"WiiPop" is the First Game to Use Wiimotes and Kinect at the Same Time

It takes two types of motion controls to make the ultimate dance video game.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Does doing the same routine in Dance Central seem boring to you? Are you to take your video game dancing to the next level? Check out WiiPop - A game devoted solely to freestyle popping. (Yes, as in popping and locking.) Dancer dance to songs to get a high score, either solo in two-player competition. After each song, the game allows you to see what looks like very advanced statistics based on your moves.

How is the Wii able to judge dances that aren't pre-recorded, you ask? It can't. Wiipop uses Wiimotes and the Kinect together to accurately record players' movements.

Wiipop uses the Kinect to observe the players movements in three-dimensional space: It can tell what direction the player is moving, what body parts are in action, etc.

Though it seems like the Kinect is doing most of the leg work, Wiimote is absolutely essential to the experience: Without it, the game wouldn't be able to tell the difference between moving and dancing. The game uses the Wiimote to sense the rate of movement, and tell whether the player's movements are in sync with the beat of the music.

To be fair, WiiPop seems more like a dance training tool than a game. You need to know how to pop in order for it to be a remotely enjoyable experience. For someone looking to expand their horizons or tweak their style, it seems like an amazing tool, though.

[Via WiiPop Dancing Video Game]

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