Dance Central (X360) Review

Full Disclosure: Many of the launch titles for Kinect were disappointing; however Dance Central was not one of these games. With some gameplay demos and online footage I was very excited to hear I was the one who would get to review Dance Central.
Click the Link to see the full Audio and written review. 

Audio Review: 

Story: There was not a central story to this game. It was like traditional music games, with the ability to unlock new outfits for the dancers, new venues, and harder difficulties. However, unlike traditional music games there was no career mode making single player a little lackluster.  

Graphics: Not much to be said for the graphics in the game. The art style they presented worked well for the game and animations from the character were easy to pick up.  

Sound: The song choices in the game could have been a disaster, to many times have there been music games that have a mediocre soundtrack causing the fall of that particular game.  This was not the case for Dance Central; the songs were very upbeat and entertaining. Songs like “Bust a Move” and “Just Dance” had me wanting to get up and dance to the song. In the Break it Down mode the instructor’s voice was calm and understanding. If the player messed up many time on one move he would break it down even farther, movement by movement.

Gameplay: Arguably the most important feature of Dance Central, the gameplay needed to perform near perfection for the game to work. Although not a perfect 1:1 the game was still able to detect the majority of the moves. I was very worried the Kinect would not be able to read some of the more complicated moves, but for the most part it was able to keep up and detect detailed movements. There are four different game modes for Dance Central. Perform it! had the player jumping into the entire song and performing the different moves throughout the game. Players who are not able to go straight into the songs without practice had the Break it Down mode available to them. This broke down each move and, if especially difficult, in slow motion. The challenge mode, available after obtaining four songs with four stars in the category, combines all of the songs of the given category and has the player perform them. The final mode pits two players against each other in a dance battle. The first player dances to half the song and with a freestyle intermission, the second player performs the same half. This is a very good option with multiple people because it gets everyone involved and gets the competition spirit up. I found myself playing under Perform it the majority of the time, unless multiple people were present, in which I would switch to Dance Battle. The difficulty of the game could range from very simple side steps to legs and arms flailing in all direction. This provided a level for everyone, challenging even the most advanced dancers.       

Replayability: The amount of time a player wants to go back and play Dance Central is dictated completely by how much they want to learn the moves and how much they like the songs. There is little to no unlockable content and no career mode, so playing it alone lacked motivation. It is a great title to bring out for parties and social gatherings and will have non gamers getting up to grove to the moves.

Pros:

• Good soundtrack for dancing.
• Easy to understand characters.
• Break it Down Mode to teach players the moves.
• Promising future with DLC.

Cons:

• Didn’t always catch all moves.
• Lack of unlockable content.
• No career mode.
• Multiplayer mode was not fully present.
• Not a fully lasting appeal.

Editor: William Dewey

7/10 Good

Value: Full Price ($50)