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Just Dance 2016

Just Dance 2016

Ubisoft positions Just Dance more broadly with with smartphone control and a subscription service. The choice of music, however, is quite particular.

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Just Dance has grown up with the Wii, and since then it has entertained us for many happy hours, and in quite a few living rooms. The motion controller made it easy to transfer dance moves to game form. Dancing works a bit like karaoke in this case. At the beginning you may think that it's rather silly. There is a sense of shame, you could make a fool of yourself, but in fact, it's quite liberating. It's not about being able to do something perfect, but simply the fun of doing it. And Ubisoft has delivered a pretty solid game, which is simple and yet has some depth.

With Just Dance 2016 there are again a number of innovations, updates which unfortunately only benefit Wii U, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. These include five different modes. In Dance Party mode, you can now compete against each other not only in a duel, but also play together in order to achieve a high score. If you want to play alone, then the Dance Quests mode is recommended. Here it is your mission to compete against a computer opponent in three randomly-selected tracks and you need to reach the top three at the end. As a reward, there are avatars, and new songs unlocked.

The popular fitness mode is now available in combination with the ability to create your own lists of songs. In the Sweat and Playlists mode you can customise your own dance sessions. A list must contain at least three songs, but you can also select individual songs or dance without a break thanks to Non-Stop Shuffle mode. A certain number of calories is assigned to each song, but there is no accurate detection of calories burned and no overview of the total number of calories earned within a day, a week or a month.

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In the World Video Challenge, you can compete against players all over the world and try to beat their high score using their uploaded dance sessions. While playing you can see the performance of your opponent and if this person has also enabled a camera then their recorded performance is displayed in a small screen. Because pretty much any of the dance routines will be uploaded automatically, there is an enormous amount of choice. And fortunately, you can also display the results of friends only.

Just Dance 2016
Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016

You can also watch videos in Just Dance TV. Here you can find all the community videos and fan choreography - including various clips, some funny, some boring, but it's a pretty nice gimmick. Part of this is the new Showtime mode. For ten songs you can shoot your own little music video that is automatically produced when recording using a camera. A short clip of it may also be shared online and on social networks. The idea is nice, but the selection is small and the system too rigid to really captivate.

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A meaningful extra is the new app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, which makes the smartphone a controller. Thanks to this, up to six players can now easily play together. The annoying thing is that the app must be permanently activated for this. If someone wants to read messages while on a short break, the app disconnects. This makes it a not entirely smoothly experience, nevertheless, it does save us from purchasing additional accessories for those dance parties in front of the TV.

There is also an interesting offer with the new version for all dance enthusiasts. With Just Dance Unlimited Ubisoft are offering a subscription service, which provides old songs from previous games and exclusive new songs available on demand. The subscription costs £5.79 monthly, £11.99 for three months, or £32.99 per year. The database currently includes more than 150 songs and more should follow later in the year. The game comes with a code for a free trial month, so that everyone can try and see if it appeals.

Just Dance 2016
Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016

It's difficult to judge this move into the subscription space. Songs available as optional extras are fine, but those who have already purchased songs for the last games in the series will no doubt feel snubbed. On the other hand such a move offers many newcomers the opportunity to have direct access to a large catalogue of songs. That also has some advantages, because we have to say that the standard songs from Just Dance 2016 quite unbearable. Obviously that's just a matter of opinion though.

Which brings us to the biggest point of criticism; the music selection of Just Dance 2016 isn't appealing to us at all. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that there are people out there who love The Black Eyed Peas, but this year our ears have not been treated as well as they might have been. The choices are so bad that we even looked forward to the Heartbeat Song by Kelly Clarkson, and even with regards to the choreography, we had more fun with previous iterations of Just Dance.

Of course the music selection is a matter of taste. Therefore we're grateful that there is now Just Dance Unlimited, yet somehow we get the feeling that this might have been part of Ubisoft's plan. The subscription service will probably see less use by a younger audience who enjoy the current trends in pop music and whose finances might not be ideally suited to the subscription model. However, there may be a potential market of slightly older players who are willing to stump up the extra in order to dance to the music they actually enjoy.

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Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016
Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016Just Dance 2016
06 Gamereactor UK
6 / 10
+
App turns smartphones into a controller, easy handling, World Challenge.
-
Bad choice of music, much of the choreography is boring, songs bought for predecessors can not be imported, Showtime mode isn't our favourite and only works for ten songs, Fitness mode shrinked to a minimum
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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