Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the head of a secret organization and his chief scientist.

I have never been one to be shy when it comes to trumpeting my love of story and world-building in video games. I have always stated in the past how I find the inclusions of such elements are a positive one and a game is always better for having a story than not. And the borderline insane story that will be included in Dance Central 3 only reaffirms my feelings on such matters. Oh, the story is ridiculous even by the standards of a genre whose past efforts at storytelling (such as Elite Beat Agents) know a thing or two about ridiculous, but at least it is gloriously ridiculous. No half-measures here.

How divorced from reality is Dance Central 3‘s story? Check it: the game centers around an EBA style agency that gets into dance fights to combat an evil would-be world-conquering dance syndicate that performs dance crimes as part of their said bid for world conquest. Even better, both groups can harness the power of dance for time travel as part of a larger war over the causing and preventing of dance-based temporal distortions. And yes, I really did write those sentences and no, I am not kidding. If you do not believe me (and I cannot honestly say I would blame you if you did not) then buckle your seat belt and prepare to enter crazy town at full speed by watching the developers diaries, along with the game’s intro cinematic, below:

I thought I knew crazy, I really did. Heck, I am neck-deep in the middle of reviewing Way of the Samurai 4 , an open world game so ludicrous it makes Saints Row the Third almost look normal for Pete’s sakes. And yet, I still have trouble believing I just wrote that last paragraph. Considering how non-story driven the first two Dance Central titles were (not to mention the overall output of developer Harmonix in general), I guess I can admire the willingness to go all-in on something. And to think, we all thought Star Wars Kinect would easily be the game with the most jaw droppingly non sequitur dance sequences in 2012. Live and learn, live and learn.

Dance Central 3 is due out in North America for Xbox 360 and the Kinect on October 16 and Europe and the UK on October 19. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.