I've been dancing my butt off to Vanilla Ice, Usher, Nicki Minaj and more in Dance Central 3 for the Microsoft Kinect. Here are some thoughts on the game.

If you've played any of the first two games before, you know what you're getting into. The menus look the same and the basic dancing mechanics remain relatively unchanged. You mimic the characters onscreen and the Kinect tracks your movements, which for the most part does a fine job doing so with rare hiccups. Sometimes I thought I was nailing a move down but the game wouldn't register it, and then there were times I knew I was off by a mile but the game thought I was performing it flawlessly. So it kind of evens out in the end.

The story mode is awkward but serves it purpose of teaching a little history of dance well. The evil Dr. Tan wants to take over the world of dance, and it's up to you and Dance Central Intelligence to stop him. You'll time travel to different decades and dance to the beat of their most popular songs, unlocking a variety of crazes along the way. If you're not a natural dancer like me, progressing through the story can get difficult since there are tough star requirements to achieve.

The most important part of any dancing game is the soundtrack, and Dance Central 3 is quite an impressive package. Oldies like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and "Y.M.C.A" from the Village People are featured alongside modern hits including "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" from Kelly Clarkston, "Boyfriend" from Justin Bieber and "Sexy And I Know It" from LMFAO. The 40-plus songs available on the disc are plenty to keep you busy, even though more songs will be available to download as DLC.

 Check out my full review at www.theoaklandpress.com.

Get even tinier thoughts at www.twitter.com/JeffHoard921.