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Just Dance review: Just Dance

Groove may be in Deee-Lite's heart, but it will be far from yours after you've finished with Just Dance.

Lexy Savvides Principal Video Producer
Lexy is an on-air presenter and award-winning producer who covers consumer tech, including the latest smartphones, wearables and emerging trends like assistive robotics. She's won two Gold Telly Awards for her video series Beta Test. Prior to her career at CNET, she was a magazine editor, radio announcer and DJ. Lexy is based in San Francisco.
Expertise Wearables, smartwatches, mobile phones, photography, health tech, assistive robotics Credentials
  • Webby Award honoree, 2x Gold Telly Award winner
Lexy Savvides
3 min read

The proliferation of motion games and fitness titles for the Nintendo Wii can only mean one thing — there's a glut of rather shocking additions to the genre. And no, shocking in this context is not a good thing.

5.0

Just Dance

The Good

Up to four players can dance off against each other. A decent workout if you do it for long enough.

The Bad

Limited song choices. No reward system or bonus songs to unlock. Many songs may be unfamiliar to younger players.

The Bottom Line

The novelty of Just Dance is marred by its utter lack of innovation and replay value.

Enter Just Dance, stage left. In this game, players must, as the title suggests, dance off against an animated dancer on screen in order to accrue points. There are two gameplay options: either single player or multiplayer involving up to three other dancers using separate Wii remotes. In single player mode the dancer chooses a song (each with their own preset difficulty level) and must decide between performing a truncated version or the full length version of the song. Once the song begins, the dancer on screen, decked out in resplendent fluoro colours, performs moves which you must copy, with Wii remote in hand. The subsequent moves scroll from the right-hand side of the screen, giving you a sort of heads up in terms of what absurd move you must pull next.

Just Dance

Groove may be in Deee-Lite's heart, but it will be far from yours after you've finished with Just Dance. (Credit: Nintendo/Ubisoft)

Multiplayer mode makes things a little more interesting as up to four players can battle in a "last dancer standing" scenario, or a sort of musical chairs but with dance moves play off. That said, interest in the game doesn't last long as there's no ability to change the difficulty to cater for more proficient dancers playing against less experienced ones. As for the song choices, the packaging states there are "More than 30 original songs" (meaning just 32) including such gems as:

  • Katy Perry — Hot 'n' Cold
  • MC Hammer — U can't touch this
  • In the style of Irene Cara (cover) — Fame
  • Deee-Lite — Groove is in the heart
  • Technotronic — Pump up the jam
  • Cyndi Lauper — Girls just wanna have fun
  • Trashmen — Surfin' Bird
  • Blur — Girls & Boys

Admittedly, your humble author will not be auditioning for the next series of So You Think You Can Dance? anytime soon given the outcome of the first few dance routines. Feedback is immediate, with the system rating you against the professional dancer's moves on a scale of either "Good", "OK" or "Bad". As the song progresses, your status bar will fill with what we can only assume is bubbling, perhaps toxic coloured cordial to indicate your proficiency at the move. You can hazard a guess as to what the initial scores bestowed upon this author were.

Just Dance, otherwise you'll look like a chicken

You too can look as ridiculous as these people just by playing this game. (Credit: Nintendo/Ubisoft)

And now we must come, of course, to the so-called "professional" dancers themselves. Following the caricatured moves of a cartoon dancer outfitted in a comically oversized dog suit to the tune of Who Let The Dogs Out? may seem slightly absurd but it's a raucous affair, involving flailing limbs and enough euphoria to fuel a small nightclub into the wee hours of the morning. The other dancers are a little more reserved: of particular note, apart from the dog suit gentleman, is the housewife-cum-dancer donned out in an apron performing the curious matching dance to Mashed Potato Time.

While moving around in such manic methods may result in injury, it is actually enough to work up somewhat of a decent sweat if the song choices are difficult enough. It's unlikely to replace an actual workout any time soon but it could be an interesting supplement. That said, don't blame us if you find yourself flailing into your television set.

Unfortunately, this is where the entertainment ends. While Just Dance is an exercise (quite literally) in laughter for anyone over the age of 12 and old enough to have lived through the heyday of many of the songs the first time they came into vogue, for smaller kids and those closeted to the bastions of 1990's pop culture the song choices will be odd and unfamiliar. There's also the issue of longevity — there is absolutely no scope to move beyond the preset moves, nor is there the ability to unlock any extra songs or routines. This is not a game to absent-mindedly give as a gift as there's simply no replay value once you've mastered the moves. Coupled with the dearth of kid-familiar songs, this makes Just Dance a dud investment.