Another year, another dancing game. Ubisoft has released a new version of their fantastic franchise "Just Dance", now for the year 2015! Including some of the most popular songs of the moment, Just Dance clings to the year-old formula of dancing to the songs most people know like "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel (better known to my kids as the Frozen song) or "Addicted to You" by Aviccii. So let's put on our dancing shoes and get into the groove!
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| What does the Fox say? |
Just Dance 2015
As previously explained, Just Dance is a dancing game played with one to four players. Age ratings go from 5 to 'whenever you break your hip'. With the use of either your controller (WiiMote or PS Move controller), or using the camera on an XBox or Playstation, the game picks up your movement and compares them to the expected result. The dance moves you should be doing are displayed on screen, as well as a dancer who shows you exactly what to do. These moves go from a simple sidestep, to the complete choreography of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". By dancing your shoes off, you'll be awarded stars, up to a maximum of 5.
Let's make one thing clear from the start. You won't become a pro on the dance floor, but at least you might make a less stiff board the next time you go out to a party.
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| You'll need some athletics for some songs |
The road to stardom is paved with bad songs
When you start out with Just Dance, you'll create a basic character profile where you enter your name, and get to choose from a range of avatars. By playing new songs, you'll unlock new avatars and earn stars. These stars are then converted to "mojo", being the currency in Just Dance. Using this mojo, you are able to buy new mashups, dance styles for songs you already have and more. These provide you with extra challenge. Other songs are unlocked either by finishing a number of other songs, or simply by buying them. This will make you play even those terrible, TERRIBLE songs like One Direction's "Best Song Ever" (where you dance around like a Power Ranger, no kidding..) in the hopes of unlocking the more fun styles. Next to that, the game shows you how much games you've played, total playing time, burnt calories, .. but only for one account. If you're sharing a console with your significant other, sorry! Everything you achieve, is combined on the main account. High scores are saved per person.
I've never heard this before!
There are 45 songs included in this version of Just Dance. These songs include classic songs like "Don't worry, be happy", up until very recent songs like "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. The European market has been rewarded with Stromae's "Papaoutai" (especially Belgian fans ^_^), although the occasional quirks have certainly been added. The Tetris song, which has co-operative dance moves provides instant hilarity, and the "Epic Sirtaki", or bollywood's "Christmas Tree" will even make the most fast players gasp for breath the first times. Children and teens will recognize some more poppy songs, while the older gamers find their needs fullfilled with the golden oldies. All in all, the songlist gives everyone a song on which they are willing to test the waters.
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| Shake, shake shake |
Sing your heart out!
Continuing one of their features of Just Dance 2014 is the inclusion where you can sing along with the songs. Not only is the song text scrolling along your screen, but if you plug in a microphone you can hear your voice blurring out the screen. Although I'm not that good of a singer, this can certainly speak to a certain crowd. Although those who'd want to sing are more likely to plug in SingStar than dance and sing.. A new feature is the fact you can now invite random players to fill your stage. Simply by selecting a button, Just Dance adds random players to your empty spaces. Although this doesn't add much to the game, it immediately increases the competition in the game. Your scores are not only compared with your opponents in this round, but in the overview, you'll see where your score ranks up in your country, and even worldwide. These kinds of leaderboards have become default, nevertheless are still a more than appreciated feature.
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| Dad must be so ashamed.. |
Verdict
Having played more than 30 hours (admittedly mostly "Let it Go" with the kids..), all songs with a minimum rating of 3 stars, and a broken vase (and Wii console :-/) I can only say that this game is great to be played during a party night. Not only does it provide hilarious moments during some of the songs Like "Tetris", or the new classic "What does the Fox say", but it lends well to all ages. I've played this game mostly on the preferred console being Wii, and had some chance to play it on Kinect and PlayStation 4 as well, and although the camera does allow for free movement, it does have trouble picking up the correct player when you start dancing around. This problem won't occur when using controllers. Although the game contains about 50 songs (including the extra routines) I'm hoping more will become available free as well, since the cost per song doesn't speak to me that much. The loading times can sometimes be annoying, but overall I really liked the game.
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| I wanne be Elsa! |
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