PAX East – Bounden Hands-On Impressions

A lot of the new indie games on the floor of PAX East this year had the ambition of encouraging new ways for people to play and interact with video games. Bounden is a mobile game that does this by bringing two people together on both ends to learn how to dance in unison.

Bounden starts off with a tutorial that teaches players how to turn and rotate the phone together in order to follow a trail of dots that trace around the contous of a sphere that turns with the gyroscope inside of the device. Every aspect of the device that is held comes into play here and creates a dance that feels a lot like a tango or waltz.

The dance moves were choreographed by the Dutch National Ballet to feel like a graceful couples dance. Once a dance has been properly mastered, skills can be put to the test with an additional mode set to music that is actually graded at the end. The end result is a game that doesn’t exactly teach one to dance outside of  swinging under each other’s arms, but one that offers an awesome intimate experience for two people to share.

If you’re looking for a fun activity for a night in or a date idea, Bounden is certainly one interesting way to go.  When the game comes out later this year, it will sport a whole slew of different types of songs and dance types. It’s sure to get all who play it on their feet and personally entwined with the one they play with. So make sure to choose your new dance partner wisely.