It almost seems strange that, with its attempt to reach a more "casual" market - the sort of person who's first console was a Wii or a DS (and that means many of you, our lovely readers!), developers in general seem to have responded by putting together decidedly more hardcore, and complex version of other games. As Kinect Sports was a slightly more complex version of Wii Sports, and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is a lot less forgiving on Kinect than other fitness games on the Wii, Dance Central is a dancing game in the vein of Just Dance. Although, where you could just wang a Wii remote around on Just Dance, and manage a fairly decent score, Dance Central's the sort of game that requires a bit more of an investment of your time.
If you expect to just be able to pick up and play Dance Central, you've got another thing coming. While it has the same, Just Dance style stick men at the side of the screen, showing you what you've got to do, Dance Central's a lot less forgiving - thanks, mostly, to the Kinect sensor, which scans your entire body in 3D. Yes, whereas you could get great scores on Just Dance by simply standing still and moving your arms around, Dance Central requires you to use your whole body, moving your feet, arms, head, and legs around with the type of precision and co-ordination that some of us (namely, our own Sarah) simply can't manage.
The better you perform each move, the bigger the ring around your feet grows, and the better the rating you'll get.
And it's because of this that you won't be able to play a song on your first time through. The stick men pictures don't really give you enough of an idea of what you should be doing, especially as you'll be moving your whole body. And while following the dancers on screen is an option, the moves often aren't repeated enough for you to have time to get the hang of it, get back in time, and actually do it, before the song's moved on to a different move.
But if you were going to do a dance in real life, you wouldn't expect to just step in and do everything straight away. That's not how dancing works - as we've proven many a time. Instead, if you go to a dance class, you'll go through each of the moves to a song first - slowly repeating them until you get the hang of them, and can string them into a sequence. And luckily, Dance Central lets you do just that.
The top menu item when you select a song, for reasons we've just detailed, is called Break it Down. Here, the game does what it says on the tin, and breaks down each song for you, with a voice over telling you what you need to do, in the rhythm you need to do it. It slows the beat down as much as it has to for you to get your steps right, before speeding things up again, and linking them into a sequence. It basically helps you learn to dance exactly as you would in real life.
We believe this is the "Say what?" arms, but we wouldn't count us on it...
The problem with this, of course, is that Dance Central may lose a lot of its party appeal. Yeah, you can still flail around in front of a camera, but you won't be getting a very good score for doing it. Just Dance is definitely the easier game to pick up, while Dance Central is a game for the more hardcore dance elitists.
If anything, that's probably reflected in the soundtrack, which anyone without a knowledge of urban music will probably fail to pick more than three songs they know out of it. While the Lady Gaga tracks, pretty much every man and their dog knows, Jungle Boogie by Kool & the Gang is famous purely through I'm a Celebrity, and Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue, everybody knows, the list then begins to dry up. Hella Good by No Doubt, we're familiar with, but we've never heard (and don't like) Pon De Replay by Rhianna, Maneater by Nelly Furtado, or Drop It Like It's Hot by Snoop Dog. Oh well - at least it has Funky Town.
Outside of the regular dance mode, which gives you three difficulties to make the most of, each adding more moves, and more complex moves, there's also a workout mode, which is bound to go down a storm. After putting in your height, and weight, all that's left to do is simply dance off those pounds, as the game measures how long you dance for, and how many calories you'll be burning. It's every bit as effective as a proper fitness game - and more fun too.
If you've got Just Dance, and are looking to take your dancing to the next level, then Dance Central may be worth a look. If you want a game to pull out at parties, that's pick up and play, Dance Central probably isn't the game you're looking for - but with a bit of investment from yourself, it's a game that pays dividends.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
