An excerpt from our partner site, GamePeople.co.uk. Click here for their full impressions.
BY ANDY ROBERTSON:
Just Dance 3 brings accessible dancing to Kinect with its
four player simultaneous entertainment. The big question is whether the Kinect
controller can cope with all those sweaty bodies. Either way, these full body
theatrics just wouldn't be possible on the PS3.
Coming late to the full body, controller free dance game party has benefits
for Just Dance. Rather than trying to match Dance Central's exacting
requirements, as Dance Paradise, Dance Masters did at launch, Just Dance 3
has been able to stick with its quick and easy gameplay.
Free from the desire to please more hard core players (and
dancers) this feels like a much better fit for the Kinect audience.
The irony is that, by sidestepping the need to please more hard core players
(and dancers) this feels like a much better fit for the Kinect audience and
controller. Just like on the Wii you can drop in and out of a dance at will and
compete with up to four players dancing simultaneously. But now you are also
offered modes that ask each of the four players to pull off distinct
choreography -- not only a greater challenge, but also much more theatrical
again playing the Kinect's theatrical strengths. And of course the dance
detection is the full body not just your hands as it was on the Wii.
In Just Dance 3's move creation mode you can record
yourself dancing a particular move and then challenge your friends to pull of
your choreography. It's a simple addition, and not entirely new in the world of
gaming, but in the more theatrical Kinect games this feature offers many hours
of entertainment alone. It mirrors, what seems to be, the natural instinct of
young girls (and boys) to make up and meticulously rehearse their own versions
of dances they see on TV.
While I am looking forward to the high production values (and new two player
mode) of Dance Central 2, the
simplicity and child friendly nature of the Just Dance brand - sensibly shaped
and clothed dancers in particular - is actually more exciting for me and my
family.