Just Dance 2 (Wii) Review

A realisation that may come as a shock to much newer players in the gaming world: games are meant to be fun. That’s right, not necessarily the most realistic looking, not the smoothest running, not the most cinematic, but the most fun. Why would I preface a review with such a strange and out of character statement for me? That’s probably because I’ve spent a lot of good time with Ubisoft’s sequel to one of the best selling Wii titles, Just Dance 2. And I really enjoyed it. In fact, almost everyone who was willing to play with me really enjoyed it. But a short paragraph is probably not enough to explain just why I enjoyed it – read on to find out how and why.

Just Dance 2 is the follow-up to Just Dance, a Nintendo Wii title that utilises the Wii Remote’s motion controls to make players mimic dance moves to commercially licensed songs, keeping score for certain players and declaring a winner at the end. The game is purely a party game, featuring no story or career modes like other games within this genre. Instead, everything is unlocked from the get-go and players can jump in and jump out as much as they please. It’s extremely accessible and a very simple concept that uses something that everyone has – their body.

Just Dance 2 utilises a glamourously styled user interface that is extremely simple to navigate. There aren’t a whole lot of things happening visually on the screen at any given time, but the use of multiple colours to create a fun looking game is very effective. During actual dance sequences, a silhouette dances the moves that players should imitate, and these moves, which I assume are professionally animated and/or captured, are very well presented and styled appropriately to the song that players are performing to. This graphical feedback not only assists the player in working out what to do but also adds to the overall party atmosphere of the game. The package is rather bare bones graphically, but what is there does the job perfectly, and the fluid animations make the game so much more accessible for those trying to pick up certain dance moves.

So, as you’re probably aware, the game utilises just the Wii Remote to judge the movements of the player in correspondence with a virtual avatar on the screen. There are silhouettes moving across the bottom of the screen to give players hints as to what movements they will be doing next, while a larger, animated silhouette carries out the dance moves for the player to recognise. Occasionally, the game will throw a “gold pose” which gives the player extra points, but outside of that, there’s not a lot of depth to the gameplay. Each song can be chosen and sorted according to technique, which describes how hard the dance moves are to perform, and effort, which describes just how physically taxing the song’s dance moves can be. These ratings are somewhat accurate too, players can tailor an experience to the needs of the group playing.

Most critics of the original Just Dance game will be happy to hear that the programming behind the game, which recognises movements, has been improved and as such the game does a much better job at recognising movements and allocating points correctly, a problem that commonly plagued some more intensive dance routines. In addition to the improved engine of the game, the developers have incorporated several different modes, including a Just Sweat mode which calculates the intensity of your dance and converts them into sweat points to show players how much effort they are putting into each dance.

A slew of multiplayer modes have also been included, some of which are simple two-player dances, while others like Duet mode allow players to play off each other in their dancing, and works perfectly when playing with two people. The routines also give enough room for players who get caught up in the moment to improvise their own little role plays during Duet mode, which is a nice touch that really adds to the fun of the whole experience. Finally, there’s a race mode which makes players dance to move their characters closer to a goal, and a Dance Battle mode where players can battle each other using group dance with support for up to eight players. For those without inhibitions, there’s a lot to do here and you’ll no doubt work up a sweat after a while too, which is always a good thing.

As you’d expect, most of Just Dance 2’s soundtrack is very well put together. There’s a surprisingly wide range of songs from some more contemporary music from artists such as KE$HA and Vampire Weekend, moving down to some more classic tunes from Boney M and Cher. The wide range of music really helps sell the game to people of all generations, and for the most part these songs are also original recordings too. Unfortunately, some recognisable songs are butchered by some poor covers, which are disappointing since we know that Just Dance sold enough to give a good budget to Just Dance 2, or at least we hope so. The soundtrack is very well done though, and has a wider range to appeal to a wider audience.

Luckily, the game also supports downloadable content through the Wii Shop Channel, with a free download of Katy Perry’s “Fireworks”, her newest single, provided to all those who purchase the game. There are currently three other songs available for 300 Wii Points each, with each song taking around 200-300 blocks of memory on either an SD card or the Wii’s internal memory. Despite slim pickings right now, Ubisoft promises a lot of support for the platform, with some of the best songs from the original Just Dance also making their appearance for use in Just Dance 2 at some point too, though we hope that the team focuses more on new and original content. Thankfully, the game also has a file manager system so players can manage their downloaded songs properly on both forms of memory.

Just Dance 2 is, for all intents and purposes, one of the best dance games available on the market and improves on the original in almost every way. It’s hard to get it wrong, and it’s hard to not enjoy it once you pick up the Wii Remote. There is an unfortunate snobbery when it comes to games like this on the Nintendo Wii, but I assure you, if you’ve got a good group of friends, and you are into having fun, Just Dance 2 should be an enjoyable experience that I can safely recommend. It converted one of the biggest cynics, after all – me.

Graphics 6.0

Nice animations bring this above the average, and the presentation is nice. But the offerings are generally bare bones.

Gameplay 9.0

Extremely fun and accessible way of playing with control methods that use something everyone has their body.

Sound 7.5

Really let down by awful covers, but the soundtrack has a great and diverse range of tracks that will appeal to any generation.

Tilt 8.0

With over forty songs included on the disc, and several different modes, Just Dance 2 provides a lot of incentives to return to the game, whether it be to have fun or to work up a sweat. DLC will hopefully extend the life of the game too.

Value 9.5

Despite a few hiccups here and there and the mild intensity of the workouts, Just Dance 2 provides a very enjoyable experience that I cant see anyone not enjoying once they get into it.