Just Dance 2 Review

Just Dance 2 Wii makes it look easy. But a dance game this well executed is no fluke - detailed understanding of the audience and perfect technical execution make this a stand out experience on the Nintendo Wii.

Just Dance 2 proves the huge success of the first game was no fluke. Like before, it brings an intelligent balance of simple visuals and clear dance moves. But now, with a little more backing the song list is even better and includes an online store.

This is all great for hard core dance game players, but even better of families. By having sensibly shaped dancers, rather than the slender artists themselves perform the songs, the focus is firmly on rhythm and movement than sexuality.

Add to this the original backgrounds, rather than the music videos used by other games, as well as sanitised edits and Just Dance 2 is ideal for kids. This also avoids heading into Disney's saccharine approach that worked well in High School Musical Dance but excluded all but the youngest players.

This is all well and good but how would it go down in an actual family setting? My family is more than a little fatigued at trying out the latest Wii games. But Just Dance 2 surprised us all. My wife rarely plays games with us but literally couldn't be kept away from the Wii while we were playing.

As well as the easy to play mechanics, where you simply mirror the on screen dancer, the songs seem to have been handpicked just for us. Wham, Ting Tings and James Brown were all great choices.

Although I like to think it's not true, we have a running joke about my lack of rhythm. Just Dance 2 seemed to validate this as those who were better dancers in the family led the way each song. While I felt a little huffy and consistently coming last, it was good to see that good dancing is genuinely rewarded here.

Points are won for each move perfectly mirrored with the Wii-mote in your right hand. There are then extra points awarded at the end for streaks and special moves.

You can play four players simultaneously or eight in teams of two. There are also some cute modes that throw in special move directions for different players - stop, spin, clap and the like. This is rounded off by a first past the post Race mode, and fitness focused Sweat mode and a novel Duet mode where players each have different (related) moves to execute.

It would have been nice to have some sort of handicap option to level-out the family playing field (ed: to help dad catch up). I would also have liked some difficulty levels and a left handed option. But these issues are really grasping at critical straws.

I'd heard a lot about Just Dance's surprise success with the first game. Playing the follow up seems to be no mystery why the game did so well.

In an instant this has become a favourite family dance game on the Wii because it genuinely works for the whole family. It sets a high bar for the likes of Dance Central on 360's Kinect and Sing Star Dance on PS3's Move - and one players can enjoy for much less money.

I'd like to make a comment since it's such a good review (nice point on the Teen Disney comparision, dodged a potential bullet there), but the only dance game i've ever played is DDR.


The genre just isnt my cup of tea.

wow you actual did one


just wow


i can't really believe it


but it was a realy good review

I can barely play DDR on Normal difficulty Crimson! It's fun though! XD

I'll have you know Silver that I am a Reviewing Master and Writer of Godliness. I make Stephen Hawking look like Mr. Bean.....a wheelchair bound Mr. Bean.....

Gears of Bore wrote:

I'll have you know Silver that I am a Reviewing Master and Writer of Godliness. I make Stephen Hawking look like Mr. Bean.....a wheelchair bound Mr. Bean.....

I remember the days when reviewing was pure and un-biased.

I mean, it's like if I did a review on here of Activisions favourite love child Call Of Duty, i'd probably get mucho grande hate because 80% of the TL;DR review would be me pointing out everything wrong with the series and how it's such a terrible whore for mindless gaming sheep that doesnt do the likes of Quake or Doom justice.




And the other 20% would be me bitching about how all FPS's are Doom clones like I do in all my FPS reviews.

sorry just not into fps can't help it their terrible except to player multiplayer with friends

CrimsonSH wrote:

Gears of Bore wrote:

I'll have you know Silver that I am a Reviewing Master and Writer of Godliness. I make Stephen Hawking look like Mr. Bean.....a wheelchair bound Mr. Bean.....

I remember the days when reviewing was pure and un-biased.

I mean, it's like if I did a review on here of Activisions favourite love child Call Of Duty, i'd probably get mucho grande hate because 80% of the TL;DR review would be me pointing out everything wrong with the series and how it's such a terrible whore for mindless gaming sheep that doesnt do the likes of Quake or Doom justice.




And the other 20% would be me bitching about how all FPS's are Doom clones like I do in all my FPS reviews.

This sounds like a challenge for you sir. Write a review about the most recent COD game and be as unbiased as possible!

Gears of Bore wrote:

CrimsonSH wrote:

Gears of Bore wrote:

I'll have you know Silver that I am a Reviewing Master and Writer of Godliness. I make Stephen Hawking look like Mr. Bean.....a wheelchair bound Mr. Bean.....

I remember the days when reviewing was pure and un-biased.

I mean, it's like if I did a review on here of Activisions favourite love child Call Of Duty, i'd probably get mucho grande hate because 80% of the TL;DR review would be me pointing out everything wrong with the series and how it's such a terrible whore for mindless gaming sheep that doesnt do the likes of Quake or Doom justice.




And the other 20% would be me bitching about how all FPS's are Doom clones like I do in all my FPS reviews.

This sounds like a challenge for you sir. Write a review about the most recent COD game and be as unbiased as possible!

The only thing harder than reviewing a video game is reviewing a bad video game and trying your hardest not to make that so blatantly obvious and without trying to sound like a prick.

CrimsonSH wrote:

Gears of Bore wrote:

CrimsonSH wrote:

Gears of Bore wrote:

I'll have you know Silver that I am a Reviewing Master and Writer of Godliness. I make Stephen Hawking look like Mr. Bean.....a wheelchair bound Mr. Bean.....

I remember the days when reviewing was pure and un-biased.

I mean, it's like if I did a review on here of Activisions favourite love child Call Of Duty, i'd probably get mucho grande hate because 80% of the TL;DR review would be me pointing out everything wrong with the series and how it's such a terrible whore for mindless gaming sheep that doesnt do the likes of Quake or Doom justice.




And the other 20% would be me bitching about how all FPS's are Doom clones like I do in all my FPS reviews.

This sounds like a challenge for you sir. Write a review about the most recent COD game and be as unbiased as possible!

The only thing harder than reviewing a video game is reviewing a bad video game and trying your hardest not to make that so blatantly obvious and without trying to sound like a prick.

I wonder what would be tougher, a COD review or a Ninjabread Man review! XD

ninjabread man was apsolutly awesome until you start playing it