Realizing that a serious approach to a dance-centric story mode would be a farce, Harmonix saturated the proceedings with some campy charisma and a ludicrous premise. As one of the dancefloor elite, you’re drafted into the top-secret Dance Central Intelligence agency for a mission of inter-dimensional importance: Going back in time to stop the unspeakable dance crimes of the evil Dr. Tan.

Characters and crews you’ve grown to love in the first games return as your timestream contacts, occupying five decades of dance spanning from the 1970s to modern day. From a story perspective, this is all absurdly amazing. Gameplay-wise, it means that this is the most diverse Dance Central soundtrack yet, offering hit singles and popular choreography from each era of dance culture.

You’ll master the groovy moves of The Hustle in the ‘70s, shimmy to the sounds of “Ice Ice Baby” in the’90s, and be taught the art of doing the Dougie in the aughts. Not every track in the 45-song setlist is a hit, but you’re guaranteed to find something to move your body to given the variety of genres and styles. While hopping around to Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” may be poison to your self-esteem, “Moves Like Jagger,” “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” and “Electric Boogie” all seem like they were destined to be danced to in front of a Kinect.

The single-player campaign offers plenty to sink your moves into, with level progression and unlockable characters–there’s even a dance-based boss fight. The multiple time periods make for great variety in the backdrops. One moment, you’re rocking a house party with Kid & Play-inspired moves; the next, you’re on a soundstage reminiscent of MTV’s Total Request Live.

For those who’ve played the previous Dance Central iterations, the gameplay will immediately feel familiar. Mirroring the moves of the on-screen dancer, you’ll use the incoming flashcards as cues for your next piece of choreography. You’ll still get feedback on the limbs that are out of sync with the rest of your rhythmic movements, and there’s really no way to “Fail” a song.

While this tried-and-true system feels as satisfying as ever, it still runs into a tiny logistical problem. Given that the flashcards can only convey so much, it’s all but impossible to ace a song on your first try before you’ve seen the basics of all the moves. This takes away the possibility for “sight reading” a song by nailing it without prior practice, a staple of the rhythm game genre. But hopping into Rehearsal will prep you just fine, and the choreography is well-designed: Easy mode gives the moves accessible simplicity and lenient detection, while playing songs on Hard demands the exactness, timing, and stamina of an adept dancer.

One minor quibble is the method for progressing through each era of dance. To jump forward in time, you need to find and “decode” four fragments of era-appropriate Dance Crazes, like YMCA and the Macarena. These sequences will be hidden within the songs of that decade, and accurately mimicking them unlocks the keys to advancing. But if a particularly tricky move is buried at the end of a song, or you just can’t seem to nail a certain move, you might get stuck in a frustrating loop of replaying the same song until you get it right. It’s not likely to ruin your fun, but it seems like there should’ve been a better way to stagger the single-player progression.

The party-friendly multiplayer reaches new revelry heights in DC3 thanks to the encouraging jump-in/jump-out play and fresh modes. Though the number of simultaneous dancers is capped at two, up to eight players can duke (and dance) it out thanks to the amusing Crew Throwdown mode which enables competitive teamplay. Keep the Beat is a perfect mode for freeform dancing, and only requires that you move in time to the music; Strike a Pose is an exhilarating blitz of movement as you try to mimic as many onscreen poses as possible.

Make Your Move is the best of the new modes, facilitating a HORSE-style “observe and repeat” dance-off that deftly detects your moves (and even assigns them cute little names). You won’t want to play these modes for hours on end, but they’ll no doubt provide great entertainment at your next social gathering. Then again, you probably won’t even be able to play for hours on end: The fun, energetic choreography doubles as an enjoyable workout, and you’re guaranteed to break a sweat after dancing your heart out over a handful of tracks.

As a complete package, Dance Central 3 is the best dance game yet. Whether you want to boogie with a bunch of friends or perfect your routines in single-player, Harmonix has hooked you up with plenty of gratifying options. This may not be the end-all-be-all of motion-controlled movin’ and groovin’, but it once again gives the Kinect a glorious, life-of-the-party purpose.

The post Dance Central 3 review appeared first on Game News.

Currently in development for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2, Future Legend of Rhythm Alien will break away from its old-school roots, swapping 8-bit visuals for an all-new HD cartoony style. The downloadable title will also sport a ton of new abilities for Commander Video and his playable allies, swappable costumes, new modes, and more features set to be revealed at the game’s newly launched website.

“We definitely are going to add a bunch of new stuff to Runner 2, but we do not want to overcomplicate the game in the process,” wrote Gajin’s Danny Johnson, explaining, “This is particularly an issue with the abilities CommanderVideo can perform. The first game was complex enough with just five abilities, so we are figuring out ways to keep the game simple but still have exciting new possibilities.”

Further pitching the game in today’s announcement, Gaijin co-founder Mike Roush added:”Runner 2 is going to blast open your mind like a blooming flower and Gaijin Games is going to pollinate it with our fun proboscises.”

Hm. That sounds oddly pleasant. Prepare to have your brain matter pollinated with the newest Bit.Trip sequel in in 2012. In the meantime, watch Gaijin’s new behind-the-scenes video to see how the team settled upon its seemingly random title:

Making Runner 2 – 0101 – Brainstorm (opens in new tab) from AREA 5 (opens in new tab) on Vimeo (opens in new tab).

Oct 10, 2011

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It’s not the first game to use a fully stringed guitar, as Rock Band 3 did it with sharp (but expensive) results and the laughable Power Gig: Rise of the SixString came and went without making any impact [Ed: actually, the musicians on staff would argue that the junky SixString controller still isn’t a real guitar]. But Rocksmith doesn’t make you buy a guitar with controller buttons on it, or one that can serve two purposes – you just need any guitar that can be plugged into an amp. Really. Got a crummy student-level guitar buried in the garage? You’re probably set. A ’59 Fender Strat? You’re definitely set – and probably rich as well. A special bundle of Rocksmith packed with an Epiphone Les Paul Junior will be available for total newcomers, but anyone with a working guitar can just pick up the standard game and 1/4″-to-USB cable set and get started.

Rocksmith picks up the actual tone from your guitar strings to play the game, so you’ll need to tune the instrument prior to starting each play mode to make sure you’re on point. Once in, though, playing is as simple as strumming the notes that scroll down the full-screen note chart, and most songs come with multiple options, including single-note and chord options, as well as an “authentic arrangement” that approximates the real song. And the game adapts to your skill level – it will increase or decrease the challenge based on your performance.

It’s a surprisingly effective approach, and one that really makes you feel like you’re playing the song – because, well, you actually are. Rocksmith’s diverse soundtrack comes with 50+ tracks, including a wide selection of household names (Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie) and some surprises, such as Spoon, Titus Andronicus, and Best Coast. In addition to standard tutorials, the game also includes seven arcade-style mini-games that smartly build playing fundamentals, as well as a Customize sandbox mode that essentially turns your console or PC into an amplifier and lets you play with virtual gear and effects.

On one hand, the lack of colored buttons makes Rocksmith perhaps a tougher sell to players who just want to rock out to hit songs; but then again, considering that any old guitar will do, the game seems aimed at a pretty wide new market. Although opinions are mixed about the onscreen interface, the little bit we played was really smartly designed and seems flexible enough to appeal to total newcomers, adequate axe wielders, and shred legends alike – though if you fall into that final category, chances are you won’t need a game to learn and play dozens of sweet rock tunes. But you could, and that’s the entire point.

Jun 16, 2011

The post E3 2011: Rocksmith hands-on preview – finally, a guitar game that uses any real guitar appeared first on Game News.