The Beat Goes On

All this week, I've been having fun with the new Dance Central 2, Harmonix's sequel to their Kinect-capable dancing hit.

The new game has added a lot of bells and whistles that I've barely scratched the surface on, but the big upgrade is that it now simultaneously supports two dancers. No more of the awkward dance-offs of the first game. Another big upgrade is to the recognition capabilities of the software in general; I find that this game tracks your movements much more accurately and effectively than the original. It's not that the original was bad in this regard, it's just that the improvement really makes a difference when space is tight in your place as it is in mine.

But, on the down side, I think the set list is a bit weaker this time out. There are some gems in there, sure. But there seems to be a lot more hip hop and R&B in Dance Central 2 than its predecessor. Or maybe it's that the handful of "classic" songs (if you will) don't make me think "ooo, I love this song" as much as the ones in the original. It's not too big a deal, though; you can export all your songs from the first Dance Central to keep on playing them in the new one. (Along with any downloadable content you've purchased.)

Still, new tunes, new moves, new fun -- it's all I was looking for, and I have yet to even really explore the many improvements they've made to their navigation (which now supports speech recognition), their training and workout tracking modes, and so forth. In all, a fun game, one not to miss if you own a Kinect. I'd rate it an A-.