Dance Central – One Step At a Time

While the gyms are full and too many people are jiggling around in too little clothing, I’ve become a basement gamer.  A dancing basement gamer.

Dance Central has only recently become a tool for fitness in my household.  It started out as the coolest novelty, a well-intentioned weight loss method, then loads of fun as a party game.  So ironically, hubby and I would just be watching everyone else sweat, while we sat and haphazardly reminded ourselves to play later.

We didn’t.

But now we’re feeling the merriment and post-chubbiness of the holiday season.  So while hubby’s hitting the gym, I’m hitting up Dance Central and The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout (full review coming later).  And that, in short, explains why this review is being written now, instead of November 5.

I’m having a lot of fun with Dance Central.  The game itself is fairly intuitive, but the beauty of it is that it really capitalizes on the technology and essence of the Kinect.  Unlike Kinectimals, there isn’t a time to sit down since load times are generally swift and there are no long cinematics.  Dance Central gets you moving right away, and with your body being the controller for motion-tracking, a swipe of your arm triggers the start.

Players basically choose a song, then mimic the dancer avatar on screen while diagram flashcards let you know which dance moves are coming up next.  Dance Central measures how well you perform the moves (using your whole body!), and gives you a score based on how many moves were achieved.  Think of it like Rock Band, Harmonix’s other most popular game, but the accuracy of strutting your stuff is the key to success.  Instead of star power and a cheering crowd, Dance Central offers encouraging comments like, “Player 1, you’re burning it up”, “Player 2, you’re showing off” and, “Player 1, you gotta bring it.”  Graphic circles highlight the avatar with comments like “flawless” and “nice” so you know how well you’re doing.  And if you’re not busting a move in the right way, the avatar’s corresponding limbs light up in red.

Dance Central comes preloaded with 32 songs, each with an Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty.  Players are forced to start with Easy, but achieving five stars will unlock the subsequent level.  Songs range from the ‘70s (The Commodores’ Brick House), the ‘90s (Salt ‘n Pepa’s Push It), and now (Lady Gaga’s Poker Face and Just Dance), so there’s a little something for everyone.  DLC is slow to arrive on the scene, and so far, only nine new songs are available.  There is no “music store”, which is unfortunate because there is no way to preview song selections through the Xbox Live store.

But there’s enough in the game to keep players busy for a while.  A short-ish while.

There are three modes of play to get through: Perform It!, Dance Battle, or Break It Down.  Performing songs means a straight run-through as a single player, while Dance Battle works well for two players, alternating one player at a time in segments.  Break It Down is like getting a personal dance lesson, and useful for building up one’s dance vocabulary (since each move has a particular name), especially for Hard levels where you might find yourself sweatier and a little more winded than easier difficulties.  And speaking of sweating, players can also turn on Workout Mode for every song, which counts calories burnt for the duration of game play. 

Dance Central also has a good number of (customizable) elements to keep things fresh.  In every song, players are given dance breaks to freestyle and catch a breath, the video of which is recorded and played back for everyone’s amusement.  (We turned off that option since the camera angle was unflattering and depressing.)  For each song, you can choose a venue, and better yet, the avatar that performs the song.  There are nine to choose from, ranging from the hip hop dude (Mo) and the mambo king (Angel), to the pretty girl (Miss Aubrey) and the coordinated nerd (Maccoy).  So while the best part might be in getting to choose your favourite dance “teachers” (mine are Emilia and Miss Aubrey), I would say it’s actually in not getting stuck with the one wearing heart-shaped sunglasses and touting the annoying, fake British accent (Dare).  There is also an unlockable option for No Flashcards, so there’s a somewhat real challenge for those who are going pro.

The key to Dance Central’s longevity will really lie in what DLC comes down the pipeline, which is the magic of Rock Band between the sequels.  There is only so much you can do with 32 songs (all of which are available off the bat), and even then, I can’t personally say I’m a fan of all of them.  DLC, if distributed properly through an actual game-branded music store, has a huge potential to retain and widen the audience for Dance Central.  A greater number of music genres such as Broadway, Bollywood and kids’ tunes are possibilities, in the same way that Rock Band brought out a niche-market country music track pack.

Dance Central’s main advantage is in its technological design – not needing a specific controller, dance pad or handheld device seems innovative in its “here and now” tangible reality.  And it also seems to generally take the cool factor lead over other dance-based games flooding the market. From what I’ve seen, DanceMasters doesn’t seem as actively fun (matching poses … really?), and bopping to Just Dance while clutching a Wii remote seems rather cumbersome by comparison.

But to keep that leading edge, Microsoft is going to have to move really quickly in providing Dance Central players with a wider selection of songs.  Without any new tracks, it’s only a matter of time before the novelty gets stale, gamers get bored, and then we all try dancing outside the house.*

* Interestingly enough, a few Los Angeles clubs have been holding Dance Central dance competitions since its release.  Maybe all the DLC budget went to PR and marketing.