Dance Central 3 landed on the Xbox 360 on October 16, 2012, in the Americas, with the rest of the world getting it on October 19. Harmonix built it with Backbone Entertainment, Microsoft Studios published it, and it arrived as the third Dance Central game and the direct sequel to Dance Central 2. The Kinect-only rhythm series had already proven you could build a dancing game around a camera instead of a mat. The third one is the best argument for why that mattered.
Trailer, via ONE Media +.
Dr. Tan and the DCI
The plot is nonsense in the way only a dance game’s plot can be, and it is better for it. The player is recruited into Dance Central Intelligence by Rasa and Lima to stop Dr. Tan’s plans for world domination. Dr. Tan is using dance moves from the last five decades as part of those plans, so DCI sends dance crews back in time to learn the moves and use them against him.
The player time travels to find those crews and bring them home by learning the dance craze of their decade. Power Moves found in routines get collected and stitched together to unlock a new routine based on the craze. Players also dance enough to power Boomy, a boombox that enables time travel, so they can get back to the present. Dr. Tan’s armies have spread to the point that DCI headquarters is the only safe place left, which makes bringing the crews back urgent.
The Hustle, the Macarena and the Cupid Shuffle
The decade-hopping structure gives Dance Central 3 a clean spine. The campaign sends the player back to the seventies for Lu$h Crew and the Hustle, to the eighties for Hi-Def and the Electric Slide, to the nineties for Flash4wrd and the Macarena, and to the 2000s for Riptide and the Cupid Shuffle.
That is a smart set of picks. Each one is a dance with a name people already know, which means the campaign is teaching you history you can place without a lecture. Meanwhile DCI investigates the head devices worn by Dr. Tan’s army, looking for countermeasures. Two agents who had gone missing, Dare and MacCoy, turn up as part of that army under mind control. While the player is in the 2000s, DCI is attacked, and Emilia and Bodie are forcefully taken away. The crews end up sent to the prehistoric era by Dr. Tan. After Rasa and Lima are freed from his mind control, the analysis of the head devices finishes and reveals their weakness: creative expression.
Crew Throwdown and Live Challenge
The core gameplay follows the same formula as the earlier games. One or two players mimic the on-screen dancer, with Flashcards for guidance. Points come from how well each move is performed, and the score decides how many Stars a player earns. That foundation is unchanged, and it did not need changing.
Crew Throwdown is the new mode, and it is the reason to come back. Two to eight players compete against each other. After each team poses for a crew photo, the game picks a song and one of four modes to play it in.
Perform is the standard routine mode, with a twist: the game will occasionally stop counting points for one player and focus on the other. A minigame called Free For All can appear during a routine, handing players random moves to perform first. Strike A Pose can appear after routines.
Keep The Beat is a freestyle minigame where players stay on beat for points. Consecutive positive ratings and more unique moves pay extra. Strike A Pose is a minigame where players mimic the characters’ poses; more moves in a row raises the points available, and a missed pose forces a short wait before posing again. Showdown works like Perform except that any player can face off against any other, rather than the game choosing someone from each team.
Live Challenge adds competition against scores set by other players connected to Xbox Live. A new level system ties points to the number of Stars earned.
Twenty Dancers, Ten to Unlock
Dance Central 3 brings back characters from the earlier games and adds new ones. As in Dance Central 2, characters are paired into crews, and each crew in the story campaign has a venue. There are 20 characters total, 10 available from the start and 10 unlockable.
Dance Central Intelligence pairs Rasa and Lima at DCI HQ. Lu$h Crew pairs Miss Aubrey and Angel at Free Skate. Hi-Def pairs Mo and Glitch at Toprock Ave. Flash4wrd pairs Taye and Li’l T at Invite Only. Riptide pairs Emilia and Bodie at Studio 675. D-Coy pairs Dare and MacCoy and unlocks by finishing story mode.
The Glitterati, Kerith and Jaryn, unlock by leveling up, as do Murder of Crows, Dr. Tan and Oblio, at Crow’s Nest; Icon Crew, Marcos and Frenchy; Ninja Crew, Shinju and Kichi; and D-Cypher, the two dancers known as CYPH-56 and CYPH-78.
Most characters have two alternative outfits unlocked by leveling up, one being their Crew Look from previous Dance Central games and the other a DCI Agent outfit. Most characters from the first Dance Central also get a DC Classic outfit based on how they looked in that game.
What the Campaign Gets Right
The time-travel frame does real work. A dance game lives or dies on whether its routines feel like something rather than a list, and Dance Central 3 gives every decade a crew, a venue and a craze to anchor it. Learning the Hustle from Lu$h Crew and the Macarena from Flash4wrd is not just a costume change. It is the game telling you where these moves came from and then asking you to do them.
Crew Throwdown is the stronger addition. Two to eight players around one Kinect is a mess in the best sense, and the mode’s willingness to interrupt a routine with Free For All or Strike A Pose keeps a room loud. Perform’s habit of dropping one player’s score to watch the other is a small cruelty that works, because it makes both dancers pay attention.
The unlock structure is the weak spot. Ten characters sit behind leveling up, and the game asks for a lot of Stars before it hands over the full roster. The DCI Agent and DC Classic outfits are a nice nod to players who have been here since the first game, but they are rewards for the already committed.
The Verdict on Dance Central 3
Dance Central 3 is a sequel that knows what it is. The core loop of mimicking an on-screen dancer with Flashcards is untouched, which is correct, because it worked. The additions are where the thought went: a campaign with a decade-hopping hook, a party mode built for a crowded room, and a roster of 20 dancers split into crews with their own venues and histories.
The plot is absurd and the game never apologizes for it. Dr. Tan’s mind-controlled army, a boombox named Boomy, a weakness that turns out to be creative expression — it is a Saturday morning cartoon wearing a rhythm game’s clothes, and it gives the campaign a reason to move. The Macarena and the Cupid Shuffle are not ironic inclusions here. They are the point.
Against the earlier entries, this is the fullest version of the idea. Against the wider Kinect library, it is one of the few games that justified the camera. The unlock grind and the unchanged core keep it from being a leap, but the Crew Throwdown mode and the decade structure make it the one to own.
Dance Central 3 scores 8.7 out of 10.
Numbers at a Glance
- Release date: October 16, 2012 (Americas); October 19, 2012 (everywhere else)
- Developer: Harmonix Music Systems with Backbone Entertainment
- Publisher: Microsoft Studios
- Platform: Xbox 360 (Kinect)
- Genre: Rhythm / music
- Modes: Single player, multiplayer (2–8 players in Crew Throwdown)
- Characters: 20 total, 10 from the start, 10 unlockable
- Score: 8.7/10
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