DanceMasters - Best Kinect Game Ever?

Ah, the Kinect. The expensive add on for the X-Box 360 that sits on top of my gaming display that doesn't see much use these days. When I got home from spending a romantic Valentine's Day dinner with the spouse, I thought I'd relax with some Kinect action. The game of choice? Dance Masters that hasn't been touched ever since I inducted it into my Game Library in November of last year.

You want a experience a "Night of Fire"? Then you need to fire up this game.

I feel silly now for not playing this game sooner. This dancing game is surely the best Kinect game in existence. Let me describe the basic mechanics of the game and then I will list down the reasons why this thing is a motion gaming masterpiece. Basically, you have to mimic the movements of the dancers in the game who are dancing so delectably on beat with the selected music. There are several types of motions you must mimic and these include hand swipes, feet taps, and body postures. It's different from Dance Central because it's faster and more fluid in its dance routines. Now let's get to the goods:

1) Best looking graphics in a Kinect game. The lead dancers look flashy in their fashion forward outfits. The dance moves are so flamboyant, it's almost comedic but strangely, making your body move that way feels very satisfying.

2) You actually have to watch the dancing carefully at higher difficulties to ensure you are getting a perfect score. There's no tutorial on how to do the slick moves shown on screen so you have to have to learn each unique routine by playing the game over and over and over again.

3) The game records your entire performance during the songs and then place the footage into the game as back up dancers when you play the game again. It's creepy, it's weird, and it's quite hilarious to see clones of yourself dancing along with you and the game characters in the background.

4) Creepier still is the ability to attach a digital mask to your face on screen. The masks themselves are the types that you would often see worn by raving lunatics. Sometimes, the mask doesn't even stick to you when you are tilting your head in extreme directions.

5) The pop songs found in the game are extremely infectious and ridiculously addicting. And that Geisha song... Oh so delicious!

6) Even with the fast and varied the movements involved in the dancing, the full body tracking is still seriously accurate.

7) The game gives you the ability to travel into a Parallel Universe. No, I am not even kidding!

8) The game was able to enthrall the spouse who ended up participating in the whole madness.

It is safe to say that I had a blast playing this game tonight, dancing and laughing all the way to exhaustion. I was able to convince the spouse to dance with me and I suggested that the both of us should play this game for at least half an hour a day as an aerobic exercise since it is easy to get into the game and start the sweating process. If you have a Kinect, get this game now!

FIRST IMPRESSION: 5 out of 5