Just Dance 2016 | Review

This is my first experience of a Just Dance Game, other than one Christmas where my younger cousin demanded a dance off with me. Needless to say, it wasn't a defining moment in my life.
The game is simple and does as it says. Just Dance, and I guess that its that simplicity that keeps people coming back for more each year.

Although, for me this is another one of those yearly releases to fall in the category of FIFA (Stick with me), where is a yearly iteration really necessary? Couldn't updates be done such as what destiny has done where you can pay so much for an expansion and get a load of new songs etc?

I'm sure that would be more effective on development than churning them out year after year, and would put more emphasis and time on what new features etc could be added, and give them time to perfect it as well in a 2/3 year turnaround.

The game is bright and colourful from the start, and has a nice aurora about it. You can play the game either via your Kinect or through an app on your smartphone. So its all good, you don’t need Kinect... But... Do you feel comfortable holding or letting your child hold what could be a very expensive Smartphone or Tablet while dancing. The outcomes could be disastrous, such as broken phones/tablets or phones being wedged through TV screens. Its a good way to get around the whole not everyone has a Kinect, but you have to make sure your holding it tight....

Now onto the actual dancing part. Hmmm where to start, there is a rather colourful person in front of you and there are kind of stickmen that float across the bottom right of the screen to help with timing, and to also show you how to do the moves.

My timing and coordination in everyday things isn't the best, so trying to keep up with the moves, just ended up me dancing like Mr Bean, it cant have been all that bad though as I got a fair few Golden ‘Yeeeeahs’. If you don’t know what the Mr Bean dance is, YouTube is your friend.

With the dancing, when I tried to follow the person on the screen, I couldn't keep up things were too fast for me and i felt like i was more having a fit then actually dancing, and the guys scrolling the in corner i couldn't tell half the time what they were wanting me to do, whether it was a spin, jump forward or what, so I kind of went with that I felt like I wanted to do, and it registered I moved so I was quite happy with that haha!



This game I feel is aimed more for the younger generation and those who can actually bust a move, although it is fun watching people do it and makes for a good party game where everyone can get involved and look rather silly.

There wasn’t much music on the game I recognised, unfortunately for me I was brought up on the music of the 80’s and that’s where my taste generally stays ha!

Menus within the game are simplistic and easy to navigate, and this fits in easy with the rest of the style of the game, and with this being aimed more towards younger children and families, this is a very good style as it also makes it quick to get into the game and start a dance. No one likes to sit there waiting for a game to start, after a while people lose interest, luckily, this is a very quick game to boot up and get going with.

The music for the menus is relaxing and easy going and quite relaxing, although left on repeat it can get very annoying, as I am finding out now while writing this haha!

There are different areas which you can go into:
• Dance Party – This is your standard playlist where you can pick a song and dance away to it, there is also an option in there to dance as a team!
• Dance Quest – Each section within Dance Quest will give you random songs to dance too and you have to be top of the shop before moving on, and after finishing these, as long as you have met the objectives you will move onto the next lot.
• World Video Challenge – Show the world your moves... then compete against them to score higher... I don’t think anyone would want to see my moves... Its a no from Joon haha!
• Sweats & Playlists – With this you can use it as a work out, you have the option of setting playlists and using those songs to work out too, or you can do a non stop shuffle and just work out to your hearts content. I find this section quite good as it means the game can be used not just for fun and parties, but also to have a good workout.
• Showtime – You need the Kinect sensor for this section, and this will basically create a video of your dance.
• Just Dance TV – This section allows you to watch others dances... There are some hilarious ones on there. From people dressed as Pikachu to Karate Kid...

For what it is, this is a good game, but it is very limited and does as it says on the tin, and after a while there’s only so many times that I can not only dance but listen to the same songs over and over.

I’m going to give this a 3/5