Overview

Audition is a dancing/rhythm online game made by Nexon, producers of one of the more famous MMOs – Maple Story. It has several different game modes, most of which are pretty similar, presenting you with a set of keys which you have to press in order very quickly, then press the space bar on the fourth beat of the measure, which is indicated by a little shaded area. There is one other mode that is very different, called Beat Up. It can be played in 4 or 6-key mode (some people say there is 8-key, but I haven’t seen it yet), and it’s a lot like Dance Dance Revolution.

Review

Controls:

There’s not a lot to the controls in this game, and one of my big beefs with it is that you can’t change them. That really sucks for those of us who use laptops once in a while, but it’s no reason to completely discard the game. There are modes that only use the directional arrows, which, as far as I know, every laptop has. Aside from laptops, the controls take a little while to get used to. For anything with more than 4 keys, you need to use the number pad, and it uses all the numbers except 5. All of which are for arrows that point in the direction that the key is, not hard to figure out, but it just feels awkward.

Graphics:

The graphics aren’t that bad for the resolution they force you to use, which is 800×600 I believe. And that’s another gripe about this game, you can’t change anything graphically. So if you have a shitty computer, you’re stuck on the “good” settings. If you have a good computer (like I do), you’re stuck with sub-par graphics on a low resolution. But as I said, the graphics aren’t horrible for it being a low resolution. It’s completely 3D like most current games, though you have no control over what you look at, other than choosing which venue you dance in.

Sound/Music:

The sound is really what makes and breaks this game. They have a fairly large selection of music, which is great. But the selection isn’t very diverse. Most of the music is Rap, Hip Hop, R&B. There are a few good rock songs, but they get a bit old after hearing them 20 times. A lot of the music is also done by an in-house group, and pretty much all of that is in some Asian language. The music is good quality, though.

Gameplay:

This game is, believe or not, really fun. Even with the crappy music, I have fun playing this game. My personal favorite mode is Beat Up, which I mentioned earlier. This is probably because you’re hitting the arrows in rhythm with the music. In normal mode, you just press all the keys, then hit space on the fourth beat.

Audition also features a rating system on your timing of the keys, just like other dancing games. The ratings are as follows, from worst to best: Miss, Bad, Cool, Great, Perfect. In all modes, you want to get as many perfects as possible. In all of the non-Beat Up modes I’ve played, your score starts to skyrocket after you string together some perfects. The higher streak you get, the more points you get per perfect. In Beat Up, you just need to keep a streak of not missing notes. You get more points for perfects, but as long as you don’t miss them, your streak won’t end.

Customization:

As you might think, with a game like this, you can change how your character looks, and what they’re wearing. There is a huge selection of clothing, faces, and hair. The customization of your character (once you start earning some cash) is one thing this game really excels at.

Final Words:

Audition is a great game for the price. Which is free. They still make money from the game, as there are some items you can buy with real money, most of which are just cosmetic. There are other things which aren’t cosmetic, such as an Experience Potion (or scroll, something stupid for sure), which just increases the amount of EXP you get from dances for a certain amount of time. Also, one thing you have to deal with are the random hackers here and there. They generally won’t hurt you at all, and in some modes, they’ll actually help you, but it does take some of the fun out of the game since they ruin the rankings.

Pros:

• Many different modes to play
• Big song selection
• Free

Cons:

• Not much diversity in song selection
• Can’t change settings for anything (sound/video/input)
• Public hacks out for the game

Scores

Overall: 7.5/10 (not an average of the below scores)

Gameplay: 9/10
Music: 6/10 (would have been higher if more diverse selection)
Graphics: 6.5/10
Customization: 9/10
Replay Value: 9.5/10