Harmonix is at it again with another franchise iteration. With Dance Central 3 this time they have stepped it up with a story for the single player mode, some fun party games to play with your friends when they come over and some kick ass music. When Harmonix decided to put out another dancing game, it would appear they knew that they needed to step it up a notch and Dance Central 3, for the most part, hits a sweet spot.
To say that Harmonix knows music would be like saying that Hersheys knows chocolate; it seems to go without saying. Dance Central 3 is a dancing game that takes the player on a dancing travel through the dancing eras, if they allow it to. Just as the two prior games, there are multiple ways to arrange the dances. If the player does nothing at all but put the disc in and get ready to play, the game will automatically arrange the songs according to difficulty. However, it is possible to dance to different preset lists that have been created for you by the company. This can allow for you to keep up your heart rate as you use the game for more than just the fun of the dance.
The fitness aspect of the game has been amped up a bit as well. Within this game, not only can you set a fitness mode to keep track of how many calories you’re burning during the game, but you can also set a goal of how many calories you would like to burn during a week. There is a small calorie tracker that continues a running total of how many calories you’re burning during each session. This is then added up and starts to whittle down the weekly goal that you have set.
With the majority of the options being voice activated, your movements will be for the dance floor only. This means that you are able to navigate throughout most of the game using just your voice. This removes the need for the swiping of the hands that Kinect games generally require you to use. There are some parts of the game where this is still needed but they are few and far between. Being able to use the voice commands coupled with the imminent release of Smart Glass functionality, hosting dance parties at home will practically become a necessity with Dance Central 3.
Dance Central 3 really brings the party this time around. In fact, there is actually a party mode that allows you and your friends to dance to whatever songs you have available for the game. All you have to do is raise your hand when you come to the song that you want to dance to and you are off and dancing. If you don’t like the song up on the screen just tell the Xbox to move on until you come to a song that everyone agrees upon. Once Smart Glass becomes available, you will be able to use that to be your own DJ within this mode.
There are also crew challenges available. These are challenges that can be thrown down with up to eight friends. It starts out innocent enough with a regular dance off, but then moves on to a Make Your Move section, where the dancers have to make their own moves and then challenge each other to put them together into a dance. It can actually turn out to be a bit nasty if each member of the other team decides to make those moves a bit difficult for the other team to have to learn. It is a time for each team to show what they have and then bring it to the dance floor.
Beyond the in-room multiplayer aspect of the game, there is a single player story mode added to this game. You have been brought into the DCI (Dance Central Intelligence) Agency to help investigate dance crime. In order to do this, you are going to have to be transported to different eras in order to figure out the craze from that era. Once you have figured out what the craze is by doing different dances from that era, you then have to properly perform that craze. It can be something as fun as The Hustle or as silly as The Macarena. There is no way in telling which songs will have the different parts of the craze that you need to find. The only way to figure that out is to dance the different songs that are available to you and hope that you find the missing parts.
There are many of the same old things fans will see within the game. The fact that the players follow the on screen dancers the same way as they always have still doesn’t tell you if you’ve hit the dance moves correctly; the only way to identify and fix potential mistakes still inolves going into rehearsal mode, which leads to some frustrations.Overall, the game has done a few things differently from the two previous titles. It is nice to have a way to hold a dance party within your home and only need one game to do that. Having the ability to use only the voice commands (and the promise of Smart Glass) is a huge upgrade and overall the game feels like a big step forward.
Hey! Maybe you know what’s wrong… My husband and I both play DC 3 using our own log ins. When he plays, my scores are shown on the “friends’ scores” board, but when I play, his scores don’t show. What gives?