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My daughter may only be two years old, but she already has a favorite video game: Dance Central. She has a repertoire of three songs that she loves to dance to over, and over, and... over... again. She's even outscored my husband on co-op play. While I normally balk at the idea of her playing video games so young, Dance Central 2 really gets her moving and I like to think it improves her hand-eye coordination as well. The downside is that she now knows the lyrics to "Bad Romance," or as she calls it, "Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra."
Our kiddo isn't the only one in our house benefitting by playing Dance Central. In fact, it's my main method of exercise. I used to take a Hip Hop aerobics class at the gym, but I was always too self-conscious to enjoy it. At home I can play Dance Central 2 (with the blinds closed) to get my heart rate up while blissfully pretending that I'm the lead in Step Up 4: Kelly's Living Room. The game makes it easy -- you can create a varied song playlist for your exercise routine, play through songs here and there with Fitness Mode enabled. The game will track how many minutes you've been working out as well as the calories you've burned.
Thanks to the Fitness Mode, GeekMom Cathe has been able to record the time she spends dancing and the calories she has burned into her Fitocracy account. Dance Central on the Kinect has been a great alternative to Wii Fit in the Post house. There is no board to balance on, fall off of, or replace batteries in. Plus, Cathe swears she never worked up this much of a sweat with any of the Wii games. Even though some of the songs have adult content in the lyrics, safer songs still provide a rockin' beat for everyone to dance to.
Dance Central and Harmonix are celebrating Fitness Month this January, encouraging players to get in the groove while sharing the results of their own company-wide weight loss challenge. Harmonix is offering suggestions for "Fitness Challenge Fridays" for more motivation to work out. I'm going to try the Unlucky 13 Challenge this week. I play the aforementioned "Bad Romance" with my daughter so often that I no longer get tired of hearing it over and over, so thirteen times in a row should be a breeze.
From issuing a fitness challenge to keeping gender and self-expression in mind while designing the game, Harmonix is a game developer that continues to impress me with their positive focus on their community. Dance Central 2 is available on the Xbox Kinect at your local game retailer.
