Dance Central 2

Dance Central 2 is a 2011 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 Kinect. It is the sequel to Dance Central (2010) and the second installment in the Dance Central series. It was released on October 21, 2011, in PAL regions and on October 25 in North America.

A sequel to the game, titled Dance Central 3, was released for the Xbox 360 Kinect in October 2012.

Gameplay


The core gameplay in Dance Central 2 is similar to its predecessor, where players mimic the characters' dances with on-screen Flashcards for guidance. The game has been largely revamped compared to its predecessors, including adding multiplayer, adding voice commands, and enhancing the Break It Down feature. The Freestyle section, while still available, can also be disabled within the game. If done, additional moves will appear in the game as a replacement, creating one uninterrupted routine depending on the mode used. A story campaign has been added via Crew Challenge, in which players can unlock new content.

There are five modes available in Dance Central 2:


 * Perform It: A standard mode where players can dance to routines in the game. This mode can be played with one or two players and allows one person to swap in and out while the other is playing if desired. Both players do not have to play the same difficulty, but the difficulty must be set prior to the routine starting.
 * Dance Battle: A head-to-head mode between two players to see who is the best. Players go through a song, with two interloops mixed in. One of them focuses on one player doing the routine as the other player is temporarily disabled, and the other involves the players nailing moves from the routine to earn extra points. In that interloop, up to four moves can pop up at any time, and some are marked in gold, indicating more points. Like in Perform It, the players do not have to play on the same difficulty.
 * Break It Down: A training mode that allows the player to learn the routines in the game. The mode has been enhanced from the previous game, allowing the player to pick certain moves to focus on and record themselves dancing to moves to compare themselves to the dancers on-screen.
 * Crew Challenge: A campaign mode that gives a player a chance to reach for the top by impressing the game's dance crews. Successfully dancing to each crew's challenge song, once unlocking it, gives the player the opportunity to represent them, and the more reps earned, the higher the notability will be.
 * Fitness: A workout mode that tracks calories, with an indicator of how many have been burned along with the amount of time spent in the mode towards the top when enabled. There are also pre-made playlists available, along with customizable ones that can be made outside the mode for use in Fitness.

The game features six venues for the player to dance in: High Tide, Set Adrift, Tee Off, Lowdown, Penthaüs, and The Airship. All of them are available from the start except for Penthaüs, which is unlocked by clearing The Glitterati's campaign in Crew Challenge, and The Airship, which is unlocked by completing Crew Challenge once. Venues can be changed before the player starts a routine.

Plot
The player encounters several different dance crews throughout the game's story campaign, starting with Riptide Crew at High Tide, Flash4wrd at Tee Off, Lu$h Crew at Set Adrift, and Hi-Def at Lowdown. They are given a chance to join the crew after someone in the crew has heard of their potential, with more people talking about them the further along they are in the story. After the player impresses them with their dancing skills, they are welcomed into the crew and given a crew card. As they are collecting crew cards, members of the various crews warn them about The Glitterati, another dance crew that is seen unfavorably by the others. When the player encounters The Glitterati, their talent is doubted at first, but after they impress the crew with their dancing, they are given The Glitterati's crew card as well.

After meeting and joining all five previous crews, the player is taken to The Airship, where they meet Dr. Tan. He reveals that he has been monitoring their every move and introduces them to D-Cypher, a crew of robots he has created himself. The goal of their creation is to battle the player and defeat them so Dr. Tan can conquer the dancing world. Once D-Cypher is defeated, both members of the crew shut off and The Airship begins to fall apart. Enraged, Dr. Tan gives a lengthy monologue about how he will not give up before escaping with a hysterical laugh.

Characters
Dance Central 2 features eighteen playable characters, each divided up into pairs as a crew, with six of them being returning playable characters from Dance Central. Upon release, ten characters were available from the start and six could be unlocked. After release, four more unlockable characters were added following a Facebook campaign.

Most characters feature alternative outfits separate from their main outfits (known as their "Crew Look") to wear during gameplay. These alternative outfits are labeled as "Street Style", and are unlocked by earning 36 Stars collectively on songs associated with the character's crew. Additionally, all returning player characters from Dance Central have a third outfit labeled "DC Classic". These outfits are ones they wore in the previous game, and they are unlocked by entering cheat codes in the "Redeem Code" section (excluding Mo, whose DC Classic outfit is unlocked by importing songs from Dance Central).
 * Riptide Crew: Includes Emilia from Dance Central and Bodie.
 * Flash4wrd: Includes Taye from Dance Central and Li'l T.
 * Lu$h Crew: Includes Miss Aubrey and Angel, both from Dance Central.
 * Hi-Def: Includes Mo from Dance Central and Glitch.
 * Icon Crew: Includes Marcos and Frenchy. Added on March 2, 2012. Unlockable by logging into Xbox Live before starting the game.
 * Ninja Crew: Includes Shinju from Dance Central and Kichi. Added on May 1, 2012. Unlockable by logging into Xbox Live before starting the game.
 * The Glitterati: Includes Kerith and Jaryn. Unlockable by completing The Glitterati's campaign in Crew Challenge.
 * D-Cypher: Includes CYPH-78 and CYPH-56. Unlockable by completing the Crew Challenge once.
 * D-Cypher Elite: Includes Dr. Tan and CYPH-ELITE. Unlockable by completing the Crew Challenge on every difficulty.

Songs
There are 44 songs featured in Dance Central 2. A light blue background indicates that the song must be unlocked by completing the final challenge song of the associated crew in the Crew Challenge.

Importing
Songs from the first Dance Central, including its downloadable content (DLC), can be played in Dance Central 2. DLC will automatically be available in Dance Central 2 if it was previously purchased for Dance Central, but the on-disc songs must be imported via the Import Pack. This could be done by redeeming the code printed in the Dance Central manual in-game. The Import Pack costed US$5.00 (400 Microsoft Points prior to August 26, 2013) and required an Xbox Live gamertag to download. Players who purchased the Import Pack also received Mo's "DC Classic" outfit as a bonus.

As of October 25, 2016, imports from Dance Central have been discontinued. However, players who purchased the Import Pack prior to its discontinuation can still access its content.

Downloadable content
In addition to DLC from the first Dance Central game, Dance Central 2 also features additional DLC on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Most DLC songs were released individually for US$2.99 (240 Microsoft Points prior to the currency's discontinuation), but some songs were released exclusively in "Dance Packs" containing multiple songs for higher prices. These packs also sometimes contain songs that are purchasable individually, but at a lower price per song.

The Xbox 360 Store will be shut down on July 29, 2024, making DLC for Dance Central 2 no longer available for purchase afterwards.

No longer available for purchase.

Development
Shortly after the release of Dance Central, the pre-production of the game had been already started. Harmonix planned to observe the sales of Dance Central, which would help determine whether the development on the full version should start.

Dance Central 2 was officially announced at E3 2011 during Microsoft's press conference. It was announced on February 2, 2012 that if the community reached certain milestones, such as Star count or calories burned, three new crews and two new outfits would be released. Two crews were added to the game through this campaign. As of April 30, 2012, all content from this campaign has been released.

Reception
The game have received generally positive reviews. IGN praised the game's style, added multiplayer, and dances, but mentioned how a lot of the dances feel quite feminine, and how there is no shuffle mode.

During the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Dance Central 2 for "Family Game of the Year".

As of August 2016, the game has sold 2.04 million copies worldwide.