Just Dance 3 - Kinect Required

After its hugely successful predecessors, the third installment of the JUST DANCE series has arrived - and this time it is also available for both the Xbox and the PS3 (you can thank UBISOFT being in financial trouble due to the overzealous DRM scheme they use in their PC releases). Anyway, JD3 comes with tons of fun and it will make you sweat while having it. If you are or feeling young, if you want to get your kids out of the couch or if you want to burn calories yourself, this is the game for you.

A MODE FOR EVERYONE
On top of the good old Classic Mode, fans of the series will be able to enjoy their favorite exergame in numerous different ways.
Duet Mode & Simon Says: Duet and group dances as well as the dance version of Simon Says make JD3 a good idea for parties and sleepovers. If, like me, you are over 35, this also offers the opportunity for numerous very humiliating experiences with your young ones.
Medley, Non-Stop Shuffle & Just Sweat: Very good for getting your heart rate up and keeping it in the aerobic range for as long as you can handle it, without interruptions. If you are really pumped, try giving the Dance Til Dawn Mode a try. unfortunately there is still no calculations for calories burned.
Just Create: a mode that is not available for the Wii. It allows the player to create his or her own dancing moves, save them and either repeat them or have his friends try to match them.

INCENTIVES
But the game is all carrot, no stick. The better you match the song's moves (and the Kinect here is veeery forgiving!), the more points you accumulate. mention getting the background to animate!). Increasing your points first allows you to animate the background - and it also increases your mojo. And the more mojo you `ve got, the more dancing modes and songs become available to you.

IMPROVEMENTS
Graphics received a boost, in both details and backgrounds. You prefer singing to dancing? No problem, JD3 comes with all the lyrics showing on the screen for you to accompany your favorite group or singer (no, no points for turning this dancing game into a karaoke but who cares, right?).

NEW SONGS
If truth be told at first glance I liked the song collection of JD2 better. However, I think this will keep happening with every new installment of the series. These games just grow on you. You are having so much fun that the new songs will simply become as dear to you as your old favorites. Give it time.
So, yes, the song list may not contain the latest hits but it has some very uplifting dance songs and your list can be enriched online (although not cheaply).

This is the COMPLETE LIST of the songs contained in the game, alphabetically:
1. 2 Unlimited: No Limit
2. A-Ha: Take On Me
3. Anja: Dance All Nite
4. Aretha Franklin: Think
5. Bananarama: Venus
6. Black Eyed Peas: Pump It
7. Bollywood Dream: Kurio ko Uddah le Jana
8. Cee Lo Green: Forget You
9. Countdown Mix Masters: Beautiful Liar
10.Daft Punk: Da Funk
11.Danny Elfman: This is Halloween
12.Donna Summer: I Feel Love
13.Dr. Creole: Baby Zouk
14.Duck Sauce: Barbra Streisand
15.Girls Aloud: Jump (For My Love)
16.Groove Century: Boogie Wonderland
17.Gwen Stefani: What You Waiting For
18.Inspector Marceau: The Master Blaster
19.Janelle Monae: Tightrope (Solo Version)
20.Jessie J featuring B.o.B: Price Tag
21.Brahms by Just Dance Classical Orchestra: Hungarian Dance No.5
22.Katy Perry: E.T (BONUS - only in the Special edition)
23.Katy Perry: Teenage Dream (BONUS - only in the Special edition)
24.Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg: California Gurls
25.Kiss: I Was Made For Lovin' You
26.Konshens: Jamaican Dance
27.African Ladies: Pata Pata
28.Latino Sunset: Mamasita
29.Laura Bell Bundy: Giddy On Up (Giddy On Out)
30.Lena Meyer-Landrut: Satellite
31.Lenny Kravitz: Are You Gonna Go My Way
32.LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock: Party Rock Anthem
33.Madness: Night Boat To Cairo
34.MIKA: Lollipop
35.Nelly Furtado ft. Timbaland: Promiscuous 832. Pointer Sisters: I'm So Excited
36.Pointer Sisters: I'm So Excited
37.Queen: Crazy Little Thing Called Love
38.Reggaeton Explosion: Boom
39.Rita Mitsouko: Marcia Baila
40.Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman: Somethin' Stupid
41.Robin Sparkles: Let's Go To The Mall
42.Scissor Sisters: I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
43.Sentai Express: Spectronizer
44.Sweat Invaders: Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
45.Taio Cruz: Dynamite
46.The Buggles: Video Killed The Radio Star
47.The Chemical Brothers: Hey Boy Hey Girl
48.The Girly Team: Baby One More Time
49.The Sugarhill Gang: Apache (Jump On It)
50.Tommy Sparks: She's Got Me Dancing
51.Wilson Pickett: Land of 1000 Dances

Notice that the two extra bonus tracks by Kate Perry are only included with the Special edition. On top of that, more songs will become available online. Some of them may be free but expect most to be sold for...240 MS-Points each. So far three songs are offered online:
52.Blondie: Heart of Glass
53.Irene Cara: Fame
54.MC Hammer: U Can't Touch This

The Xbox-360 offers better graphics than the Wii, however the application of Kinect is a mixed blessing. One one hand, one does not have to hold the remote, since the camera takes care of finding you, and there is an extra mode. On the other, this also comes with the known restrictions of said camera: its range is not very wide and it requires the player to be at least 6ft/2m from the Kinect sensor. Not a problem when doing aerobics but dancing is quite another thing. I tried them both, and found that, for this exergame, the Wii to have the edge.

Overall, JD3 is a great game for the young of all ages.

RECOMMENDED!

My kids were really enjoying Dance Central. But I decided to try something new. They tried a few times and do not want anymore. They did not like the way it is organized. It is not a "teaching" application. But the most they disliked the avatars.

I bought Just Dance 3 (for kinect) game before the x-mas to have some fun for the holiday season, and it turned out to be the biggest fun this year. The game is actually very addictive to play. The moves are not hard to follow so light-gamers won't be intimated by the difficulties of the game. And you do need to practise a bit to beat the game perfectly.. so you can enjoy the game for a long time before feeling bored.
There are many pop songs to dance along, and some songs are from different cultures other than western.

And the kinect game is also a good exercise too. You are surely to be sweaty after dancing 5 songs in a row! :-) I highly recommend this game to any family..