Ubisoft’s latest dancing game makes sure no one stays off the floor with its wide variety of songs and easy accessibility. by Gagan Gupta
Love them or hate them, but you can’t deny the appeal of dancing games and their ability to get even the most two-left-footed dancer trying his luck on the floor. On face value, Just Dance 2015 seems like just another sequential update, and it largely is. It has the standard fare of an updated tracklist, better visuals and overall presentation, and some additional features. But the one thing it does, which makes the game immensely more accessible than any of it’s predecessors, is remove dependency on any of the additional PlayStation or Xbox accessories to play the game.
With last year’s iteration - Just Dance 2014 - you either needed the PlayStation Move controller or the PS4 camera for the game to be able to track your movements. This time round, you have the option to load your smartphone with the Just Dance app, which connects your phone to the game via Wi-Fi, and uses its accelerometer for motion tracking. Considering how previously most users could not even try out a game like this because they didn’t own the right peripherals, this is quite a breakthrough.
Of course, no matter how you play it, it’s still about dancing, for which you need the right tracklist. Just Dance 2015 plays it safe by adding in hits from the last four decades to make sure that there’s something for everyone. There’s ‘Holding Out For a Hero’ by Bonnie Taylor for children of the 80’s along with a flash of glam rock with ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’ by Dead or Alive. Then there are some party favourites like ‘Macarena’ and ‘The Fox’ and many more to select from. It’s a total of 40 songs, plus DLC tracks like Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’.
The game plays pretty much like its predecessors, where you mirror the on-screen movements, and score points on your accuracy. The thing is, though, that the game primarily considers the movement of your right hand, no matter what platform or peripheral you’re using, which gives you some space for error in the rest of your body movements. But clearly, you wouldn’t buy a game like this to cheat your way through it, so it isn’t that big a deal. If you have a camera attached, the game records snippets of your dance, and plays an edited highlight after each track, which you can edit for additional effects.
You can share these videos with the community and also watch others do their funny performances when you’re taking a break from dancing. And yes, you will need breaks.
As much fun as Just Dance is, it can get challenging. Very challenging. The kind where you would need real dancing skills to get a decent star rating in a song. It’s good in a way that it makes you work on your dancing skills to get the five-star reward, but it would have helped if it had a practice mode for specific parts of the song for people with two left feet. Playing a dancing game is great, but a game that teaches you how to dance? Now, that’s the ticket!
Just Dance 2015 is quite generous when it comes to dancing partners. It has a good emphasis on people dancing along with you, either in the lead or in the background, which makes for a fun group performance if you have the floor space for it. It even has data from players around the world, with whom you can compete in case you’re at a loss for real partners. If you have someone in the room who’s shy of dancing, he (or she) can grab the PS4 headset mic and sing along as well.
Visually, Just Dance 2015 really shines. Each track has its element well captured in videos, which is a bit encouraging in case you recognise a track by its music video. A lot of original dance steps have been retained, though there are obvious original fillers where required. You can even unlock bonus videos for select tracks, which have their separate dance routines. There’s also a mode where you can create a custom mix of tracks and dance movements to amp up the challenge at a party.
The thing that Just Dance 2015 gets right is accessibility. The option to play without official accessories, multiple dance routines for tracks, fun party modes and even an option to sing instead of dance - all make the game great for a party. And when the party is over, it will still give you a good workout.
VERDICT
If you’ve been holding out on dancing games because of their peripheral dependency, Just Dance 2015 does a good job of giving you a good experience with what you already own.