E3 '10: Dance Masters

I already told you about Dance Central, but there was another dancing game for the Xbox 360 Kinect playable on the floor at E3, and that's Konami's Dance Masters. (That's only a working title, by the way...) Unfortunately, I don't have a photo or video of myself playing this one, sorry. Dance Masters is from the same people who brought you the classic Dance Dance Revolution, except this time there's no dance pad. You just dance. (Too bad that title was already taken!)

It plays slightly differently from Dance Central, in that every so often there are specific poses that you have to hit, indicated by a green silhouette that will appear on the side of the screen and move over your character at the appropriate moment at which you need to be in that position. And there are sort of targets that you need to hit with your hands, like when you're pumping your fists in the air. Sorry, it's hard to explain because it was difficult enough trying to mirror their moves on screen and keep up, so I couldn't even tell if I was doing a good job or not! There were two characters dancing on screen, and the main one seems to be the blond Lady Gaga-esque woman. The music was also very DDR, with less licensed popular songs and more Japanese dance music. I chose to dance to the geisha song I remember from a previous DDR installment just because I knew it, even if the title was slightly different. (Big mistake — I'd forgotten how fast it was!)

Just as with Harmonix's dance game, Dance Masters has you working up quite a sweat as you move to the rhythm, which regular readers of this site know I love. There's always room for more stealth fitness games in the industry, and all these new motion control devices are only going to make that sub-genre more popular. (I hope!) Dance Masters will have four different difficulty levels and 30 tracks, with more songs and dance routines planned as DLC in the future. Two players can dance at the same time, and up to four can compete online. Worldwide leaderboards are also available if you want to challenge anyone to a dance-off! Dance Masters is due out this fall alongside the launch of Microsoft's Kinect.