Bust a Groove

Bust a Groove is a hybrid music/fighting game for the Sony PlayStation released in 1998. The game was published by the Japanese video game developer Enix (now Square Enix) in Japan and brought to the U.S. by now-defunct 989 Studios.

The original Japanese game was titled Bust a Move: Dance & Rhythm Action (バスト ア ムーブ Dance & Rhythm Action); the name was changed as the American release of Puzzle Bobble already used that name. The game combined PaRappa the Rapper-like rhythm-based gameplay with fighting game elements, including special moves designed to damage the opponent.

The sequel, Bust a Groove 2, unlike its predecessor, was never released in Europe. A third game in the series, Dance Summit 2001 was only released in Japan on the PlayStation 2.

Gameplay
The game mechanics are quite simple and focuses on beats. The player needs to press a series of arrows that appears on the interaction bar using the D-Pad and be able to press the corresponding face button (Circle or X) every fourth beat of the music to execute a dance move otherwise, it will be 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) to interrupt the enemy which could also be dodged by a somersault move. A dodge could be used by pressing Square at the right time, which would cause the character to do a backflip and avoid the attack.

Glitches and Secrets
Start a 1 or 2 player game and choose Kelly as your character. then try to do bad and don't press anything. Later on. Do her Jammer attack, then as she winds up and gathers the energy, immediately press start and press "Retry". Kelly will be surrounded by sparkles which will last for the remainder of the match, or until she performs another attack.
 * Sparkly Kelly

Start a 1 or 2 player game and pick Hamm or Burger Dog as your character, then do his jammer twice in a row and your character should be flat until the remainder of the match.
 * Flat Characters

Bust a Groove (American Release): at character selection screen, Highlight a character and press " SELECT+X", they should wear a different costume (2P COSTUME) Bust a Move (Japanese Release): Instead of Pressing "Select+X", press "Select+Circle".
 * Alternate Costume

Try these moves during the solo part of the dance, They should give you a high score, to confirm that you have done the super successfully, the MC sais: "THE HIGH SCORE MOVE THERE!!!" (The part where you take turns dancing.)
 * Super SOLOS !!!
 * Heat: Up, Down, Up, Circle
 * Frida: Up, Down, Up, Circle
 * Strike: Up, Up, Left, Circle
 * Hamm: Down, Right Up, Circle
 * Kelly: Right, Left, Right, Circle
 * Shorty: Down, Down, Down, Circle
 * Hiro: Right, Up, Down, Circle
 * Pinky Diamond: Up, Left, Up, Circle
 * Gas-O: Left, Down, Right, Up, Circle
 * Kitty NakaJima: Down, Down, Right, Circle
 * Capoeira: Right, Up, Right, X
 * Robo-Z: Up, Down, Left Right, Circle
 * Columbo: Down, Down, Down, Circle
 * Burger Dog: Down, Right, Up, Circle

In Capoeria's stage, we all know that when he's stage intensifies, the doors of his UFO opens and shows the clouds, but if you do a character's special solos in all of his/her solo moves, Instead, it will be in the space with the sun, moon, and the earth.
 * Different Capoeira Scenery

Hold Circle after winning a stage.
 * Winning Pose Close-up

Play as Shorty in either a 1 or 2 player game and successfully execute a level 7 freeze, Columbo should jump out of her pocket.
 * Columbo Cameo

When you manage to intensify the stage of your opponent before the ending beats, you will be given "Fever Time!!" at the end of the game in which that character freestyles at any moves in the stage.
 * Fever Time

1: Doors open and show the sky 2: Doors open and show the sun, moon and earth ( if you do the solo moves (special)
 * Level Intensification
 * Heat - breaking windows
 * Frida- Shack gets blown away by wind
 * Kitty-N - Lazer coming out of the kitty n model's eyes and snow.
 * Kelly- Stage will spin
 * Hiro - Color of disco floor will give ranmdom colors at the same time (Red, Blue, Green, White, Violet)
 * Shorty - Floor becomse pink and candy coming out of the dog and snowman dancing.
 * Pinky- Pyramid explodes and stage becomes dark
 * Gas O- Giant fan on top moves and gas chamber wiggles
 * Robo-Z- Cars crashing at each other
 * Capoeira- There are two options
 * Hamm- Burger Dog jumps and Giant Hamburger breaks into pieces
 * Strike- Stage releases Red Light and smoke

Songs

 * Frida - Sora to Umi to Niji no Yume (空と海と虹の夢)
 * Translation: "Dreams of Sky, Sea, and Rainbows"
 * Gas-O - Chemical Love
 * Hamm/Burger Dog - I luv hamburgers
 * Heat - 2 Bad
 * Hiro - The Natural Playboy
 * Kelly - Transform
 * Kitty N - Aozora no KNIFE (Bust a Move Edit) (青空のknife)
 * Translation: "Knife of the Blue Skies"
 * NA Release - Bust a Groove
 * Pinky - I know
 * Shorty/Columbo - Waratte pon (笑ってぽん)
 * Translation: "Crack a Smile"
 * NA Release - Shorty and the EZ Mouse
 * Strike - Power
 * Capoeira - Uwasa no KAPOERA (噂のカポエラ)
 * Translation: "The Rumored Capoeira"
 * NA Release - CAPOEIRA
 * Robo-Z - Flyin to your soul

Additionally, a remix of Aozora no KNIFE (titled "blue knife (start G move mix)" on the Japanese soundtrack) was used as the opening theme for the game. A different remix, "blue knife dream (orchestra stall mix)", was used during the ending credits.

Versions
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 lesser-known 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 responsible for singing the theme of Kitty-N's stage. This feature contained shots of the artist singing the song in the studio, an interview with the artist, and a live-action version of the game, complete with costumed Japanese dancers taking the parts of the various characters (Kitty-N, Heat, and Kelly are all included, amongst others). The other three movies contained within the disc were all for other Enix games: AstroNooori (a game unreleased in the U.S.), Star Ocean: The Second Story, and Hello Charlie (known as Eggs of Steel in the U.S.). The premium version was otherwise 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 U.S. version of the game had a number of changes from the Japanese version, mostly due to cultural differences between countries.
 * Hiro-kun was originally smoking a cigarette in the game but this was removed for the U.S. release.
 * Hamm's general appearance was changed from a ganguro or blackface design into a generic, Caucasian style. As a result, cutscenes for him were also changed.
 * Hamm's song originally included the word 'nigga' in the lyrics. This portion of the song was removed for the U.S release.
 * Strike's song originally contained references to alcohol. This line was removed for the U.S. release.
 * Hamm originally had jet black skin with thick lips. The jet black skin was changed to the same color of his lips, giving him a more latino look in the final release.
 * During gameplay, Strike is seen drinking from a flask. This was changed to a can of soda pop (possibly Coca cola).
 * Waratte PON, Aozora no KNIFE, Uwasa no KAPOEIRA and Transform were translated to English and were re-recorded for the U.S. release (The former three were re-titled as Shorty and the EZ mouse, Bust a Groove and CAPOEIRA respectively).
 * Frida (Player 2) hair color was originally brunette, but was changed to blue for the U.S. release.
 * Pinky's song, during the bridge in the middle of the song, you can hear the rapper say, "Nigga move!" In the U.S. release, it's faintly heard.

Bust a Groove: Arcade Edition
An arcade edition of Bust a Groove (Bust a Move) was exclusively released in Japan. Although released only in Japan, it held the title of Bust a Groove which is the English release title. The controls are still the same from the PlayStation version but changed how to execute them. The player now has to press the giant Left, Up and Right buttons in a giant pad and step on a footpedal for the 'Down' command while the PlayStation buttons (Square, X etc.), are replaced by a giant "Dance!" button. A Jammer button was also included.

The arcade version features only 5 stages (Robo-Zs stage always being the last one).