Party continues with 'Just Dance 3'

— -- Ubisoft is likely tapping its heels over the worldwide success of its Just Dance video game series —now with more than 30 million players, says the company — but fans of the Nintendo Wii franchise can expect even more music and moves in the newly-released Just Dance 3.

And for the first time, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers can get in on the action.

As with its predecessors, Just Dance 3 challenges you to mimic moves of professional dancers in order to rack up as many points as possible. Instead of stepping on a mat as with the once-popular Dance Dance Revolution games, you'll hold the motion-sensing Wii Remote or PlayStation Move controller in your hand as you dance to the music and unlock new modes and other extras.

Xbox 360 gamers can play using the hands-free Kinect for Xbox 360 peripheral; body moves are captured by the sensors and camera to compare your rhythm against the onscreen dancers, which appear as colorful silhouettes in front of an animated background.

Having played the Nintendo Wii version in the past, I found the Kinect version a lot more fun. You don't have to hold anything in your hands to play. And a friend or family member can step in front of the television at any time — even during a song — and they'll automatically join.

Along with earning points for dancing well, you'll get a quick summary of each move with an "X" (fail), "OK," "Good" or "Perfect," and you can earn up to five stars per game. The person with the golden crown over their name means they're currently the top scorer. Lyrics can also be seen in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, but you'll be too busy to read them.

The game houses more than 40 tracks to dance along with, spanning a wide range of musical genres, including pop, hip-hop, rock, country, disco, R&B, Bollywood, and Reggaeton.

The selection also folds in songs from the past seven decades, such as Johannes Brahms' "Hungarian Dance No. 5" (1950s), Wilson Pickett's Land of 1000 Dances (1960s), Kiss's I Was Made For Loving You (1970s), A-Ha's Take On Me (1980s), Britney Spears' …Baby One More Time (1990s), Black Eyed Peas' Pump It (2000s) and today's hits like Katy Perry's California Gurls and Cee Lo Green's Forget You. More songs will be available via optional download.

The game includes numerous modes — a few new ones and others from past games (like "Simon Says"). Top picks include the revamped "Just Sweat" mode with varying workout plans and playlists and a "Party" mode that keeps the tunes going without needing to select from menus.

The game now supports up to four simultaneous players (though I only tested three for the purposes of this review). The Xbox 360 version offers a "Shout Out!" feature, which lets you score extra points by singing along with the tunes, captured by Kinect's microphone. You also have the option to create your own unique choreographies and share them online with others.

Be forewarned Just Dance 3 has very basic visuals, with nowhere near the graphical detail seen in other dancing games like MTV Games' Dance Central series. But the game focuses heavily on the music, modes and taking advantage of the motion-controlling interfaces from the three platforms. If you like past Just Dance games you'll love Just Dance 3, plus newcomers to this social game series will no doubt fall for its accessibility and charm.

Speaking of music games, you can download a free music book called Music Games Rock: Rhythm Gaming's Greatest Hits of All Time, written by industry veteran Scott Steinberg and available at MusicGamesRock.com.

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Just Dance 3

Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii

Genre: Rhythm

Developer: Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher: Ubisoft

Web site: justdancegame.com

Price: $39.99

Rating: "Everyone 10+"

Score: 3.5 stars (out of 4)

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Contact Saltzman at techcomments@usatoday.com.