Developer Harmonix Music Systems has vastly improved upon last year’s Dance Central and now releases Dance Central 2, a top-notch dance game for XBox Kinect which is clearly one of the top titles of the year. This is no small feat since the first Dance Central game is quite good, especially when you consider it was one of the first games to come out for Kinect. This new version of the game is even better.
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 List Price: $49.99 Sale Price: Too low to display 
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Ever seen one of those amazing dance battles on television and wished you could have joined in on the fun? Well, your prayers have been answered with Dance Central 2. Dance Central 2 is the sequel to Dance Central, one of the highest-rated and bestselling Xbox 360 Kinect games.
In Dance Central 2, gameplay involves picking a song out of an extensive playlist and dancing to the corresponding choreographed number. There are digitally-rendered dancers onscreen whom players must try to mimic as closely as possible as they groove to the beat. Cue cards also scroll along the edge of the screen to prompt players on the succeeding moves and ensure that they get the maximum amount of preparation for each dance step. Points are awarded for every successful mimic and are then totaled at the end of the song.
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The Kinect Dance Central 2 game features a career mode where you play as an up-and-coming young dancer itching for the chance to prove himself. You take on dance battles from various crews as you groove and grind your way to the top and finally earn the right to challenge the mysterious dance crew bent on hindering your progress. The game takes you from easy dance routines to more difficult ones in a nice ladderized campaign that will definitely end in your mastering the plethora of dance steps in the game.
The Dance Central 2 Kinect game also builds upon the features of its predecessor quite nicely. Multiplayer is now added and two people can participate in either versus dance battles or cooperative mode. A drop-in drop-out feature adds to the multiplayer support excellently. Voice control is now present, and Break it Down mode is far more streamlined in order for players to practice on the routines before doing some serious challenges. Lastly, a fitness mode is available to help players lose those excess calories.
The tracklist is extremely extensive with 40 plus songs available from the get-go including “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” by Usher, “Last Night” by Diddy, and “Somebody to Love” by Justin Bieber. Furthermore, additional songs can be downloaded, and Dance Central 2 even allows songs from the original Dance Central to be imported, making the potential tracklist enormously huge with well over a hundred titles.
With colorful graphics, awesome audio, a cheery career mode, and all new customizable features, Dance Central 2 is definitely the definitive dance game on the Kinect.
Dance Central 2 is almost flawless; however, there are minor issues that need to be addressed.
If you want to import your old songs from your previous copy of Dance Central, you would have to pay five dollars and input the game code found in your Dance Central manual. Also, the voice commands in Dance Central 2 need to be properly studied in the instruction manual before they can be used accurately.
Lastly, the dance routines usually lean heavily towards more feminine moves such as booty shakes. Guys might feel uncomfortable doing these steps in front of an audience.
Dance Central 2 can be played on the Xbox 360 console and requires the Kinect Sensor. Downloadable content is available, and multiplayer modes of up to 2 people are present.
Unlike Dance Dance Revolution which is more of a precision-based rhythm game and the Just Dance series which focuses more on ridiculous and hilarious dance routines, Dance Central 2 actually teaches you some cool moves which you wouldn’t be embarrassed to perform in real life settings. Its more serious gameplay makes it attractive to hardcore dancers and those wanting to get better at dancing. Furthermore, its entertainment value, together with the various modes such as career, training, workout, and multiplayer as well as the extensive tracklist make it one of the best dance games on the market and definitely the best one on the Kinect.
