You make me feel like dancing, Harmonix!  As someone who always stood on the sidelines wishing he could join the sexy, sexy women on the dance floor, Dance Central was made for me. Especially since this new version lets two players shake a leg. What I like about Dance Central compared to other dancing games is its seriousness. This is a game that uses real choreography. You will be taught how to Jerk and Crank Dat if you play long enough. Higher difficulty just means more advanced moves with a lot more variation, which forms a nice learning curve for a rhythm game.

With work out modes and a new career mode where you’re dancing to rep various dance crews, as well as controller support (for menus) and enhanced motion detection there’s really nothing to complain about here. The song range can’t be beat and for a small fee you can import all your songs from the first game. The bottom line is that Dance Central makes you feel like a professional dancer, while the competition (Just Dance) makes you feel like you’re at the club. There’s room in my house for both, but, admittedly, Just Dance makes for a slightly better and sillier party experience with non-dancers or those who are easily intimidated by choreography.

Dance Central is still the best Kinect game available, and the perfect gift for the dancing fool in your family – so long as their serious enough to want to learn how.

GAMERBOY (8) “I like Dance Central 2 because it is teaching me how to dance. I’ve got moves now.”

GAMERGIRL (11) “I like the songs. There’s a lot of Lady Gaga and a song by Pink.”

GAMERMOM: “Dance Central 2 is the game my family plays most of all and GamerDad keeps getting me to try the exercise options. I will, but life gets in the way.”

Recommended for 8+, simply due to the moves required to get a decent score, even on easy. There are some questionable lyrics but nothing you won’t, or haven’t, heard unbleeped on the radio.

Tags: Game Reviews