Just Dance 2021 is the latest in a long line of Just Dance games, each marginally different from the last. Much like serialised sports games, Ubisoft's choreographed creation is born anew each year, with a couple of new features thrown in, and a helping of new songs sprinkled over the top. Innovation is it not, but this isn't the game to look to if you want novelty. But, if you're looking for a good time – and a bit of new content to scratch your boogie-butt itch – then look no further.
The way to play is the same as ever: hold the Joy-Con in your hands, and follow the on-screen directions to replicate the neon-coloured dancers as best you can. Various modes allow for co-operative and competitive play, worldwide tournaments, and even (not very trustworthy) calorie-counting in the slightly grossly-named "Sweat Mode".
The main mode, aptly named "Just Dance", offers new tracks to shift your limbs to, each with a brand-new dance and corresponding visuals. Though this is the same gameplay we've been given by Ubisoft since Just Dance's debut 11 long years ago, it's as fun now as it was then. The new dances are funky and stylish, yet simple enough to follow, relying largely on the arm and hand movements that can be detected by the controllers – legs are fully optional here – and although it's easy to fake, you're only letting yourself down by not committing wholeheartedly. The new costumes and backgrounds range from entertaining to slightly cringey when it comes to some of the "cooler" songs, like Billie Eilish and basically any rap, and although there's a tendency to rely on cartoonish ethnic stereotypes, that's hardly new for the Just Dance series.
Features like Quick Play and Shuffle Play make it easy to jump right into dancing and to entertain groups who aren't picky about song choice or carefully curated playlists. World Dance Floor – a 3-song competitive tournament that matches you with players of a similar level – is Ubisoft's concession towards pandemic-afflicted households that can't partake in the co-op, and is a great way to spend 10 minutes if you fancy losing to twenty people with long Gamertags who've mastered every single dance. There's even the option to play with your phone as a controller instead of Joy-Con, which works remarkably well, even if most modern phones are slightly too big to comfortably hold while dancing (and there's always the danger that you'll fling it halfway across the room during an overzealous arm movement).
Kids Mode is a little disappointing. Aimed, presumably, at the under-10s, it offers a dumbed-down version of the main Just Dance mode, with the "OK-Good-Super-Perfect" metric being changed to a confusing "Haha-Wow-Yay" one. The songs are either easy wins for parents – 'Baby Shark' and 'Into The Unknown' will definitely be on repeat – or uninspired duds like 'Let's Save Our Planet' and 'Space Cat'. Kids Mode has the vibe of those YouTube channels where Elsa goes to the dentist and everyone loves making slime: entertaining enough, but not nearly as good as the stuff for adults.
Playing the game and accomplishing achievements, which come thick and fast, will net you "Mojo", the in-game currency used to buy capsules from the gachapon Gift Machine. These unlockables include new avatars, new frames for the avatars, and new "aliases", which is an Animal Crossing-style title that will be displayed next to your avatar. Mojo and the Gift Machine are presumably ways to keep players playing, but it's not much of a reward, and the randomness of the gacha mechanic makes it largely meaningless, anyway.
It's a shame that new songs aren't part of the unlockable system. Just Dance 2021 is really built for people who intend to purchase the Just Dance Unlimited subscription – an extra cost on top of the full price of the game, although a 30-day free trial is available. The base game comes with just 41 new songs, mostly from 2019 and 2020, including Lizzo, The Weeknd, and even a little bit of K-pop with TWICE and NCT 127. Another 600 songs can only be accessed through the subscription, and even then, you won't own them – they're streamed to the console. The internet connection requirements work pretty well, for the most part, and although songs streamed from the Just Dance Unlimited selection often begin with low-resolution visuals, the sound and rhythm don't seem to have any issues.
Playing the game without the subscription feels like a long advert that you're paying for. The recommended songs will include ones only available in Unlimited. An actual video advert for Unlimited will occasionally play. The 41 songs actually included with the game are hit-and-miss, ranging from well-known chart hits like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's 'Rain On Me' to relative unknowns, and covers of songs like Britney Spears' 'Till The World Ends' stand out by being not quite the versions you know and love. With such a small roster of new music, it's sad to see so few bangers, but the whole point is that the best songs are hidden behind a paywall.
Then again, that's not exactly new for the series. Just Dance might be a cash-grab, but it's still an entertaining one – and one that can make you work up a sweat for the first time since quarantine started. If you're not averse to dropping around 80 quid for both the base game and a year's subscription – or less if you know you'll only play it for three months – then there's plenty in the game's hundreds-strong catalogue to keep you moving, even if there's a surprisingly high amount of chaff in there.
Is anyone expecting Just Dance to be revolutionary? Is anyone surprised by the reveal that most of the content is locked behind in-game purchases? Probably not – but that doesn't mean it's not disappointing, anyway.
Conclusion
Just Dance 2021 fails to ever feel like a fully fleshed-out game, especially for the £50 price tag. Although the new tracks and the World Dance Floor mode are fun enough, it's hard to justify spending so much on a game that adds so little, and expects you to purchase more with thinly-veiled in-game advertising and upselling. If you love the series then you'll be investing no matter what we say, but we can't help but feel that Just Dance as a franchise has been resting on its laurels for far too long now.
Comments 32
Lol they all feel like cash grabs, bring back Dance Dance Revolution already!
I feel that this deserves as harsh a review as FIFA tbh. Probably more harsh. It’s a cynical cash grab aimed at people that won’t know better and trying to tie them into a subscription and for £50. The subscription model should be along side a FTP game not a full priced release with recycled tracks and only 41 including those.
Buy an old version and just say no to these grubby game models
I love just dance, but I don’t know anyone who’d be willing to pay for a subscription service for the game.
@Stocksy I still think FIFA is worse. As much as Just Dance has become a shameless cash-grab that should at least change to a "free to play" model, it still takes some effort to produce each iteration. EA's scam, on the other hand...
Should've been on the Wii.
I'd say it is worth an 8/10 considering coronavirus has shut so much. Price is reasonable if you use it often and get healthier. It's a great Christmas present for some.
Any of the games with yearly releases like this and a year in their title are just cash grabs. Almost 9 times out of 10 they could release one game on the system and have yearly DLC updates for far less cost. They never change enough to warrant a full price new release.
had to buy Just Dance 2019 for my daughter and I really don't understand the logic of releasing the same game every year with a pifious song selection, them charging you rent for the full library...
if you are buying the songs anyway, the game is just a service and could be free and outgoing (like Fortnite) while seasonal events incentivise the sale of DLC song packs.
I find impossible to support Ubisoft with their actual business model and I just hopes my kid forget about this broken game so I can delete if from the Switch
The ones we played way back were fun but we have no inclination to buy another iteration
Just Dance Unlimited has been a staple since the Wii U days. I don't understand why it's so contentious now. If anything, it's better value than ever as you get access to more songs with each installment.
What I hate though, is that each installment has new songs that can only be accessed via Unlimited (rather than those songs being unlockable via normal gameplay). "How Deep Is Your Love" was advertised as a timed exclusive for Just Dance 2017, but it's only accessible via Unlimited. Why advertise a song on the packaging that isn't even on the damn cartridge?
Furthermore, Ubisoft included a 3 month trial of Unlimited for 2017 (as well as a 16GB cartridge, allowing for noticeably better quality video and/or audio) while they cheaped out with all subsequent installments, using a paltry 8GB cartridge and offering only a 1 month trial of Unlimited.
I think the cartridge downgrade from 2017 is the most egregious thing that Ubisoft have done with the franchise on Switch so far, but nobody seems to have noticed (or cared). I immediately noticed the visual downgrade from 2017 to 2018, and it's reprensible that Ubisoft are happy NOT to improve on their products in any meaningful way. It absolutely sucks when publishers crap out on A/V quality not due to any limitation of the Switch itself, but because they would rather line their pockets even more than they already are by issuing a lower quality product, and THAT is worth your scorn.
That is one of the reasons I stopped buying Just Dance games. Ubisoft got greedy. The whole subscription service is ridiculous. I prefer to buy each song. I usually like a fourth of the songs on each Just Dance release so buying the game each year does not make sense either. Once Ubisoft switched over to a subscription service, Just Dance, lost its value. It's like, who plays Just Dance every day. If I played something every day, a subscription makes sense.
@bert0503 its literally $4 usd a month for 600 songs. however ubisofts servers are really bad and after 10 songs you may have to restart.
Absolutely disgusted with this model. It was on the Xmas list for my kid but I wanted be rinsed like this. Thanks for the warning, I mean review .
I know someone who buys nothing but Just Dance and fitness games every year. There not even trying to get fit they just enjoy that physical interaction over sitting their with a controller. Everyone and their dog could tell her this isn't great value but she will still buy it and still love it and you know who are we to tell her otherwise. Ubisoft knows their market, there not trying to sell this to you and me and there making enough money selling to women like her so i say we just leave them to it.
@Silly_G yeah jdu has been a thing for almost 6 years you'd think people would catch on but most game reviewers are stuck in the just dance 2 era
@Sahnec yes bring back DDR 2020
@Sahnec I really miss DDR, damn you Konami for ruining a great game
@Sahnec
Yeah ! 😃
Dance Dance Revolution A20+ for Nintendo Switch !
Can you get the sub without buying the game? Or is there an older version the sub works with? I might try the sub for a few months if it has international songs and I don't have to pay full price for the game.
@Lionyone like ‘the wind chill factor’ on the weather? “This game is a 6, but with the coronavirus factor it will feel like an 8.”
@Ryu_Niiyama I think I recall someone here once saying that older games can still be used to subscribe but the amount if content is limited to what was available at the time your copy was released.
My biggest problem with this is that the target audience is young children and they have much less self control and so it is harder for them to go without.
I guess with all the season passes and cosmetics of other games that kids play, they feel they need to do this, but it’s a bad business practice.
My wife vowed not to buy another of these games after we discovered how restrictive the song list is in a previous game. So they’ve at leat lost one future customer here. And if they just offered a £10 song pack where you keep songs forever instead of an ongoing subscription they would have kept us much easier. But still would have found it scummy.
I don't usually comment on reviews. But this review reads like someone who's never played a Just Dance game before.
Also, if you don't need to buy the latest game Day 1, the eventual Black Friday deals (cause the games always release around this time) are pretty good.
For us, Just Dance has become an annual Christmas gift for my oldest daughter. I'll usually trade in last year's game to go towards the newest one. And again, I try to time it for Black Friday sales.
As for the Unlimited subscription, I was apprehensive about buying into it. We would usually use the free trials offered. But no longer than that. The kids have been complaining about not being able to use those songs. So I just went ahead and signed up for the year. We play the game regularly. So we'll get our money's worth from it
@Stocksy Don't over-generalize things. FIFA and Just Dance is not the same. Just Dance has new songs, with new choreographers, new dance motifs, new dancers, technicians, monteurs, graphic designers, programmers, audio technicians, new licensees and so on. Multiply this to 41 times for 41 songs and you get the idea. So, no, Just Dance is not EA FIFA.
I wonder why FIFA hardly changes each year but still sells and gets nominated for sports game of the year at the gotya
I’m just here for the Jacksons reference in the subheading.
Some companies know no limits
my wife kids play last year one and if any game i played had that amount fffffffffffffffffffffffffff adds id get rid
They should implement dual joycon use per player. Like Ring Fit, include a strap for the leg so people dancing can be registered more accurately and less inclination to cheat. Just wishful thinking cus there's zero chance Ubisoft would invest this much on this series.
These songlists are just horrid for any given market. They might be globally-minded, but that really doesn't cut it for kids who are trying to get into your product and only have connected to the most popular songs in their region.
So, I'm buying a Used copy of Just Dance 2017 instead of this. Ubisoft won't see a cent of profit.
To me, Just Dance used to be fun ... until 2015.
From 2016, the songlist became too focused on modern pop. The game became stale regarding styles of music and dance.
Older games had much more variety, many song from different decades.
Does anyone know if this game has HD Rumble? I currently have 2019 and they make great use of HD Rumble, but from I recall, that was removed from 2020, but I'm not sure.
The constant shoving of Unlimited is growing to be a problem for Just Dance, especially when you can't filter that out. I think if you play with Airplane Mode that might help but I can't be too sure. Even then, you would also be removed from the online features if so.
Having seen the song selection though, I think it's really good and maybe the best one since 2017, if not, better. This is the most songs from prior to a decade in a long time and I think they did a good job in snagging songs that weren't seen in Just Dance prior like Without Me, Temperature and Samba De Janeiro, each of which also have alternate routines.
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