Dance Masters

Dance Masters and Dance Evolution for the Xbox 360 feature 28 Konami originals and two licensed songs, for a total of 30 songs.

Dance Evolution Arcade features 15 licensed songs and 61 Konami originals, for a total of 76 songs. This includes the 28 Konami originals from the Xbox 360 version, which are fully unlocked in the offline arcade release. Another 19 licensed songs (including "Night of Fire" by Niko) and one Konami original ("Kind Lady" by Okuyatos) were available for online play at arcades, but were removed prior to the release of the offline kit. The offline kit adds the Konami original "Ha・lle・lu・jah" by Sound Holic featuring Nana Takahashi.

Since the release of Dance Masters and Dance Evolution Arcade, Konami has released two similar dance games: Dance Rush and Dance Around. Dance Rush is available for the general Asian arcade market, while Dance Around is exclusive to Round One Corporation arcades.

Dance Around, stylized as DANCE aROUND and named after Round One arcades, was first announced on November 10, 2021. It began location tests in select portions of the Japanese market through November 2021.{{cite web|url=https://www.konami.com/amusement/topics/20455/|title=BEMANIシリーズに新たな本格ダンスゲームが登場！みーーーんな踊れるダンスゲーム「DANCE aROUND」ロケテスト開催!|language=ja}} Dance Around uses a pair of cameras mounted on either side of the cabinet to detect the player's body using parallax.

The top half of the game's UI contains a continuously scrolling "Timeline" at the top of the screen, previewing the moves that are coming up, grouped into four-beat groups,{{Cite web |title=基本の遊び方 — DANCE aROUND |url=https://p.eagate.573.jp/game/around/ |access-date=2024-06-28 |language=ja}} similarly to the system in Dance Central.

The bottom part of the game's UI shows prompts representing how the game expects the player to move. Most of the prompts are rounded rectangles that show the areas where the game expects the player's hands and feet to be in or moved into. Occasionally, there will also be trails of dots, along which the player is expected to move either hand, and yellow silhouettes representing full-body poses that the game expects the player to strike. The user's detected hand and foot positions are shown as pink, translucent overlays.

In the background, computer graphics characters perform the dance in real time. By default, there will be three characters, the one in the center being the one chosen by the player. However, if using "Performance Style", the game moves the avatar into a window in the corner, and it mimics the players movements in the real world. This leaves the center area clear, and makes for less clutter on screen.

"Performance Style" unlocks the ability to record the player's movements on certain songs, and play them back on a Web-based interface later. This data is stored for 7 days and can only be watched 10 times.

File:Dance Evolution Arcade.JPG

Dance Masters and Dance Evolution for the Xbox 360 had mixed reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.{{cite web|title=DanceMasters for Xbox 360 Reviews |website=Metacritic |url=https://www.metacritic.com/game/dancemasters/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox-360|access-date=June 11, 2014}} IGN was disappointed in their review of the game saying, "DanceMasters is fun enough, especially if you enjoy Dance Dance Revolution and you want a similar Japanese take on the dance genre...but the niche soundtrack and the lack of a proper practice mode make this game difficult to get into...it's also a shame that the move recognition seems unusually lenient at times, but unnecessarily fickle at others...I would recommend Dance Central over DanceMasters any day of the week.{{cite web |last1=Clements |first1=Ryan |title=DanceMasters Kinect Review |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/11/09/dancemasters-kinect-review |website=IGN |date=November 9, 2010}}

GameSpot said in their review, "though the novel camera feature fuels some goofy fun, DanceMasters only holds lasting appeal for dedicated dance fiends...you'll probably tire of the game shortly after the novelty of the live action camera wears off...though there are better video game dance opportunities available, heading out onto the floor with DanceMasters is still good for a few kicks.{{cite web |last1=Watters |first1=Chris |title=DanceMasters, Review, X360 |url=https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dancemasters-review/1900-6284140/ |website=GameSpot |date=November 16, 2010}} Impulse Gamer rated the game an 8.0 stating, "Dance Evolution is one of the best games available for the Kinect...with shades of Space Channel 5, Dance Evolution requires the player to mimic the dance moves displayed on the screen and then use their body to replicate them...the game is a little daunting at first but once you get the hang of it, Dance Evolution becomes a thoroughly enjoying game.{{cite web |last1=Bloom |first1=Geoff |title=Dance Evolution |url=http://www.impulsegamer.com/360danceevolution.html |publisher=Impulse Gamer |date=December 2010}}

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101204091637/http://www.konami.com/officialsites/dancemasters/ Official Dance Masters (North American site)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100911212609/http://www.konami-dmstar.com/danceevolution/ Official Dance Evolution (Europe site)]
• [http://www.konami.jp/gs/game/danceevolution/ Official Dance Evolution (Japanese site)]
• [http://p.eagate.573.jp/game/danceevolution/ac/p/index.html Official Dance Evolution ARCADE site]

Category:2010 video games

Category:Dance video games

Category:Kinect games

Category:Konami games

Category:Video game sequels

Category:Xbox 360 games

Category:Xbox 360-only games

Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games

Category:Video games developed in Japan

Category:Arcade video games