Produced and published by Ubisoft, Just Dance is a strong franchise with a very loyal audience, in the 2024 Edition, released on October 24, 2023, for Nintendo Switch (the console used for this review), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, will be pleased with the new additions to the gameplay.

For those who played the previous version, the developers' idea was the same, continuing the process of turning the game into a streaming platform, with the continuous addition of new modes and songs. In this sense, the updates made a lot of sense to me, but the fact is that some of the mistakes keep recurring, despite the fact that there have already been 15 episodes of this franchise. As a slight aside, anyone who read the review of the predecessor saw my slight indignation at the lack of new Brazilian songs, but this will finally put an end to it, because they're finally here!

In addition, I'd like to mention how interested I was in the calorie expenditure shown with the accumulation of songs, which add up and show how many calories the player has expended at the end of their gameplay.



A short story

For those who like to follow a campaign, Just Dance 2024 isn't completely free of them, with a short story about Night Swan, which I admit isn't the most interesting, but can bring some fun choreography and add something extra. After all, it's true that old fans of the franchise are already used to its gameplay and don't want any changes, but these small additions could be the key to attracting a new audience. 

Of course, the wide availability of music is one of the main charms; if you consider yourself an eclectic person, you'll find yourself dancing in a matter of minutes to romance followed by rock or upbeat pop.

What's more, if you buy the extra content, with "Just Dance+", available to us at Mundo Gamer, you can access the music from the old games in a complete and easy way. I'm not going to lie, I spent many hours enjoying the nostalgic old sounds.



It's not all flowers

For me, the clear and main attribute was the gain of 40 different releases with stars from all over the world and various sound styles, including Miley Cyrus, BLACK PINK, Rosalia, BTS, and many others. In fact, for some sounds, there is more than one choreography to follow, for example in one of Miley's there was a common style and also one for Fit dance!

However, I did miss some of the other incredible releases this year that could easily replace some of the old songs added in this version, Beyoncé and Karol G would probably add a lot more than the other names featured.



Just as I mentioned in the predecessor material, it's impossible not to mention this game's ability to literally turn a physical exercise into something completely fun. The movements, coupled with the increased difficulty, will make the player sweat and often not even realize the extent of the entertainment, which is valid for all ages.

Finally, as has already been said, of course, it's very noticeable that a dancer's affinity for music can increase their score regardless of the difficulty, after all listening to a sound you like can be inspiring. For example, I realized this myself when I managed to get 5 stars for the story 'Rasputin', while another story with a lower difficulty gave me a much lower score.



Incredible quality

Now, in addition to the great elements already mentioned, there is another negative aspect: the audiovisual feedback on this Ubisoft production is excellent. As for the graphics, the details are not exaggerated, but the animation and the combination of colors added to the style of each song make everything very beautiful and fun. That said, while playing on the Nintendo Switch, I only encountered a bug once where I had to restart the game due to a crash right at the beginning of a song. 

From that point of view, I really enjoyed the soundtracks, with a slight lack of Brazilian tracks, but it's undeniable that there's a wide variation in styles, aiming to please as many audiences as possible. From a technical point of view, the sound system leaves nothing to be desired and produces excellent results.

Many of these details, if you think about it, will be very similar to the previous game, but that's because since the game has taken on this streaming identity, the proposal is precisely to bring small updates. Therefore, to expect any evolution in this regard is to be mistaken. Unfortunately, Just Dance 2024 will continue without support for PlayStation Camera/Kinect, making access difficult for some players.

Thanks to the Ubisoft PR team who made Just Dance 2024 available and made it possible to create this content.

Reviewed and translated by Diego Lourenço