Usher talks bringing moves to 'Dance Central 3'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Usher thinks gamers will be fallin’ in love with his dance moves.

The 33-year-old R&B star took to the stage Monday at Microsoft’s Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference to unveil his role in “Dance Central 3,” the upcoming third installment of the popular choreography game developed by Harmonix for Xbox 360’s camera-based Kinect system.

“After looking at the first game, I was like, ‘Man, they didn’t really get the moves right, so I was able to 100 percent give them accuracy through choreography from videos, as well as from my live performance,” Usher said backstage after he performed “Scream” at the industry trade show.

Usher’s songs “Scream” and “OMG” featuring will.i.am are in the upcoming game. He acknowledged that working on “Dance Central 3” was a new experience since he was only familiar with older titles.

“At some point, I had to put them down because my thumbs were black and blue,” Usher said. “I still have the callouses built up. You see this little black mark right here? That’s from hours and hours of ‘Tecmo Bowl’ and ‘Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.'”

Other tunes set to be featured in the third edition of the franchise include 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” and Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How to Dougie.”

Usher joked that “Dance Central 3,” which will be available this fall, will give male players with some swagger.

“How many guys don’t know how to move?” he said. “One sure way to make yourself completely unattractive is to not know how to move at a party. …Get ‘Dance Central 3,’ learn a few moves, and throw it into your repertoire.”

New features in “Dance Central 3” include a “crew throwdown” mode, which pits two teams of up to four dancers against each other, and the “make your move” mini-game, which will have players competing head-to-head as they create routines on the fly.

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AP Entertainment Writers Derrik J. Lang and Ryan Pearson are tweeting at E3..