Continuing the tradition of recent years, Ubisoft took to the stage at this year's giant gaming show, E3, to confirm the newest instalment in their blockbuster dance series, Just Dance. Having become a yearly franchise ever since the original smashed its way to the top of the charts, it turns out the new game won't be called Just Dance 5 as we'd originally predicted, but will instead be known as Just Dance 2014 - kind of like EA's sports games, but with more neon (and, we'd argue, a whole lot more fun). As always, the game will have a selection of songs both new and old, across a selection of different genres, so everyone can find a tune they're happy to jig about to.
Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die? You were right...
Of the game's 40+ tracks on the disc, so far there have only been nine confirmed, including a double dose of Nicki Minaj and a rather bizarre zombie thriller-style dance for Gloria Gaynor's classic:
- David Guetta feat. Sia - She Wolf (Falling To Pieces)
- Far East Movement - Turn Up The Love
- Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
- Nicki Minaj - Pound The Alarm
- Nicki Minaj - Starships
- Olly Murs feat. Flo Rida - Troublemaker
- PSY - Gentleman
- Robbie Williams - Candy
- One Direction - Kiss You
In addition to the songs mentioned in the game's official press release, though, word of a few other songs has begun to leak out over the past few days, although they have yet to be officially confirmed. As the background music to the official trailer, Pitbull and Christina Aguilera's 'Feel This Moment' would seem like a dead cert for the game, especially with Pitbull having put out a tweet about Just Dance earlier this morning, but there's been no official word as of yet. Meanwhile, a leaked screenshot has also been doing the rounds, which appears to show people in Ghostbusters gear too - so perhaps the film's theme will be another one to add to the list, although we'd take this one with a spoonful of salt for the time being.
I ain't afraid of no ghost.
In terms of new features for this year's instalment, Ubisoft have lifted the lid on several new modes, tweaks and improvements that'll be added to Just Dance 2014, perhaps the biggest of which is the inclusion of online multiplayer. Known as the 'World Dance Floor', this new, online multiplayer mode will let you join up with Just Dance fans from around the world and form a virtual dance crew, competing with other crews across a number of songs with points awarded based on different themes, presumably on score, percentage of 'Gold Move' poses hit and the like. What's slightly less clear is how the new 'On Stage' mode will play out - according to what we've heard, it will "let a player own the spotlight by dancing the 'starring' role in a song, leading two back up dancers", potentially offering a markedly different type of choreography to what we've seen so far, but we're not sure if there'll be anything beyond that - maybe the player with the highest points will switch into the spotlight and cause a bit of frantic shuffling in your living room, or there'll be some other hidden twist waiting to be revealed.
What does have us intrigued though is the promise of six player dance routines, at least partially because we can't actually think of how it's going to work. As none of the current consoles will let you play with six people at once, we can only assume this is a feature exclusive to the new Kinect sensor that comes bundled with the Xbox One console, although we wouldn't rule out some kind of technical wizardry for the other platforms quite yet. In terms of other features exclusive to certain consoles, Wii U users will also see the return of their exclusive 'Puppet Master' mode from Just Dance 4, this time renamed to 'Party Master', where the player with the GamePad can mix up the choreography for their friends, choosing the dance moves and making them strike (and hold) poses mid game, although nothing has yet been revealed for the other systems.
Just Dance 2014 hits all current 'motion control platforms' - i.e. the Wii, Wii U, Kinect for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3's Move - on the 4th October this year. The 'next generation' consoles of the Xbox One and Playstation 4 will have to wait a few more months to get their Just Dance fix, though, with the game set to debut around Christmas time. In the mean time, to see some of the new songs in action, why not take a look at the first teaser trailer below:
