This game made me uncomfortable. It’s not very often you see a grown man cheer, let alone an out of shape hairy man do so in the comforts of his own room… but let’s just say it is better done this way than outside in public. How does such a person defy logic and cheer on his own in private? Well, it’s all thanks to the magical wonders of technology! With this newly released cheer simulator developed by Gorilla Systems Corp. and Published by THQ for the Wii and DS, now you too can become the cheerleader captain with All Star Cheer Squad!

This review, based on the Wii version might not give you the specific details you’re looking for, but this is because it comes from the perspective of a man, a man who fears cheering and physical activity, which is pretty awful considering this game utilizes the Wii Fit’s balance board for extra movement and realism. All in all the quick and dirty of it is that this is a full body rhythm game with a cheerleader background and story.

The main aspect of All Star is that you are an aspiring cheerleader; you begin by creating your character with a few hairstyles, faces, a number of costume choices and music background. You must first make the tryouts and as you learn new cheers, practice, create routines, and compete you hopefully eventually achieve your goal of becoming squad captain! There is also a multiplayer vs. mode (complete with ‘attacks against each other’), practice mode, and create your own routine mode to use while practicing. The menu and system is streamlined well, however the only issue I had with the layout was the annoying loading times between each and every screen! Click something, wait a good five seconds, choose an option wait five seconds, start a match wait 15 seconds, change your mind and go back to the menu wait another ten seconds and so on.

Graphically the game looks to be made for a last gen system, but as this is a Wii title, we come to understand the fanciest of graphics are rarely as important as how they represent the title. For All Star Cheer Squad, these graphics do the job. They’re simply rendered but realistic (in the cheerleading sense) and proportional to a degree where the body shapes are attainable but still provide a bad misconception to today’s youth. With your moves on the bottom and all the ‘action’ happening in the background (like Guitar Hero or Rockband), the characters move the way a programmed code would, no motion capturing here. Plastic smiles unchanging adore every girl or boy’s face the entire time and as the moves progress; you don’t see any wear on their spirit. Glitz, glamour and sparks round out the special effects. The venues seem as realistic as cheerleading movies lead me to believe, from gymnasiums, to stadiums with cheering fans (ironic?), to beaches, these squads would go to the ends of the world to cheer their hearts out!

Sound wise as soon as you pop this disc in you can tell it’s for the cheerleading fans of the gaming world. High energy dance / cheer-tastic songs that I have never heard of fill the air at all times and with over 25 songs to choose from, if you like this type of music, you could be happy for a while. While all the music seems to be from the same audio world, there is somehow a feel of variance between the majority of songs, keeping things fresh for players and sanity intact for bystanders. Voice acting was also very well received with on cue marks and even a few celebrity drop-ins!

Now let’s get onto the important stuff. The gameplay is always key, especially for a title that utilizes your entire body. All Star Cheer Squad requires a wiimote and a nunchuk to play, and will warn you of such before beginning each game. You follow the hand movements as they come up to do the cheer moves in game. This seems simple enough however you must keep in mind of the cable connecting the wiimote to the nunchuk and how easily you can wrap that cord around your neck (if a 24 year old could do it, I’m sure a 7 year old might be able to as well). The opposite is that the cord also restrains players from doing full out spread eagle moves the width of their arms as the cord is too short, so players must hold back their cheer spirit for safety and durability concerns. There are many different positions players must take to cheer along with the squad, and by many I mean many! Say for example there are 50 normal poses, on top of this, you can have reversed poses, poses that use both the remote and nunchuk together, and then the button combos, power-ups, and balance. Oh ya, did I also mention the Wii Fit Balance Board is also an optional accessory with this title? That’s right! Turn on your balance board and you can add extra balance challenges and foot movements for the most realistic cheering experience on a video game console to date!

While I admit this game was a little tough for my uncoordinated self, I found that after a couple of hours of messing around, even I started to get the hang of it! Friendly for all ages (with different difficulty levels) two player action, and even a somewhat realistic story mode, if you have an aspiring cheerleader in your family, I suggest you help them practice at home to be that next squad captain with All Star Cheer Squad for the Nintendo Wii! This game was so damn perky!

Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Sound: 3.5/5
Replay Value: 3.5/5






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