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Harmonix Announces Dance Central
The world's favorite music game developer is learning some new steps with their exclusive Kinect dancing game.
Dance Central represents a new direction for Harmonix. The studios' previous work includes the original Karaoke Revolution, the first few Guitar Hero games, and the entire Rock Band series. Dance Central will be the developer's first foray into the dance subgenre, and the project will be coming exclusively to Microsoft's new motion-sensing Kinect this holiday.
The game appears to use a familiar star-based scoring system, much like Harmonix' previous music games. The stars are housed in a boom box along the bottom of the screen. Along the right side of the screen, moves are flashed up onto the screen, and players must perform the correct motions to complete the song.
The game appears to include recognition for a huge number of dance moves. If Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos is to be believed, the game can read 600 unique moves over 90 routines. "We set out to create the first dance game that was all about real, immersive, full body dancing," Rigopulos explained. Harmonix worked with world class choreographers to create the game, and some of the routines are modeled off the original music video dances.
The game includes, pop, hip hop, and R&B music. The inital song and artist list includes:
Lady Gaga: "Pokerface"
Lipps Inc: "Funky Town"
Beastie Boys: "Body Movin'"
Bell Biv Devoe: "Poison"
No Doubt: "Hella Good"
M.I.A.: "Galang'05"
Rigopulos is promising lots more on-disc tracks, in addition to lots of downloadable tracks over Xbox Live, a feature that has been a hallmark of the Rock Band platform.
Like Harmonix' other music games, Dance Central is designed to appeal to established musicians and beginners alike, with a friendly difficulty progression that builds challenge over time.
Is the excellence of the Harmonix brand enough to convince you to get off your couch and learn to shake what your momma gave you?
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