'Dancing With the Stars' Video Games Puts You Into the Dance-Off

April 14, 2009— -- While geeks were sorry to see Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak eliminated on reality TV show "Dancing With the Stars", there's still a way to get your "nerd" on with this ballroom competition.

Available on the Nintendo Wii or DS, "Dancing With the Stars: We Dance" is really two different games depending on which platform you select. Neither version includes the dancers from this, the eighth, season of the reality dance show.

"Dancing With the Stars: We Dance!" (sometimes titled "Dancing With the Stars: Get Your Dance On") for the Nintendo DS is a rhythmic tapping game. As the celebrity and professional dancers from the past several seasons take to the ballroom floor on the top screen, their dance moves send stars floating down to the bottom screen.

The object of the game is to tap a star as it floats over its outline on the lower screen. How well you do in this rhythmic tapping affects the score that the judges give the dancers at the end of their routine.

For those new to rhythm games, the game offers both a tutorial and a practice mode. In those modes you will learn to tap, flick, trace and twirl the stars. When you are ready to get serious, you can explore the Season Mode. There's also a Quick Play option that lets you try just one dance.

Unlike the TV show, this game allows you to mix and match professional dancers and celebrities in any combination you want, including pairing two professionals or two celebs.

There are 10 celebrities (Joey Fatone, Mel B, Apolo Ohno, Jane Seymour, Drew Lachey, Sabrina Bryan, Cameron Mathison, Jennie Garth, Helio Castroneves, and Mark Cuban) and eight pros (Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, Kym Jonhson, Louis Van Amstel, Cheryl Burke, Tony Dovolani, Edyta Slliwinska and Maksim Chmerkovskiy).

The pair you select will appear in the Season Mode as your game participants. You can also choose the costumes for each of the dances.

The rhythm part of the game works well because it is offered on three levels of difficulty. Beginners should have no problem with the easiest level.