My fingers are sore. Not because I spend most of my days at a keyboard,
although I do, but because I threw them out this weekend playing
Audition. This game should come with a warning label advising consumers
to consult a doctor before booting up if their fingers are out of
shape. Youd think, being an editor and writer, that Id have the
agility and stamina in my hands to stand up to a game that has you
dancing on your keyboard, but Ill have to concede defeat on this one.
Audition, by Redbana, is an online rhythm game not unlike Dance Dance
Revolution and other games of that ilk. The main differences are that
instead of a dance mat youll be using your arrow keys on your keyboard
to pull off the moves, and the game has MMO elements. (That being said,
it wouldnt be hard to set up a dance mat to mimic the key strokes, but
that would be particularly dangerous for a bloke like me.) The title
offers various modes of game play; FAMs, which operate much like
guilds; and an online shop where you can outfit your avatar. Thats the
game in a nutshell, so lets crack the nut, and take a closer look.
Developed in Korea by T3 Entertainment, Audition has been played by
over 300 million registered users in more than fifty countries for
about five years. A quick look at the demographics shows about a 3:2
ratio of females to males. In an online game, that ratio is rare. In a
game where the developers pride themselves on keeping up with the
latest music, fashion and dance trends not so much. Lets face it,
members of the fairer sex are, generally, much more in tune with
fashion and trends than, say, a 32 year old bachelor editor with
hick-town roots.
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Roots aside, the folks at Redbana invited me to go on an in-game tour
to see what Audition was all about. My gracious hosts walked me through
many of the games features and, Im sure, had a hearty laugh as I
struggled to keep up with their moves on the dance floor.
Upon entering the game, I was presented with a nice view of Audition
Town. Its the main hub of the game, where you can hop to different
areas to do what you want to do. The feel of this town is very stylized
and pop which fits well into the overall theme. During your stay in
Audition town, the radio will keep playing random songs from the game
that you can later dance to. Youll inevitably find it hard to resist
tapping your toes in rhythm while exploring the town.
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Our first stop of the day was the Shopping Mall. At the mall one can
completely customize their character. Dont worry about your duds going
out of style; the dev team is adding new fashion items and new songs on
a regular basis. Now, having never been a woman in a shopping mall, I
can say with almost no conviction that all the fun of real life
shopping can be had virtually at Auditions Shopping Mall. My toon,
however, was a woman, so donning my roleplaying hat I took a good look
at what was offered. Sheepishly I admit that I got a little excited
over some of it. Id hardly say I was as giddy as a school girl but I
did have fun checking out all of the costumes, hairstyles, tops,
bottoms, sets, pets, and yes, shoes, that the store had to offer.
The items are available for purchase via Redbanas microtransaction
system. You can purchase game money, or Bana Cash, from within the
game, but an alternate form of currency is what Redbana refers to as
beats. Some items are only available for purchase with beats, which
are earned through playing the game against others. Now if only this
option was available in real malls, I can tell you that I would have
saved my credit card a lot of wear and tear from previous girlfriends.
You like those shoes, baby? Dance for em.
After selecting my outfit, we headed off to the FAM office. Think of
this is a guild hall. You are given a FAM house when you create your
FAM, and from there, you can recruit more members and build up your
house. Here you can also have a private FAM forum, a shared bank, and
many more house customization options.
From the FAM office, we bolted over to the Audition Studio. The Studio
is your sanctuary. Here, youll find large lists of all the different
dance moves you can pull off. And there are a lot of them. The Studio
serves as a place to memorize the moves so that once you get into the
actual dance-offs you wont end up like me, staring blankly at the
screen as the required keystrokes pop up and almost as quickly
disappear when you werent fast enough to pull off the move. I suspect
that serious players of the game will likely spend more time in the
Studio than anywhere else, familiarizing themselves with any possible
combination that could come up.
Since we didnt have days to go over all of this, my practice was
limited to trying a couple of combinations before we moved along. I was
so unprepared for what was to come it was reminiscent of a recurring
nightmare which spotlighted me as the protagonist of a Broadway musical
that I had never before seen or heard of
complete with a full house of
unforgiving audience members. Yes folks, the next stop was the Dance
Hall. My hands were shaking, as I was fully expecting Simon Cowell to
jump out of the screen and start attacking my character and physique. I
wasnt sure if I could withstand that sort of psychological attack. But
I feigned bravery, and clicked the Dance Hall button.
Simon wasnt there, but I was met by my hosts, who had opened up a
private, password protected room for us. I was informed that I could
level my character to 100 by gaining experience in the dance games. The
higher the level, the more dance modes and features can be unlocked.
Eventually, its possible to become part of a couple for special
couples dances, and even to get married. (Oh, if only Baz Luhrmann had
access to this game before writing Strictly Ballroom.) The title
supports over 25 dance modes, ranging from hip-hop to breakdancing to
ballroom and other couples dances. Theres even a Story Mode unlocked
at level 6 where you can take part in a long story line, which can
branch off to different endings depending on your performance. Once
mode and music are selected in the room, you can play with up to 5
other players to test your groove.
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The Dance Hall is the fun part of the game or, in my case, the utterly
humiliating portion. I watched as my hosts busted moves like Patrick
Swayzes multi-jointed offspring. Being a newb wallflower myself, the
best I could do was watch. Some of the moves got considerably more
complicated as the song progressed. All in all, though, it was good
fun, and when I was able to complete a move or two, it was similar to
that feeling you get on a golf course when you hit that one really
good, long drive, the one that keeps you coming back. Audition is not
unlike that. When youre able to get your swerve on it feels and looks
fantastic and it becomes hard to resist going back to the Studio to
practice more so you can really bring your game to the next match. Keep
in mind, too, that there are over 150 songs to choose from, many of
which are fully licensed commercial tunes.
So, is there a market for this game in North America? I think so. Its
not going to be comprised of pudgy 32-year-old desk jockeys, but I can
see the younger, hip generation eating it up. From tweens to
twenty-somethings, theres fun to be had. And maybe Im a bit out of my
element with this one, but just between us I do, on rare occasions,
indulge myself for a few minutes and live vicariously through my
avatar, remembering my college days of clubbing. The game is F2P with
optional microtransactions, so if youre hungerin to let off some
virtual steam, theres no reason not to give it a shot yourself.
You can sign up and download the client at Redbanas Audition website
found at http://audition.redbana.com.
Just remember, mature players like me should be sure to keep some
BENGAY handy if theyre going to be playing long.
