Just Dance 2021

Genre: Music-Rhythm / Sports (Exercise)

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES A PAID SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

Just Dance is a long-running series of games that use motion control (either a Joy-Con or your own mobile phone) to detect dance movements in time with licensed songs while playing videos of wacky yet generic characters for players to mimic. 2021 is the yearly installment of the series released in… er… 2020. It is noteworthy for being the first game in the franchise not released on the Wii.

Before getting to the gameplay, let’s go over the tracklist, because that’s what’s going to differentiate this game the most from other yearly installments in the franchise. That tracklist is as follows:

“Boy, You Can Keep It” by Alex Newell

“Lacrimosa” by Apashe

“All the Good Girls Go to Hell” by Billie Eilish

“Joone Khodet” by Black Cats

“Ice Cream” by Blackpink and Selena Gomez

“Que Tire Pa Lante” by Daddy Yankee

“You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by Disney Pixar’s Toy Story (as made famous by Randy Newman)

“Yameen Yasar” by DJ Absi

“Dibby Dibby Sound” by DJ Fresh vs. Jay Fay featuring Ms. Dynamite

“Magenta Riddim” by DJ Snake

“Say So” by Doja Cat

“Heat Seeker” by Dreamers

“Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa

“Without Me” by Eminem

“Runaway (U & I)” by Galantis

“Buscando” by GTA and Jenn Morel

“Adore You” by Harry Styles

“Yo Le Llego” by J Balvin and Bad Bunny

“Alexandrie Alexandra” by Jérôme Francis (as made famous by Claude François)

“Rain on Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande

“Volar” by Lele Pons featuring Susan Díaz and Victor Cardenas

“Uno” by Little Big

“Juice” by Lizzo

“The Weekend” by Michael Gray

“Kick It” by NCT 127

“Zenit” by Onuka

“Bailando” by Paradisio featuring DJ Patrick Samoy

“Get Get Down” by Paul Johnson

“Temperature” by Sean Paul

“Rare” by Selena Gomez

“Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello

“The Other Side” by SZA and Justin Timberlake

“Till the World Ends” by The Girly Team (as made famous by Britney Spears)

“Paca Dance” by The Just Dance Band

“In the Navy” by The Sunlight Shakers (as made famous by Village People)

“Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd

“Georgia” by Tiggs Da Author

“Dance Monkey” by Tones and I

“Kulikitaka” by Toño Rosario

“Feel Special” by Twice

“Samba de Janeiro” by Ultraclub 90 (as made famous by Bellini)

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In addition, there are multiple songs available in a “Kids Mode” for those who want their youngsters to be able to play with music more age-appropriate. They are as follows:

“The Color Lab” by Dancing Bros.

“You’ve Got a Friend in Me”by Disney Pixar’s Toy Story (as made famous by Randy Newman)

“Space Cat” by Equinox Stars

“Rock N Roll Princess” by Fast Forward Highway

“Flying Carpet” by Persian Nights

“Dance of the Mirlitons” by The Just Dance Orchestra (as made famous by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)

“Get on the Fire Truck “by The Step Brigade

“Here Comes the Spy” by The Step Brigade

“Let’s Save Our Planet” by The Sunlight Shakers

“Kulikitaka” by Toño Rosario

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For players wanting more songs to dance to, Just Dance 2021 will make sure you know about its Just Dance Unlimited service, a subscription service offering access to hundreds of additional songs. This additional content is listed in the song listing menus, and players sorting their songs by anything other than the default setting will be forced to rifle through dozens of these at a time before getting to one they can play without plunking down more cash ($4/month or $24/year, something they don’t make clear until you’ve gone through the free trial and they’ve done their best to “hook” you… gross, I know).

Anyway, getting back to the song list itself, the “Kids” section is so negligible that it may as well be dismissed outright, and as for the main song list, you have two songs from the 1970s, 4 songs from the 1990s, 5 songs from the 2000s, 7 songs from 2011 through 2018, and then everything else is from 2019-2020. I suppose fans of more modern music may prefer the more current tracklist, but older fans will doubtless feel left out by the slim selection of older tunes.

The videos that play for these songs all feature a similar aesthetic for their dancers – either a character in a mascot outfit, or a completely white-bodysuited character adorned with ridiculous colorful clothes. This does manage to give the game a consistency to it, albeit one that looks very tacky. Each of the videos is made specifically for the song in question, usually with references to that song within it – For example, Lizzo’s Juice takes place in a workout studio like much of that song’s music video, and You’ve Got a Friend in Me features a mascot dancer dressed like Toy Story’s Woody dancing in a loose recreation of Andy’s Room from the films.

As for the gameplay, players will be mimicking the on-screen dancers’ movements while holding a single Joy-Con controller or your mobile phone. The game rates you on your dancing, though it’s not quite clear exactly how it’s judging that. Position? Timing? Both? The game doesn’t give you feedback on what you did wrong when you get a poor score, so you can only speculate. However, I suspect that it’s not terribly accurate in its detection – sometimes I felt like I mimicked the dance moves perfectly, only to get a poor rating, and other times I was miserably lagging behind and still got a “perfect”.

In addition to this, there’s not much more to the game beyond picking a song and dancing to it. You can sort via a few different methods (though Just Dance Unlimited messes this up, as I already noted), create playlists, or just have the game toss you right into the dancing from the main menu… but that’s about it. There’s nothing here about perfecting your moves or to help you memorize a specific dance routine, and no minigames or anything like that.

At the very least I can say that Just Dance 2021 does provide a good workout, it’s genuinely fun to dance to the game’s music, and while the dances the game features are generally pretty silly, they are nevertheless fun to imitate. If you’re a dance enthusiast and you like this game’s tracklist, I can certainly see how you could find this game enjoyable. But for me, the lack of accuracy in the game’s motion detection, the lack of options, and the disgusting way the game pushes its subscription service make me hesitate to recommend it to anyone who isn’t a die-hard dancing enthusiast.

tl;dr – Just Dance 2021 is a game that uses the Joy-Con’s gyroscopic motion-sensing controls (or your own phone’s gyroscopic motion-sensor) to have players imitate dance moves. The motion detection is not great, the options are lacking, and the way the game tries to shove its paid Just Dance Unlimited service down players’ throats is really disgusting. Dancing enthusiasts who like this game’s tracklist may find it enjoyable, but with these flaws it’s not a game I can give a high recommendation.

Grade: C

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