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Dance Central - Kinect Compatible (Xbox 360)
by MonsoonBaby
Dance Central is the first "proper" dance game I have ever played. Whilst there have been plenty before it-think of the Dance Dance Revolution/Dancing Stage series for instance, but for me, this is the first time in which I've actually had to use my full body, rather than just the feet movements that the DDR series adopted with ... the dance mat.
It takes a bit of courage to play a title like this in front of others, but once you've got over the embarrassment of dancing energetically to fully chroregraphed routines, this can actually be turned into a fun, and addictive party title. However, dancing along solo and completing the challenges along the way packs plenty of fun also.
Created by Harmonix, the brains behind the Rockband series, Dance Central uses the Kinect to record the players complete body movements. Whilst the "Easy" difficulty may be rather forgiving in most dance moves, the later, more complex routines in the harder settings can provide a demanding, but still surprisingly fun, challenge. The player follows large on-screen "flash card" prompts, which range from simple side steps to much more complicated movements that require the use of both his or her legs and arms at the same time.
Dance Central's track list includes more than 30 songs, which range from a variety of different genres, and provide a funky blend of modern and old songs. For instance, players will find themselves grooving along to "Jungle Boogie" by Kool and the Gang, or hip-swinging to the rhythm of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face".
As you progress through Dance Central, you'll realise just how incredibly difficult this game can get. The hard difficulty holds some true challenges, which even I, who exercises pretty much daily, struggled with at times. Unfortunately it's a little too tricky to get a 4 or 5 star rating on some of the trickier songs on this difficulty, which tarnished my enjoyment, but only slight. It's the same with Rockband-I could only get so far before the difficulty started to get the better of me. However, some people may find this an absolute cakewalk. I guess it depends on your gaming expertise.
Thankfully though, Dance Central does have a "Break It Down" mode which helps those who are struggling master the moves one move at a time. Players also have the option to slow down the routine until they feel they have mastered the steps. An instructor talks you through each move as you try it out, which is also incredibly helpful. After working through a "Break It Down" version of your chosen song, it's time to try out the proper performance. Nine times out of ten I found that the tutorial mode was beneficial, and I was able to get a better score than I had on the previous try.
For those wanting to use Dance Central as a fitness tool, the game comes complete with a Workout Mode. In this mode, players will enter their weight, and then the game will record how many calories they have burned during their dance session. This mode is simply activated by ticking the "workout mode" box, which I always include during my sessions. It's surprising to see that you actually manage to burn a significant amount of calories during dancing. For instance, on my last playthrough, I burned 240 calories in just 35 minutes. Not bad for someone who has been known to have two left feet in the past. As well as actually giving you a workout, Dance Central will leave you covered in sweat by the end. Of course, the more effort you throw into the routines, the sweatier you will become, but some of the faster, more complex songs are incredibly demanding in this respect. You'll definitely appreciate that shower once your dancing session has been completed for the day.
Unlike my other recent dance game purchase, Just Dance 3, I actually feel that I can follow the routines on screen. There are not any particularly unfair moves, but there are definitely moves that require a considerable amount of practice. I found the routines incredibly fun, and quite easy to pick up on at times, especially after practising it in the "Break It Down" mode. Menu navigation, which is done entirely by waving your hand over your desired option, may seem a little tricky at first, but it soon becomes second nature.
The only aspects of the game which disappointed me slightly is that I wish there was more variety in the styles of music. Dance Central is filled with plenty of R&B, Hip-Hop and dance tracks, but it would of been nice if some rock, or even some more pop tracks were included in the mix. The cheesier tracks, like "Jungle Boogie", held some funky disco dance moves, which I found some of the funniest and most enjoyable routines in the game. It seems a shame that more of this wasn't included, as they'd definitely go down well if used as a party game.
The game caters for the party audience in it's "Dance Battle" mode, where two players take it in turns to make it through a song. Whilst their score is combined to create an overall star rating, there is also an element of competition added where players scores are shown separately at the end. I have had plenty of laughs trying out this mode with friends and family, so I highly recommend grabbing a dancing partner to try this out.
Overall, Dancing Central is an excellent Kinect title. It's great fun, it gets you fit, and makes for a perfect party game. There's some great songs on offer here, and even if you're not a fan of the music, the routines are a joy to complete. The game manages to combine video gaming with dancing superbly, and definitely deserves a positive mention.
-Also listed on 8-Bit Girl http://8-bitgirl.blogspot.com/2012/01/dance-central-review.html
Also on Ciao under "MonsoonBaby88"
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Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360)
by headsore
If like me you have ever yearned to be a guitar hero then this game is the one for you. It is absolutley brilliant and I could play it all day long, given the chance and the opportunity. I was on sick leave from work recently as I had sprained my lower back and I spent a lot of many hours just strumming on tunes on my XBox 360 - pure ... bliss.
I have the guitar and disc version of this game and it cost me £55 but it is well worth it. The choice of soundtracks on this game is immense and I find I'm still singing them in my sleep as I drift off - it is a very addictive game. I liked the fact that this also came with some pretty funky looking stickers which I gave to the little lad and he proceeded to stick them all over his bike.
This game has five different modes ranging from beginner, easy, medium, hard and expert. I have got as far as hard on some of the songs but I am planning on working my way up to expert on all of them eventually. I have to say though, that some songs are harder to play along to than others and some songs are difficult to manage even on the Easy or beginner setting.
There are also five notes on the guitar inlcuding a whammy, which is great fun. Me and the little lad play along to songs and he has one or two favourites which he plays over and over again and he is beciming quite expert at it now. Once he's in bed though I take this downstairs to my basement and strum along to the harder songs and imagine I am a true rock star.
The premise is simple and straightforward. Along with the five differeing modes, of which one you choose, there are also five different colours on your control. Each time a colour comes up on the screen you play the corresponding colour on your control. Easy in theory but maybe not so easy in practice.
The sound quality and graphics are also impressive on this game and I find it highly addictive. Once I start I cannot put it down and as I say, the range of tracks are excellent.
Cannot be faulted and recommended by me personally.
As I have been asked by readers for list of 'impressive soundtrack' they are as follows:
Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn
Bob Seger - Hollywood Nights
Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
Coldplay - Shiver
The Eagles - Hotel California
Fleetwood Mac - Go On Your Own Way
Foo Fighters - Everlong
The Guess Who - American Woman
Interpol - Obstacle 1
Steely Dan - Do It Again
Steve Miller Band - The Joker
Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary, Purple Haze (Live)
Korn - Freak On A Leash
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way
Linkin Park - What I've Done
Los Lobos - La Bamba
Sting - Demolition Man (LIve)
Sublime - Santeria
System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B
Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
Tool - Parabola, Schism, Vicarious
Van Halen - Hot For Teacher
Willie Nelson - On The Road Again
Wings - Band On The Run
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama (Live)
Metallica - Trapped Under Ice
Michael Jackson - Beat It
Muse - Assass Blink
182 - Dammit in
Nirvana - About A Girl (Unplugged)
No Doubt - Spiderwebs
NOFX - Soul Doubt
Oasis - Some Might Say
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley
Paramore - MiseThe Doors - Love Me Two Times
R.E.M - The One I Love
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Review also posted on Ciao as sorehead
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Lips: I Love the 80's - Game and Wireless Microphone (Xbox 360)
by katykicker
=== The product ===
This is a singing came for the Xbox 360. You receive two microphones in the box meaning that you can either have one as a spare or play with friends and family. You also receive 4 AA batteries.
=== Where can I buy this & for how much? ===
This can be purchased from numerous ... stockists. Mine was purchased, with additional microphones, for just £12.00 from eBay quite a while ago. My main reason for purchasing this was that I wanted the game and when I spotted that I could have two back-up microphones for just £1.00 more than the price the game only was selling for I snapped it up! This version, with microphones, can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk for £15.99 or disc only for £14.99 (prices correct November 2011) so it would seem that the similar prices are common across the board.
=== The microphones ===
Each microphone uses 2 X AA batteries. I find that the batteries I use, rechargeable ones, usually last for about 5 or 6 hours of singing time before I have to change them. I think that this is a fairly low amount of time, however, this is probably due to the fact that the microphones are wireless, that they can be used as 'noise makers' and they light up and flash in time with the music and their use. The batteries are fairly simple to fit but not so easy to remove! You unscrew the top of the microphone, open the microphone cover (by removing a plastic piece with a thumb groove it in) and then place your batteries in. I find that I have to use the plastic piece, upside down, to pry out the batteries as they tend to fit very snugly but this could just be the rechargeable batteries that I am using.
These microphones can be synced up easily to the Xbox 360 and there is a button on the front of the Xbox 360 and on the bottom of the microphone that should be pressed and/or held (a combination of the two that I can never remember!) so that the Xbox 360 and the microphones will 'find' each other and work together.
=== Achievements ===
As this is designed to be an 'add on' game but can be used independently there are 12 achievements worth an addition 345 points for your Xbox 360 gamer score. These range from hitting a specific note to a song to earning an extremely high point scoring in a specific song. These achievements were fun and I believe that I actually earnt all of them, bar one, on the same evening that I got this game.
=== Gameplay ===
You can dive in and begin singing as soon as the game has loaded. The load times are a little longer once you've been playing all of the games as there is more load data and I also have about 20-25 songs that I have downloaded so all of these are loaded from the hard drive. You can decide to play the 'Jukebox' which allows you to play songs at random, ideal for parties, and you can add songs from your media device such as an iPod which is fantastic although these obviously do not have their own music videos for them.
The game is really simple to get in to. Everything is well laid out, it is simple to understand and it takes just a few minutes, even with the length loading time if you're a regular Lips player. The graphics are good, each song has either its original music video or a custom video available to you and your avatar will feature quite heavily throughout the game.
The song singing is very simple. The lyrics will appear on the screen and I believe that you can have a couple of different display options to ensure that your preferred method of lyric displaying is met and you can sing along easily, even if you don't normally know the words or even the song. Throughout the song you will need to strike poses or bang your microphone to trigger off special features such as earning bonus stars (all counts towards some achievements!). You earn points throughout the song which work towards being on the leader board and if you have friends who play the Lips games they will be able to see your scores at the end of their song for comparison and I love rubbing my husbands nose in the fact that I am better than him at basically every single song even though my singing voice is terrible!
You can play against friends in a battle mode or play together in the co-op mode, these are both ridiculous fun and it is amazing just how quickly you and your friends will get in to the game and stop being shy about singing in front of each other.
=== Overall opinion ===
This game is absolutely fantastic. Whether you are playing this as a stand alone game, trying Lips for the first time or you are a seasoned hand at playing the Lips games you will be ridiculously drawn in by this game, especially if you love the 80s.
I was born in the 80s so I was never really involved in listening to much of the music at the time, however, I feel that there are some classics on this game that just never get old or tiresome to listen to and while there are a few songs that I don't like as much on here I have happily played through every single one several times now.
I found the achievements fun to work on. On occasion it meant that I had to play a specific song a few times to achieve the high note or the specific minimum high score that I needed but then I felt immensely pleased with myself for managing to unlock these achievements and build up my gamer score some more.
Overall I love this game. Some of the songs include Culture Club, Dexys Midnight Runners, Duran Duran, Erasure, The Pretenders & The Police so if you love the music from the 80s you should be sure to find a few songs here that will wet your whistle and warm up your vocal chords!
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