Just Dance Review
Like most children, my nieces and nephews are easily amused. Often, they’ll spend hours in front of a closet mirror, choreographing impromptu dance moves, to the music on the radio. Clearly, the developers at Ubisoft Paris have witnessed this phenomenon, too. Their recently released diversion- Just Dance, asks participants to mimic the rhythmic moves of on-screen guide. Within minutes of opening the box, the youngsters were instinctively swaying to the beat, forgoing even a quick peek at the game’s flimsy instruction manual.
One of Just Dance’s virtues is the title’s intuitivism; each player picks up a single Wiimote, and like the moniker indicates- just dances. Participants don’t have to worry about using a Nunchuck or pressing any buttons during a routine. In fact, the hardest element of the game for my six-year old niece was keeping her excited hand steady enough to make a song selection. With up to four simultaneous participants, finding an area large enough to accommodate a grooving group may also be challenging.
Once one of the title’s 32 songs are picked, a silhouette appears, along with scrolling icons indicating upcoming moves. The on-screen protagonists are diverse, with men and weapon in colorful attire, and even a floppy-eared canine for “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Most dances are composed of a handful of smaller, repeating routines- once players learn the five or six basic moves for each dance they’ll be able to effortlessly follow along.
Sadly, Just Dance’s recognition system is miserably inadequate. In theory, each movement is evaluated with a great, ok, or bad rating. However, faultless imitations of the on-screen avatar often resulted in a demoralizing mark, while an undisciplined snap can occasionally produce a top grade. The game’s detection is bad enough to cripple the game’s combo system, since moves are so erratically scored. Surprisingly, any failings with the title’s move recognition were dismissed by my nieces. For them, flailing around the room, not keeping score, was the focal point.
What they did notice was the disk’s deficiency of unlockables. Accustomed to the reward systems of Lego Rock Band and the Guitar Hero series, they were upset that Just Dance didn’t reward their lively twist and turns. Without the requisite incentive music game’s offered, motivation began to sour. While additional licensed songs would have increased the game’s budget, I see no reason that something as simple as supplementary player icons weren’t included. At least the game’s collection of songs were appealing, with a sundry of artists ranging from Katy Perry to MC Hammer.
Beyond the game’s Classic mode, two other variations exist. Last One Standing gives each player seven lives, penalizing players for bad moves, while granting additional lives for a five combo stretch. With the title’s finicky scoring system, this deviation proved to be more frustrating than fun. Better was Strike a Pose, the game’s Red Light-Green Light deviation, which requires participants to sporadically freeze.
Just Dance’s appeal to youngsters is undeniable. Although the disk’s forty dollar price and its movement detection are both significant hindrances, both will mean little to adolescent audiences. The title’s appeal can be inversely correlated to the age of participants. Any Wii-owning households with pre-teens should probably inflate the score one grade level.
Did you get your groove on Deagle? Or was it just the kids?
(Oh,the shame?)
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I can tell things are slowing down. from MW2 to this!
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You should have let Adam or Sean tackle this one
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Songlist?
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1. Acceptable in the 80’s – Calvin Harris
2. A Little Less Conversation – Elvis Presley
3. Bebe – Divine Brown
4. Can’t Get You Out of My Head – Kylie Minogue
5. Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex
6. Hot n’ Cold – Katy Perry
7. Dare – Gorillaz
8. Eye of the Tiger – Survivor (Rocky)
9. Fame – In the style of Irene Cara (cover)
10. Funplex CSS – The B 52’s
11. Girls and Boys – Blur
12. Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cindi Lauper
13. Groove is in the Heart – Dee-Lite
14. Heart of Glass – Blondie
15. I Get Around – The Beach Boys
16. I Like to Move it – Reel To Real
17. Jerk it Out – Caesars
18. Jin Go Lo Ba – Fat Boy Slim
19. Kids in America – Kim Wilde
20. Le Freak – Chic
21. Louie Louie – Iggy Pop
22. Lump – The Presidents Of The USA
23. Mashed Potato Time – Dee Dee Sharp
24. Pump up the Jam – Technotronic
25. Ring My Bell – Anita Ward
26. Step by Step – New Kids On The Block
27. Surfin’ Bird – The Trashmen
28. That’s the Way (I Like it) – Kc & The Sunshine Band
29. U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer
30. Wannabe – The Spice Girls
31. Who Let the Dogs Out? – Baha Men
32. Womanizer – In the style of Britney Spears (cover)
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None of these songs interest me.
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It's hard to believe the same system that has New Super Mario Bros Wii has this crap.
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I heard Ubi was having trouble with their Wii title. God knows why.
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Is there any shooting an the dancing people? That would be awesome.
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Poor Deagle! Having to review this.
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Yep, my kids love to dance and act stupid in front on the mirror. I'll consider this when it drops below $20.
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Yeah, $20 seems about right.
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I think you touched on a good point. For Ubi to make a game with 30+ good licensed songs, they would have to charge $40.
I think the concept of the game is the problem. Maybe they should have went a DLC route.
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Yeah, I think you're right.
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This has GOTY all over it. Along with Imagine: Make-Up Artist.
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I need a bone necklace like that dog.
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No funny captions for this one? you missed a golden opportunity!
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Should have called in Just Bad.
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Yep, I'm sure kids would like it, but $40?!?!
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Good review. I though IGN was really childish, saying "I'm too good to even finish reviewing this" LAME
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What? No Hannah Montana?
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Ubi turns out great games and garbage in equal doses.
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Yep, I'll be skipping this one.
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There should be a 12 and under warning sticker on this one
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Decent list of songs at least.
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Just say no.
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I got to agree, this ones a bit overpriced.
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Listen to you fossils gettin' your hate on...
Look...most of you social rejects will drop $40 on a Starschmuck's coffee without thinking...THIS is a party game...AND it is fun.
Stop reviewing it from a pension-chasing, neo-con viewpoint...!
Cheap basterds...
Fat Elvis Rulz...
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I love this game, as well as my wife.
we are not gamers, I don't like Mario games, I can't play Rock Band, and I hate COD.
but we, non-gamers also have right to play games! and we are usually the people who can decide which game a family can buy.
I think from my point, you gamers can understand why this game gets so low score in almost all the gamer web sites, but still beat COD off the top.
I gave this game a score 10, and, for sure, I bought it!
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I'm a gamer. But i'm not so close minded. I gave this game a try, and DAMN, is the most fun i've ever had. It was a star in 2 parties already, and i call my friends to play it every time i can.
The main problem with "gamers" is that they don't want to play it, and when they do play it, they want to cheat it, AND IT WILL NOT WORK.
There's really no problem with the score system, me and my friends can play the whole song on the Last Standing, because, you know, we really try to play the game how it was meant to.
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