(DSiWare)

Discolight (DSiWare)

Game Review

Discolight Review

Europe PAL Version

Posted by James Newton

Dancer in the dark

The hotly-anticipated sequel to Flashlight, Discolight is the next big thing to hit DSiWare. Not familiar with it? Well, wait until you hear what it can do.

It flashes different colours. In different patterns. Oh yes. Naturally there aren't many screenshots available, so here's a short video that should give you a better idea of this package's purpose.

Picking one of the six musical genres sets the DSi screens pulsing different colours to a set beat, leaving you to alter the brightness by sliding your finger up and down the touchscreen. Each genre has its own palette, though it's difficult to see any clear connection between the two, and there's no option to vary the tempo, or even set your own custom palette or alter any aspect of the show other than the brightness.

The Disco Disco mode sounds far more exciting: here your DSi's microphone picks up any music being played and generates a custom light show. It sounds like a great idea, but unless you're listening to the sound of a single drum being banged repeatedly it's not much use: the microphone can't distinguish between the beat and the lead, even on bassy tracks, meaning rather than flashing in time with the music it just tends to glow constantly. We tried it with pop, rock, hip-hop and Motown, using a selection of different speakers and placements of the DSi, but no combination gave anything bordering on a disco atmosphere.

Conclusion

Discolight, like Flashlight before it, fails at fulfilling a basic function, this time to bring a little disco glamour to your life. The promising Disco Disco mode tends to result in arbitrary flashing, and although the whole package will raise a smile it only lasts a minute at best meaning that, like all the best discos, this one brings with it more regret than fond memories.

User Comments (40)

Percentful

#5

Percentful said:

This game makes me dance with joy.
Like, you know, dance? Ha ha?
Also, I'm insulted that this was rated higher than an electroplankton. >:3

Starkiller

#7

Starkiller said:

I'm sure that the money they got from reviewers downloading this more than covers the production cost.

Crunc

#8

Crunc said:

Why even review this thing? Does anyone see this on the store and think it's worth downloading? I suppose there are some, but I doubt they read reviews.

MrMartinLee

#10

MrMartinLee said:

So the game is twice as good as you expected it to be... great! But about the tagline "Dancer in the Dark" has anyone seen the movie (with Bjork)? That is a great movie, but a real tearjerker!

Radbot42

#13

Radbot42 said:

this doesn't have much to do on this topic but what happened to the top 20 wiiware/dis ware chart?

Karakato

#14

Karakato said:

Wow, I can see the effort put into making both this and the flashlight app, the devs must have worked so hard. Anyways, I thought Reggie said that the big N chooses quality over quantity.

Stuffgamer1

#17

Stuffgamer1 said:

@Starkiller: And that's considering almost nobody reviews Nintendo downloads.:D

This sounds, to me, to be even LESS useful than Flashlight. So it most certainly should have received the 1/10 score so as to distinguish it from its (slightly) less craptastic older brother.

Gogata

#18

Gogata said:

Even better than Flashlight! I didn't know that anything could possibly top it, but the unimaginable happened! lool

Phobos

#20

Phobos said:

I bet you busted a move on the disco floor, huh, Prosody? ;-)
More like the revival of Dance Dance Revolution!

SMEXIZELDAMAN

#22

SMEXIZELDAMAN said:

I disagree with you James. ;) This game could easily be the dsiware GOTY and surpasses SMG2 in it's creativity, graphics and amount of replay value. Sometimes the reviews on this site aren't very reliable :P

ueI

#24

ueI said:

For games like shantae that get delayed, and delayed, and never released.

WolfRamHeart

#25

WolfRamHeart said:

I really feel bad for you James. Two bad games in a row. Now that Chicken Brutus is back on the Nintendo Life team you should throw a couple of these stinkers his way for review.;)

WildPidgeyAppears

#26

WildPidgeyAppears said:

@24: Since I never played the original game, I wouldn't know. Still, I still haven't seen a reason to plunk the cash down for a DSi yet, unless they institute a VC for portable classics.

But since Shantae was a Capcom game, I'm sure it was good regardless.

suburban_sensei

#28

suburban_sensei said:

Is this a sequel I can just hop right into, or do I need to play the original classic, Flashlight, to understand what's going on?

James

#34

James said:

@suburban_sensei - The story is different in Discolight but if you've played the original Flashlight it opens up a new game mode called "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" where you punch yourself in the face repeatedly and wish your life was over. There was a similar mode in Blood Beach but that was unlocked from the start.

I actually had a bit of fun with this one so it was tough to rate it a 1/10. I certainly won't be eating my foot, though, no matter what you guys say!

labrat7

#35

labrat7 said:

I knew that this would fail. Who buys a game that just sits there and flashes colors?

RantingThespian

#37

RantingThespian said:

I am predicting another sequel . . . Black Screen!

Ever wanted to make your DSi so dark that it seems like it is off? Use Black Screen and enjoy the simulation of a powered down DSi!

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