For more on Dance Central 2, check out our full Dance Central 2 review. Or, for more of the best Xbox 360 games for a 10 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
Dance Central 2 is the sequel to last year's Just Dance inspired Dance-a-thon, for the Xbox 360 using Kinect (the Kinect sensor is required). Bringing with it a whole selection of new tracks, a multiplayer mode, and a host of new routines, Dance Central 2 will see you strutting your stuff, following a selection of on-screen prompts, as you boogie to a selection of popular tunes, from Lady Gaga, to Flo Rida, and Usher, with a decidedly more urban bent than other dancing games so far.
For children, though, Dance Central provides a few problems. Tracking your entire body, you're required to move both your legs and arms in order to match the moves the game asks you to do - which can be challenging even for us, yet alone for younger children. While you can't fail any of the songs, and you'll only end up getting a rubbish score, for those who want to feel like they're doing well, Dance Central 2 is actually a very difficult game, even on its easiest setting, and is a world away from similar games like Just Dance. With little feedback in game about what you're doing wrong, you're expected to practice each song in the "Break it down" mode, which takes you through each of the moves individually, and slows things down until you've got it, requiring you to almost memorise each routine in order to do well - and while this certainly isn't a bad thing, it's something younger children especially may not have the patience to do - especially if they're just to more accessible dancing games.
For those who take their dancing more seriously though, or those wanting a bigger challenge than games like Just Dance, Dance Central could be well worth a look - just don't expect a game that's as easy to jump into as Just Dance.
As it features more of a modern mix of tracks, Dance Central 2 also features a variety of sexual references and innuendo on its soundtrack - along the lines of Sir Mix-a-lot's Baby Got Back, which features the line "That butt you got makes me so horny", and the innuendo fuelled "Rude Boy" by Rihanna, which asks if you can "get it up", before grammatically incorrectly adding "is you big enough". Any strong language, however, is edited out, leaving it littered with a few "hell"s and "damn"s.
Adding two-player multiplayer for the first time in the Dance Central series, you'll be able to take on the game's numerous songs with a friend in tow - although, sadly, it is only two player multiplayer, meaning there'll be no Just Dance style partying here.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
