Dance Central was, at the launch of Kinect, the title that most convincingly proved what controller-free control was actually good for. While other launch games leaned on waving and jumping, Harmonix built the whole experience around real choreography. A virtual partner dances on screen, a column of cards showing upcoming moves scrolls along the right side, and the player's job is to copy them in time and with enough precision. Kinect tracks the whole body, so the game can tell you your arm is in the wrong position or your hip isn't turned enough, highlighting the offending limb on your silhouette.
The heart of the game is a mode where a choreography is broken down move by move and taught gradually until you can perform it at full speed. That's what sets Dance Central apart from mere mimicry; the player genuinely learns the routine and, after a few evenings, can perform it even without the screen. On top of that come two-player battle modes, a freestyle mode with photo capture, and a workout mode that tracks calories burned. The tracklist covers hip hop, pop and dance music from several decades, and each song has its own set of moves matching its character.
Visually it's a very distinctive game: a flat, poster-like color style with bold characters and typography still looks good today, and it runs completely smoothly on the Xbox 360. What matters most, though, is the accuracy of the motion detection, which was remarkable for its time, provided you had enough space and reasonable lighting. Critics received it as clearly the best dance representative of its generation, and many called it the reason to own a Kinect in the first place. Its influence on the genre was noticeable; a whole wave of dance games appeared almost overnight. Today Dance Central is a reminder that Microsoft's sensor had its moments, just too few of them. It still plays just as well as it always did; the trouble now is that finding a working Kinect and enough space in front of the TV takes more effort than learning the choreography itself.
Game 95 of 259 for Xbox 360
