Director(s) Kasson Crooker Designer(s) Dean Tate Artist(s) Dare Matheson Initial release date 4 November 2010 Series Dance Central | Producer(s) Naoko Takamoto Programmer(s) Marc Flury Writer(s) Helen McWilliams Developer Harmonix Music Systems Platform Xbox 360 | |
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Publishers Microsoft Studios, MTV Games Nominations BAFTA Games Award for Best Game (Public Vote) Similar Dance Central games, Harmonix Music Systems games, Music video games | ||
Dance Central is a music rhythm game for the Xbox 360 that uses the Kinect motion peripheral. The game was developed by Harmonix, creators of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, and is a launch title for Kinect. Dance Central 2 was announced at E3 2011 and later released in October 2011. Dance Central 3 was announced at E3 2012 and was released in October 2012.
Contents
Gameplay
Gameplay involves the player performing given dance moves which are tracked by Kinect and represented on the screen by one of eight in-game avatars. The game features over 650 different dance moves spanning over 90 dance routines. But the new five characters are not available in this game, maybe in next time. There are five modes available:
On disc
The following 31 songs are included on the game disc. Warm up challenge songs are highlighted red, Simple challenge songs are highlighted orange, Moderate challenge songs are highlighted yellow, Tough challenge songs are highlighted green, Legit challenge songs are highlighted blue, Hardcore challenge songs are highlighted purple, and Off the Hook challenge songs are highlighted pink. All songs in the grand finale challenge led by ELIOT are highlighted pink.
Downloadable content
The following songs have been released as downloadable content via the Xbox Live Marketplace. These songs also deliver new routines. There are 32 DLC songs available for Dance Central, and all songs are forwards compatible with Dance Central 2 and Dance Central 3.
^a Free with Best Buy code.
Critical reception
Dance Central received positive reviews from critics. It received a score of 83.22% on GameRankings and 82/100 on Metacritic. It received a rating of 8/10 from IGN and a rating of 8.5/10 from GameSpot. Video game talk show Good Game: Spawn Point gave the game an 8 out of 10 calling it the best launch game for the Kinect and a step forward for dance games. They said workout mode was a nice addition which will definitely give you a workout and the Dance Battles would be a big hit at parties. Nintendo of America's President, in an interview, said that "Dance Central is, by far, the best Kinect game".
Sales
As of August 16, 2016, the game has sold 3.18 million copies worldwide.
Demos
As in the 1st Dance Central, there are two types of Demo: Downloadable via Xbox Live and In game demo in the Kinect Adventures!. Both demos have Emilia and Mo as the default characters & 5th Period as the only stage in game. The demo differs from each other and have different songs.
Kinect Adventures! version:
Xbox Live Demo version:
Sequels
During Microsoft's press conference at E3 2011, Harmonix announced Dance Central 2. Features new to the sequel include voice integration, a campaign mode, an improved "Break it Down" mode, and two-player simultaneous dancing. Similar to Rock Band 3, Dance Central 2 will be able to import on-disc songs from the original Dance Central as well as any downloaded songs. Harmonix stated that more than 100 songs will be available by the launch of Dance Central 2.