Dance Central 3 preview: Gameplay

Right from the get-go I was being a total fangirl with 10,000 questions from what I’ve seen on E3 videos (PAX just ended! Haven’t caught up yet, boo). Even our group’s minder noted with a grin, ‘So you’re really just here for Dance Central 3 huh?’ Oops.

Matt Boch (YES HIM *GUSH*) gave a great intro to the Party Mode, which is really where all the upgrades are. Swipe with just one hand to pick songs (next, next, next…), and you high-5 to start it. Songs are halved so rotation happens more quickly and I have to say that’s a great deal of thought put into this detail because I’ve had countless DC parties where people get bored waiting for their turn! Then again, if you look at all these changes in the PoV of a drunk person – it really works out to be really easy too, haha.

Party mode allows you to dance half a song, or make your own moves, or keep the beat to a song (and sneakily steal your opponent’s moves). Really great way to just show what you’ve got, right? All these mini-games, while a little overwhelming, should be real simple after we’ve had a go at them for a week. They really are party games, so I’ll probably be spending more time on Story Mode and Perform It.

By the way, Break It Down is now called Rehearse. We didn’t manage to get into that because we were just having so much fun and going crazy on hard mode. See below:

Here in Singapore with @mattboch and @mea5678 with @dance_central. Kids here are CRUSHING DC3 on hard. Unreal. Love it.

— johntdrake (@johntdrake) September 4, 2012

Also, all dance moves are original (except the classic ones like the Dougie & the YMCA etc). I asked Marcos if they take moves from the original MTVs, but as it’s a licensing issue they get inspiration from them at the most. Which is cool because the choreo still matches the song perfectly!

Speaking of choreo – it’s gone up another few notches, but the interesting thing is that they’ve also lowered it by adding in a Beginner’s mode. Not sure how audiences would take to that as none of us (with DC experience) wanted to go near it but it just might work to get the super shy to try out some dancing! Anyway, it’s just an option and it’s there – so you’re not forced to use it or anything. But watch out! In Party mode, the program can determine if the chosen difficulty level is too much for you and sneakily slide you down to the previous level. Ouch.

As for the difficulty level, even John and Marcos were all, yeah this one’s really tough … Very often I was caught just standing there, mouth agape, wondering did THAT just happen? I also spent a lot of my time whooping along with the Kinect ambassadors (all of them really into Dance Central too) at moves that were just completely amazing. This makes watching fun, even.

I love what I’ve seen so far in Dance Central 3 and without a doubt I’ll be getting this on launch day! Will probably meet the Kinect Ambassadors and have a ton of fun with them again heh heh.