There seem to be two types of dancing games out there - the trying hard to be cool, ludicrously hard Dance Centrals, and the happy-go-lucky, neon, less judgemental Just Dances. Where Dance Central seems more concerned with teaching you to dance, Just Dance only cares that you have fun. You don't need to be a good dancer with some killer moves under your belt - but if you like to dance, then Just Dance 3 won't disappoint.
With performances like that 'Funky' won't be winning for much longer...
For those of you that have somehow missed the Just Dance phenomenon, the premise is simple - you just need to hold a Wii Remote in your hand and copy the moves shown on the screen, and you'll gain points based on how well you perform. Little stick men more across the bottom of the screen, and show you what moves to do, and every so often a special 'Gold Move' will make it's way along the screen - hitting this will net you some serious point-age. It's entirely possible to cheat, or do a half-arsed attempt at copying the moves - if you don't feel like spinning around in a circle, Just Dance 3 will never know if you don't, as it only tracks your one arm - theoretically you could sit on the sofa and just move your one arm, but that's no fun. While for the most part, the motion detection is fine, occasionally you will find that it doesn't think you've done the move right, even though you know you have - I'm looking at you Gold Move Number 1 in Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite'...
It's the sort of game everyone can play - from your six year old cousin, to your eighty year old gran and everyone in-between. Just Dance is at it's best when you can get a group of four friends together, all dancing at the same time to the oft cheesy choreographies. Playing off this popular multiplayer, Just Dance 2 added duets to some of the songs, where two people would do two independent sets of dance moves, which often went together. Just Dance 3 ups this to the four-player Dance Crew songs, where each person in your quartet gets a different set of moves, like in Kiss' 'I Was Made For Lovin' You', the four of your make up the band members - each with their own themed choreography, so you'll be miming out a guitar solo or beating the drums within an inch of their lives. Other Dance Crew songs make use of a dance technique called 'canon' (if I remember PE lessons at school correctly), whereby dancer number one will do a move, followed by dancer two, then three and then four doing the same move after each other - Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite' is probably the best example, along with the cover of Britney Spears' 'Baby One More Time'. Further through the game, you'll also unlock a few songs with 'Hold My Hand' choreographies, where up to eight people can play at once, all 'joined together' by holding either end of the Wii Remotes, in a long line.
Kiss look a bit different to what I remember...
While the previous Just Dance games were fun little diversions for when you had ten minutes and fancied bouncing around the room to a song you would never choose to listen to under any other circumstances (I'm looking at you Katy Perry), some people may have found the lack of any real progression, bar chasing high scores, to be a bit of a turn off. To combat this, Ubisoft have packed the game full of Medals, a levelling up system and unlockables galore - once you create your own 'profile' by entering your name, you'll start collecting something called 'Mojo', which, once you reach a certain amount, you'll level up and unlock a new gift, such as new songs, medleys, mash-ups and modes. Reaching Level 1 nets you a 'Simon Says' mode, where you need to copy dance moves as normal until a specific symbol shows up, like 'Clap', where you need to clap in time to the music or 'Stop' where you need to stand perfectly still. Level 2 unlocks a new song in the form of Dr. Creole's 'Baby Zouk', and Level 3 unlocks the 'Party Rock Anthem Dance Mash-Up', to the tune of LMFAO's 'Party Rock Anthem', and features not just the titular song's choreography, but bits nicked from a multitude of other songs, some even taken from previous games. You'll find yourself jumping from the cowgirl burlesque of 'Giddy On Up (Giddy On Out) to the leotard-clad superhero style of Jamouroqui's 'Cosmic Girl' and then back to the neon rave-ness of LMFAO, with a whole load of others thrown in too.
There's also a total of sixteen medals to collect too, each with bronze, silver and gold levels to them, which are awarded for completing certain objectives in the game - like finishing a song without missing any moves, or just playing ten songs. There's also a medal for getting all seven of the different 'styles' for your dances - which range from 'In Rhythm', to 'Energetic' and 'Creative', which I seem to get quite often, and I guess is just a nicer way of saying at least you tried... The medals give you something to keep working towards - and you'll need some serious skills to unlock all of them.
Making it's return again is the 'Just Sweat' workout program, which lets you pick an arbitrary amount of Sweat Points you'd like to achieve per day - the Beginner program is equivalent to walking for thirty minutes, the Intermediate equivalent to jogging for half an hour, and the Advanced is like running for the same length of time. But while Just Dance 2's Just Sweat Mode was limited to the specific section of the game, you'll gain Sweat Points towards your total in whatever mode you're playing in, over the course of the entire day - making it a damn site easier to reach your day's total. If you don't really care what song's you dance around to, or if you're in the mood for some 80s cheese or whatever, Just Dance 3 also has a load of pre-made setlists to pick from - themed around decades, genres and how sweaty you could get.
Talk to the hand!
While the forty plus tracks included on the disc, and all the unlockables, should keep you going for a fair while - especially considering you unlock some more songs as time goes on, Ubisoft are again providing a downloadable store, filled with extra tracks. They cost a full fifty points less than they did in the second game too, at 250 points each, which works out at about �2.10 each, rather than 300 - unfortunately you can't carry over any songs you bought for Just Dance 2 though, which is a shame. But you do save about 35p on each song compared to last year!Just Dance is like Dance Central's much friendlier sibling; it's goal has never been realism, nor has it ever been about pinpoint accuracy - its much more about having fun jigging about to the cheesy choreographies, and having a laugh with your friends as you do so. Just Dance 3 is more about dressing up in silly wigs, dancing with smiling ice creams and donning bowler hats and ties - and it's all the better for it.
Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii
