Ever want to kick up your heels and dance country style? Country Dance All Stars by GameMill Entertainment is the way to do it. The game allows anyone from novice to expert to dance your heart out to a wide selection of songs ranging from Blake Shelton to Johnny Cash. You have four options to play.
These include normal, perfection, freeze, and practice. Normal is where you mirror what the character is doing on screen; Perfection is where you only score for perfect moves; Freeze is where you must freeze when you see static on the screen; and practice is where you can practice your dance moves.
Each mode gives you the option of 1,3,5, or 10 rounds. There are 4 ways your moves are scored. Each score has a corresponding color; great is blue, good is green, okay is yellow, and miss is red. You will see how well you did at the end of each round. You get points for each move and will see a percentage for each category.
If you get several greats in a row you are having a hot streak. When you have a hot streak, the screen will light up in your streak’s color. If two people are playing, the colors will be blended. The extras include the ability to download more songs, change game options, and view the credits. The game has an autosave feature that you can turn off in the options menu.
In Country Dance you can practice your moves before you start. Practice mode takes you through each step, one part at a time and can only be used in single player mode. Once you have completed each step successfully the game will give you the option of moving along to the next step or repeating the step again. If you have not mastered the step, the game will suggest that you repeat it until you get it right.
Normal mode allows you follow the characters on screen. In the right hand side and in the middle screen you will see your next move. These will help you get your timing right. This is helpful to know what to do. As you do each move, you will see your score of great, good, ok and miss scroll near your feet. You will also see lyrics from the song that you chose. You can turn this off in the options menu.
Perfection mode will only count for perfect moves. This is the hardest mode. During freeze mode you dance until you see static and the dancers will freeze. If you move during this time, you will lose points. If you see a boot next to the song it indicates a line dancing song. To determine the difficulty of a song, look for the number of bars. The greater the difficulty the more lines it has. You can also play against a friend in 2 player mode.
I tried the Normal mode before rehearsal. Once I tried rehearsal mode and went back to Normal mode, I found it much easier. I would also recommend against having anyone near you as you play this game. I didn’t want to stop but knew I had to. I would recommend keeping people out of the area where your Kinect is as this can be dangerous to everyone involved with the moving that you must do.
Watch out for people and animals getting in your way, as the Kinect sensor will detect everything that is moving. Playing Country Dance All Stars makes you want to play more.
The game’s responses are very accurate and easy to use. There is a circle to show where your hands belong. The controls are easy to use as well. To choose your mode, song, and other options you use your right hand by moving it up and down as well as sliding it to the left to make your choice.
Country Dance All Stars is a fun game for everyone. The variety of singers range from Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Johnny Cash, and many more; there is a song for everyone. I found this game fun and entertaining. I kept wanting to do better and master the next song. It was a personal goal of mine to improve my score while having fun and kicking up my heels.
DaniP
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: GameMill Entertainment
Publisher: High Voltage Software
ESRB: E 10+ (Everyone 10+)
Price: $39.99
High Voltage Software’s Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Graphics are colorful and beautiful; the characters are easy to follow. | |
| Sound | |
| The wide range of songs allows for hours of replay as well as trying to improve your scores. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Fun to play and it will have you coming back for more. The ability to know what step in next is invaluable. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Great graphics, good music, and fun gameplay make this game entertaining for people of all ages. | |
