Renting games as a kid was always a gamble, there was nothing worse than being stuck with an absolute disaster of a game that was either too hard or too boring all weekend. Whenever I got to baby-sit my brother, which really wasn’t that often, I was allowed to rent a game for the evening for us to play. I usually played it safe and chose one of two stand by games if there wasn’t anything else worth trying – Gex 3D Enter the Gecko and Bust a Groove.

My first encounter with Bust a Groove was on the demo 1 disc (I still maintain that it might have been the biggest influence in getting me into console gaming). You had the choice of playing as Pinky or Heat and their respective stages. I was awful at it, and the demo did a terrible job of conveying the controls to people unfamiliar with the new rhythm genre. At age nine, the closest I’d been to a rhythm game was Spice World and although I was right into everything Spice…I’d be hard pressed to actually call it a ‘game’ as such. As a kid right into bubble gum pop and fancy choreographed dance sequences, Bust a Groove glided down from the heavens as a beautifully colourful jagged mess of polygons.

The best way to describe Bust a Groove is Dance Dance Revolution meets Tekken. Two players stand on each side of the screen, just like in any arcade fighter. Arrow and face button combinations will flash on the screen in 4/4 time that will ring familiar to many rhythm game veterans. Each dancer has a ‘groove meter’ that rises with consecutive combos. As their gauge rises, the camera will pan on them more and more. If the player consistently achieves ‘freeze’ level combos, the stage starts to change. In Heat’s stage for instance, the windows will explode into flames. Do well enough on Kelly’s stage, and that giant baby bottle will start raining milk down upon you while the walls spin. The fighting game influence kicks in when you time a ‘jammer’ move with a combo to attack the other player, but they’re also able to dodge the attack if they input the move correctly on the fourth beat.

The camera work in a game with such basic 3D graphics is pretty impressive, and it feels like watching a live performance as the camera zips around and pans in on all your fancy moves. My main complaint about Bust a Groove is that the characters almost seem as if they’re gliding across the floor when they dance, which looks quite robotic compared to the realistic arm movements. Maybe Enix should’ve gone with Para Para? They could’ve beat Konami to the punch.

I eventually got a little better at Bust a Groove, I mainly played it to hear the music. It was incredibly catchy, and the character design was pretty cute. So when I finally found it at our local video store I had to rent it. Again, again and again. I never remember even seeing it for sale in a game store, so I had to resort to this one video store to play it. I honestly would’ve paid enough in rental fees to have bought three copies of the game. Or, you know, one copy on eBay today. Turns out I’m not the only one with a soft spot for late 90s rhythm games.

Kitty N was my go to character of choice, as her alternate costume (a black cat-suit!) and her theme song were pretty much the best things ever. Covering a wide range of genres, from funk to techno, each song was reflected in the character’s design and their dance style. It’s no surprise the music was so good, as Enix enlisted the help of Avex Trax, one of Japan’s top music labels to source artists. Though I still have some questions about Hamm’s theme and his preference for burgers over some ‘quality time’ with his girlfriend.

My love for Bust a Groove continued well into my adult years. Once in my Rapid Prototyping class, I even made a Bust a Groove clone called Dance Commander with one of my friends. It somehow had even worse 3D models, but we ripped off the ‘jammer’ attacks to the amusement of my classmates at the very least.

My everlasting dedication to this under appreciated gem peaked when I found a copy of Bust a Groove (along with a copy of Final Fantasy VII, but let’s forget about that) in my local Vinnies for $8 when I was a broke college student. EIGHT. DOLLARS. I was so overcome with joy that I thought it had been a mistake. Of all the op shops in all the world, this perfect game was just chillin’ in my local right next to a yellowing pile of workout VHS tapes. I had spent upwards of ten years trying to find a copy that wasn’t vastly overpriced, a curse that many PAL region Playstation games carry from being originally distributed in such small numbers. So naturally, I forfeited my grocery money and snapped it up in a heartbeat. As I was paying for it at the register, I was expecting the elderly lady counting my change to turn around and tell me the game had been priced wrong, or that it was just an empty case. I was certain it was too good to be true. But sure enough, I hurried back home and dusted off my Playstation. Hearing that intro music and the narrator on the character select screen again was such a sweet stab of nostalgia. Though the graphics had aged, I was finally able to pick up all the details in the game that I’d never noticed when I was younger, and I managed to play it well enough to get ‘fever time’!

While the sequel was never released here, what I’ve played of it was a vast improvement in terms of timing and interface design. The graphics were kicked up a notch, and the characters lacked a great deal of the gliding problem from the first game. Also, I’ll be the first to say that Kelly’s costume makeover from baby onesie to sexy policewoman is possibly the most welcome change. Even as a nine year old, I knew there was something unnervingly creepy about a grown woman dancing with a rattle in a butt-flap onesie.

If you like ‘quirky Japanese games’ or rhythm games in general, you should really check this one out. While it’s easy to sing praises of PaRappa the Rapper and the overwhelmingly huge Bemani catalogue, Bust a Groove really is worth a run or two. Show ‘em your moves!