDs.
Well, like any Dance Dance Revolution veteran who has gotten tired of the same old songs or even disliked some of the tracks I was given, I found this idea intriguing, so I gave Dance Factory a go.
I started by dancing to the handful of included starter tracks provided with the game (only five tracks are included because the game assumes that you will make your own tracks by putting in your own music). The steps were fine, though uninspired, and included the occasional freeze arrow to break up the monotony – but I wasn’t daunted yet. Having gotten a feel for the game, I went all out and converted a number of tracks from various CDs—from Daft Punk to Yo-Yo Ma—to see how it would react.
The result? The steps generated weren’t much different from those that went with the starter songs, honestly, and after a few songs you start noticing that many of the patterns repeat from song to song. Granted, Daft Punk made for better dancing than Yo-Yo Ma (which was an odd dance experience, as much as that cellist rocks), but the strange part was that it didn’t feel much different from song to song. Unlike DDR, which includes fun dance steps that sometimes manage to imitate real dance moves, Dance Factory’s steps just felt like straight aerobic exercise.