For more on Dance! It's Your Stage, check out our full Dance! It's Your Stage review. Or, for more of the best Xbox 360 games for an 8 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
A cheap, downloadable alternative to some of the bigger budget dance titles, Dance! It's Your Stage lets you dance along to a selection of twenty cheesy German pop songs (that have been specially done for the game - there's no chart toppers here), either using a standard controller or a dance mat if you own one. Picking one of the pre-made characters, you can customise their appearance with unlockable outfits before you take to the stage, performing all over town in the game's career mode. There's also the option for two-player co-operative on any of the unlocked songs, if you're so inclined.
Despite looking like a bit of a low budget cash in, it's actually a pretty solid rhythm action game, with arrows scrolling down two tracks at the side of the screen - the left one denotes your left analogue stick/foot, and the right lane the other stick/foot, and the direction the arrow points in shows you where they need to be positioned. The songs start off fairly simply, throwing only a few simple notes at you to begin with, before ramping up the difficulty for the latter songs with the note tracks getting pretty hectic - thankfully the game is pretty forgiving though, and you'll have to miss an awful lot of notes to actually fail a song. With no adjustable difficulty levels either, so it'll just be a matter of practising till you get it right - whether that means mastering moving two analogue sticks at once or tying your limbs in knots depends on your control scheme.
There's nothing of real concern here - the lyrics aren't all that suggestive, the outfits aren't too revealing, and there's definitely no violence to speak of. This is suitable for the whole family - assuming they can handle a healthy dose of cheesy German pop, anyway.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
