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Dancing games for Kinect are nothing new. In a genre that already has a couple of big hitting titles, a new game has to have sufficient backing and appeal to fight for a place at the top table. What better then to create a dancing game based on one of the biggest bands around at the moment: The Black Eyed Peas.

Grammy award winning artists, The Black Eyed Peas, released their debut album in 1998. Since then they have gone from strength to strength, topping charts on both sides of the Atlantic and there will be no doubt a few songs on the disc that most will instantly recognise. For those songs that are not as mainstream as others, you’ll be happy to learn that they all fit perfectly in a dancing game. All 29 songs have been edited superbly to fit with the dancing routines on offer, a steady beat starting at the title screen carries through every tune. If you had to choose one band to have their own themed dancing game then I’m sure The Black Eyed Peas would top many polls. The broad appeal of the music may just be enough to satisfy those looking for a different dancing experience away from the likes of Dance Central 2 and Just Dance 3.

With a big screen concert style opening, to the novel touch of asking you to mimic the dancers on stage to start the game, your initial impressions of The Black Eyed Peas Experience is that this is going to be a loud, brash and neon filled affair. Easy to navigate menus requiring a point and hold approach are all brightly lit with neon dance floors and a constant bouncing track running in the background. Controller support is also available for some of the trickier laid out menus such as character creation and choreography. Cut-scenes all exert a passion for the band and the music they produce, with the constant party atmosphere always on show.

For those looking to jump straight into a routine, Dance Party is the place to be. Simply ready yourself alone, or with a friend to instantly tackle any one of tracks on offer. Turn on those wireless microphones lying dormant in the drawer and let two more friends sing along to the songs, as every song has lyrics running along the bottom of the screen. Each song has its own skill level with tracks such as ‘Pump It’ easing you in on casual difficulty to ‘Hey Mama’ at professional requiring you to learn complex moves and routines to achieve anything higher than a ‘C’ rank.

Veterans of Dance Central will feel perfectly at home with The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Based on the standard affair of mirroring an on screen dancer, this game goes that little bit further with a range of improvements and new ideas. As well as having a series of dancers mirroring the moves for you, an on screen avatar stands in the bottom left of the screen for you to attempt to copy. This is incredibly helpful for trickier moves when you are not quite sure which leg goes where while your arms are swinging wildly around in opposite directions. A faint flash on your hands and feet kindly remind you when you should be accentuating that particular limb, while your on screen scoring comments inform you how well you are doing. With a little practice, ‘great’ and ‘incredible’ moves are not hard to come by on the easier songs.

Rather than a static image showing an upcoming move, you are now treated to a moving image showing the full move in all its glory, while a countdown ticks down with the beat to let you know when to change to the new move. Simple idea that works very well, especially for the first few times you dance to the song. With a visual reference to the move on screen it’s easier to make the transition into the next move. On easier routines dance moves spread out across several measures letting you perform the move a few times before throwing the next one in, whereas harder routines have you changing moves every 4 beats at times to keep you on your toes before throwing in a final pose.

Those looking for something more substantial will find more on offer in the main game mode, the ‘Deluxe Experience’. In here you can create and customise your own dancer, select a venue and dance alongside the Black Eyed Peas. After selecting your first venue you are then offered a choice of all the songs on the disc from the start. No unlocking of songs is required and no real story mode progression is offered. Those expecting something as rich and detailed as The Beatles: Rock Band, charting the bands success through the years and unlocking newer songs as you go will be sadly disappointed. There is no incentive at all, except an achievement, to play through every song; instead players can simply choose their favourite song and dance away. Rinse and repeat as required.

What this mode does manage however is to break the songs down for you. Before you can jump instantly into a song you’re placed alongside the backing dancers to learn the moves required of the routine; with the song broken down into 3 sections, each with 3 dance moves to learn. With completion of each task required before you move on it’s a very good way of introducing players to the routines. Still struggling?  Simply raise a hand and go into coach mode. This slows the song right down with a handy instructor talking you through each move. This is all done during the routine and once you have mastered the move you can seamlessly jump back in at full speed. This is extremely helpful for some of the trickier moves required.

Once you have progressed through each training level you can then jump on stage with the Black Eyed Peas and perform the full routine with them. Each of the ‘Peas’ has been modelled very well and all of the five venues are bright and vibrant, with backing dancers littering the stage and crowd. Before certain songs members of the band maybe issue you a challenge ranging from scoring an ‘A’ rank or higher, to scoring 20 ‘incredible’ moves during the song. The better you do the more followers you will unlock. Each new follower unlocks various items for you avatar, allows you upgrade existing venues and unlock new ones. With only 5 venues and no extra songs to unlock there is very little in the way of an actual story progression, which is sadly needed in a game focusing on just one band.

Those with a creative mind may find the Choreo-Maker right up their street. With 32 slots to fill, players can select any of the moves from any song and place them into a custom routine. Create a workout style routine with measure after measure of fist pumps and jumps, or create a technical challenge featuring some of the harder moves in the game. Unsure of the name of the move you want to use? You can perform the move and the game will select the one you mean by sensing your dancing. This feature however never ever worked for me successfully. Even simple moves were not recognised. Once created you can share you custom routine with friends and download routines recommended to you.

With a large amount of unlockable content for your character to wear and challenges to complete from the Black Eyed Peas there is an incentive to continue playing this game. Your fondness of the Black Eyed Peas though will determine how much you do come back however. With every song available from the start and a paltry amount of venues there is a lot of repetitiveness to be found. With no incentive to try new songs you will often find yourself replaying your favourite songs over and over again to boost followers.  While there are a healthy amount of songs of offer, all coming from the one band does make them very samey after a while.

This is the thing that will always hamper games specific to one band/artist. The much-needed diversity is not present to pull in gamers who are not fans of the music. With no story progression to pull players through the musical history of the band it struggles to become anything other than a quick pick up, play and put back down affair. As a band specific game it would have been nice to see unlocked videos, photos, artwork, or back-stage footage to satisfy fans of the band. Games like The Beatles: Rock Band managed to have a wealth of bonus content related to the band to unlock, this however has very little.

For the most part the game looks great and plays very well. Characters and venues look suitably impressive and the dance moves are both credible and accessible for gamers of all levels. The routines are well thought out with the Kinect camera doing a reasonable job of tracking your movements, for the most part. Occasional problems with body detection were evident at times leading to frustration mid-dance. A complex move would register every time, yet a simple hand pump would leave my on screen character doing some sort of crazy chicken dance before snapping back into place and registering perfect. These occasions were minimal, but still annoying when they occurred.

With some fantastic songs on offer that are perfectly suited to this genre, this is a very good dancing game. Some clever new features elevate this game up alongside its main competitors and the pulling power of The Black Eyed Peas gives the game an instant following. It is sadly let down by the lack of bonus content you would expect from a band specific title, no story progression and little motivation to at least attempt more than half the songs on offer. Fans of The Black Eyed Peas will no doubt love this game and accept its flaws and lack of content. Those looking for something different from Dance Central and Just Dance 3 may find the lack of variety becomes repetitive very quickly.