Forgotten Favorites: Bust a Groove

I’ve thought for a while that it would be fun to discuss some of my forgotten favorites on this blog. Meaning, those old games I played and loved as a kid that faded into obscurity or never took off to begin with, and that most people won’t recognize if you mention them. I think we all probably have some games like that. First up, here’s Bust a Groove.

Just seeing this title screen takes me back to my local video store.

Bust a Groove is one of those games I rented a million times from my local video store. I never saw it for sale in any stores around me back then, and didn’t get my own copy until I became an adult. But, it was a staple of my gaming rotation during the late ’90s. Released in 1998 for the original PlayStation, it’s a quirky rhythm game from that period between the release of PaRappa the Rapper and the plastic instrument craze that swept the gaming world in the mid 2000s.

Frida’s stage will have a rainstorm that blows the walls down if you do well.

The gameplay is unlike any I’ve seen in other rhythm games. Two players or a player and a CPU character compete across numerous stages, each with their own theme and song. Each player has a little window on screen that displays inputs. There are arrows corresponding with the directions on the d-pad, and then another little window that displays either the X or O button. The windows flash along with the beat of the song playing in each stage, and the final input must be made on the fourth beat. The arrows can be pressed anytime before that, but the idea is to play along with the beat.

The triangle button can be used to launch an attack at your opponent and disrupt their moves, which must be dodged by pressing square. If one player performs better than the other, the camera will eventually focus on them entirely and they will trigger a Fever Time at the end of the song, which lets them do a solo dance. There are also some neat stage effects that can occur if you play well. One stage has numerous windows that will shatter to reveal the night sky, while one set in a nightclub will have a spotlight come down. There are also a few hidden characters who are unlocked by beating the game multiple times.

If you’re good enough, you’ll push your opponent off screen.

Speaking of the cast, they’re a unique bunch. The designs are delightfully ’90s and include such figures as a Japanese magical girl heroine, a punk scientist with a mohawk and gas mask, and a pair of aliens who incorporate capoeira moves into their routine. One character is a young girl who dances with her pet mouse perched in the pocket of her overalls, and he can even be unlocked to dance solo.

The songs that accompany levels serve as theme songs for the cast and are often sung from their persepctives. There’s some nice variety in genres too, including pop, hip hop, techno and even some disco throwbacks. The stages have some pretty cool variety, too, allowing you to have dance-offs in such places as a fast food joint, a theme park and a prison. The final stage of the arcade mode pits you against a giant robot, with your character dancing on top of a building while he dances in the middle of an intersection as cars crash around him.

The zoomed out perspective on this stage is a nice touch.

Bust a Groove is a fun and unique game that I sadly doubt will ever get re-released. It did well enough to spawn two sequels back in the day, one on PS1 and another early in the PS2’s life, but the latter was never released outside Japan and changed the gameplay pretty significantly. Overall, I don’t think it had enough lasting popularity to justify a modern take on it by its publisher. It was published by Enix, who would go on to merge with SquareSoft to become Square-Enix. The game also featured music from Japanese record label Avex Trax, which I’m sure would be a licensing nightmare all these years later.

Finally, it underwent numerous localization changes that might make re-releases messy. The Japanese title is actually Bust a Move, which had to be changed for North America and Europe due to the fact that the Puzzle Bobble games were localized as Bust-a-Move in those regions back then. Some music tracks were re-recorded in English or replaced entirely for those regions as well. There were also several aesthetic changes made to keep the rating down overseas, such as removing a character’s cigarette and changing a liquor flask into a soda can.

Put all these issues together, and I’ll be surprised if we ever see this game or its sequels again. At this point, rhythm games have largely moved onto other gameplay types and platforms, as the aforementioned plastic instruments are making a comeback of sorts and we have new games in the genre being released for the likes of VR headsets and the Switch. I’m content to play the new Samba de Amigo on my Switch and a new Space Channel 5 in VR (if I can ever get over the motion sickness!), but I can’t help but bust out Bust a Groove from time to time when the nostalgia hits. It’s still a fun and unique experience after all these years.