Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

Dance Central is literally why people bought the Kinect. It became the killer app for the device like Halo brought people round for the Xbox. The music game genre has evolved to more of a dancing type instead of more rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. But then people got a little out of hand with dancing, making crippled choices like Dance Masters. So Dance Central's style is both a strength and a weakness, triggering something good and something bad. Slick dance moves with amusing titles, enjoyable dancers boogieing in awesomely vivid environments, and fitting music to get your groove on to...what did Harmonix ever miss with this game? Oh, yeah...

- Maybe character customization could help instead of picking the same dancers, even with ELIOT. (The first X360 game I've played to suffer this was Sonic & Sega Racing.)

- Dare has a second dancing outfit called Diy Couture. And, Lady Gaga, my dear, I don't mean to sound like your grandpa on this, but please, pull up your pants! I was scared dancing in that outfit because you rocked an extreme sag, am I right?

- Why are there more funky songs in the game (no offense to "Jungle Boogie" and "C'Mon N' Ride It (The Train)", I love you guys) when the environmental atmospheres are more hip-hop-happy?

- When "Control" is on Hard, it's on Insane. Not only does the routine require inhumanly fast footwork, but the sweat you have to work up will probably result in around three showers/baths after your session.

- Girly moves. No one enjoys girly moves. "Funkytown" and "Just Dance" are good examples of feminine move songs. Guys, we have an alert, never dance to these songs in front of a crowd, like you just got your Kinect and whatnot. You'll probably walk away a laughingstock tomato. (Get it, because, everyone's gonna be laughing at you and you're gonna be red and...never mind.) What, did all the Harmonix girls wake up early at night and take over production while all the Harmonix guys slept peacefully?

- When routines are easy, they. Are. SUPER DUPER EASY.

- Man, $40 is a lot of money, even if it comes with a discount buying it with the Kinect. :-/

So Dance Central won't exactly have the lighter to set the world of dancing games on fire, but for wallflowers, you can get from shy loners to hot steppers in no time. Just take one glimpse at the vivid environments and awesome visual engines.

(Score: 8.5/10 = great, would've been 9.0, but all those flaws...)