Game Review: High School Musical: Makin' the Cut
Rated by 11 members
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this game features songs and
characters from two Disney Channel
High School Musical movies. While there is a light story
showcasing the stars of the movies, this game is about playing
rhythm puzzles as you listen to the movie soundtracks. The
content is as clean as the ultra-popular tween movies, but keep
in mind that this game is part of what Disney does best:
churning out all kinds of tie-in products, from the stars' solo
CDs to dolls, magnets, etc. There's even a HSM on Ice in the
works.
Families can talk about how High School Musical has become a media phenomenon. Did you want to buy this because you love the movies? Do you own other HSM stuff? Does all the HSM merchandise ever seem like overkill, or never enough? Do you mind that there isn't much of a story in this game? When you play, is it more fun to compete with yourself for a better grade or against a friend?
Common Sense Media Review
Kids who are fans of the
High School Musical phenomenon now have a video game
option. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: MAKIN' THE CUT for Nintendo DS is
a musical rhythm game featuring 12 songs from the two Disney
Channel movies:
High School Musical
and its sequel
High School Musical 2.
The 12 songs are the background music while you play 12 rhythm puzzles, each of which can be played on four levels of difficulty. Each puzzle appears on the bottom, touch-sensitive screen while a performance featuring cartoon versions of the stars appears in the top screen. How well you do in the rhythm puzzle affects how the performers dance in the top screen. Get it wrong, and they fall down!
The puzzle play involves coordinating four different actions on the lower touch-sensitive screen: tapping, sliding over arrows, tracing patterns, and dragging basketballs through a hoop. The majority of the puzzle play involves tapping icons. An icon will appear on the screen surrounded by a circle meter that gradually fills with color from yellow to green. The object is to tap the icon when it's green. As the puzzles get harder, the icons appear more often, and in crazy, fast sequences. Your ability to hit the icons at the right time is graded, as is your ability to repeat the process without mistakes.
The game offers four modes of play: story, quickplay, video studio, and multiplayer. In the story mode, a weak narrative, with photos of High School Musical stars Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad, and Taylor, explains that they need your help as they travel to four locations to compete for the title of "Best Youth Musical in America." The levels of difficulty are shown as competitions at the local, state, regional, and national levels. After playing a puzzle in the story mode, you unlock it in the other modes.
Quickplay lets you replay the puzzle for a better grade and create a custom character to perform it. Video studio lets you watch what happened on the top screen while you were playing the puzzle and then edit it by changing camera angles and adding lighting and special effects. Multiplayer lets you compete in the rhythm puzzles against another who also owns the game. You can also share your in-game-created video performances.
This gameplay isn't novel; in fact, it's a clone of the 2006 hit DS title Elite Beat Agents . For kids who have never experienced this type of rhythm puzzle play, it will be fun at first. But unlike Elite Beat Agents, this game only has the musical puzzles and doesn't boast a strong storyline to sustain your interest. Your motivation is simply to better your score and unlock new outfits or locations for the performances.
The bottom line: For fans of the movies, High School Musical: Makin' the Cut is a fun way to play rhythm puzzles while listening to the songs they love. But eventually the gameplay loses its novelty.
If you enjoy this game, try Elite Beat Agents . And if you just want to listen to the songs, check out the soundtracks of High School Musical and High School Musical 2 .
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
