High School Musical: Makin' the Cut

$30, Nintendo DS

Teaches: music, rhythm

CTR Rating: 60%

CTR Review

Based on the Disney movie with the same name, this one-player Nintendo DS game is reasonably fun, but could do so much more. The heart of the game has you tapping icons on the screen at just the right time in order to perform dance moves or play music. Unfortunately, the tapping of the icons has nothing to do with what actually occurs. In the dance sections the characters fall down if you miss an icon, but aside from that nothing changes because all the choreography has been created in advance. Not that this is too big of a flaw as the game is much too involved for you to actually look at on the lower part of the screen anyway. The music sections are pretty much the same as the movie, with slightly different sound effects when you hit the icons. There's also a movie making mode which is just confusing and poorly documented. Overall the game is fun for about an hour, then you never want to see it again. Our tester, Veronica B (11) played the game for about ten minutes and did not test the multiplayer or online features. She liked the choices and the fast-pace game play but found the game to be limited in long term play value. Borrow it.