Video Games Review

In many ways, Dance Central 2 is a great improvement over the original but falls short of the greatness that made the first one so popular.

The enhancements here are plenty: The Dance Central 2 game now allows for two dancers to simultaneously compete in a dance and the various moves to the song flow better, giving the game a more energetic spin to it.

In the two-player mode, there is the drop-in, drop-out feature where players can pop in any time during a song for a few spins before leaving, all without interrupting the game.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, both dancers can pick an individual level of difficulty to dance to. This way, they do not have to sacrifice fun simply because their dance partner prefers something faster or slower.

A word of caution before playing: Instead of standing side by side, I recommend players stagger their positions so as not to hit their dance partners during the dance.

The break-it-down tutorial, which gives step-by-step dance instructions, now allows players to choose the portion of the dance sequence to repeat instead of going through the entire song.

But all the improvements were let down by the fact that the song selection is not as dance friendly as the original.

The addition of Justin Bieber is already questionable but who dances to Haddaway, Daft Punk or Bobby Brown? At least the original had Kylie Minogue, No Doubt, Technotronic and PitBull.

Without a strong playlist, I found myself recycling through the same songs like Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and Usher’s DJ Got US Fallin’ In Love.

Still, for those looking at using dance games to master actual dance moves, Dance Central 2 is your best bet.

For Venus by Bananarama, the steps offered here had more rhythm and groove to it, compared to dancing to the same song on Just Dance 3.

In Just Dance 3, Venus came across more as a dance filled with casual motions, which might be acceptable in a club but not at a dance party.

But there is no denying that the stricter follow-through motions in this game make it a lot less fun to play.

Constantly seeing the on-screen character flash red, which means my steps were incorrect, was rather annoying.

For the dance faithful, Dance Central 2 still delivers, but with other dance games inspired by The Black Eyed Peas and Michael Jackson, the game needs a new hook to lure dance gamers back.

Download now: Dance Central 2