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How Dance Central Lets You Know You're Doing It Wrong

Brett_new_profile
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I danced my clumsy white ass off at a Dance Central event a few weeks ago. Lucky for you, no video exists of that heinous act. Instead I'll use this gameplay clip to illustrate one of the best little things about Harmonix's Kinect-based dance experience: 

Notice the arms and legs on the avatar glowing red at the beginning of the video? That's how Dance Central lets you know you're doing it wrong. If a limb's glowing, then you need to reposition your own gangly appendage. You can also eyeball the small silhouette of your figure that appears on the right to see if you're accurately mimicking the moves displayed, but those glowing beacons are the main way Dance Central lets you know you're doing it wrong. During they songs I performed, they lit up pretty much the whole time.

After the event, I couldn't stop thinking about that tiny yet significant feature. It demonstrated to me how accurate and potentially game-changing the Kinect's motion sensors are. Dance Central simply wouldn't be possible using the wands and remotes of the Move and Wii.

 

 
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Comments (5)
Assassin_shot_edited_small_cropped
August 18, 2010
The more I hear/read about Dance Central, the more I think it is perfect for teaching beginner dancers to be aware of their body, which will prepare them well for professional classes (should they make the step up to serious learning from a trained instructor).
Channel5
August 18, 2010

It might not work with the Move, but I wonder if the Playstation Eye would make Dance Central possible on the PS3.

Robsavillo
August 19, 2010

Errol, I was thinking the same thing.

There184
August 19, 2010

This game looks so colourful. I hope that when you're playing it, you'll be looking at what's going on more than you do in Rock band. It seems like it would naturally lend itself to that.

Brett_new_profile
August 19, 2010

Rob, Errol: True, the Eye could feasibly do something like this, but I don't see Sony getting behind a game that totally ignores the Move pointer.

Alex: Also lending to that: You can't fail a song. Even if you completely suck it up, you can play through the song to the end. You just won't get many points to unlock higher difficulties.

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