Buy Just Dance 2023 Edition

When you think of annual video game franchises, you tend to gravitate toward one of three specific categories: sports games like Madden NFL, sports-adjacent games like WWE 2K, and Call of Duty. However, since 2009, Ubisoft has been releasing the Just Dance series on a yearly basis on multiple consoles and has also had the distinction of supporting older consoles a few years after everyone else abandoned them. Just Dance 2023 Edition marks a few milestones in the series, making for a game that is both very different yet similar to previous entries.

Before going into those differences, longtime series fans should know that the core gameplay hasn't changed. You pick a song, you choose how many players are participating, and you start dancing. You mimic the dance moves that are being shown by the on-screen dancer, and a little display on the bottom right shows you what moves to expect next. Your score is based on how well you perform those moves in relation to the routine, and you receive a number of stars based on that performance. Given the limitations of the original game, the dances only pay attention to one hand.

Due to a lack of cameras on modern systems, movement is tracked either through your Joy-Con for the Switch or mobile devices for every other platform, including the Switch. This gives Nintendo's portable console an edge, since Joy-Cons are much smaller than normal smartphones and you're less worried about breaking them. Everyone has a smartphone, so your dance party isn't limited to the number of Joy-Cons in your possession. You can move your device at the right time to get the highest scores, but considering the nature of the game, it defeats the purpose as a party game meant for fun rather than chasing high scores.

Like many iterations before it, Just Dance 2023 Edition comes with a soundtrack that's 44 songs strong and covers different years and genres. Only two of the songs ("Wouldn't It Be Nice" originally by The Beach Boys and "Walking on Sunshine" originally performed by Katrina and the Waves) are done by cover bands, but everything else is done by the original artists. You have disco in the form of "Disco Inferno." One Direction fans will like the inclusion of "As It Was" by Harry Styles. Pop is well represented by "Locked Out of Heaven" by Bruno Mars, "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake, and "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift, to name a few. Rock fans have "Numb" by Linkin Park and "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence, while kids have "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from the movie "Encanto." K-Pop is also here with two tracks from BTS and a track from K/DA. All in all, there's a good mix, and even the unfamiliar songs will get you moving.

If you've played any of the recent games in the series, you'll be familiar with the game's XP system, which gives you experience for accomplishing certain achievements. All of the rewards are tied to sprucing up your profile, whether it's new borders or changing the appearance of the results that pop when you accomplish a move. The bigger change comes from the profile avatars and the emoji; both are fully rendered and animated instead of being static pictures. The poses per character never change, but it's a very nice touch to see them match up with some of the dancers in the videos. Previous players will be familiar with the playlist system, which groups songs based on things like genre, year, or the kind of workout or mood you're seeking. It works much better if you subscribe to get more songs (which we'll discuss later), but the game doesn't press you hard into getting a subscription.

As mentioned in the beginning of the review, there are some changes to the game beyond the new songs. The interface is more streamlined and reminiscent of what you'd use for Disney+ or Netflix, so there's an instant air of familiarity. The main menu is hidden by the side and only appears when you hit Left at the edge of the screen, video snippets of the dance appear when you hover over the stylized cover, and there's a visible indicator of important track information.

Another change comes from a long-standing player request: online play. You'll never be able to dance along with complete strangers, so you'll depend on the playlist leaderboards for some competition. You can invite five other people to private sessions, so everyone can dance together. Aside from the ability to display emojis at will, it feels just like local play, since there aren't too many elements getting dropped. Even though you'll never see the actual players because there's no camera option, the sense of camaraderie from sharing a song with five others is still novel.

Speaking of novel, Just Dance 2023 Edition now has a story mode called Enter the Danceverses. While it is essentially a playlist of a few songs, it has cut scenes that tell the story of a girl named Sara, who gets sucked into her TV and must traverse the Danceverse to gather dancers and participate in a giant dance battle before she can return home. It is by no means a masterpiece, but it is a cute attempt at riding the current pop culture wave of a multiverse while also trying to add something beyond playlists and song lists.

One unexpected change comes in the form of platforms. Unlike past entries, this offering is squarely focused on current platforms. Wii and Wii U iterations were dropped a year or two ago, but this time around, both the PS4 and Xbox One are excluded from the party. This leaves the number of available platforms for the game at three: the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S with no PC iteration in sight. On top of that, those looking to get a physical version of the game will be greeted with a code for the digital version. Those who download the game will be pleased to see it only come in at a little over 500GB in size, but this means that the songs and videos come in via streaming, and you'll need to download all 40 tracks if you want to play offline.

The biggest change to the game is that Just Dance 2023 Edition marks the last time the series will be released annually. In a move that many people looking at annual release games hope for, the series will go for a service model where owners of this title will be able to get past songs and future ones via a subscription service. Titled Just Dance+, it's already off to a good start with under 200 songs that cover a good deal from past entries in the series. It also comes in at the same price as the company's Just Dance Unlimited service for the 2019-2022 games. The bad news is that service grew the collection to over 700 tracks, and while it remains to be seen how often the upgrades come to Just Dance+, it's a shame that it didn't launch with the same songs as Unlimited right out of the gate.

Whether you love or hate the series, the videos that play while you dance are eye-catching, and it is comforting to see that the team hasn't slowed down in making each one mesmerizing. The backdrops come alive with personality, and the dancers show much more definition than before thanks to the improved 3D look sported by the Unity engine. This is especially evident when you go back to older songs in the series and see mostly blank dancers against a static backdrop. Here's hoping that the move to a service doesn't lead to new songs getting a visual downgrade.

Just Dance 2023 Edition is almost critic-proof at this point. You're either already on board and have been dancing away since it became available for download, or you have no interest and no reviews can sway your decision. With that said, the change to a service model has the potential to be exciting provided it can quickly get its Plus service on par with its old Unlimited service in terms of content. If Ubisoft can do that while keeping things like online play intact, then the series will be in good hands for quite some time.

Score: 7.5/10