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Game: Just Dance - Best Of

Developer: Ubisoft

Publisher: Ubisoft

Rating: G

Platform/s: Wii



In Saturday night Fever John Travolta was Painter by day, king of the dance floor by night. Well thanks to Just Dance I am stand up by night, king the dance floor by day.



The Just Dance franchise is an incredible hit, the fastest selling Ubisoft series ever. This is despite having no unlockable weapons, no obligatory sewer level and no online multiplayer death matches, then again, maybe it does.



Also, the first game was bad. Like, not landfill in Mexico bad, but still pretty bad. The choreography wasn't great and the graphics were murky and weird. But it did have one thing going for it, an amazing soundtrack.



Before this, dance games needed a giant mat peripheral with arrows on it and you had to stamp about on it. This was sort of fun for some people although I didn't get it myself.



Just Dance inexplicably reads your body movement through the wiimote and grades you out of five stars. And it really works. Believe me, I've tried waggling my wiimote while lying on the couch with my face in a bag of chips and scored, badly.



The series has come a long way since the first. It seems that when Ubisoft realised what a money spinner this was they cranked up the funds and the effort and it really shows. And I really like the gameplay. Notice I said "like". Not "am good at".



This is a lot of fun with friends but make no mistake this is a fitness game.



I lost 5 kilos when Just Dance 2 came out and this best of is a sure fire calorie burner and a lot more fun than those other Wii and Kinect fitness games. And motivation is not a problem because of the one more go factor. The tracks have a sweat rating out of three to show you just how much of a workout each one is.



Also there's pretend versions where they get studio musicians to sing the tracks. Like MC Hammer. What did Hammer have on that was so important that he couldn't sign the release forms for this? Maybe he couldn't touch it.



Seriously the way Hammer's career is going I'm surprised he wasn't doing the motion capture too instead of, ELTON JOHN?

There are also special dances for people with beards.



The only criticism I would have of the series is the solitary difficulty setting and the fact that the game can't really be bothered teaching you the dances, it just gives you a diagram on how to hold the controller and you're on your own.



It's quite Zen, perfecting a dance but the competitor, Dance Central, goes to great lengths to break the dance down for you and has three difficulty settings.



However the Just Dance track listing is far more diverse than Dance Central which is street and hip hop heavy.



Just Dance features a dazzling array of dance styles spanning the last century like the Charleston, rumba, disco, Bollywood, the robot, rollerblading, the robot and even goalkeeping. Goalkeeping?



The backgrounds had some thought put into them like Jai Ho has street scene inspired by Slumdog Millionaire. Benny Benassi channels Tron, and Kung Fu Fighting has an 8 bit background and the choreography incorporates hadoukens!



The big question is can it teach me to dance? Yes. As long as your idea of dancing is this:



My biggest grumble is that this best of compilation only includes tracks from the first 2 Just Dance titles. THERE'S BEEN THREE and let's not forget the special Japanese release which only had J-pop songs and there's no tracks at all from the Michael Jackson or Abba experience which I definitely did not buy and certainly do not own.

But most tragically of all the improvements the franchise made in Just Dance 3 are gone, namely 4 player choreography and the unlockables.



Surely the most recent game has to be the best or at least have the most features? That's how time works. Also there is no Justin Bieber, hey, don't shoot the messenger.



The culmination of these tragedies is that one of our favourite tracks is NOT included in this compilation as it appeared on Just Dance 3, but as we have been rehearsing here's a bit anyway.



I am conflicted about this just dance because I truly love this series but unfortunately this is not very good fan service. If you're new to Just Dance I would get Just Dance 2, it's the best one. I'm going to give this seven rubber chickens.



Wii

14 out of 20 Rubber Chickens