Dance Central 2 fixed what the first game got wrong

Dance Central 2 arrived on the Xbox 360 Kinect in October 2011 with a simple job: take the 2010 original, which proved that a camera could read a body well enough to score a dance routine, and give people a reason to keep the disc in the tray. Harmonix and Microsoft Studios did that by fixing the thing that most limited the first game — you could only really play it alone.

Trailer, via XboxViewTV.

Perform It, Dance Battle, and the two-player fix

The core loop has not changed. Players mimic on-screen dancers, guided by Flashcards, and the Kinect tracks how closely they match the move. Accuracy earns points. Harder difficulties mean more complex moves and less room for error.

What is new is who can stand next to you. Perform It supports two players at once, with drop in and drop out, so one person can swap out while the other keeps dancing. Both players can set different difficulties before a routine starts. Dance Battle turns the same routines into a head-to-head contest, with two interloops mixed into each song. In one, a single player performs while the other is temporarily disabled. In the other, both chase moves for bonus points — up to four can appear at once, and gold-marked moves are worth more.

Voice control is here too, and the Freestyle section can now be switched off. Turn it off and extra moves fill the gap, producing one uninterrupted routine.

Dr. Tan, D-Cypher, and the Crew Challenge

Crew Challenge gives Dance Central 2 the campaign the first game lacked. The player meets crews in sequence: Riptide at High Tide, Flash4wrd at Tee Off, Lu$h Crew at Set Adrift, Hi-Def at Lowdown. Impress a crew and you join it, earning a crew card. Along the way, the crews warn you about The Glitterati. Beat them and you take their card too.

Then comes The Airship and Dr. Tan, who has been watching the player the whole time. He introduces D-Cypher, a robot crew built to defeat the player so Dr. Tan can conquer the dancing world. Lose to the player instead, and the robots shut down as The Airship comes apart. Dr. Tan delivers a long monologue about refusing to quit, then escapes laughing.

The roster runs to eighteen playable characters, split into pairs, six of them returning from the first game. Ten were available at launch and six were unlockable. Four more arrived later: Icon Crew, added March 2, 2012, and Ninja Crew, added May 1, 2012, both unlocked by signing into Xbox Live before starting the game. Alternative “Street Style” outfits unlock with 36 Stars earned on a crew’s songs, and returning characters have a third “DC Classic” look, unlocked by cheat code — except Mo, whose classic outfit comes from importing Dance Central songs.

Release schedule

Break It Down remains the most improved piece. It now lets players isolate specific moves inside a routine and record themselves to compare against the on-screen dancers. That is the mode that turns a party game into something you can actually practice.

Dance Central 2 is not a reinvention, and it does not need to be. The multiplayer and the campaign are the real work here, and they solve the first game’s central problem: it was a performance with no audience and no rival. The Glitterati and D-Cypher are thin villains, but they give the routines a reason to matter beyond a score. The fitness mode and the expanded training tools are quieter additions, and they may outlast the story.

2011 games · Dance Central 2 · Harmonix · Kinect games · rhythm game · Xbox 360 Kinect