Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: Switch, PS5, Xbox Series S/X
Tested on: Switch
Just Dance 2023 Edition – Review
The Just Dance series is one that needs no introduction. The franchise dates back to 2009 and so far we have seen a new game being released every single year. One may call Just Dance the FIFA or Call of Duty of the dancing scene. Now, for the 2023 Edition, we would be able to basically copy-paste our review of the 2022 edition and call it a day, if it were not for several changes that were made to the overall formula. As a whole, you’re still getting the same old tried-and-true Just Dance formula, but the subscription system has been renewed. For our review, we’ll mainly be taking a closer look at the changes and updates for the 2023 Edition on Nintendo Switch.
For the most part, you’ll be treated to the same old Just Dance experience. You just pick a song of your choice, grab a Joy-Con, and you can bust out your moves. The game still only registers the movements you make with the Joy-Con, and thus you can still somewhat cheat or skip certain harder leg movements. Nonetheless, if you’re thinking of cheating in Just Dance, we reckon you’re not the target audience. If you don’t own enough Joy-Cons, you can once again pair a phone with the device, and you have yourself an extra controller.
The 2023 Edition incorporates a short and basic storyline for players to play through, which is a fun addition to the package. That being said, you can easily just skip the Enter the Danceverses mode and just pick whatever song you like the most. The story mode may serve as a fun tutorial for newcomers to the series or may be quite fun for younger players. If you decide to skip the story mode, you’ll find that the game has a reasonable selection of songs available in several different genres. There are some silly songs to choose from, but also some classic hits, some rock songs, several pop songs, and so on. Overall, the soundtrack is quite diverse, and you’ll certainly find a few songs that will get you on that living room dancefloor. Once again, our very own K3 is featured in this edition of Just Dance, so your children will certainly have a blast driving you insane by repeating the song over and over again. Even so, we would have loved a slightly bigger selection of songs in the base game.
In this latest iteration of Just Dance you’ll once again have a subscription-based song library at your disposal. Compared to previous releases, however, the selection is very slim for what you’re paying. While there are still quite a few songs available from previous games, we did find the 2022 game to have a lot more on offer. Nonetheless, we reckon the database will grow in the future, as the Just Dance+ subscription will basically replace the old subscription formula. Once again we do have to make the remark that we’re not really that fond of the entire subscription concept on top of paying for the base game. Perhaps it would be more interesting to simply have one main Just Dance edition that allows online purchases for expansions, rather than releasing a new game every year.
Conclusion
Just Dance 2023 Edition will certainly still offer a lot of fun evenings and perhaps a much-needed workout during these cold winter months. We did find this edition to be slightly less impressive than several previous editions, mainly because the Just Dance+ subscription doesn’t really offer that many songs at this point in time. On top of that, while the soundtrack in the base game was varied, we would have loved a slightly bigger selection. Nonetheless, we loved showing our moves again and we are quite curious to see what the 2024 Edition will have in store for us.
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