Bust A Groove

NTSC-U/C Cover Art
NTSC-J Cover Art
PAL Cover Art

Game Info

Japanese Title

バストアムーブ Dance & Rhythm Action

Developer(s)

Metro Graphics

Publisher(s)

JP Enix (Console)
Atlus/Namco (Arcade)

NA 989 Studios
EU SCEE

Series

Bust A Groove

Platforms(s)

PlayStation

Arcade
Mobile

Release Date(s)

PlayStation
JP January 29, 1998
EU November 20, 1998
NA November 25, 1998
Arcade
JP January 1999
Mobile
JP April 19, 2004

Genre

Rhythm

Mode(s)

Single player, Multiplayer

Media

CD-ROM

Development

Director(s)

Noboru Shirasu

Producer(s)

Tsunenari Yada

Programmer(s)

Akihisa Nakamura
Mayumi Itoh

Artist(s)

Hideyuki Tanaka
Makiko Morioka

Narration

EN James Norwood
FR Yves Aubert
IT Andrea Piovan
DE Erich Redman
ES Luis Soto

Bust A Move: Dance & Rhythm Action/Bust A Groove is a rhythm game for the Sony PlayStation released in 1998. The game was published by Japanese multimedia publisher Enix in Japan, published in North America by now-defunct 989 Studios, and published in Europe by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The game combined rhythm with fighting game elements, like Jammer attacks, designed to damage the opponent, with a focus on head-to-head competitive play. The sequel, Bust A Groove 2, unlike its predecessor, was never released in Europe. A third game in the series, Dance Summit 2001: Bust A Move, was only released in Japan for the PlayStation 2.

Gameplay[]

The game mechanics are simple and focus on beats. The player needs to press a series of arrows that appear on the green bar using the D-Pad and be able to press the corresponding face button (O or X) every fourth beat of the music to execute a dance move; otherwise, it will be counted as a miss. The player is aided with the beats by the blinking of the bar. When the player performs a combo of eight dance moves, new paths with more complex moves open up, allowing the player to earn more points. The player could also execute a "Jammer" (attack) by pressing Triangle on the fourth beat to interrupt the opponent, which can be dodged by a somersault move. A dodge can be used by pressing Square on the fourth beat, which makes the character do a backflip and avoid the attack.

Characters[]

Songs[]

Song Title	Performed By	Composed By	Characters' Theme
Blue Knife (Start G Move Mix)	David Ford	David Ford	Opening Theme
2Bad	Sweet Jodi	Sweet Jodi	Heat
空と海と虹の夢	Akiko Sugawara feat. DJ IKE	Devi Kobayashi	Frida
Power	Terry T & Sweet Jodi	Sweet Jodi	Strike
i luv hamburgers	RAVEMAN feat Terry T & Sweet Jodi	t-kimura	Hamm
笑ってぽん/SHORTY And The EZ MOUSE	Rina Genga/Crystal Kay	Tomoki Ishizuka	Shorty
Transform	Atsuko Yamaoka/Robbie Danzie feat. Kaleb James	Tomoki Ishizuka	Kelly
CHEMICAL LOVE	Devi Kobayashi feat. Kaleb James & Chey	Devi Kobayashi	Gas-O
I Know	Donyale Fredericks feat. Kaleb James	Tomoo Ishizuka	Pinky
The Natural Playboy	Kaleb James	Tomoo Ishizuka	Hiro
青空のknife/Bust A Groove	Hatsumi Morinaga/Sharon Woolf	David Ford	Kitty-N
FLY'N TO YOUR SOUL	US-TOM feat. Donna	MOTSU	Robo-Z
噂のカポエラ/CAPOEIRA	Rui Tsurumizu/Dawn Moore	Devi Kobayashi	Capoeira
Blue Knife Dream (Orchestra Stall Mix)	David Ford	David Ford	Ending Theme

Some songs were localized from their original Japanese recordings to include English vocals for the North American and European markets. These songs include:

"Transform" retains its title, but is given english vocals, performed by Robbie Danzie.
"Aozora no KNIFE" was changed completely, gaining a whole new arrangement and having its name changed to "Bust A Groove". Its english vocals were performed by Sharon Woolf.
"Waratte PON" had its title changed to "SHORTY And The EZ MOUSE" and was performed by Crystal Kay.
The title of "Uwasa no CAPOEIRA" was simplified to just "CAPOEIRA", and performed by Dawn Moore.

Premium Disc[]

The game was made available in two different packages in Japan; the first is the more common single-disc (game only) version. The second package is a premium version which contains two discs: the game disc and the premium disc. The premium disc contains four movies and to access the movies, you had to have a memory card with a Bust A Move save file on it. Accomplishing certain tasks in the game would unlock certain movies. One of the movies on the disc featured Hatsumi Morinaga, the artist who sang the theme song of Kitty-N's stage, 青空のknife. This feature contained shots of the artist recording the song in the studio, an interview with the artist, both taking place in 1997, and dancers taking parts of various characters (Kitty-N, Heat, Kelly, Shorty, Frida, Gas-O, Robo-Z, and Columbo) to promote the game which took place in Tokyo Game Show Autumn 1997. The other three movies contained within the disc were to promote the games such as Astronoka, Star Ocean: The Second Story, and Eggs of Steel. The game disc in the premium version was identical to the game-only version; the gameplay, box art, and instruction manual were essentially the same, with the exception of a large red box with white type on the spine card proclaiming the addition of a Premium CD-ROM.

Changes[]

The North American/European versions of the game had a number of changes from the Japanese version, mostly due to cultural differences between countries.

Hiro is seen smoking a cigarette during his gameplay in the Japanese version. This was removed for the North American and European release. The line from his stage song, The Natural Playboy, that mentions him smoking a cigar, goes unchanged and remains in all versions.
Hamm's general appearance was changed to appear less racist in the North American and European release, removing his large pink lips that appear in his Japanese design.
Hamm's stage song undergoes many changes in its North American and European release. The line "McDonald's, Burger King, and any other place" is removed, and replaced by the line "Hamburger lovers let me hear you say ho!" that appears in the following verse. Usage of the n-word is also cut from later in the song.
Strike's stage song originally contained references to alcohol. The line "Drink down that tequila, here comes your cola chaser" is completely removed from the song. Unlike with Hamm's stage song, the line isn't replaced with anything, instead leaving just an instrumental gap.
During gameplay, Strike is seen drinking from a hip flask. This was changed to a can of soda to keep the game rating kid-friendly.
In the Japanese version, Frida's alternate costume depicts her with black hair. Her hair was changed back to blue in the North American and European releases to match her primary costume.

Other Platforms[]

Bust A Groove: Arcade Edition is a arcade edition of Bust A Move that was exclusively released in Japan in January 1999.^[1] Although released only in Japan, it held the title of Bust A Groove which is the North American/European release title. The controls are still the same from the PlayStation version but was changed on how to execute them. The player has to press the giant Left, Up and Right buttons in a giant pad and step on the foot pedal for the 'Down' command while the PlayStation buttons O and X, are replaced by a giant "Dance!" button. The buttons also had to be pressed in a rhythmic manner or will be counted as a "miss". A Jammer button was also included. The arcade version had you play a route of 5 stages with Robo-Z's stage always being the last one.^[2]

Bust A Move: Mobile Edition is a mobile version of Bust A Move that was exclusively released in Japan on April 19, 2004. To play this, you would have needed to pay ¥315 monthly plus tax to use the software "Square Enix Pocket Action" and have a compatible phone such as DoCoMo models P505i/is, SO505i/is, and 900 series. People could use the network to connect to the software and play against each other.^[3] Although the software did shut down on August 1, 2007, users could still play the games they had on the application if they had installed it before the termination date.^[4]

Trivia[]

In North America and Europe, the game's name was changed to Bust A Groove due to the Japanese puzzle series Puzzle Bobble already being localized under the name Bust-A-Move.
Producer Yasuhito Watanabe had given a proposal to Enix about Bust A Move sometime in September of 1996, which is when development for the game started.^[5]
Originally, the game was going to be called "Dance Man" but a toy company had already trademarked the name so the developers ended up using the name Bust A Move.^[6]
Bust A Move was originally going to be a fighting game. This was said by the director of the game, Noboru Shirasu.^[7]
In late September of 1998, 989 Studios had issued a statement announcing that Bust A Groove had been cancelled "due to contractual reasons beyond [their] control." The cancellation would come out as a shock to the North American audience since the American version was receiving good prerelease press and seemed to be on the verge of completion. That same week, 989 had released another statement saying that the previous letter was issued prematurely, and that Bust A Groove was indeed scheduled for U.S. release.^[8]^[9]
Bust A Move takes place in October 1999. This can be shown in Hiro's epilogue when booting up his computer.
989 Studios held an event to promote Bust A Groove from December 1998 through January 1999 which had Radio Stations holding the events in select areas. The promotion was referred to as "Club Night" where DJs at selected clubs would challenge participants to "boogie to the beat" in a dance contest. Locations included Club USA in Los Angeles, hosted by Power 106 on December 20, 1998, Bahama Beach Club in Boston, hosted by Jam'n 94.5 on December 23, 1998, and The Ice House in San Diego, hosted by Channel 93.3 on December 31, 1998 with doors opening for the venues at 9 p.m. Participants in the Bust A Groove "Club Night" promotion would receive Bust A Groove promotional items and would enter-to-win a PlayStation game console, a copy of Bust A Groove and other valuable prizes.^[10]
An unofficial Russian edition of Bust A Groove, titled Bust A Groove: Специальное Русское Издание, was released in 1999 by the translation group RGR. Some changes were made to the game, including the language being translated into Russian and several original tracks being replaced with Russian songs, though their BPMs remained unaltered.^[11]
The final build of Bust A Move/Groove for each region was made as follows:^[12]
- JP - December 6, 1997
- EU - September 19, 1998
- NA - October 17, 1998