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Just Dance is back, and I am late in my video review for the Nintendo Switch version! Oh well, at least I can say that this is the best Just Dance game yet, right… Right… (look worried) Right….
[Intro]
As a quick history lesson, Just Dance is Ubisoft’s premiere dancing game. Originally developed on the Wii, the series has pushed out dozens of sequels and spin-offs. You can see my reviews in the playlist linked below… trying to get through every game in the series by reviewing the current and two previous ones every year. The objective of the entire Just Dance series is to… Just Dance. Just grab your controller or phone and get grooving. The game reads the movements and rates you on how well you follow the avatar on screen. Over the years, I have become increasingly critical of the laziness the game has become. I was hoping 2023 would be a breath of fresh air.
And it was a breath of fresh air. If that air was fresh from the sewage factory. After using the same game repeatedly and just swapping out the songs and a feature or two for years, we finally got a redesign. Gone is the blinding white screen, and instead, we have this super cool dark mode, which looks great. The entire menu has been overhauled to now with a home screen featuring playlists and individual songs. There is now a new menu that opens when clicking on a song that shows the leaderboards, your score, related songs, and a tagging system that’s just wonderful. Gone is that gumball machine with unlockables now being tied to achievements and the level system, much like other Ubisoft games. The song thumbnails also look incredible, and their art for the characters is just *chef kiss*.
The redesign looks excellent and is incredibly refreshing after sticking to the same design for a hundred years. It is also absolutely janky as hell on the Nintendo Switch. There is constant loading between moving between songs and scrolling through the menu. The game stutters a lot while dancing too, which is incredibly disappointing. Granted, some blame can be on the Nintendo Switch’s dated hardware. However, the game uses Unity as its engine, away from the UbiArt Framework of previous games. The engine has been battle tested with Thousands of games on the Switch. Many run perfectly fine doing more intense work than this game. The game basically streams the dance video, overlays it with a GUI, and reads the controller movements. It shouldn’t be doing that much to make it stutter. I don’t remember any other games having this problem, either. It’s been a few months since the game was released, and there is just no fix in sight for these issues, which is disappointing.
The game controls pretty much as well as any other game in the series. It works perfectly for me and my big man arms. I am obese, so I tone down my movements, and the score reflects it. Still get four stars, though. The game is meant to be played in a group, and I often play with my Wife, who absolutely loves it. It’s one of her favorite games to play together. Probably the best endorsement I can give to this game. You can use either the Joy-Con or your mobile phone to dance with. I prefer the Joy-con since the phone is too heavy, but either option works. No issues with the controls at all for me.
The most important aspect of the series is the Song list, and this one is a bit of a meh to me. They have a few Rock songs, which I love. “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence and “Numb” by Linkin Park are awesome editions that make 4th-grade jack rock out with glee. The pop songs range from Britney Spears’s “Toxic” to the absolutely perfect “Telephone” by Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce. These are mixed with mediocre hits like “Wannabe” by Itzy and “Sweet by Psycho” by Ava Max. I feel like the song list is way too 2000’s focus, with a need for some older classics. Where is my slow Dance to Sinatra Just Dance? A bit more variety would be nice. I feel that 2022 had a better song list, but it’s not nearly as bad as some other games. Truly a middle-of-the-road.
The visuals and choreography of the dances are still at the Just Dance 2022 level, which is great. There is so much focus on dynamic camera movements, interesting backgrounds, and unique animation and visuals. It is probably the best Just Dance game to look at. They even brought back the story mode as a playlist of a few songs to dance to with cut scenes in between. It only lasts thirty minutes, but… I guess it’s better than the nothing we got last year.
Hey, at least we have Just Dance unlimited to make up for it, right? Well… not really. Just Dance Unlimited has been replaced with Just Dance Plus. A new and improved subscription that improves nothing really and removes a ton of the songs in Just Dance Unlimited. As I write this, about six hundred songs are missing from this service than in the last one. I get that they have to add tags to all the songs, which takes time, but isn’t that what Interns are for? You can use and abuse them, and they don’t even get a job afterward. A beautiful system we have here in America. It was developed in Paris, but I’m keeping the Joke in.
The missing songs are not the only thing missing, either. The World Dance Floor in the other games is not gone, which is disappointing. Remember that cool sweat mode that displayed the estimated calories burned and the time left in the song? That is gone too. I hate to say it, but Smurfs Dance Party has this feature, but Just Dance 2023 doesn’t? Remember how in the old games, if you liked a few songs, you could make a playlist and go through them all at once? Well, why would you want to do that in 2023? Just dance to whatever song is on the home page. Who cares about your little choice. The previous games were already lacking in content and customizability. Why in the world would you remove more features from it? There are no new modes, no real new features other than what I mentioned with the achievements. They got rid of the daily challenges, which at times, were the only thing that motivated me to play. Honestly, they should have just removed more from it. Remove the songs and the characters and just have some stick figure dancing in a white void. Charge it two dollars, and I would probably be happier. That’s how bad I think this game is.
These features may or may be added back in. It looks like Just Dance 2023 will be the last annual game. All future releases will be added through updates to this one which is a good concept. Having a single game for which you can release constant updates and fixes rather than focusing on a new build each year is great for the developers and consumers. No more fifty-dollar payments. You get the new version now if you are subscribed to Just Dance Plus, which is twenty-five dollars. I think this will last two years before they return to the yearly release cycle with Spin-offs for more money. Remember when Windows 10 was set to be the last version of Windows? Now rumors on Windows 12 are coming out in 2024, and I’ve barely upgraded.
My overall opinion for Just Dance 2023 is to wait. They are releasing new songs every week, and hopefully, some of the bugs will be smoothed out, and content can be added. While a fun game, the formula desperately needed a shake-up, and this version promised that. All we got in return was a broken promise. This may be controversial, but Just Dance 2023 may be the worst Just Dance to date. We’ll see what the series has in store in the next year, 2024. Hey, that rhymed!
So, guys, that’s it for today’s video on Just Dance 2023. If you liked this video, please give it a big thumbs up! While you’re down there, leave a comment below. I try to answer every single comment I get. Subscribe to the YouTube channel for new videos every single Friday. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @truejackjenk. Visit my website at Jack-jenkins.com. Lastly, have a fantastic day, everyone. All of you guys are incredibly amazing.