Power Factory Featuring C+C Music Factory (Sega CD) review "C+C Music Factory: Make My Video is one of several Make My Video games that were released for the Sega CD. This one features the band, C+C Music Factory. (Other Make My Video games feature bands like Kriss Kross and Inyx, just in case you're wondering.) Yeah, I have never heard of this band either before I played this game. But you have probably heard a couple of their songs. Anyway, the main premise of this game is to create your own music video to one of the band's hi..."

C+C Music Factory: Make My Video is one of several Make My Video games that were released for the Sega CD. This one features the band, C+C Music Factory. (Other Make My Video games feature bands like Kriss Kross and Inyx, just in case you're wondering.) Yeah, I have never heard of this band either before I played this game. But you have probably heard a couple of their songs. Anyway, the main premise of this game is to create your own music video to one of the band's hit songs. Isn't a bad idea, but does it work? Let's see.

Gameplay
This time around, I'll try something new. I'm going to switch around the order of my categories, starting off with the most important category, the Gameplay. Now that I stop and think about it, I don't know why I didn't do this from the beginning.

Here's how the game goes. First, you choose one of the three available songs: "Gonna Make You Sweat," "Here We Go, Let's Rock & Roll," and "Things That Make You Go Hmmmm . . ." After choosing one of these "great" songs, you're given a bit of direction as to what you need to include and exclude from the music video. This is done through some video help from these two guys named Dwayne and Franklin. They tell some things that need to be included into the video. Examples of these can be teeth or people in the sun. They also tell you a few things that must be avoided. Some examples that they may tell you to avoid are cartoons or rock groups. Great. Just some more things to make this game even tougher. (I'll explain this later.)

Right after this, the video magic begins. Making a music video happens like this: There are three frames in which there are continuously video clips being played. One of these three frames may have actual footage of the C+C Music Factory, while another frame may be an animated form of the video, while the last frame may contain miscellaneous items. Your job is to simply pick one of these video frames to include in your video. But you need to be quick, because the videos do change fast and often. But this isn't the end of your musical magic. While recording your music video, you can also add some special effects to the video for a little spice. Slice it, dice it, strobe it, or even smear the video. With 16 different special effects, the possibilities are virtually unlimited!

When you're finally done recording your video, it is then played back and judged. But this is where things get ugly. No matter how good you think your video is or how much effort you put into it, your video will never pass. Your video will almost always be rejected and thrown right back in your face, literally. This really kills the gameplay, as creating the music videos is sort of amusing. But getting these videos turned down each and every time gets very frustrating.
Rating: 6/10

Graphics
Well, I have to admit, for being on an inferior console, C+C Music Factory: Make My Video has some great graphics. The heart and soul of this game is without a doubt the hours of video. Fortunately, all of these videos are of a great quality. There is very little slow-down in the frame rate, and the videos are practically crystal clear. What else can be said? I mean, there are the backgrounds, but you'll be spending so much time and effort focusing on the video screens, you won't notice the backgrounds. I suppose the plain text may be better, but I can't bring down the score for that lone reason. The clear videos just reign supreme in this game! Great job in the visual department!
Rating: 10/10

Sound
Just like the game's graphics, the audio is superb considering it was released for the Sega CD. The three songs and the hour or so of additional videos all have near-perfect stereo quality. Everything that will come out of your TV speakers while playing this game will sound almost as good as any CD you put into your CD player. Now, if only C+C Music Factory's music was better . . .
Rating: 9/10

Replay Value
Unfortunately, the game really falters in this department. With only three songs available to make music videos for, this game is very short. If Sega CD games were still available for rental, I would recommend this game for one. But because of this system's failure, this is not possible. So if you can, give this game a try. But unless you can get this game for a very cheap price, do not buy this game. You'll only be playing this game for a few hours.
Rating: 2/10

Recap
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Replay Value: 2/10

Overall
C+C Music Factory: Make My Video has a very interesting game concept, and it almost pulled it off. It's fun, has perfect graphics, and has just as superior audio. Unfortunately, the insane level of difficulty and the way too short replay value, do spoil this game a bit. But in the end, the positives do outweigh the negatives, which is the reason for this final score.

Community review by cdbavg400 (November 15, 2004) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.