Dance Master

With the Microsoft press conference behind us, there are a number of Kinect games we're eager to try, but one game that I just had the chance to play was Dance Masters, from publisher Konami. This Kinect game is coming from some of the same developers that originally brought us Dance Dance Revolution, which wasn't as much about dancing as it was about good rhythm and having fun... while making a fool out of yourself. Dance Masters looks to follow in the footsteps of Dance Dance Revolution, as it focuses on rhythm. This time, however, there's a lot more dancing to be found. Daemon and I headed to the Konami booth here at E3 to try the game out for ourselves. The results were hilarious, and also pretty fun.

There are 30 songs in Dance Masters that will be identical in each region the game is released in, which means that players that enjoy the crazy Japanese techno found in DDR will find some of the same bumpin' jams in Dance Masters.

After picking a song and a difficulty level by using simple motions with my hands, Daemon and I got down to the dancing. Your image (which is somewhat blurry, unfortunately) appears on the screen along with all the dancers on stage. When the song begins, your job is to follow the two lead dancers' motions, which involves actual dance choreography. You're doing poses, hand motions, and you'll even be bowing and turning in the process.

While attempting to follow the dance choreography, there are several on-screen indicators that read your movements. The most basic is a full green silhouette that slides towards the lead dancer in time with the music. When the silhouette aligns with the lead dancer, players need to be in that pose -- similar to the mechanics in Guitar Hero where a note passes over the bar on the bottom of the screen. Besides these silhouettes, there are also orange paths that are drawn on screen that you need to follow with your hands, blue ripples of light that you touch, and green pulses of light on the ground that you hit with your feet.

Now, when Daemon and I were playing, we had a blast, but Dance Masters is actually a tremendous challenge. Following the choreography is way harder than following the notes in Dance Dance Revolution, for example, so players will likely need to try songs multiple times to memorize the choreography.

If you're the kind of person that enjoys being goofy with friends and making a fool out of yourself, than Dance Masters is the game for you. We'll have more on this Xbox 360 exclusive leading up to when it hits store shelves this fall.