Just Dance 2014 arrived in the middle of a console handover. It is the rare annual release that treats that awkward moment as an opportunity.
Ubisoft shipped the fifth main entry in the Just Dance series for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Wii U on 9 October 2013. It then put the game out again for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as a launch title on 15 November and 22 November respectively. The result is a party game that knows what it is, adds a few features that change how a room behaves, and still leans on the same trick the franchise has used from the start: you copy the dancer, the motion controller scores you, and somebody argues about the score.
Trailer, via Just Dance.
World Dance Floor puts you in a crowd of strangers
The headline addition is World Dance Floor, an online mode where players compete against others simultaneously on the same song in a massively multiplayer setting. It is built on a ghost data system, and you can join in at any time with eight-player parties. The Wii version does not get it.
That last detail matters more than the feature list suggests. World Dance Floor turns a game about a living room into a game about a crowd, and the ghost data approach is the right call — you are chasing a performance, not waiting in a lobby. The eight-player cap is generous. The Wii omission is the kind of split that made the 2013 release calendar irritating for anyone who had not yet bought a new console.
On Stage gives the shy player a job
Selected songs now carry On Stage routines, where one player dances in a lead role while others perform as backup dancers. Lyrics in that mode sit above the dancers instead of in the bottom left corner, so the room can focus on singing along.
AutoDance records footage of your gameplay and lets you upload it to the Just Dance website or push it to social networks. Karaoke lets players use connected microphones to sing along to all of the on-screen lyrics. Singing earns bonus Mojo points on top of whatever the routine itself pays out.
These are small features. Together they fix the oldest problem in the genre, which is that only one or two people in a room are actually doing anything. On Stage gives the shy player a job. Karaoke gives the person who cannot dance a way to score anyway.
Dance Crew stays at four on Xbox One
The Xbox One version includes an alternate routine for “Kiss You” that can be played by up to six players at once. In that version it serves as the classic routine, while the original four-player routine — the classic routine on other consoles — becomes the alternate. Dance Crew routines on Xbox One remain four players only.
That is a genuine inconsistency, and it is worth naming as one. The six-player “Kiss You” routine is a nice piece of platform-specific generosity. The Dance Crew cap is a reminder that the Xbox One version was assembled under launch-window pressure. The rules do not line up cleanly across two routines in the same game.
Gold Moves return, and Mash-Ups get their teeth back
Gold Moves are back in Mashups after sitting out Just Dance 4. That return is the sort of thing only a series regular notices, and it is the right call: Mash-Ups without Gold Moves flatten into a playlist of clips, and the mode needs a moment where the routine demands something specific from you.
The game also supports alternate choreographies per track across categories including Just Sweat, Extreme, Battle and Mash-Up. For players using the game as exercise, there are customized workout playlists and calorie tracking that carries across modes. That is not a gimmick bolted on at the end. It is the feature that keeps a dance game on the shelf past the first month.
What you need to dance
The game requires motion controllers, and which one depends on your machine. Wii and Wii U use Wii Remotes. PlayStation 3 uses PlayStation Move. PlayStation 4 accepts either PlayStation Move or PlayStation Camera. Xbox 360 and Xbox One use Kinect.
That is a lot of hardware for one game, and it is the least glamorous fact in this review. Just Dance 2014 asks you to own the peripheral before it asks you to own the game. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions arrived at launch, when plenty of buyers had not yet picked up a camera or a Move wand. The second-screen support on Wii U and Xbox platforms, which lets a companion device manage routines, playlists and performance, is the one addition that works without extra plastic in the room.
The numbers behind the release
- Release date: 9 October 2013 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U)
- Release date: 15 November 2013 (PlayStation 4)
- Release date: 22 November 2013 (Xbox One)
- Developer and publisher: Ubisoft
- Series position: fifth main installment
- Announced at: Ubisoft’s E3 2013 press event
- Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Modes: single player, multiplayer, split screen
- World Dance Floor party size: 8 players (not on Wii)
- Xbox One “Kiss You” alternate routine: up to 6 players
- Dance Crew on Xbox One: 4 players only
- Published critical score: 7.8/10, from an IGDB critic aggregate across 6 outlets
Release schedule
| Date | Platform | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 9 October 2013 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U | First wave |
| 15 November 2013 | PlayStation 4 | Launch title |
| 22 November 2013 | Xbox One | Launch title |
The score holds up, with one reservation
A 7.8 out of 10 is the right landing spot for Just Dance 2014. The game’s best ideas are structural rather than musical. World Dance Floor is the real headline. Competing simultaneously against other players on the same song, with eight-player parties and ghost data doing the work, is the feature that gave the series somewhere to go. On Stage and Karaoke solve the same problem from a different angle, giving the people who are not dancing something to do that still counts.
The reservation is the platform split. The Wii version loses World Dance Floor entirely. Xbox One players get a six-player “Kiss You” routine but stay capped at four for Dance Crew. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners needed Move, a PlayStation Camera or Kinect to play at all, and the launch-window timing meant many of them did not have one yet. A game this dependent on hardware should not have arrived with so many different answers to what you need to own.
What matters most is that Ubisoft used the console transition to expand the game rather than re-skin it. Gold Moves came back. Mash-Ups got their structure back. AutoDance and second-screen support made the game easier to show other people. The choreography is still the product, and the scoring is still accuracy, but this is the entry where the series stopped being only a living-room game.
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