Mini Review: Just Dance 2024 Edition (Switch) - Just More, Now With Added Miley

2024 is on the horizon, which means it’s high time for Ubisoft to step onto the dancefloor with its latest Just Dance offering, Just Dance 2024 Edition. If you look back on our review of 2023’s entry, we mentioned that it significantly improved the tried-and-tested formula, boosting the visuals nicely while allowing players to remove the constant reminders for the game’s subscription service, Just Dance+, which has 300 more songs. It made for an experience that, while certainly not revolutionary, was a welcome step in the right direction.

Just Dance 2024 Edition, then, is more or less quite content to ride along on the coattails of its predecessor. It offers up another 40 new songs that cover a nice range of genres and styles which mixes the likes of ‘Survivor’ by Destiny’s Child with D Billions' 'My Name Is'; Whitney Houston's ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ with ‘Canned Heat’ by Jamiroquai (and no, sadly the choreography hasn’t been taken from Napoleon Dynamite for that one). More recent hits to make this year's roster include Miley Cyrus' 'Flowers' and Sam Smith's I'm Not Here To Make Friends. As with prior entries, it’s worth just checking out the full track list prior to purchase to see if it will vibe with your musical preferences.

The biggest change this time around is that Ubisoft has seen fit to allow owners of Just Dance 2024 Edition to play online with owners of Just Dance 2023 Edition. Obviously, the biggest caveat here is that certain songs won’t be compatible with owners of last year’s entry, but it’s a nice quality-of-life addition that we’re well on board with. Ubisoft is consistently trying to push Just Dance as a persistent online platform, so the integration of this latest 'song pack' with prior games' playlists makes sense. You can also now challenge any high score you come across via the in-game leaderboard, and send your own scores to your friends. If you feel you're reasonably competent at a particular tune, you can load up the leaderboard, select a high score (heck, go for the world number one if you're up to it), and give it a shot.

However, the problem with being a persistent online platform, at least from our own experience, is that you’re constantly at the mercy of servers and connection stability. The game was tested with a 250MB fiber broadband connection, so certainly nothing to sniff at, but the menus, in particular, can prove exceptionally sluggish at the best of times. Whenever you boot up the game, you’ll need to link up to Ubisoft Connect, and you’re looking at roughly a minute’s wait each and every time.

Additionally, any images that accompany the in-game song titles would always take a moment or two to load. It’s nothing earth-shatteringly distracting or anything, but it’s a constant reminder of how little in the game is actually running natively. It almost makes us long for the early days of Guitar Hero when songs were just listed with no needless bells or whistles.

That said, if you like Just Dance and simply must have the additional 40 songs that come with this latest package, it’s a perfectly serviceable, inoffensive experience. As we said last year, there’s nothing here that’s going to convert non-believers, and the lack of meaningful improvements with this one makes it even less of a recommendation, but the quality-of-life changes from last year remain intact, at least.