RetroView: SEGA Dreamcast Part One

There are a lot of thing’s people look back on and with the help of nostalgia everything seem’s rose tinted.  As a soon to be 24 year old when I look back at my life there are a few thing’s I remember, playing football for perhaps every day up until I was 18, wasting hours and hours playing Sonic 3 on the Mega Drive, watching Cartoon Network and finally, but most importantly, playing the Dreamcast.  That’s right ladies and gentleman, it may shock you but I am indeed a fanboy, not just any old fanboy, a SEGA fanboy.  Don’t let anyone else tell you they don’t exist anymore.  Were still here, waiting hoping and praying for that Dreamcast 2 release (Maybe SEGA should start buying lottery tickets?) and kick Microsoft, Sony and Nin-ten-don’t right back to the curb!  Yeah go SEEEEEGGGAAAAA!

Until that day arrives though we can happily reminisce on one of the shortest but without a doubt greatest console of this and any generation so far.  Sure your Playstation 3 can play Blu-Rays, the Xbox 360 has got some sort of Halo online thing and the Wii has, err well..waggle I guess?  But did they have a controller with a damn screen in the middle?!  No, no they don’t.  While the Dreamcast was at the time the fastest selling launch ever it never really sold much more once people got a whiff that the Playstation 2 could sell DVD’s.  But let’s not dwell on what went wrong, let’s celebrate the life span of THE greatest console of all time, the SEGA Dreamcast.

This still looks real to me...

In America we had the iconic launch date of 9/9/99, probably the most brilliant idea for a launch date of all time and with 375,000 sold the Dreamcast got off to a flyer.  The Dreamcast itself was the first console to ship with a modem, meaning online gaming for the first time ever for consoles.  The slogan ‘only 6 billion players’ may have been slightly exaggerated but you got the point.  The controller itself while not special at the time, you can see in both the HD console’s now that they both have their roots in the Dreamcast controller.  Especially Microsoft’s 360, it’s almost an exact copy.  Oh and how on earth can we forget the VMU, Visual Memory Unit, arguably the star of the show in terms of hardware.  This little beauty enabled you to take the game away from the console.  In Sonic Adventure it enabled you to raise your Tamigotchi like Chao animal by going on an adventure with it and playing mini-games.  Not many games used the VMU but it was quite handy also at saving your game, I mean, this is in the day’s your average Joe thought a hard drive was some sort of sexual innuendo.

Still to this day, nothing comes close to beating it

As you can see from just reading the small paragraph above here, Dreamcast made a heck of a lot of innovation’s both at the time and one’s that caught on in this generation.  But Sega’s new baby isn’t done yet with the party tricks, within it’s short two year life span the Dreamcast had the best amount of triple A title’s released in such a short life span.  Right from launch the Dreamcast was kicking with Sonic Adventure, the first ever Sonic game in 3D.  While trying to ignore the fact you were looking at a giant blue hedgehog on two feet and wearing sneakers, the graphics looked real at the time.  Sonic Adventure was the first Dreamcast game I put into the console and just watching the intro stunned me.  Within a couple of years I had gone from blocky Mario 64 to watching water stream out of buildings and some sort of Chaos monster destroy an entire city, and it looked so beautiful.

The second game I got with the Dreamcast is still to this day without doubt the greatest fighting game of all time, Soul Calibur.  As amazing as Sonic Adventure was, this looked better and at the time was the best looking game ever made.  Luckily, we also got the best fighting game to go along with the graphics.  For me, most fighting games disappoint when I’m left with Arcade Mode and VS Mode in the main menu.  Soul Calibur of course had these, but it also had Mission BAttle Mode.  A gameplay mechanic that sent your character across the world fighting against enemies but in different situations.  I remember one stage where both you and your opponent are being poisoned while slowly sinking into the sand.  Nothing like this had been done before, let’s remember again that this innovation in fighting game’s, was started with the Dreamcast.  Just to add a little personal touch as to how good Soul Calibur was, I spent the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000 playing Mission Battle as Kilik, yes I missed the New Year's party, well worth it.

To this day Power Stone is way too crazy for me, but I want more!

The launch line up also included Power Stone, a great arcade fighting game that allows four fighters at once with an environment that can act as safety and as a weapon depending on what you choose.  It was a great game from Capcom and while later in the life of the console we did get a Power Stone 2, fans are still clambering for a sequel to this day, another franchise that has unfortunately died with the Dreamcast.  There was also the crazy horror game Blue Stinger, which had possibly the worst voice acting of all time it's still a hit on YouTube because of it.  It seemed a bit like Jurassic Park meets Resident Evil.  There were a few other games of note, NFL 2K, Penguin racing game PenPen, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing and Fast and the Furious inspired Tokyo Xtreme Racer.

While the promise from the start of the Dreamcast was for online gaming, here in Europe for whatever reason we got this a couple of months late which was a real shame.  So what did Sega do to make it up for all of us early European adopters?  They gave us Chu Chu Rocket for free!  Yes, a £40 game given to us for absolutely nothing!  Not only that, Chu Chu Rocket is the only console puzzle game I’ve ever liked, possibly because it involved Cat’s, Mice and spaceship’s but that’s a story for another day....

Anyway, here end’s part one of the Dreamcast’s early life, in part two I will introduce arguably the killer game and killer of the console plus will look at all the niche title’s that Sega gave us, some of which we will never see a sequel for.  Here’s a clue for one of the titles - Talking Fish....until next time, Ciao!

ACB: The Da Vinci Disappearance Review

Assassins Creed Brotherhood got it's first piece of meaty DLC in the form of 'The Da Vinci Disappearance'.  It includes both a single player and multiplayer aspect and cost's £7.99 from the PSN.  The single player part of the DLC expands the story beyond the main plot lines of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and offers some tentative clue's as to where the main story line is heading and perhaps if you delve deep enough, even offers some hints on Brotherhood's direct sequel, due out this winter.

The missions' in single player are varied with the latter half of the eight new missions really quite memorable compared to most things offered during the main story.  Both the setting and story development of this part of the DLC is quite interesting, taking you to places not really like anything seen in ACB.  The one down point of the single player portion of the DLC is the length.  It perhaps at best offers only a pitiful two hours of extra content, while you are getting the multiplayer too with your purchase, most people enjoy the Assassins Creed series for single player, just two hours to flesh out some more of Ezio's part in the series seems a bit lame, especially as there is a high chance it's the last we'll see of the Italian Stallion.

Brotherhood's suprisingly good multiplayer has been upgraded with this DLC to include a new map, two new modes (Assassinate and Escort) and four new characters to hack and dismember your friends with.  While the inclusion of this is good, I feel the addition of the death-match style Assassinate mode kind of defeats of the object of what makes ACB's multiplayer so good.  It was the ability of having to go after just one target while watching your back.  Now it's a bit like a free for all.

So should you spend your hard earned money on the DLC?  Well I think it depends on how you view the franchise.  If you love the series and want to flesh out every bit of information you can, then it's a definite purchase as you'll enjoy the story and of course the multiplayer if you enjoy going online already.  If your just a casual Creed fan then it's possibly best to just wait for the next instalment and save your money.

7.5/10

Top reasons why Mortal Kombat 2011 will rock!

It's sure been a while since we last had a Mortal Kombat on our gaming shelves, but on the 21st of April that long wait is over! These are my top reasons why Mortal Kombat will dominate any other fighting game thats on the market!

First lets start off with how the game looks, incredible is the first word that comes to mind. Mortal Kombat will be running on a heavily modified version of the Unreal 3 engine which already in the demo is showing how impressive this is going to look! NetherRealm Studios are back doing what they do best, it honestly feels like they look at all other fighting games that are on the market and say 'ah thats why that sucks, lets change that'. They have heavily worked on how the characters look during fights instead of just at the begging and end, throughout a fight you will see characters wounds starting to open and blood starting to poor, you will be seeing exposed brains, rib cages and pretty much every place that is hit on the game. This is a great feature and I really can't wait to see more of this.


NetherRealm aslo have added a new special move ability to each individual fighter, you build the power bar up by fighting in which there are three stages. Filling up the first few bars allows you to do heavy versions of your moves, such as the frost ball by Subzero or the classic 'Get over here' by Scorpion. If you fill up all three bars you are able to do a super move, where you have no control and the system does a quick animation, taking off around half of the enemies health. Not only this, the animation is incradably cool, each character has a different animation, but these are brutal!! Scorpions for an eg you see him punch the enemies cracking his skull, when he drops to the ground he stoms on their ribs and you see them crack, the camera focuses on the skeleton of the enemy, almost like an xray! I can't wait to see more of this in the final game.

Where Marvel vs Capcom recently lacked in producing any sort of story whatsoever, Mortal Kombat have assured players that there is a detailed story mode along with some others! The classic arcade mode of course is still a huge factor but NetherRealm have tried to add fun and interesting game types, one that I am looking forward to is the slot spinning system! You spin at the start of the game and it activates certain perks or de buffs, for example, players have to fight with no arms are allowed, no punching! But instead of just saying you can't punch, they just chop your arms of as your characters wait to fight! Also with some other little interesting games modes, it should bring a lot of smiles to players wanting more for fighting games! The classic lader mode is also back but with 300 rounds! 300!! Getting harder and harder as you go on, all I can say is good luck for people wanting that Platinum trophy on the ps3.

Lets talk characters real quick, as I already mentioned they look amazing and so far there is no disappointment with the line up! The classic Scorpion and Subzero are there of course, along side with the rest of the crew! Still waiting the word on a few people like Smoke but we will see in time, also promised DLC will enable new people and maps I take it! I am still hoping that some of the maps have interactive dangers and traps with them like in previous games where players could kick others into death spike traps! Yes the Fatalities are back and of course they do use maps as part of them if you chose the correct one, I think its nice to have two different Fatalities, especially when each map is vastly different, you could end up seeing a different Fatality for every fight you play almost. Fatalities on a quick side note, kick ass. They are brutal, full of blood and simple rock. No better way to show your dominance but we all know this by now!

I have not had a chance to play online yet but I sure hope that Mortal Kombat does better than Marvel vs Capcom on the online front, I request spectating live games, advanced ranking systems and just being able to get a damn game!! Other than that, the fighting system is great! Certainly not as fast paced as Marvel vs Capcom but it's not the same game! Combos are hard to work for and when you get them it really pays off! For now these are the reasons why Mortal Kombat is going to own! I can't wait to get my hands on the full copy April 21st. I think PS3 though, being able to play as Kratos, win.

Anyway guys I will be posting my review shortly after release. Until then we may as well stick with Marvel vs Capcom, sigh.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

After 11 years in the waiting, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is finally here. But how have Capcom done in this highly anticipated time?

The first thing you will notice is Capcoms choice of graphics, the game has a very bright and vibrant feeling which lots of color jumping around constantly, is this a bad thing? I don't think so, I think it makes a change, it may lack the polish that some people are looking for like in games such as the new Mortal Kombat, but this isn't what Capcom were trying to achieve. The game has an almost comic book like style to it, the graphics represent exactly what you get when you read the comics, which I personally think is a great feature, it may not be for everyone, but with the amount of detail that can appear on the screen at any one time, it makes the gameplay run a lot smoother. The vivid colors make is a very pleasing game to play, Capcom really didn't cheap out in trying to make this game look, fun.

Alongside the very new graphics system Capcom have gone for, the sound presentation for this game is also pretty good. You can clearly hear and define the every effect of certain moves, even when you have 4 people on the screen at once, you can actually tell who is there just from listening. The voice acting is also done very well, it gives the game a very fun feel to it with some extremely quirky characters who you literally want on your team for comic value. Deadpool for example, Deadpool is portrayed in this game exactly as he is in the comics, he is nuts! He constantly breaks the fourth wall and talks to the player, he even breaks apart the games dynamics, breaking off the plays health bar and smacking his opponents  with it! It is simply one of the funniest things I have ever seen in a game!

The big question is, how does this game play? Well some people feel that Capcom may have held back slightly and after 11 years in the waiting, it kinda pisses me off. However you can't fault this game for how it runs. As a huge fighting game fan I was eager to test how Capcom delivered and it's safe to say they didn't disappoint, with 3 vs 3 fights, multiple team combos and huge air combos flying all over the place, if you can master how to manipulate these combos you can take your opponents  on a wild ride. It is highly addictive, espeically when you know how to utilize big combos and high hit count moves.

Well folks that is pretty much me done being nice about this game, if you are going to be offended by me telling the truth about this game, as I know a lot of the die hard fans out there are, I suggest you stop reading now and keep telling yourself this is the best fighting game on the market. As much as I wanted to write a great review about how the game was exactly what we all deserved after all this time, I can't do that. Marvel vs Capcom 3 has an abundant amount of this wrong with it! First and formost, where is our damn story mode! Why is there no story?! And you cannot tell me that the 5 or so fights and suddenly fighting Galactus, which I am not being funny is ridiculously easy! After you beat him, you get a 2/3 segment piece of art work with a little story, which at first seems cool but then you think to yourself, is this it?!? Where is the rest of my game Capcom!

For a lot of people this will be the first time they play the series and I hate to say it but a lot will be disappointed. This game didn't need a huge detailed story, we aren't talking like this is Mass Effect or something, but just anything! Something to explain to people how these two worlds came together, there is a story to it so why not tell everyone! It just feels cheap to have such a pathetic arcade mode! Next and I will make this short, but the training mode.. What the hell! Okay with Marvel vs Capcom there really is a way to dominate your enemy and you can see the players who have played the previous games dominating online because they know how to use the combos effectively. The way they try and 'teach' you is with mission mode. You get set targets of what to do and thats kind of it, but this is the worst training ever! They show you the button figuration and sequence before the match starts and then its gone!! Why not have it at the bottom of the screen like in Super Street Fighter! It's wrong and it's cheap! You feel like Capcom just sat back and thought, "na, we don't need it" to everything!

Even the rooster, I know some people will argue with me about this, but the rooster is poor. Yes there are some great characters here, but some huge ones are missing! No fantastic four whatsoever?! Why is Ken not on Capcoms side? And if one person says it will come out on DLC they should be shot. We should get them all for the full purchase price, its a joke that we are expected to pay full price for a half finished game! As my list goes on, I feel like I have to mention online. Online mode is a complete disaster, 90% of the time when you attempt to join a game you will see the "searching" box just sat there or it will just fail! Are you kidding me! This isn't a difficult thing to fix, its not like we are asking you to host 32 players in an online death match, no. It's 2 people. 2!! Which brings me onto the point, why no spectator mode!! Why Capcom are you doing this! No instead if you are in a loby with 2 people fighting you see there stupid avatar cards bounce into each other. A complete disaster.

My final verdict is pretty simple, I paid half the full retail price for Marvel vs Capcom a day after launch on Amazon. I couldn't believe it was this cheap, now I know why. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoy this game, its great if you have friends that enjoy fighting games and if you like just jumping on as your favorite Marvel or Capcom characters and kicking some ass! The game runs extremely well and it is really fun, but for a full retail priced game, I can't recommend it. Wait for the price drop which is inevitable and pick it up, but with the total rejection of a story and just the feeling of being cheated out of my time and money, I can't rate Marvel vs Capcom more than;

6.5/10

KILLZONE 3 REVIEW

Killzone is often branded as Playstation's Halo, and while the comparison is maybe a little wrong considering the differing aspects of both games Killzone certainly is the best exclusive first person shooter on the system that does 'everything'.  Yes I'm well aware there's also the Resistance series but that tends to be more the thinking man's shooter rather than the space marine blow em all up that Halo and Killzone are.

Killzone 3 starts off right where Killzone 2 left off (spoiler alert of course) after the game's protagonist's are killed at the end of the second game, our hero's Rico and Sev are pretty much abandoned by the ISA on the Helghan planet along with the Helghast, guys who have crazy red eyes, to deal with their anger for you killing Helghan leaders Radec and Visari in Killzone 2.

While the overall story and setting of Killzone 3 is a lot better than Killzone 2, I feel that the protagonists are no where near as good as the second's.  Radec's lust for death and no nonsense killing isn't really matched at all by Stahl and Orlock.  While there is some fantastic political dialogue describing the breaking factions within the Helghan throughout the campaign, it isn't really explored enough unfortunately in the game.  What could have been a fantastic story petered out into just being a good one.  Perhaps that sounds like I'm doing a dis-service to the game's story, don't get my wrong it is really good and kept me engrossed till the end much better than two did, but there was just so much potential to really flesh out what's really going on in the Helghan hierarchy, an opportunity certainly missed.

Killzone 3 - Now with Jet Packs

The campaign takes place in various environments from an alien jungle to arctic landscapes, nuclear wastelands, war torn cities and a rather interesting final mission with a few curveballs with the elements, well worth the wait to the end of the campaign as the final level was a personal highlight for me.

While nothing revolutionary has come to the table gameplay wise the addition of brutal melee's is very much welcome.  Killzone has always been ahead of other shooters' is terms of making you feel like you are a human and not just a floating camera.  The brutal melee's are so well done that you can feel the knife stabbing into a Helghan helmet or the neck snapping, etc etc you get the idea.

Of course multiplayer is back with no real new additions of note, strangely a two player co-op mode has been added for campaign but not for online.  A really weird decision by Guerilla games and I'd love to know why, considering how good something like Gears of War is with online co-op it's a real shame you can't play through the campaign online with a friend.

Possibly the best Peripheral ever made

I can't end this review without talking about the 'sharpshooter' a Playstation peripheral that looks like an assault rifle that utilises the Playstation Move and Navigation controller.  While there's no doubting it looks amazing, there is always a worry with accessories like this that they won't be able to pull it off, well they did.  It's not just some lump of plastic it's a fully functional gun with everything except of course real bullets.  I played through the whole campaign with the sharpshooter because I was so comfortable using it.  For the first half an hour there will be a getting to know each other period especially when turning corners but soon you'll be having so much fun time fly's by.

In closing Killzone 3 is the best first person shooter on the console in my opinion.  It combines the space marine gung ho of Halo with the militarisation of something like a Call of Duty while still having a convincing cast and storyline, oh and the multiplayer is up there as one of the best in gaming.  While I wish they had fleshed out the story a wee bit more and perhaps showed a bit of innovation in multiplayer (something every FPS is accountable for) it's still a must buy for any self respecting PS3 owner.

9/10

MASS EFFECT 2 PS3 REVIEW

Someone once said that space was the final frontier, in Mass Effect 2 as Commander Shepard you will test this theory and boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before.

Despite coming more than a year after the 360 version and completely missing the first game in the series.  Mass Effect 2 has finally hit the PS3 in all it's paragon loving, Asari bed-hopping, renegade inducing fashion.  You are Commander Shepard a character completely made by you.  Were you an Earthborn survivor who went on to earn military honours only for you to be the only survivor in a difficult mission?  Or were you a ruthless sergeant in the Alliance, where cold hearted decisions saw you rise through the ranks after being born on a human colonised world?  By the way, you haven't even started the game yet.  Mass Effect 2's character creation system is so deep you could spend hours perfecting your ideal character.  In many ways what you put into Mass Effect is what you get out of it.  Only interested in being a badass?  Using renegade options during a chat with Blue Suns Merc would see you pushing him out of a skyscraper window to his impending death.  While a paragon (good) approach could see you negotiate with him to get the information you want and perhaps earn some extra currency in the form of Credits for coming to a peaceful conclusion.

Decisions and how it affects the story, not only through Mass Effect 2 but from Mass Effect right through to the conclusion in Mass Effect 3 is what makes the series so special.  Bioware has done an excellent job of including a 15 minute comic to help you understand the story from the first game and allows you to make decisions for the second or perhaps even the third game.

It is a shame PS3 owners won't get the first game but I can't stress enough how well it does at bringing you up to speed with events.  Even if your not satisfied there is literally a whole Encyclopedia of the Mass Effect universe in the code at the pause menu with hours worth of reading on every planet, battle and race in this amazing intergalactic universe Bioware has lovingly created.

Mass Effect 2's story centre's around the disappearance of human colonies in the Terminus systems by a strange race called the Collector's.  After being revived by shady human organisation Cerberus, Shepard sets out to build a team to take the fight to the Collectors and to find out what the non-organic universe destroying Reapers who were discovered in the first game have got to do with everything.

Not content with just the main story, each member of the team you recruit will have there own problems that you can help with.  Each one with differing locations, characters and solutions that really help to develop an emotional connection.  Especially going into the final part of the game.  This is something a lot of squad-like games fail at, developing this sort of bond between the player and the story's lead protagonists whether they be playable or not.  (See Halo Reach for how not to care about a squad.)

Continuing with the idea of developing relationships Bioware has upped the ante and included 'love' relationships, in simple terms you get the opportunity to have sex with on of your crew members provided you have gained their loyalty and trust throughout the mission and yes you can fulfil your sick dreams of intergalactic sex, you sicko!  I can see you sniggering at the back.

Bioware not only gave us a great story and dialogue system we also got great gameplay!  The third-person gunplay is very Gears of Waresque in what it does.  The cover system works well and the RPG element of upgrading your weapon is nice and fluid and doesn't bog you down with endless XP grinding.  Where Mass Effect 2's gameplay really sets itself apart is in combining biotics and guns.  Biotics is essentially energy/telekinesis powers.  It allows you to pull an enemy out of cover and have him float in the mid-air while you can order another member of your team to land a concussive shot and then render the target obsolete.  With each character potentially having up to 5 biotics it leaves a lot of room for combinations and really affect's the way you approach some of the more challenging battles in the game.

While the idea of continuing a story throughout different games and carrying item's isn't new, Shenmue set the benchmark previously.  However unlike Yu Suzuki's classic, Mass Effect will see a conclusion this coming winter with the third and final installment.  With many different branching paths in two your going to want more than one play through to see where the story heads off in different directions.

In conclusion Bioware have delivered one of the best games of this generation.  Only rivalled by Uncharted 2 for me, if you haven't already bought it I implore you to do so now, it is one of the greatest of all time.

10/10


You can catch Craig on twitter @craigshields9 or on the PSN: Xieldos

Dance Central

Finally the full-body motion tracking Dance Central is here. With developers Harmonix on the scene, being published by MTV games, this already is a combination of near perfection. Whether you simply want to 'Break It Down!' or dominate the streets in 'Perform It' you will be entertained for hours on end with over 600 specific dance moves and at the moment over 90 different dance routines, choreographed by professionals! It doesn't stop there, if you ever played Rock Band you will know that Harmonix are big fans of brining out more content and already they have, extra songs, new moves, new dances!

Lets get down to business. The music and songs are from all arrays of different music geners, raging from hip-hop and R&B to pop and reggae. Some of the songs will even have the moves that you see in their very own music videos, Crank That by Soulja Boy for one. 

You are able to chose different difficulties for each song, easy, medium and hard. Each difficulty has the same structure for the routine, but as you increase the difficulty you get more challenging moves and you will have to move a lot faster between moves. The navigation for the menue screen is very nice, you hold out your right arm and move it up and down or bring it across your body, your left arm acts as a back button almost, its very simple to understand and flows very nicely. 

Now there have been a few complaints with certain aspects of this game, game modes particularly. Yes there is no career mode, why? They could have had a mode where you create your dancer, start out on the streets dancing for money or something and as you build up a reputation you meet new characters and new dances, bigger venues etc. But allas this is not the case, there is no mode other than a kind of 'play now' if you will. Some people aren't very happy with the characters either, saying the look cartoony but I personally disagree, I think the characters move very well to the routines and you really feel like you want to look like them when you see them acing every single move! Also there isn't much to unlock, besides another costume for the dancers and medium and hard difficulty for each song after you complete easy, that is about it.

Now there are a few different things you can do with this game, there is the obvious 'Perform it' mode, but there are also a few extra things you can do. A work out mode which basically kicks your butt, it shows you how many calories you are burning with each move and how much you burn all in all. It truly is a great workout actually, you have to work incredibly hard and it feels very rewarding. I have one issue with this game mode though, the idea is great but why can't you have a que of songs that merge into one another. You work your butt off during the song you chose and when its over you feel great, but obviously the songs are only a few minutes long each, then you have to stop and chose another song, go through the crap which takes a few minutes sometimes. It's slightly annoying but the workout mode is still very good. 

Break It Down mode, possibly the most genius part of this game. If you haven't already heard, Break It Down allows you to practice the routines of any song you chose at any difficulty. You are taught bit by bit how to perform the moves of the routine, then after you have got the moves down you start to put them together. You can even slow the moves down if you really can't tackle it, a friendly choreographer is there to help you with what steps to take and it really does help. After your training you are able to perform the song for real and see how you do, if you still miss a part then you go back and practice. The idea is to really teach you how to dance and it works impeccably.

There is a dance off mode which is a lot of fun when you have a few friends over. One person starts the routine and starts to build points and he hits his moves then when you would usually have a free style mode you are told to switch players and the other player jumps in. The person with the highest score wins! There is also a little feature that you can use when performing, up to two people can jump in behind the main dancer as backing dancers!

Finally perform it mode. This is exactly what you think its going to be, you perform the routines of the songs that you have chosen, the moves come up on the right hand side of the screen, when they appear in the box you begin that specific move. Each move is split into two beats, so you perform the move twice if you aren't too sure what that means. The game is so accurate, it seems even if you have a finger out of place you will not hit that perfection move. You can tell when you are doing something wrong because that part of the body turns red on the dancer on the screen. There is also a small box with your white figure so you can see how you are moving. Finally a free style section which is very fun, basically do what you want and try and look cool! 

There is a lot of stipulation that there are no real rewards in Dance Central, you get star ratings for the dances you perform ranging from one to five and there is even a five gold star reward you can unlock if you hit almost every move of the routine. However I disagree with all of this, because yes you might not get a great reward because there is no campaign but you are learning how to dance, how to properly dance. This is something that is very difficult to master and you are being taught by professionals. You constantly progress and with the break it down mode you really feel that you are learning to dance!

 One of the biggest problem with Dance games these days is they are just viewed poorly, we have come a long way from the common dance mat. I have had family and friends over and the second I say 'Lets play Dance Central' I get the same reaction every time, 'there is no way I am dancing' or 'that's just embarrassing'. But after a bit of arguing they all get infront of Kinect and start moving and once you do, you are hooked. You realize that even if you are making a fool of yourself, you are progressing even the slightest bit! You feel that serge of fun which everyone looks for from playing games! 

Thats why all in all, I rate Dance Central a 7/10! It teaches you how to dance, teaches you great moves, it is so much fun and if you want to let a few little things get in the way of enjoying yourself like menue screens then you probably shouldn't be looking at buying Kinect.

If you are still wondering, 'Is Kinect worth buying?' Then here is your answer, YES! Even right now simply for this game, it has truly revolutionized  gaming, thank you Dance Central.