Just Dance 2017

Just Dance 2017 on the Nintendo Switch is a great debut for the genre on the new console, and speaks to the promise of more great Joy-Con motion-controlled games to come.

Just Dance 17 is both refreshing and stale. On one hand, it’s great to see a late port from a third party that has as many features, if not more than the other versions available. On the other, the Just Dance franchise itself is pretty much the same as it was last year, or the year before, or the year before.

Probably the most definitive Just Dance game yet, but maybe it should be the last?

This year's edition of the Just Dance series lifts the game beyond its former releases thanks to its focus on treating players to various extras the more they play, as well as integrating the online component so smoothly. There will always be a tendency to jiggle the Joy-Con randomly - as with the Wii Remote in the past - in the hopes of cheating to get a decent score, but some of the fun factor is removed by doing that. Just Dance 2017 on Nintendo Switch is as close to perfection in the genre as possible, even if this version has lost some of the features included in the already released Wii U edition.

Overall, Just Dance 2017’s pros far outweigh its cons. The controls aren’t the best, as their inaccuracy is present from the moment you start moving, but there is a lot of fun to be had dancing and prancing your way to stardom, especially if you have young kids in the household.

Just Dance 2017 is a good way to introduce new players to the game, or to get friends in the game with you - but as for accuracy, it's not the best. That said, you'll probably be having so much fun dancing to the Sumo version of "Hips Don't Lie" that you won't even notice the hiccups.

Just Dance came to the Switch but did not improve on many things. Still, there is a new mode and an exclusive song in this version. A portable mode is possible thanks to the Switch's capabilities that make the game great for outdoors or parties elsewhere.

A new installment of an endless franchise. A funny game when played with other people, but the Unlimited does not have its full potential and there are some issues with the movement tracking.

While a step up from last year in terms of included tracks, Just Dance 2017 doesn’t bring a lot new to the table — the meat and potatoes lies in Just Dance Unlimited. The Switch version specifically functions as well as you might expect, offering up an easy second player controller courtesy of readily-available Joy-Cons, though the experience becomes difficult visually once undocked. At this point, it’s what you’d expect from Just Dance, but on a new platform. Consider this tiny cartridge your portal into Just Dance Unlimited as I imagine 2017 might be where physical entries to the series end.

Despite the requirement of an annual paid subscription to enjoy an additional set of 200 hundred songs beyond the 40 tracks that come with the game, this version of Just Dance 2017 has the added incentive of working as a portable as well as a home game, which will certainly create its own space for players who enjoy the kind of contribution that Just Dance brings to friendly gatherings.

Sure, we’ve seen it all before but it’s not about that, it’s about allowing other people to experience the Just Dance phenomenon and even though the controls are not totally accurate in how it tracks your dancing, the fun and entertainment factor of the title more than makes up for this short-fall. All in all, it’s an enjoyable game for people of all ages as they dance to their hearts content, backed by some of the world’s hottest singers and bands.

Quotation forthcoming.

Great at what it does – serving as a surprisingly jam-packed offering for solo players as well as being a great addition to parties, sleep-overs and gatherings of friends; yet it isn't perfect. Although it has a pleasing amount of unlockables such as avatars and the like, it doesn't feel like enough to keep you wanting more, and considering the game is obtainable at a much cheaper rate on other consoles than the full retail price tag on the Switch version, it is hard to recommend this over other versions, as ultimately the game is identical. This is a good version of a solid dancing game, but whether it's a cost effective launch window offering on Switch is up for debate.

A very predictable update to a long-running series of dancing games that shines in visual design and unique choreography but is very loose with its tracking of your body movements. It’s not going to teach you to be a professional dancer, and it honestly doesn’t really teach you how to be good at Just Dance itself. That said, it’s still a whole lot of fun to play, and the songs that aren’t locked behind a paywall are varied and, largely, recognisable.

While there's only so much you can do with a dancing game concept, after playing so much Dance Central over the years, the ancillary modes all seem pretty rote. There's a loose campaign (that's not really engaging enough to follow through with), free play, and a bare-bones weight loss mode. "Dance Machine" attempts to try something new, randomizing routines under the guise of helping aliens refuel their ship, but I found myself just gravitating back toward freeplay after a few rounds.

At its core Just Dance 2017 is solid party fun as always. But while the movement recognition always was quite tolerant, here it is too inconsistent.

Just Dance 2017 on Nintendo Switch is the definition of a port as besides allowing for new control options, there’s nothing to distinguish it from other consoles. That’s not a slight at Ubisoft, as there’s not much that could have been done to enhance this re-release besides updating the controls and they were successful in that. Using JoyCons is a fine way to experience the game, with similar functionality to that of a Wii Remote or smartphone (which are also compatible with the game) and makes it easy to rope in multiple players for those with a ton of them on hand.