A game that catches you by surprise!

User Rating: 9 | Dance Central X360
First of all, this is my first review ever, so I hope it helps. I decided to give this game a review with very few hours of playing time just in case someone out there is debating whether or not to get this game and can't wait anymore for an unbiased user review. I've been playing Dance Central for about 2-3 hours so far and the first thing that you notice about this game is that well, it's pretty cool traversing all the menus with your hands. After that, you realize you're in front of your TV mimicking this hot babe's dancing moves. At first, it's kind of odd, but then you realize that this game is actually trying to teach you how to perform different dance moves. And it's pretty amazing how they go about teaching you a simple step, and then build on it by adding another variation or hand gesture to teach you a more complicated one. It also appears from the selection of about 3 different songs that I tried, that the games' moves are song-dependent so that you will be learning new moves with each different song you attempt to learn (all the songs appear to be unlocked from the get go as well, so you don't have to spend hours to hear a specific song you might have been looking forward to). Speaking of the songs, they all sound pretty sweet and club oriented (so you'll want that sub woofer on when you play this game).
In conclusion, this game will take you through the steps by teaching you the basics of each routine, then allows you to step it up by teaching you more advanced moves on higher difficulties. Dance battle is fun as well, although it only allows for 2 players, but it's still fun as the game keeps track of each player's performance (points) and declares a winner at the end. The song selection is awesome. And the dancing instructor babes will get your attention when learning new moves ( I haven't tried the dudes, but I think I can live without 'em so far as the game does not force you to learn from a specific instructor (as far as I've played the game)). If you can dance, you'll feel cool as you'll most likely pull off the moves and learn them faster than others. If you can't dance, then this game will teach you to move your body if you are willing to err......... move what your mother gave you. Hope this helps anyone thinking whether or not to get dance central. I look forward to learning more of the routines and expanding my library of moves in real life ;)

Graphics: Fit the theme and the art style is great, the models are awesome and the characters move fluidly and with life like proportions, they move and feel as if they were occupying real space (inside your tv of course).

Controls/Gameplay: It can be a bit confusing when moving thought the song list, but making selections and going back by swiping your hand is just cool and fast (no need to leave your hand up for x seconds to select something). The dancing moves are great and the sensor seems to capture your moves very accurately even thought there appears to very little lag (100-200 Milliseconds I want to guess) from the preview window of your shape. What that means is that you better do the move at the same time the instructor does it, because there is no lag between you and what the game registers as an accurate performance (must be some sort of pre-calculated time-offset move matching algorithm that successfully deals with the delay).

Presentation: Harmonix treatment; so very well presented although some sort of tour mode would have been great.

Overall: If you have Kinect and wish to learn how to dance and move your body, and have a fun time too whether solo or with friends in dance battle, accompanied by awesome music, then this is your game. this game will grow on you as you realize that it's not just a game but a teaching tool as well ( by the way, they let you slow down the moves if they are too hard at first for you to learn so that you can get all the details down first before trying them at full speed). I'm happy I got this game!! I believe you will too!!