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Rumor: Survey Hints at Dance Central Sequel Changes
by Steve Watts, Feb 08, 2011 2:45pm PSTA new Microsoft Game Studios survey may hint at planned features for a sequel to Dance Central, reports Kotaku. The proposed features mostly center on making the game easier to pick up and play, giving users more personalized options, and expanded downloadable content options.
The Dance Central Store would let players buy new outfits, dance moves, and songs, similar to Rock Band. To make the game a bit easier on those of us with two left feet, the survey suggests more practice options, the inclusion of easier songs, a Loose Filters mode to be more lenient on accuracy, and better feedback on what players are doing wrong.
Harmonix may also be looking to expand the multiplayer options with on-screen lyrics so people who aren't dancing can score points by singing, and 2-player modes both in your living room and over Xbox Live. You may also be able to personalize your dancer and string together custom choreography.
Other potential features may include song importing "from one version of Dance Central into another," voice controls, photo exporting and social networking features, and a campaign mode with a calorie counter.
While it's important to keep in mind that none of these features are set in stone, the survey implies they're all on the table. Harmonix is probably gauging interest in the pre-production stage to decide on a feature set to aim for during development.
When Harmonix confirmed layoffs yesterday, it said it was to align the staff size with "current product development plans." The early stages of this Dance Central sequel probably require fewer staff, but we may see the studio growing again when the project is closer to completion.
Comments
I agree that the game needs to be easier to play. But I also think the game needs to be a bit more hardcore too. Many of the songs are TOO SHORT and are finished by the time I actually get into the rhythm of them. "Days Go By " by Dirty Vegas is a prime example of this. And then there are some dance routines that are just atrocious. I get so bummed out when dancing to "Rendez-Vu" by Basement Jaxx, if you can even call that a dance...
Finally, I would really like an option to turn off the Freestyle portions where you are forced to dance like an idiot in front of the camera. Sure, in a party atmosphere its a lot of fun, but at home by myself it breaks the pace of the game for me. I'd prefer to just be able to follow along and practice more moves, especially since many of the songs are already truncated versions of the originals and don't provide enough quality dancing.
I guess I'm just disappointed overall in Harmonix because they generally have great taste in music, but there are a lot of missed opportunities in this game and to hear them already talking sequel when they the original game feels half-finished is a little insulting.
Also it doesn't tell you what you are doing wrong very well on some moves.
I think the biggest issue would be playspace and how well your Kinect is positioned. If you stand too close (and the Kinect sensor loses the bottom part of you) then you'll lose points for your bottom half not doing the moves.
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