Disney announced today it will finally capitalize on its highly popular High School Musical franchise by releasing two videogames this holiday season: High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE! for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 and PC.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE! will let players “dance” along with favorite characters to familiar songs from the High School Musical movies, including the soon-to-release third feature film. In addition, players will be able to “experience another memorable year as Wildcats at East High,” indicating there may be some “extended universe” sort of aspects to the game that build on the movies’ plots.
In the game, players will move to the rhythm of the hit songs using the controllers unique to each console, such as Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo (of course). However, just how the controls will pan out on Xbox 360 remains to be seen — perhaps there’s truth to the rumors of a motion-sensitive Xbox 360 controller…. If so, we’ll undoubtedly learn more “officially” at E3 2008 this July, where we’ll bring you the news as it happens.
Not surprisingly, the songs that gamers will be able to dance to will include all the usual High School Musical suspects such as “We’re All In This Together” and “What Time Is It.”
In this Xbox 360, Wii, PS2 and PC game, players will assume the role of Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad or Taylor, or they can customize their own Wildcat using a variety of outfits, shoes and hairstyles. In addition, the game features various multiplayer modes, including competitive and cooperative play. In competitive mode, users can earn power-ups to affect other players’ performances, while in cooperative mode players need to dance simultaneously and in sync to earn high scores. Fans can also follow along to choreography from the stars and complete songs to earn points and unlock new songs, clothing and characters.
Meanwhile, Disney will also release High School Musical 3: Senior Year for Nintendo DS. That version of the game will feature all new songs from the upcoming theatrical release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and it will let fans of the films play through the game as the Wildcat whose personality is most like theirs.
A unique rhythm-based dance game, High School Musical 3: Senior Year for Nintendo DS has players taking on the role of the main characters to play along to the rhythm of songs from the upcoming theatrical release. The game features trivia-based personality quizzes that allow players to determine the Wildcat whose personality is most like theirs, then dance through the game as that specific character. In addition, High School Musical 3: Senior Year utilizes the DS stylus and D-pad to capture special photos to create a custom East High senior yearbook layout.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year for Nintendo DS also features DGamer integration, a new online community designed exclusively for Disney gamers, which allows players to interact with other Nintendo DS gamers via a Wi-Fi connection and online. DGamer allows players to log into either their DS or online accounts to create and customize a unique 3D avatar and persistent profile. Players will be able to use the service to chat with friends in High School Musical chat rooms and/or accessorize their avatars with unlockables earned while playing the games.