Helix is a game that came out of nowhere, got my attention, and became an immediate purchase based on this review. The basic premise of the game is that with two Wii remotes tracking your hand movements, you preform gestures to the beat of music. A robotic dancer tells you how to perform the move, and you must mirror it with your hands. The typical move might be “Right Punch, Left Punch, Disco Pose” or something.
The game has 26 tracks of techno dance music. If you like this kind of music, you’ll like dancing to it. If you like dancing to it, you’ll like swinging your arms around like a madman. The easy mode is just basic moves at a slower pace. “Punch, wait,….wait, Punch”. The medium mode gets frantic enough that you don’t have time to wait between most sets of move, “Punch, Safe, Raise the Roof, Safe, Punch, Disco Move….rest…oh man, again!?”
I haven’t touched hard mode yet, but I feel I’ll be sore in the morning. I think I’ll add this to walking the dog and see if I can make an exercise routine of some sort. It certainly felt like a workout. I played the first five songs, and by the end of playing each, once on easy, then again once on medium, I had a sweat worked up. The music isn’t bad, and if I have some fun, that’s not too awful either.
The presentation is functional, but basic. The dancing robot gets across what move you need to do before the beat passes by. I didn’t get confused watching the moves it was doing, and keeping in time wasn’t that hard. When there are five or more moves cued up, it’s hard to remember them all, but that’s why you need to practice.
The two player mode is “Each player controls an arm, work together to try to complete a song.” That’d be fun for parties, but I don’t think I’ll get much use out of it otherwise. You unlock songs by playing on various difficulties. I’ve got a LOT to work ahead of me if I want to hear all the songs. It would have been nice for them to include a “jukebox mode” for people that just want to listen to the music. Perhaps there is once everything is unlocked. I don’t know.
If this is the first step to a series of these style games, I’m happy to get in on the ground floor. I can’t move my legs to a beat and finish a Dance Dance Revolution song, but moving my hands to the beat was pretty easy in comparison. I’ve got a few moves I need to work on, but the calibration setting on the game that records my moods should help me get better at it.
For 1000 Wii points, this game is a steal. I’d highly recommend anyone looking for a dance game, party game, or a fun exercise game to pick it up. Hell, you can practice your cabbage patch while you play this game. If that’s not worth it, I don’t know what is.
