Review: Dance Central 2

Dance Central was one of the Xbox Kinect's launch titles, and is probably one of the best dancing games out there. It came with loads of popular songs and different ways to play them, and aside from some dodgy menu navigation and a bit of inaccuracy when reading movements, was a really fun party game. But Dance Central 2 is more fun, more social, and packed with extra game modes.

Kinect games may be aimed at children, in general, but Dance Central 2 is not, as evidenced by the mix of songs and dance moves. Kids can play, sure, but there'll need to be a bit of parental control over the song choices with songs like Rihanna's Rude Boy available. That said, the mix of music is great, and includes both new and old songs of many different genres (a full list of songs is at the bottom of this review). There should be something for everyone here, unless you're a militant metalhead.

The campaign in Dance Central 2 is quite different from its predecessor in that this time around you're not just dancing to unlock stuff. Instead, there's a bit of a backstory (albeit a very weak one) involving you showing off your moves to different dance crews so you can dance for them. You do this by earning stars - your performance is ranked out of five stars, so the better you do, the quicker you'll impress the crews. As you twirl, shuffle and roll your way up the street-dancing ranks, you just happen to unlock extra dancers, as well as hidden outfits for your existing dancers.

You can take on the campaign mode alone, or co-op with a friend. Co-op works surprisingly well, although you do have to be careful not to hit each other if you don't have a whole lot of room to move around. If one of you starts playing while the other is taking a break, they can join back in at any point by jumping in and raising their right hand. It takes a few seconds, but it works.

In the original Dance Central, two people couldn't be dancing at one time and had to swap in and out to partake in multiplayer. This time around, both people can be on the screen doing the same dance moves at the same time. At certain points, one person will be asked to perform solo while the other waits, but those moments are brief.

Dance Central 2 also includes voice recognition, but frankly, it's not very good. The only choice of language is English (US), which means that Kinect will only listen to your voice commands if you put on a ludicrous fake accent. Particularly bad is the word 'dance', which is the most-used command.

The other thing that still isn't great, more than a year after Kinect's launch, is the accuracy of the device. there are times when you're sure you're getting a move exactly right, but the game swears up and down that your leg is in the wrong place, or your head is slightly too far to the left. It can be a bit irritating at times.

If you're interested in dancing games for fitness, Dance Central has a couple of different options for you. One is to just turn on fitness tracking, and then do whatever you want - you can do story mode or just dance along to your favourite track over and over, and the game will count your calories burned. However, if you want the game to choose your exercise regime for you, there are a number of ready-made playlists in the fitness section that will get you really moving (and sweating).

Dance Central 2 is a solid party game, if nothing else. You have to let go of your inhibitions to play - unless you'er alreadya dancer - and accept the fact that you're going to look like an idiot. Looking like an idiot is part of the fun, though, especially if you're surrounded by people you like. While we marked it down a bit because of some features not working the way they should, Dance Central 2 is better and even more fun than the original.

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