When we last saw Dance Central on the Xbox 360 a year ago, it pretty much jumped to the top of the charts when it came to Kinect game sales. And that’s no surprise, considering it’s just as accessible and entertaining as the last game its developer, Harmonix, made – Rock Band 3. But that was a mere two-step compared to the full-blown tango you’ll experience with Dance Central 2. While the experience in itself is about the same, the extra features and additional songs will leave you toe-tapping with delight. If you’re new to Dance Central, or were one of the unfortunately souls that bought a different dancing game, here’s how it works. On-screen dancers perform their moves on the screen, with the help of a pair of back-up dancers. Prompts appear in the lower half of the screen, showing you what move is coming up next. You’ll mimic this move using your body, and the game will grade you depending on accuracy, using a color-coded ring that lights brighter and brighter depending on your success. The better you’re dancing, the better your score. And there are breaks in the middle of each song where you can break out and do your own thing, with a video playback showing you just how silly you appear going at rapid speed.
In terms of its visual engine, Dance Central 2 didn’t really go above and beyond the original. The dancers still look about the same, with some of them wearing the kind of lavish outfit you’d probably find on a tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The backdrops could’ve used a slight bit more variety as well, instead of just the usual club and outdoor locales. Other than that, it’s a strong visual interface, one that shows you just how well you’re scoring without any obtrusive stuff getting in the way. It also runs at a very good frame rate, even if two of you are going at once in a dance battle. (More on that in a minute.) Where this game really shines is in its song selection. Like the first, it combines some great stuff from both the old dancing days and the current music scene, from Bananarama’s “Venus” (which still fares very well considering its age) to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”. If that isn’t enough for your dancing needs, you can also import your entire Dance Central music library for a mere five bucks, provided you still have the code card that it came with. (If not, I’m sure you can hunt down a used copy with one inside.) The song variety is staggering, and you can bet it’ll only get better as Harmonix adds DLC over the next few months.
Then there’s the gameplay. And again, much hasn’t changed, as the game still goes by the Dance Central formula that worked so well last time. But if it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it, you know? The way the Kinect recognizes your body movements with this game is a huge plus, and miles ahead of what Ubisoft tried to do with Just Dance 3. Some of the routines get a little out-of-control, especially on the higher-up difficulty, but there’s still room for amateurs to move around. And with that, let’s talk about Break It Down mode, a tutorial mode that actually walks you through each of the steps so you can learn about them in a better way, without holding up a party later on. This is a very intuitive mode, one that teaches you everything you need to know about dancing – and maybe some stuff you didn’t even realize. It’s a great place to start, and then you can fiddle around with other modes, including Calorie (think of it on the same level as DDR’s diet mode) and Dance, which, well, is self-explanatory.
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