Just Dance has been lighting up people’s lives like nothing else for a long time now and Just Dance 4 only kicks it up a notch. Disturbingly fun, addictive and sweat inducing all at the same time, it’s this year’s must have Christmas present. If you don’t know why then check your Facebook feed, because there’s bound to be a video of one of your friends or family dancing around like Mick Jagger on kali following the much better instructions on the screen.
It’s not much of a difficult concept to take to. Just grab your Wii remote, Playstation Move or get in position in front of the Xbox 360 Kinect and copy the moves on the screen. When you get the moves wrong you get an X, when you do OK you can figure that one out yourself, you can be marked as good, and if you smash it you get a perfect score. Every move gets marked, and at the end of the dance you get mojo points to level-up and get bonuses.
The graphics are fairly simple, but they’re slick, colourful and have their own unique style. However, it’s the gameplay that makes Just Dance 4 so much fun. It’s easy to get into, but tricky to master, so you’ll be perfecting your moves for a while to come. There’s also a Sweat Dance mode where you can set up workouts to burn away the Christmas chub, as well as dance-off and other multiplayer dance modes to choose from, making Just Dance a great party game.
If you’re not much for the music pre-loaded, or if you want to expand your options you can also download new songs to dance to. This includes Gangnam Style, so you can perfect the moves from the comfort of your living room before nailing them on a night out. The only negative is that the focus of the songs is pop, so don’t expect much in terms of credible music to be a part of your dance sessions, however, hopefully these will come in time with the download option (Veronica Falls’ Come on Over would be amazing on Just Dance).
If you don’t like dancing then clearly Ubisoft’s Just Dance 4 isn’t for you. However, if you do then it’s a perfect addition to the video games collection, or if you know someone that does then it’s arguably the best gift you could get them. It’s available on the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation 3 with Move controllers and for the Xbox 360 Kinect, as well as on the latest console on the block, the Nintendo Wii U. There’s not a great deal of variation between the platforms, except for the options to play from the Wii U control pad if someone else wants to take over the TV, but each one is in a dance class of its own.
Just Dance 4 review: 4/5
