Just Dance 2024 Edition review

Every year without fail a new Just Dance game comes along, and every year despite all its flaws I end up really enjoying dancing like an idiot. Well the nights are getting colder which can only mean one thing: Just Dance 2024 Edition. After playing this latest annual release for the last week I can guarantee one thing, if you don’t want to spend too much money on staying warm this winter then just do a bit of dancing and become a sweaty mess instead.

If you’ve never played a Just Dance game before, the concept is pretty simple. On the screen a dancer performs some sick ass moves, and it’s up to you to follow along while holding some sort of motion controller. This used to be a Wii Remote back in the days of the original Wii, but nowadays you can just download an app and link up to the game with your phone and use that. At the end of each song you’ll be given a score based on how well you’ve matched the dance moves, and then you move onto the next track.

That’s how it’s meant to work anyway, but due to the fact that the game only scores you based on how one of your arms is moving there’s pretty much no rhyme or reason to the scoring. Now that probably sounds pretty frustrating, but honestly as long as you’re able to ignore the scoring element of the game it basically doesn’t matter. When you’re busting out your sexiest dance moves to Britney Spears’ Gimme More with your friends, the entertainment is in watching how utterly ridiculous everyone looks and not in chasing a high score.

This is the case with all the Just Dance games though, so you probably want to know what’s new in Just Dance 2024 Edition. The answer to that question is not a lot. Last year Just Dance became a platform for future content, with a free version that could be played with two songs, a song pack for 2023 and the launch of the new Just Dance+ subscription service that gave you access to a ridiculous amount of songs from all of the previous games in the series. Because of this Just Dance 2024 Edition is essentially a song pack, with over forty new songs to dance along to.

Now I have to admit for my taste that this year’s musical offering is a little on the disappointing side, with less dance classics that I wanted to boogie on down to. I was able to find some new favourites though like “Sail” by AWOLNATION and “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexna. There are plenty of massive hits on the playlist too like “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus and “Butter” by BTS. I’d definitely recommend checking out the song list before taking the plunge on Just Dance 2024 though, because I think it’s one of the weaker lists of the series.

As well as new songs, Just Dance 2024 Edition does have one handy new feature. Workout Mode is simple but effective, and at the push of a button adds an estimated calories burnt counter and a total workout time to the bottom of the screen. I can attest that playing Just Dance is a hell of a workout, so having an easy way to track the exercise you’re doing while playing the game is a nice addition.

When reviewing Just Dance 2023 Edition last year I made a big deal of the accessibility filters in the game, which while a wonderful idea in theory just showcases how lacking the selection of accessible songs is. I loved the idea of my partner who’s a wheelchair user being able to join in playing this fun party game, but last year only having two songs to choose from for seated players was not great. This year they’ve not added a single new seated song, and it’s a massive shame. It feels like it’s more important for Just Dance to look like it’s being inclusive of disabled players, rather that actually being inclusive.

There are plenty of other issues with Just Dance 2024 Edition that were present last year too. You still can’t add the songs you enjoy most to a playlist, and instead have to select them one by one after being kicked to the main menu when you finish a song. There are also some songs that feature colourful clay animal characters or paper figures as the dancers you need to dance along with, and following their movements is way harder than it needs to be. It’s always frustrating when Just Dance chooses style over visibility, and it happens all too often.

Despite all its issues though, I can’t deny that playing Just Dance 2024 Edition is pretty damn entertaining. It’s really disappointing how few of the issues that plague the series have been fixed (and that no new seated songs have been added whatsoever) but if you enjoyed playing Just Dance last year and fancy some new songs to dance to it’ll probably still be worth buying.