Disclaimer; I’m still no dancer – but my daughter enjoyed the latest installment that much that I threw myself in another dance battle with my two-year-old. Oh, and my wife could laugh at my expense, again, so everyone wins? Well, almost everybody. Let’s talk differences!
Just Dance 2022
Just Dance 2022 is the thirteenth game in the main Just Dance series, and it felt like a homecoming. Just Dance 2021 was the ultimate dance game, and so is Just Dance 2022. It offers a set of 45 new songs, ranging from Imagine Dragons, to Doja Cat, to K3 (for the Dutchies), and classics like Mr.Blue Sky (cover) and KPop by BLACKPINK; even though I preferred to dance to Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat.
Wide inclusion of songs
Just like with Just Dance 2021, I’m happy with the comprehensive inclusion of songs since there’s always something for everyone. It even added some song festival songs, like the pop-hit from our Icelandic friends (even though they failed to add Ja Ja Ding Dong) and the parody artists Todrick Halls’ Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels. Todrick Hall makes high-quality music videos and parodies on YouTube surrounding popular culture, often involving Broadway musicals, Disney movies, and pop divas such as Beyoncé. It shows that Just Dance dares to look beyond the borders of the Billboard/Top 40 of this world, with the inclusion of big Youtube stars as well.
Just like its predecessor Just Dance 2022 can be played with either a Joy-Con or your phone, which makes it possible to play with up to six people simultaneously. Another excellent addition is the use of previous savefiles. If you have a save file from the last game, you even unlock some neat stuff you can use to personalize your gameplay by dressing up your avatar, changing your title, and duking it out on the internet to become the best there ever was. Another returning feature is the daily challenges, ranging from dancing to a particular song or scoring a perfect score on one of the 40 included songs (which is easier than you think!).
New features & fantastic stuff!
- Just Dance 2022 has the fewest covers of any game since Just Dance, with only two, Boss Witch and Mr. Blue Sky. “Boss Witch” (referred to in-game as “Boss Witch (Ubisoft clean cover)”) by Devmo (credited as Skarlett Klaw) is featured on Just Dance 2022. The song is a cover of Boss B***h by Doja Cat reworked with different lyrics. “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra (covered by The Sunlight Shakers in-game) is featured on Just Dance 2022.
- Just Dance 2022 is the first game to be rated 18+ in Russia instead of the usual 0+, most likely due to the inclusion of Todrick Hall and the not-so LGBTQ+ community-friendly environment in said country.
- Just Dance 2022 marks the first time the same menu has been reused for four consecutive games.
- Just Dance 2022 is the first game since Kids Mode was introduced in Just Dance 2018 to not have any new routines on the feature.
- Just Dance 2022 is the first game since Just Dance 2017 to not have a Disney song as part of the main tracklist.
- Just Dance 2022 is the first game to have an Ultimate Edition, which comes with a free one-year subscription to Just Dance Unlimited.
Just Dance Unlimited
Just Dance’s most significant selling point is still the double-edged blade I mentioned in the previous review. Just Dance Unlimited. Let’s explain the feature a little bit more:
New exclusive songs featuring Just Dance all-time favorite tracks plus themed seasonal content are added throughout the year to make your experience even more fun! A free 1-month trail of Just Dance Unlimited is included with every copy of Just Dance 2022 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Stadia.
So, by ‘buying’ an extra subscription, you get access to 700+ songs, of which new ones are added every so often. If you don’t opt-in for JDU, you can try out a few of the ‘Extra’ songs every week since they are free to play. But in return, you are bombarded with in-game commercials for JDU. And yes, it makes the game better since you dance to a wide range of Disney Songs, the 80s and 90s songs, and many more. But since the option is so hardcoded into the base game, you can’t access most of the automatically generated playlists since they are created from JDU songs. See where I’m going with this?
Just Dance offers you different packages, ranging from 24 hours (2.99), one month (3.99), three months (9.99), or a year (24.99). Or you could get the ultimate edition, as I mentioned above. However, since the base game will probably be at sale for around 30-35 bucks during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday sale, so maybe wait a bit till the end of the month before picking this up.
Conclusion
So, to conclude! Just Dance 2022 is another very inclusive dance game that offers fun for all ages and is even doable for the stiffest rakes out there (yes, I’m still talking about myself, I’m getting old!). The base game offers enough gameplay and options to enjoy for a few evenings or weekends, but the inclusion of Just Dance Unlimited makes the game much more ‘whole’. However, the aggressive targeting and forceful way of ‘you need to get this package’ is still not Ubisoft’s best way to market in-game DLC, which also refrained me from giving this game the mark I had initially planned. I also feel like they could have done more with the game. Yes, the Panda mascot in Mr.Blue Sky is remarkable – and the inclusion of Rayman characters in ‘What does the Fox say’ is fantastic, but it won’t raise my score.
