Buy The Hip Hop Dance Experience - Xbox 360

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $13.97
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Since I already have Just Dance 4 and Dance Central 3, and I'm not that much of a hip-hop fan, I probably would never have tried this game if it hadn't been offered for review by Amazon but I'm glad I did. Even though it isn't loaded with the layers and features of the other dance games, Hip-Hop Experience makes up for it by being just plain FUN!

The party gets started right from the title screen, where you're asked to dance along with the avatar to start the game. (You also have a choice to use the hand controller, something that should always be offered, and menus are very easily controlled with the same hold-in-a-circle method used on the main Kinect menu.) There are 40 songs, each with 3 difficulties. In the basic dance mode, you pick a song, pick a difficulty, dance, and then see how you rank against other players online. There's also a battle mode for multiple players, a shuffle mode called Dance Marathon, a training mode called Power Skooling, and an avatar designing mode where you can customize your avatar's features and clothing.

I can't say how authentic this game looks when it comes to hip-hop culture, but in my opinion, it just looks great. The avatars are less cartoonish than the ones in Dance Central, and their movement is more fluid; it's a pleasure just watching them dance. You get to watch 2 avatars, one facing away and one facing toward you. Like in Dance Central, body parts that need to step it up are highlighted in red. Moves are rated up to "Hype", and some songs have a "Break Time" in the middle where you freestyle while the avatar does some complicated breakdancing. (Follow them at your own peril!)

The Power Skooling training mode lets you select individual moves to practice, but unlike with Dance Central where part of the song repeats over and over, Hip Hop plays the entire song while you practice. So if you want to, you can dance through a whole song while just doing the same move repeatedly, great for little kids or the more two-left-footed among us.

In lieu of programmable playlists, the "workout" mode here is Dance Marathon, which plays songs at random while you try to keep the life bar full as long as you can; miss too many steps and the marathon's over. The longest I was able to keep it going, on medium difficulty, was about 20 minutes. This isn't the game to go to if you want super-long, customized workouts.

I wavered between 4 stars (because of lack of playlists and DLC) and 5 stars (because what it has, totally rocks). I decided that anything that can get ME to enjoy hip-hop, and want to play it again and again, deserved the highest praise.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The gap between Just Dance and Dance Central has finally been bridged by a new contender!

Pros: dynamic movements, lots of sweating and some of the moves are cool enough to take to the club. Go Hard level is very challenging on most tracks. Music selection is pretty good (hopefully new music to come).

Cons: tutorial mode limited to one move at a time, so there is no practice for transitions and the tutorial is super boring so trial by fire is the preferred method of learning the new choregraphy.

Best Deals for The Hip Hop Dance Experience - Xbox 360

*****PLEASE RENT THE GAME FIRST IF YOU CAN TO MAKE SURE YOU WANT IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT(I wish I wasn't hard-headed and rented it instead)*****

I was so hyped about getting this game...finally something catered to hip hop dancing! The game overall had me "thinking" about returning it to get a refund. I will continue to play it to grow to at least like it.

Positives: The game has more hip hop music selections than Dance Central. Even on easy the game is not too simple that you feel like you're doing nothing. You will sweat doing this(if you're normal lol)! Awesome for people that love hip hop and need to get physical activity in their routine because this will literally work you out!

Negatives: The game has more hip hop music than Dance Central but the dances are not as put together as Dance Central. It's harder to follow the moves on this game since it flashes the moves and then disappears when it's time to do it. Dance Central shows the moves list streaming as you dance to at least see the moves coming. I feel like this game is over priced for what it offers and the low quality. It takes a tad too long to load the song once you select it to play and it takes the game longer to recognize you once you step out and come back in (really annoying). There could have been a better visual for the game; I feel like my eyes are just roaming around trying to find what to do because the colors and background are so....not put together plain and simple when compared to Dance Central. They have where you can edit the dancer but there are not many options to really personalize it to make it your own. Also there is no option to change if you want the "breakdown" on each song(this is to do your own thing)...at least Dance Central has an option to do the breakdown or not and if you do you can watch a playback of what you did. Pointless on this game. The dances could have been choreographed better as it really didn't have as much hip thrusting, popping, and shaking as I thought. I actually dance in hip hop and so far I am regretting my purchase the more I type about it which is a bummer. Maybe they will do better if they make a 2nd. I love Dance Central so I'll definitely be going to get the 3rd one very soon.

I didn't intend on this being a negative review but the more I typed, the more I realized there were so many things that bothered me about the game. If you have ever played Dance Central that could cause you to possibly not like this game since Dance Central is so well designed. If you have never played Dance Central it may seem like a better game to you but for me as a hip hop lover, dance, and young person...it just didn't cut it for me. *****PLEASE RENT THE GAME FIRST IF YOU CAN TO MAKE SURE YOU WANT IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT(I wish I wasn't hard-headed and rented it instead)*****

Honest reviews on The Hip Hop Dance Experience - Xbox 360

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program So, I am 43 years old and I have so much fun playing this game with my 11 year old daughter. It is a fun little workout and definitely gets you off the couch and moving. My daughter has the Just Dance Wii, Just Dance XBOX 360, Dance Central XBOX 360, and all the Zumba dance games for the Wii and XBOX 360. She said this is her favorite out of all of the ones she owns. Most of the music is really catchy. She said said she likes about 80% of the music and dances. For an "old" mom like me, I like about 50% of the music and dances. Of course, my daughter plays it in a much harder mode and loves it. She said even the advanced mode is a bit too difficult for her and she has been part of a dance company for 8 years. I like the easy mode, as that seems to be hard enough for me. It seems to pick up your moves accurately, so I think the Kinect works well, unlike some of the Kinect games we have. So, I would highly recommend it... a lot of fun... very challenging... and a good, get off the couch, workout.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Hip Hop Dance Experience - Xbox 360

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Ubisoft is pumping out these Kinect dance sub-genre games. Michael Jackson Experience, Dance Workout, ABBA Dance, Disney Dance and of course their Just Dance series. It seems like a no brainer that a hip hop game would be made (and it makes you wonder why it wasn't made earlier).

Here is what you get:

+There are supposedly 750 hip hop dance moves (I've seen dozens already and I've only had the game a couple days). I've noticed that they are put together differently, but there are some overlapping moves.

+The dance moves here that are (currently) exclusive were created by big name choreographers and they feel like a real music video when you get good at them.

+You can change the look of your on-screen avatar, which still follows your moves via video capture, but is basically a customizable cartoon instead of seeing yourself, which I like in some of the other games in this genre. I think it adds to the connection to actually see yourself doing these moves.

+Multiplayer is fun and works well with differently skilled players. The game has a skill level choice at the start that gives a handicap to players with lower levels so the game can still be competitive. There are four party modes that make watching as much fun as playing.

+I really like that this collection has some of the older artists (like Naughty by Nature, Mark Morrison and Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock) as well as newer artists. Fans in their 20s through 40s will like the selection. Which brings me to the next point: This is NOT for kids. Sure they may not be familiar with some of the music anyway, but the key is that some of the tracks are not kid-friendly. Parents looking for a kid game should look elsewhere.

This is a nice addition to the Kinect dance family and adult fans of hip hop (of verious skill levels) will like it.