Reviewed: January 21, 2010
Reviewed by: Arend Hart
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
Ubisoft Paris
Released: November 17, 2009
Genre: Music
Players: 1-4
3
4
7
3
3.5
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
The Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series has had gamers hopping on arrows in time to the beat of dance hits and j-pop for over a decade. But look up any YouTube video of a DDR champion, and you will see that there isn’t a whole lot of style or flourish that goes into mastering Konami’s aging franchise. That is apparently why we recently received Just Dance from the folks at Ubisoft Paris, which takes the fast footwork of DDR and transfers it to the handy gesture-based controls of the Wii. While the formula might sound like it would be interesting, the implementation is so technically inept that the game is nearly unplayable.
The idea is simple – mimic the motions from the onscreen character while holding onto the Wii remote and get graded on the results. Sounds pretty simple, eh? Well, it would be if the game accurately responded to the Wii Remote – but as you can guess by my tone, it does not. The game only seems to accurately recognize motion control maybe 50% of the time.
And in the few instances the game does recognize a gesture correctly, the brief amount of lag is just enough to throw the arbitrary grading system for a frustrating loop resulting in suspect grading (typically for the worse, but sometimes oddly in the gamer’s favor) and questionable final scores.
Still, with support for up to 4 players locally, there is some enjoyment to be had in the ridiculousness of the absurd dance poses, but gamers might want to check on their homeowner’s insurance to see if they have any coverage against the imminent Wii-whacking that occurs from flailing players.
Visually, the game is about as sparse as it gets. Humdrum backgrounds only serve to draw attention to the low-rent character modeling that might have turned heads in 1998 but only serves as a verification of the shoddy effort that went into developing Just Dance. I wish I could talk more, but with only a character model and a few score meters onscreen at any time, well it’s hardly worth wasting the words.
On the audio front – the delivery is fairly solid even if the subject matter lacks relevance to today’s audience. I’m sure there are a couple of kids who might enjoy hearing a cover version of Britney Spears’ Womanizer, and a handful of old timers who will enjoy the novelty of MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This – but I am sure that few are going to bat an eye at lame 80’s fluff New Kids on the Block’s Step By Step or a terrible cover of Irene Cara’s Fame.
After a decade of jumping on arrows, shaking maracas, and pointing out grooves onscreen, I think I am finally burned out on dance games. I had hopes that Just Dance might help revive my interest in the genre, but sadly it only made things worse. Just Dance just isn’t that great of a game, period.
