Review: Dance Central 2

Dance Central was irrefutably the best launch title for the Kinect. I’d even say it’s the best use of the Xbox 360’s motion controls to date. The dancing-game genre suits this peripheral so well and Harmonix have captured what it should be all about. Since Dance Central 2 is a sequel to an almost flawless game, I’ll direct your attention to Steve’s review of Dance Central from this time last year, as the core mechanics of the game haven’t changed. It’s more of the same, but in a good way.

The menu system is still slick and makes you feel as if you’re in Minority Report; the added voice controls give you a quick way of pausing, breaking it down, or selecting a song if you’re familiar with the tracklist. Graphically, the animations have been boosted in the ‘prettiness’ department, and the dancing arenas are much more varied and detailed than the previous instalment.

I feel that most of the game’s improvement has been made to the “Break it Down” mode — the primary way of learning the moves for songs. In addition to just learning a whole dance’s worth of moves like in the original, you can now select individual moves to focus on. This means you don’t have to go through an entire “Break it Down” just to perfect that body roll that’s been bugging you. As well, at the end of a session, you’ll be given the option to go back and further practice those moves which you didn’t quite manage to get the first time around. Genius! One other way the game assists you in learning the dances is by letting you record a video attempting a move, and have it play back alongside the on-screen character so you can have a better idea of what you need to fix.

The whole “Break it Down” process has been sped up as well. It’s not arduous anymore to flick through a song’s moves — the sequences follow each other without delay and moves are repeated with about a bar of music’s rest in between attempts. They seem to have cut back on the announcer as well; a welcome relief to those that spend a while in this mode getting all the necessary moves down.

Dance Central 2 doesn’t hold you back from dancing with — or against — a partner. Now you’re both able to dance at the same time! I found that I was lucky enough to have adequate room to have a second player join me in the same space as I was playing solo. Most are going to have to push the couch back that little bit to gain some extra distance in case of errant limbs.

“Perform It” mode is your standard co-operative fare with freestyle sections for photo fun — or, as the majority of mine seem to be, a ‘take a 10 second rest and a drink of water’ section. The best mode here is definitely “Dance Battle” where you’ll be competing against your partner at the same time, given solo sections, and the “Free 4 All”, where four moves are shown on the screen and you can attempt any that you like; the first to perform the move wins the points.

Along with “Perform It”, the single-player mode features “Crew Challenge”, which is akin to a story mode where you’ll be dancing your little cardiovascular system out  in order to impress the various duos, comprised of old characters and new favourites. Your dance ratings from your efforts in “Perform It” don’t count here, as the choreography is slightly altered for each song to provide a non-stop track without freestyle sections. “Crew Challenges” are where you’ll make the bulk of your progression acheivements, which in general seem easier to attain than some of the arduous ones presented in Dance Central.

“Fitness” mode has once again been included for your calorie counting pleasure. It’s much easier to use this time around; once you’ve activated the mode, it will automatically enable itself whenever your account is logged-in. Your energy expenditure is now also calculated when you “Break it Down”, so you’re not being cheated out of counted-calories.

The tracklist features a decent mix of almost 50 songs and several decades, from “Hot Stuff” and “Venus” from the 60s and 70s to the modern, but questionable additions of “Whip My Hair” and “Somebody to Love”… by Justin Bieber. Just like they did with Rock Band, Harmonix will let you import your original Dance Central tracks — including DLC — for the low, low price of just 400 MSP. Sure, it’s not free but you can play the songs you already love, and can beat all your friends at, in a shiny new game.

Along with all the improvements, there’s one thing that sadly remains the same. It’s still hard to tell exactly what the hell you’re doing wrong. Sure, you can break it down super slow and record a video of what you’re doing to compare it to the on-screen dancer, but still all you’ll get is some body parts glowing red. You end up screaming, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY LEGS?” at the television. For the record, they weren’t far enough apart for a move that was simply pointing down, down, down at the floor.

Once again, Harmonix delivers the goods with the latest Dance Central title. With the additions to the multiplayer mode, this makes a perfect party game, as no skill others than being able to follow an on-screen diagram or avatar are needed. Featuring at my housewarming party, I can attest that this goes down a treat with a bunch of semi-drunk gamers — you’ll be surprised at how many of your friends have hidden dancing talents. If you have a Kinect, this really is a must-buy, especially if you enjoyed its predecessor.