So, today’s the big day — the release of the Kinect Star Wars video game for Xbox 360 (and of the Star Wars-themed console bundle too).

Now you can play a Star Wars game without the need for a controller; you can be a Jedi, and you can pilot some cool spaceships and go to galaxies far, far away.

Awesome, right?

Well, how about this one? Apparently, Kinect Star Wars also a Galactic Dance Off Mode. A. DANCE. MODE. Dancing. There’s dancing in the game. Dancing with popular Star Wars characters like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. Dance.

First off, I don’t know how in writing about the release of this game several times now that I somehow missed that there was a dance mode. Ok, fine, that’s cool, I dig those dancing games, I’ve done the whole Dance Dance Revolution thing and I own the Wii game Michael Jackson: The Experience, so no reason to fret. Dancing with my Star Wars homies might be pretty cool.

Then I saw some video of the dance-off gameplay and no, it’s not cool. It’s so not cool. It’s not even so much that the dance moves are bad (although, I am embarrassed for Han), it’s that it’s done to pop hits that have been rewritten with Star Wars-related lyrics. For instance, that song “Ridin’ Solo” is now “Han Solo.”

There’s a video up on YouTube of the Dance Mode gameplay — a video, I might add, that I can’t seem to stop watching as I am simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by what I see. (The image above is a screenshot from the video.) Check out the video here below and let us know your thoughts on it.

From the product page, here’s the info on the Galactic Dance Off Mode:

• Dance for Jabba the Hutt and against many of your other favorite Star Wars characters
• Star Wars characters provide the music, which includes tongue-in-cheek remakes of popular songs with a Star Wars theme
• Fifteen songs with difficulty settings for every song, character unlockables and comedic value
• Dance in four different locations: Jabba’s Palace on Tattooine, Bespin, Coruscant and the Death Star
• Dance your way through increasing difficulties and planets to unlock a secret song at the end of the progression.

Video

Thanks to my pal Ryan McNutt for the head’s up about this YouTube video.