Just Dance 2 Review

You get the impression that Ubisoft is wary about what the critics might think of Just Dance 2. It shouldn't be. Despite our surly demeanours and propensity to moan, games reviewers like to have fun as much as everyone else. True, we do it secretly and with the aid of unbridled alcoholic lubrication, but that's only as a precaution in case anyone from the outside ever catches us indulging in the secret pleasures of illicit warbling and frantic, musical gesticulation.

It goes without saying then: if you were one of the miserable killjoys that thought the original Just Dance was worthless because it didn't have unlockables and traditional game progression, you might as well stop reading now. Go shoot things in the face and snort up your ground-down Halo: Reach disc instead. Just Dance 2 is still a game with absolutely no depth or subtlety. Thing is though, it's also a tremendously enjoyable game with absolutely no depth or subtlety. It doesn't need layered gameplay, excellent graphics and achievements. It's a dance game. It needs hilarious routines and a good soundtrack, and it's got both of those in spades.

What does Just Dance 2 involve then? The clue is in the title: just dance. You hold the Wii Remote in your hand and imitate the perfectly-captured dancers on-screen to one of over 40 songs. All the songs are, quite sensibly, open from the start – frankly, if you need incentivised unlockables to motivate you to dance, this isn't the game for you.

Just Dance 2's appeal lies in the breadth of its songs and the routines that accompany them, running the full gamut from out-and-out silly to cool-looking, racing up and down the difficulty ladder as they go. If you scoff at the idea of a challenging dance routine, I defy you to make it through Body Movin' without breaking a serious sweat. There are songs for everyone here, from 10-year-old girls (Girlfriend) to much older girls who are still 10 on the inside (Toxic, When I Grow Up) to people with taste (Take Me Out, Move Your Feet, A-Punk) to people born before 1970 (I Feel Good, Viva Las Vegas).


Just Dance 2 is also far from the shovelware the series has been unfairly labelled as - you need only look at the amount of effort and individuality put into every single dance routine to be proven wrong. Walk Like An Egyptian and Sympathy for the Devil couldn't be more different. Many dance games recycle the same old moves for every song, but not this. The dancers on-screen are even decked out in appropriate gear: swaying wigs, robot suits, flares, canes and even bobble hats.

Unsurprisingly, Just Dance 2 is most fun with two or more people. You can dance four at a time, assuming you have room in your lounge, and it even has duet dances designed for especially for two players. During these routines, there are two dancers on the screen and the final chorus is usually punctuated by some awesome dance-off moments. Think of it as co-op dancing, if you need to put Just Dance 2 into conventional gaming vocabulary. There's even Just Sweat mode for lone dancers, which sets you up with six songs a day to perform and gives you a calorie counter to pretend to ignore.