E3 2010: Hands-On With 'Dance Central'

By Hector Cortez Jun 22, 2010, 5:20 GMT

Harmonix has ventured out of its comfort zone this year with Dance Central for the Xbox 360 Kinect.

Written by Michael Barryte

Rhythm games are the expected fare from the company that brought us Rock Band and its follow-ups. Harmonix has ventured out of its comfort zone this year with Dance Central for the Xbox 360 Kinect. Dance Central is more than just stepping to the beat ala Dance Dance Revolution; you actually dance, all the while Kinect captures your every move.

The menu system is simple and intuitive. Kinect's camera detects the central player's arms to navigate a scrolling menu. Hold your arm up, you scroll up. Hold it down, you scroll down. To select, simply swipe your arm across.

The actual dance screen is colorful and easy to follow. I was initially lead through Lady Gaga on Medium by a digital 'street wise' girl with a cut jersey and similarly styled posse. I didn't find myself looking to the right, where the soon to follow moves slide into place -- I could simply follow her lead.

Regarding the moves and dancing in general, each move has an icon associated with it and some of those icons can be a little confusing. What the heck is 'Sunrise?' Well, you can either just watch the digital dancers and follow a few seconds behind or jump into "Break It Down Mode," which allows you to view moves you will encounter in each song.

As for the dancing itself, it's very fun. So fun I got up to dance again. There were a variety of dance moves available during my short amount of playtime. The second song I played through had me using my hips a lot more, and you are always welcome to bust out whatever move you like when the game hits a Freestyle point, where the game enters a psychedelic world and naturally Kinect's camera snaps some quick amusing pictures. One thing I did notice is it seems the game can only focus on one person at a time for scoring.

All and all, this should not be written off as just another dance game where you can cheat to get a high score. Dance Central will be in stores fall 2010.

Michael Barryte is a Monsters & Critics Gaming contributor and is also the co-creator and co-star of the internet series Ari & Stone.