Improved in Every Way
Dance Central 2 is a fantastic upgrade to the already memorable Dance Central. Harmonix has improved almost every aspect of the core gameplay while making the interface and presentation even better.
I was impressed with how accurate the menu navigation was. This is Kinect Done Right. The menu navigation is tight, accurate, and intuitive. Other game designers working with the Kinect should take notice of this. Unlike several other Kinect games I own, not once was I aggravated with sloppy menu controls or intrusive “Select a Profile After you Wave 5 Times” type of startup processes.
The game also supports voice recognition, so you can simply say “Xbox Dance The Breaks” and within moments the Kurtis Blow song is loaded and ready to go in a default Dance mode.
The game now supports 2 players in an ad-hoc competition mode as well as 2 players in a dedicate Dance Battle mode, similar to the original Dance Central. In the ad-hoc mode, as soon as another player walks into view the game shifts perspective and a set of cue cards appear on that side of the screen, and the 2 player is quickly and easily part of the dance routine. It’s great because it encourages a party atmosphere without having to stop a routine, quit back to the main menus, and restart after selecting a specific 2 player mode.
The game is also great for kids due to it’s “no fail” scoring and variety of popular songs.
The track list is a decent combination of old school and new releases. You can also pay a $5 license fee and import your Dance Central 1 tracks into the game, and you can play all those DC1 tracks in the new 2 player modes that exist in DC2.
Dance move accuracy has been improved, however there were several steps that no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get a flawless rating. I chalk that up to some anomaly in my room lighting. On higher difficulty levels you’ll definitely work up a sweat playing the game. Several moves are repeated throughout a routine, which can get a bit boring if you’re waving your hands in a particular pattern ten times in a 3 minute song.
Once again Harmonix has produced a true “must have” game that perfectly demonstrates the technology.