Dance Central 2


Dance Central 2
Developer:	Harmonix Music Systems
Publisher:	Harmonix Music Systems
Distributor:	Microsoft Studios
Release date:	AU October 21, 2011 EU October 21, 2011 NA October 25, 2011 JP October 27, 2011
Platforms:	Xbox 360 Kinect

Dance Central 2 is a music rhythm game for the Xbox 360 and is the sequel to Dance Central. It was released on October 2011.

Gameplay

The core gameplay of Dance Central 2 is similar to the first one where players mimic characters along on-screen with flashcards there for guidance. The game has been largely revamped compared to its precessdors, including the ability to allow two players to dance side by side, adding voice commands, and enhancing the Break It Down feature. The Freestyle section, while still available, can also be disabled within the game. If done, additional moves will appear in the game as a replacement, creating one uninteruppted routine depending on the mode used.

There are five modes available in Dance Central 2

Perform It: Gives the player a chance to show of his moves and skill while performing a dance routine. This mode can be played with one or two players and allows a person to swap in and out while the other is playing if desired. Both players do not have to play the same difficulty, but this can only happen prior to the routine starting.
Dance Battle: A head-to-head mode between two players to see who is the best. Players go through a song, with two interloops mixed in. One of them focuses on one player to do the routine as the other player is temporarily disabled, and the other involves the players nailing moves from the routine to earn extra points. In that interloop, up to four moves can pop up at any time, and some are marked in gold, indicating more points. Likewise in Perform It, the players do not have to play on the same difficulty.
Break it Down: A training mode that allows the player to learn the routines in the game. The mode has been enhanced from the previous game, allowing the player to pick certain moves to focus on and record themselves dancing to moves to compare how well they are at aceing them.
Crew Challenge: A campaign mode that gives a player a chance to reach for the top by impressing the game's in-game crews. Succesffully dancing to each crew's challenge song, once unlocking it, gives the player the oppurtunity to represent them, and the more reps earned, the higher the notibility will be.

Fitness: A workout mode that tracks calories, with an indicator of how many have been burned along with the amount of time spent in the mode towards the top when enabled. There are also pre-made playlists available, along with customizable ones that can be made outside the mode for use in Fitness.

Characters

Dance Central 2 features eighteen characters, each divided up in pairs as a crew. Twelve characters are available from the start, while the other six are locked.

Crew	Crew Card	Members	Members Image
Starting Crews
Riptide Crew		Bodie and Emilia
Flash4wrd		Taye and Li'l T
Lu$h Crew		Angel and Miss Aubrey
Hi-Def		Mo and Glitch
Ninja Crew		Shinju and Kichi
Icon Crew		Marcos and Frenchy
Unlockable Crews
The Glitterati		Kerith and Jaryn
D-Cypher		CYPH-78 and CYPH-56
D-Cypher Elite		Dr. Tan and CYPH-ELITE

Alternate Outfits

Most characters feature alternate outfits separate from the main outfits (known as their "Crew Look" ) to wear during gameplay. These alternate outfits are labeled as "Street Style", and are unlocked by earning 36 stars within the character's selection of songs from the crew they are a part of within Crew Challenge mode on any difficulty. Additionally, some characters have a third outfit labeled "DC Classic". These outfits are ones they wore in the previous game, and they are unlocked by putting in cheat codes for the game at the "Redeem Code" section. (Aside for Mo's, which is unlocked by importing songs from the previous game into this game. Note that importing is not available anymore, making his DC Classic unavailable if a player has not yet imported)

Angel's DC1 Outfit - Y, Right, Left, Up, X, X, Down, Y
Emilia's Classic Dance Central Outfit - Left, Left, Up, Right, Right, X, Down, Y
Miss Aubrey's Dance Central Outfit - Left, Down, X, X, Down, Right
Taye's Classic Outfit - Up, Left, Y, X, Left, Up, X, Y

Venues

The game features six venues for the player to dance in. All except two are available from the start. You can unlock Penthaüs, and The Airship in the story mode of the game. Venues can be changed before the player starts a routine.

Name	Description	Normal State	Peak State
High Tide	A beach
Set Adrift	A luxurious yacht
Tee Off	A mini-golf course
Lowdown	A subway station
Penthaüs	An unfinished skyscraper
The Airship	A large aircraft

Story

Crew Challenge is the story mode implemented in the game. It involves the player earning the ability to rep crews throughout the area while underlyingly trying to defeat Dr. Tan from taking over the dancing population. Before the first crew in introuced, Dr. Tan is monitoring the status of the area in The Airship, manically laughing while doing so.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeRiptideCrew5 — Bodie explains to Emilia the player's potential after she declines them to be a part of their crew

The player first meets up with Riptide Crew at the High Tide, and when they arrive, Emilia rejects and discloses to them that auditions to be in their crew were last week. Bodie however gives them an opportunity after hearing about the player's potential, and Emilia soon follows forth. Once they are impressed, the player receives their crew card, but not without a warning from Bodie stating other crews existing nearby, with some of them being unfriendly.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeFlash4wrd6 — Li'l T expresses her displeasure towards The Glitterati

Flash4wrd is the next crew they meet, and they appear at the Tee Off. Taye recognizes the player being the one Bodie mentioned to them earlier while Li'l T compliments their style. They both then give the player the chance, and once the player completes their set of challenges, Li'l T says how hot their dancing was, but Taye on the other hand questions if their dancing will be hot enough to take on The Glitterati. Li'l T immediately responds fearlessly and describes them as "two pale primadonnas living in a skyscraper" but Taye dismisses her that statement by challenging her to say it again at night without a nightlight. After, Taye gives the player their crew card and reminds them to stay focus while staying true to themselves.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeLu$hCrew5 — Miss Aubrey corrects Angel in thinking the player arrived to party

Lu$h Crew is next on deck, appearing on Set Adrift. Angel mistakes the player for wanting to party, while Miss Aubrey corrects him as someone everyone is gushing over. When the player completes their tasks, Miss Aubrey formally welcomes them into their crew. Angel uses this as an opportunity to flirt with Miss Aubrey, only for her to quickly shut it down. He then gives the player their crew card.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeHiDef7 — Mo assures the player that their style cannot be taken by The Glitterati and hands them their crew card

Hi-Def becomes the next crew the player interacts with. Appearing on Lowdown, Mo and Glitch are talking to each other when Glitch notices the player from behind and mistakes them from being a spy for The Glitterati. Mo does not think that to be the case and simply sees the player as someone who would like to dance with them. When Hi-Def's challenges are completed, Glitch is stunned and compares their dancing to Mo's, but quickly retracts it to Mo when he is not trying. Mo then allows them to rep for their crew as a way to deny The Glitterati from stealing their style, and gives the player their crew card.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeTheGlitterati4 — The Glitterati welcomes the player at Penthaüs

After those four crews are met, The Glitterati becomes the fifth crew the player encounters. Up at Penthaüs, Jaryn gives a short introduction before quickly doubting the player's talent. Kerith however overrules that statement and gives the player a chance to dance with them. When The Glitterati's goals are met, they comment on how underestimated they thought their talent was and allow them to rep for their crew, with Jaryn throwing their crew card once they do.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeEnding5 — With D-Cypher, Dr. Tan believes he is unstoppable

Once those five crews are met, the player is taken to Dr. Tan in The Airship. He notes all what the player has done, and explains his knowledge of the player by displaying them on the screens, exposing that he was monitoring their every move. He then introduces the player to D-Cypher, a crew he ensures will not be defeated, to battle the player with the goal in conquering them so that he could take over the dancing world.

DanceCentral2CrewChallengeEnding9 — Dr. Tan rues that he is not done, escaping The Airship in the process. The end of the story finishes off with an image of his emblem in remembrance

When the player beats D-Cypher,The Airship turns into chaos, with D-Cypher shutting off, and the screens behind starting to fall off. Enraged, Dr. Tan gives a lengthy statement on how he will not give up, pushes a button on his control pad, and escapes the room, giving a hysterical laugh once doing so.

Songs

Dance Central 2 comes with an all new list of song from different artists both old and new. There are 44 songs in-game and more downloadable content (DLC) on the Xbox Live Market for 240 microsoft points. All downloadable songs and in-game songs from the original Dance Central are forward compatible with Dance Central 2. Any new DLC starting on November 22, 2011 is only compatible with Dance Central 2. Songs are available for 240 MSP (US$3.00). For a list of dlc songs featured in the game visit: List of Songs in Dance Central 2

Songs
Song	Artist	Default dancer	Skill level
Sandstorm	Darude	Kerith	Warmup
Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tei)	O Zone	Glitch	Warmup
Reach	Atlantic Connection and Armanni Region	Bodie	Warmup
Real Love	Mary J. Blige	Miss Aubrey	Warmup
Venus	Banannarama	Miss Aubrey	Simple
Bulletproof	La Roux	Miss Aubrey	Simple
Turn Me On	Kevin Lyttle	Angel	Simple
Last Night	Diddy ft. Keyshia cole	Miss Aubrey	Simple
The Humpty Dance	Digital Underground	Bodie	Simple
Impacto (Remix)	Daddy Yankee ft. Fergie	Li'l T	Simple
The Breaks	Kirtis Blow	Angel	Simple
This Is How We Do It	Montell Jordon	Glitch	Simple
Hot Stuff	Donna Summer	Li'l T	Modarate
Body To Body	Electric Vallentine	Jaryn	Modarate
Fire Burning	Sean Kingston	Miss Aubrey	Modarate
You're A Jerk	New Boyz	Glitch	Modarate
Oops (Oh My)	Tweet ft. Missy Eliot	Jaryn	Modarate
Right Thurr	Chingy	Li'l T	Modarate
Rude Boy	Rihanna	Taye	Modarate
Nothin' On You	B.o.B. ft. Brono Mars	Angel	Modarate
Club Can't Handle Me	Flo Rida ft. David Guatta	Emilia	Modarate
I Like It	Enrique Igiesias ft. Pitbull	Emilia	Modarate
Massive Attack	Nicki Minaj ft. Sean Garrett	Bodie	Tough
My Prerogative	Bobby Brown	Bodie	Tough
Grenade	Brono Mars	Angel	Tough
I Wish For You	Exile	Mo	Tough
Meddle	Little Boots	Kerith	Tough
Goodies	Caira ft. Petey Pablo	Taye	Tough
Born This Way	Lady Gaga	Kerith	Legit
Whip My Hair	Willow Smith	Li'l T	Legit
Conceited (There's Something About Remy)	Remy Ma	Taye	Legit
What Is Love	Haddaway	Emilia	Legit
Like A G6	Far East Movement	Jaryn	Legit
Yeah!	Usher ft. Little Jon and Ludacris	Glitch	Legit
Bad Romance	Lady Gaga	Kerith	Legit
DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love	Usher ft. Pitbull	Emilia	Legit
Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)	Gnarls Barkley	Mo	Hardcore
Baby Got Back	Sir Mix A Lot	Emilia	Hardcore
Technologic	Daft Punk	Mo	Hardcore
Somebody to Love	Justin Beiber	Mo	Hardcore
Satellite	Lena	Kerith	Off The Hook
Get Ur Freak On	Missy Eliot	Taye	Off The Hook
Toxic	As made famous by Britney Spears	Jaryn	Off The Hook
Sexy Chick	David Guetta ft. Akon	Mo	Off The Hook

Downloadable Content

Importing

Main Article: Imports

Songs from the first Dance Central, including its downloadable content, can be played on this game using an importing technique. Downloable content will automatically appear in the game if it has been purchased already, but the on-disc songs can be moved in using an Import Pack. This is done by retrieving the code from the first game's manual, which is then put in through the "Redeem Code" section of the game that will then prompt the player to download it. In order to download it, it costs $5.00 and requires a Xbox Live gamertag. Once downloaded, they are available to play within Dance Central 2, and they also recieve Mo's "DC Classic" outfit as a bonus. Only the actual songs get transferred, associated scores do not. Additionally, the freestyle section is still embedded; disabling the feature will not disable the section within those songs. The list of songs, and its downloadable content, can be seen here.

Importing has since been disabled. Players who have not imported do not have the option to anymore, but if players have, they can still access them in the game.

Reception

The game gained mostly positive reviews from gaming websites and magazine. praising a lot of its new feature and its style. IGN gave it a score of 9/10, Metacritict gave an average score of 86 out of 100 from 56 critics and Gamespot rated it as great giving it an 8.5 score.

Dance Central 2 is currently dubbed as the best Kinect game to date.

Trivia

This is the first game in the installment to include crews.
I Wish For You is the first J-pop song in the series.
The first Dance Central game in the installment to include crews
- It is also the debut for all crew names
This marks Bodie, Glitch, Li'l T, Kerith, Jaryn, CYPH-56, CYPH-78, CYPH-ELITE, Kichi, Marcos, Frenchy & Dr. Tan to make their debut appearance in Dance Central
- CYPH-ELITE is the only one who doesn't return in Dance Central 3