You know as soon as you load it up for the first time and are thrown straight into an example routine: this is just about the dancing.
Some kinds of games just don’t need to be dressed up, and dancing games otherwise known as the best excuse for the Kinect we have right now are one of them. Dance Central Spotlight is not another bulked-up sequel to the numbered series before it, but a £7.99 focus on the core of what makes these games great.
As with the previous Dance Central games, you mirror the movements of an animated dancer with cue cards showing you what to do next, accuracy rewarded with flashes of colour and inaccuracy indicated by a thin but obvious outline on the offending limb. It can be hard to tell where you’re going wrong, but the Xbox One Kinect tracks so well that it’s overwhelmingly more likely to be lack of skill than a software bug.
Helpfully, Spotlight has added the ability to pause routines to practise a particularly elusive move. Despite the embarrassment of saying, “Hey, DJ, Practice That!” out loud, you will definitely want to use this feature, as each time you perform a move flawlessly you collect its card, and cards unlock further routines. Each song has several routines, varying not only the difficulty but also the style, adding value to each track.
One of the best things about Spotlight is that if you’re playing with a friend each of you can choose a different routine, maybe if one of you is a beginner or wants to focus on fitness over fun. You can also bring a second player into the dedicated fitness mode, providing your heights and weights for more accurate calorie tracking, and customising your workout by time limit and style.
Of course, the price of entry only gets you ten tunes to shake it to, though all are recent hits from artists like Rihanna and David Guetta. But Harmonix has a great track record with providing additional content, and there are already plenty of songs available for £1.59 apiece, which remember come with multiple routines. Some players will instinctively bristle at the focus on DLC, but between a full-priced game filled with songs you don’t like and something that costs less than a tenner to which you can then add new chart toppers as they become available, this is definitely the better option.
Some kinds of games just don’t need to be dressed up, and dancing games otherwise known as the best excuse for the Kinect we have right now are one of them. Dance Central Spotlight is not another bulked-up sequel to the numbered series before it, but a £7.99 focus on the core of what makes these games great.
As with the previous Dance Central games, you mirror the movements of an animated dancer with cue cards showing you what to do next, accuracy rewarded with flashes of colour and inaccuracy indicated by a thin but obvious outline on the offending limb. It can be hard to tell where you’re going wrong, but the Xbox One Kinect tracks so well that it’s overwhelmingly more likely to be lack of skill than a software bug.
Helpfully, Spotlight has added the ability to pause routines to practise a particularly elusive move. Despite the embarrassment of saying, “Hey, DJ, Practice That!” out loud, you will definitely want to use this feature, as each time you perform a move flawlessly you collect its card, and cards unlock further routines. Each song has several routines, varying not only the difficulty but also the style, adding value to each track.
One of the best things about Spotlight is that if you’re playing with a friend each of you can choose a different routine, maybe if one of you is a beginner or wants to focus on fitness over fun. You can also bring a second player into the dedicated fitness mode, providing your heights and weights for more accurate calorie tracking, and customising your workout by time limit and style.
Of course, the price of entry only gets you ten tunes to shake it to, though all are recent hits from artists like Rihanna and David Guetta. But Harmonix has a great track record with providing additional content, and there are already plenty of songs available for £1.59 apiece, which remember come with multiple routines. Some players will instinctively bristle at the focus on DLC, but between a full-priced game filled with songs you don’t like and something that costs less than a tenner to which you can then add new chart toppers as they become available, this is definitely the better option.