There's a distinct turning point during a playthrough of Dance Central when everything finally falls into place. Up to that moment, you've been feeling rather silly, moving your arms all over the place like a robot, very much aware that if anyone were to walk into the room at any point, you'd stop moving about instantly and shrug the game off as stupid to save face.

After a couple of hours with Dance Central, however, something clicks into place and you realise that you'd be having a whole lot more fun with the game if you actually tried dancing rather than awkwardly mirroring the animations on screen. From this point on, the fun shines through and Dance Central is nothing but pure entertainment. The package could have done with some extra modes and a little more personality, but overall it beats past dancing games hands-down.

Dance well enough and the background will become doused in a nightclub glow

Dance Central requires you stand in front of your TV and dance your heart out to a selection of RnB, Hip Hop and Dance tracks. For each song, a character on screen will show you which dance moves to pull off, from the basics of the movement to when each should be strung together. Learning each move is a simple case of mirroring exactly how the dance tutor is moving on screen.

After completing the 'Break It Down' tutorial section for each track, you can then jump into the song itself and put your skills to the test. The first batch of tunes are pretty easy to keep up with, but later on you'll be flinging your arms and legs all over the place. It's surprising how much effort is needed to secure a 5-star rating - you'll be moving all over your living room, and pulling off the most energetic of moves.

This is the big difference (and main selling point) between Dance Central and the outrageously popular Just Dance on the Wii - with Just Dance, the hardware is technically only picking up the movement in your arm, and hence it's possible to cheat the game and only move your arm rather than pull off entire moves. Kinect, on the other hand, is taking no prisoners - every one of your body parts must move in the correct motion and position, else those high scores will be firmly out of reach.

Whenever you don't move perfectly as the game requires, the particular body parts that are in the wrong place will glow red of the screen - for example, leave your right arm out too wide and the character's arm on screen will glow to let you know that you're not doing it properly. Fortunately, the game is a little lenient and sometimes will glow a body part, but still give you the points anyway.

To start with, you'll feel yourself moving rigidly and copying the characters on screen with a robotic movement. Wherever you're a dancer or not, the gameplay in Dance Central initially feels less like dancing and more like copying actions in sequence. It's not a bad feeling exactly, but not all that surprising either, given that the game is developed by Harmonix, the guys behind the Rock Band series. Dance Central really is a dancing version of Rock Band, albeit with body movements rather than the pressing of coloured buttons.

Let the game pull you in, however, and there's a whole other side to the experience. The moment you stop concentrating so much on getting it right and instead let your body flow more, the whole thing becomes far more enjoyable. Movements that originally felt 'dance-by-numbers' now evolve into something that does indeed resemble a dance routine, and with every new dance move you learn, the game will suck you in that little bit more.

She's great at dancing, but just hope she doesn't open her mouth to speak anytime soon

The sheer number of dance moves available is staggering. Each new song throws between 4 to 8 new moves your way, and if you consider that the game comes with 32 tracks in total, that's a whole lot of routines to learn! Fortunately everything is taught at a reasonable pace, and we never felt overwhelmed, nor did we feel that it was all moving along too slowly. It's really fantastic that you're constantly learning new moves and routines all the way up to the last song, rather than learning everything in the first couple of hours, then repeating it all for the rest of the game.

In terms of content, there is plenty to keep you and a group of friends dancing away for several hours and beyond. There are Easy, Medium and Hard modes for each song (à la Rock Band) that feature different routines each, rather than simply ramping up the difficulty via how precise you are. Then there is 'No Flashcards' mode to unlock for each song (i.e. the game does not show you pictures of each move you need to complete) and 'Workout Mode' which displays how many calories you're burning while you dance.

A ranking system is also in place, although it feels a little sketchy and pointless. For every song you dance through, you're rewarded XP at the end that will add to your experience meter - fill this up to gain a level. Other than unlocking extra outfits for the characters, we didn't find a real reason for leveling up, and eventually just stopped caring about it all together.

Even with all these additional features, Dance Central still feels a little on the sparse side. Once you've danced your way through the entire setlist - which, in fairness, does take a good several hours - there really isn't much else to do other than try it all over again but on a more difficult setting. There are no extra gameplay modes, challenges or a story mode to playthrough, and the next-to-empty menus confirm this.

A couple of other niggles marred our Dance Central experience too. Each song includes a freestyle section, in which you're meant to make up your own moves and dance around like a loon. The game then films you, and plays your movements back as a sped-up video over the music. It's not very fun and is highly embarrassing - whenever these sections came up with friends, whoever was playing would simply say 'I'm not doing that' and stand still. The freestyle bits work against the rest of the game, destroying the immersion.

Some of the dance moves are really energetic, requiring you move all over the place

The characters are also the most irritating we've ever come across in a game, spouting utter drivel in the most ridiculous accents. It creates such a contrast, as the rest of the game is so wonderfully polished - so to then be subjected to characters completely devoid of any personality is a rather odd feeling.

Dance Central is not perfect, but at its core there is plenty of enthralling entertainment to be found. Harmonic definitely has a Just Dance beater on its hands, and one of the few must-have launch titles for Kinect. If you're planning on picking up the hardware, make sure you grab a copy of this dance-a-thon too.

Dance Central is available now in both the US and UK for Xbox 360. The Kinect hardware is required.

Top Game Moment: Five gold starring a song for the first time. I AM A DANCE GOD!