New Songs, Same Look, Same Service.
Throughout the years, multiple dancing games have emerged, and while I had always preferred Dance Central, there is no denying that Just Dance has been a huge hit for Ubisoft. Now in its sixteenth entry, as Just Dance has recently shifted to a live service model with Just Dance 2023, this year's release can certainly provide you with a lot of content, but that is largely due to the Just Dance+ subscription service as its new song list is certainly one where your mileage will vary.
When Just Dance swapped out the fresh new release year after year in favor of becoming a life-service platform, it provided its players with a wealth of songs to be available to new and existing customers. Those new to the series this year can simply purchase the song packs from 2023 and 2024 as well as subscribe to Just Dance+, which offers over 300 songs at your fingertips. Those who take in this year's release will be offered a free month of this service, which to be honest, provides some of the best songs across the series and is a fairly worthwhile investment if you are looking for more music to dance to.
As a newcomer to Just Dance, I do find that there is almost too much design to its menus. Navigating it is fairly laggy (even with a Gigabit connection..) and it’s very easy to accidentally tab over and lose where you were previously. Honestly, it's just not that intuitive. You have Home, which is your main point of contact with Just Dance. It illustrates what is the featured content, themed categories, and what is new to the Just Dance+ service. Songs is the next tab and is split into the year of the content you own, as well as all the Just Dance+ songs that are available. Then you have playlists, which you can customize or rely on those that are preset, as well as the shop to purchase new song packs. It's a shame that entries older than 2023 are not available here. While it certainly can get the job done, I really do hope that Just Dance 2026 refreshes the look and makes it easier to navigate, especially with how many songs are now part of this whole platform.
Just Dance also has a profile system where you play and unlock avatars that represent your profile when playing with friends. These avatars are not to be confused with the coaches that are those who dance in each of the available songs. The profile avatar is simply there for cosmetic and profile reasons. Thankfully, there is a lot here to unlock for your profile. You’ll unlock new looks as you conquer challenges and add to your selection of customizable options for your profile dance card. While this is essentially an optional thing and largely filler, I do enjoy that you have this as a means of showing your progress as you achieve goals and complete career milestones within the game.
Just Dance 2025 features 40 new tracks that are referred to as Maps. Some of the included tracks are Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso, Green Day’s Basket Case, Pink Venom by BLACKPINK, Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, and Training Season by Dua Lipa, a personal favorite of mine. While the game features plenty of other tracks, I was only aware of about half of this overall list. Thankfully, Just Dance+ offers over 300 tracks to make up for any particular shortcomings, such as a few personal favorites of mine; Pop/Stars by K/DA and Bad Guy by Billie Eilish.
Each of the available tracks features a set difficulty between Easy, Medium, Hard, and Extreme, but some songs have an exclusive Extreme map available to them, which is a separate version of that song. A few of the tracks this year have special Maps crafted that provide the ability for those who have extremely limited mobility or have trouble standing or moving in place. These maps allow the user to remain seated, but this only exists for alternative versions of Poker Face, Basket Case, and Espresso. This means that out of 40 new tracks, only 3 have this accessibility option available to them. While Just Dance+ has a few additional tracks that offer seated ganeplay, the offering for these players is pitiful. While I greatly appreciate the effort Ubisoft has made here to allow more players to enjoy this year's efforts, it's unfortunate to see such a huge disparity between what is accessible to those with disabilities and those who are without.
Across all platforms, Just Dance offers two methods in how to have the game track your movement. On Nintendo Switch, this extends to three. While you can use your joycons to track your dance moves, this, such as using your cellphone, is built to only track your right hand. This has been the standard method throughout the years, indicated by each dancing coach having a glove on their right hand. While you can follow the stick-figure indicators in the bottom right of the screen, you can also just follow the choreography of the dancer you see before you. As a newcomer to this series, I found the latter to be easier to follow than the often vague illustration of its stick-figure guides. It makes me wish there was a comprehensive training mode to make players familiar with the different moves
This year, all of the new songs are compatible with the camera controller option. By placing your cellphone in landscape mode in front of you, you can dance freely without having to hold your phone or joycon, making for a pretty seamless experience. This reminded me a lot of Dance Central where you simply had to dance and be free of any sort of device as the camera in front of you captured your movement. However, you do need a brightly lit room for this to really be effective.
In time for the launch of the game, Just Dance 2025 will have a featured artist partnership with Ariana Grande, featuring five songs by the singer; “Break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored”, “One last time”, “We can’t be friends”, “The boy is mine”, and “Yes, and?”. Also part of this year's package is a tribute to Spongebob SquarePants as both the titular SpongeBob and Patrick have a song produced by Ubisoft here complete with a fully animated performance to dance to. While the song is perfectly fine, the fact this even exists is a truly bizarre and splendid addition. This Birthday song features the duo in white dancing outfits dancing alongside a wealth of notable SpongeBob aesthetics and characters.
If you already have Just Dance 2024, then not much is going to change here. The UI is pretty much the same as installing this latest entry really just means you are downloading a song pack to the game you already own. Even loading up Just Dance 2024 will make that apparent. While this can lose a bit of the appeal of buying a new game and getting a whole experience, I can understand why Just Dance has essentially become a live service platform instead of being a fresh new release year after year. The dancing is as energetic and colorful as always and the presentation of its songs is still as impressive as it has been in the last few years, especially as the camera presentation in a few songs makes the experience more engaging and kinetic.
Just Dance 2025 has what fans of the series will likely want; more songs. Those who are committed to subscribing to the Just Dance+ service are likely this game's target audience and the appeal of having hundreds of songs available to you is certainly present across all of its menus. This year's entry looks to bring some accessibility features to the table, but in the grand scheme of what is offered, it feels more like a test of what is to come than a confident roll-out. While this year’s version is effectively just a song pack instead of a fresh new release, it still provides the presentation of last year’s release with a host of new songs and potential favorites.
Developer - Ubisoft, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Pune, Ubisoft Mumbai.
Publisher - Ubisoft. Released - October 15th, 2024. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (E 10+) - Mild Lyrics, In-Game Purchases. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch (Docked). Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.