[Review] Just Dance 2014

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

Premiere Date: October 1, 2013
Series: Just Dance
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Awards: Choosing a Kids Favorite Video Game Award
Developers: Ubisoft, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Romania, Ubisoft Barcelona

 

If what you want from a dance game is instruction on how to become a better dancer, Just Dance is not the one for you. For that you probably want Dance Central’s detailed choreography breakdowns and practice moves. But as a party game, for me Just Dance wins out every time. It’s gloriously silly, colourful, riotous fun, and it has the magical power to make people want to dance before the usually mandatory two glasses of wine. Technically it’s never been the most accomplished dance game around, but it’s always been the most fun, and Just Dance 2014 continues its fine tradition of wonderfully outlandish costumes, easy-to-follow moves, and energetic personality whilst ramping up the production values and choice of modes.

Track-list wise, Just Dance sticks closer to modern pop than any previous entry in the series – its 47-song list is dominated by the likes of One Direction, Katy Perry, Nicky Minaj and – finally – Lady Gaga, but there’s some ABBA, Village People, Bob Marley and, um, Daft Punk for variety. When Just Dance started off it couldn’t afford original songs, let alone original current songs, but now it’s bursting with them. There’s no way any of this stuff would make its way onto my iPod, as I’m tediously earnest in my musical taste, but it’s still fun to dance to.

 

 

It is, as ever, the choreography that makes Just Dance 2014. There are no motion-captured 3D models here – instead there are videos of real dancers, captured in all their vivacity and energy, inviting you to mirror their moves. It plays a clever psychological trick: because you’re following the moves like you’re looking in a mirror, it makes you feel like you might actually look like the professional dancer, even though what you actually look like (gifted dancers excluded) is a drunk person flailing at your TV in your living room, gut peeking ever so slightly over your trousers when you stretch your arms towards the ceiling.

The routines – accessible, silly, and endearingly creative – regularly made me laugh out loud. It’s the songs designed for two, three, or four that really shine. There’s a Ghostbusters routine where one of you is Slimer, a Ke$ha song that has one person riding around on the other’s back for a while, three-person choreography for Careless Whisper, an I Kissed a Girl routine that is sure to lead to some epic house-party awkwardness, and ludicrous alternate mash-up versions for several songs where the most outlandish moves and costumes dwell. Costumes include a giant panda suit, a hippo head with a little bowler hat perched on top, a Gundam robot vs. a cat-eared anime girl, Russian hats, bouncing wigs, gold chains, sheer dresses, awesome bodysuits, and smart waistcoats with skinny ties. In The Summertime features four dancers dressed as giant pieces of fruit.

It’s a party foul that some of the best stuff, including most of the On Stage choreography designed for three or four people, is hidden behind an unlock barrier; the more you dance, the more versions of songs you unlock, including Battle mode mashups. The On Stage versions are a particular reward – they cast one dancer as the star and the others as backing dancers, and provide a stage for particularly ostentatious dancers to shine. They’re also brimming with sexual tension, an essential element of any classic party game from Truth or Dare to Twister. One evening of dancing with friends was enough to unlock most of what we wanted, but nothing bums out a party like “Sorry, we can’t play that one yet.”

The Just Sweat workout mode hasn’t changed much since Just Dance 2, but the online features have gotten better and better. There’s a constantly rolling global dance-off called the World Dancefloor that you can join at anytime, dancing along with everyone else in the world to a pre-determined tracklist. It’s good for alleviating the decision paralysis that comes with a track list this big, along with the Recommended suggestions that pop up on the menu screens.

Just Dance 2014 is out on Wii U, Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 right now, with PS4 and Xbox One versions coming later. Those later version will bring six-person dances into the mix, but amongst the current-gen versions there is remarkable feature parity. The Wii version looks worse than the others, lacking the HD sheen that shows off the Just Dance series’ ever-increasing production values, but all the online features are intact – and by the looks of things, it’s the version with by far the biggest uptake, so if the World Dancefloor sounds like your bag then it might be the best one to go for regardless.

 

 

The Wii is where Just Dance has always been most at home, even without a Kinect or Eye camera. In face it's better without a camera. Without something in your hands the relationship between what your body is doing and what Just Dance is telling you feels even more disconnected, and frankly I’m not sure Kinect really bothers to track your choreography much on the Xbox 360 version. With the Wii remote it only has to worry about one limb, and it can pretty much manage that.

This is a problem that Just Dance has always had: the relationship between what you’re doing and how it scores you is pretty loose. It makes for enthusiasm and positioning, but it’s hardly precise. In all honesty, though, who on Earth cares? Just Dance is better at getting people and dancing than anything since alcohol, and my friends at least aren’t serious enough dancers to get twitchy about the scoring system. You could sit there on the couch and twitch the Wii remote if you wanted, but what would be the point?

 

 

Verdict
Just Dance 2014 exerts no pressure, and demands no skill. It just invites you to have fun with it, whoever you are and whatever music you like. It’s wildly silly, creative and colourful, relying on daft, characterful choreography and to evoke a party atmosphere that puts everyone at ease. There’s not a lot here that wasn’t in Just Dance 4, or even Just Dance 3, but the series’ talent for getting people up and dancing is still unmatched. Dancing is fun no matter what, but this game is a master facilitator of that fun, a catalyst for laughter.