Simply Kinect – Dance Central

This is a post made over at GameNTrain by my buddy Susiehulk. Check it out, this post references the game Costa was speaking on in her Zumba Fitness post.

Those who really know me are aware I have certain allergies; kiwi fruit, fish and exercise. I compare exercising to a form of virus; aches, breaking out in a sweat, fatigue, etc. I can never stay motivated enough to reap even the basics from a gym membership, and have seen my hard-earnt dollars go to waste. Yep – even having my credit card charged every fortnight wasn’t enough to motivate me. What’s my point? I’ve barely had Kinect for a month, and right now I am 13lbs lighter without even trying – with thanks to Dance Central.

I must admit, it’s been more than 10 years after my final curtsy from professional dancing, and Dance Central struck me as being not only a challenge, but also my game. It never occurred how much exercise I was going to gain from it – it didn’t cross my mind. Perhaps if it did, well… I do have allergies…

I started the game in Break it Down mode where it instructs step by step the required dance moves in a song. I selected ‘hard’ for my difficulty setting just to see how challenging it would be for Perform It! mode. If at first you don’t succeed the dance move, you will get 3 chances to pass it. If you find within those 3 attempts you still can’t quite get it, it’ll move onto the next dance step – don’t worry you can go back and try it again later. You can also choose to slow the song down and the game will talk you through it. Pretty neat huh? Dance Central features a diverse cast of characters whose dance steps you will mirror. It will also highlight in red where you’re just not getting it.

Perform It! mode is for solo performances of each song, and Dance Battle is Local Competitive for 2 players. Unfortunately there is no opportunity to do this over Xbox Live. I was disappointed to see it didn’t exist, and there are also 2 Achievements for Dance Battle. Looks like I’ll need to pay a friend to be defeated invite a friend to come over and play some Dance Central with me. Each song will take a photo of you and during Freestyle mode you take the stage and dance your own steps. If you move around enough, you should get a flawless result each time – and not only gain points from it but you’ll also receive a video of yourself as a souvenir to remind you just how good (or bad) you really are!

A full list of Dance Central Achievements can also be found here.

The day after I first played Dance Central, I really felt the stiffness and lactic acid sting. Oh it brought back repressed memories of the gym. Unlike my regular “oh but I am too sore” excuse to get me out of the gym for a few days, I was going back for more. As much as my arms ached reaching for the disc it didn’t stop me putting in the game and having another thirty minutes or so of practicing a song, or learning the steps of a new one. I was hooked.

“Hi I’m SiouxsieKate, and I’m a Dance Central addict.”


I also noticed a feature of Dance Central that I will always use whenever I play; workout mode. Toggle this feature in the Perform It! song menu, and everything will still play as normal – you just need to enter your weight and it gives you an estimate on how many calories you’ve burnt in that session and total dance duration. Thirty minutes of Dance Central burns approximately 120 calories for me, and I’m not on a boring treadmill – the time just flies. For those seeing Kinect as a way to involuntarily exercise, please speak with your doctor or medical provider on a suitable weight loss plan.

The best thing I liked about Dance Central? Unlike Guitar Hero/Rock Band, if you really are struggling or make too many errors, it wont stop mid-song – you’ll just bow out with a low score and few stars. Practice makes perfect *grin*.

Full lists of the songs in-game are found here, and the Xbox Live Marketplace currently has six songs as DLC. Want a song featured in Dance Central? Head to the official Dance Central website and you can request a song in the forums.

Will you get bored of Dance Central? I couldn’t answer that for everyone. I will say there is an achievement worth 50GS to complete every song with a 5-star rating on hard. I aim for this achievement during my thirty minute workout.

I rate Dance Central 4 out of 5 stars. I might have given it a full 5 stars given the game was released at launch with no bugs/problems, it’s encouraging and it works with real results. It missed out the final star due to lack of Xbox Live features.

Below is a video I captured this morning for this week’s Simply Kinect to give you an idea on how it looks in Workout mode. Normally I do the Chicken Dance in Freestyle mode, but I felt like showing off (my foolishness) instead. Until next week, ENJOY!


Posted Via GameNTrain