Review: Just Dance 3

Words by: Dave Moran | Posted on: Thursday 27th October, 2011 | Filed under: Game Reviews, Retail Games.

I’m one of those blokes who likes a bit of boogie, sober or otherwise. I don’t really need an excuse, though I look slightly saner at a wedding than I do than dancing at the office. So when games like Just Dance 3 come along to review it’s me who happily runs off to find his leg warmers and get some stretches done in preparation.

Just Dance 3 is the first entry of the series to take advantage of Microsoft’s Kinect. For the most part it’s impressive, but at the same time there are some annoyances too.

No Dancing game is complete without a decent track list, and this where Just Dance 3 excels itself. There are 50 songs spanning across the musical spectrum. There are recent hits such as Katy Perry’s “California Girls” and Jessie J’s “Price Tag” as well as classics like Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” and Bananarama’s “Venus”. No matter what your music tastes are there is bound to be something in here to get your feet tapping. There are other songs are available to download from the in-game store, such as MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” costing 240 Microsoft points. Songs are divided up between those for one, two or four dancers. No doubt that the games fun level rises sharply when more people are involved, unfortunately you will need a pretty sizeable room to fit everybody in, something I don’t have. It’s interesting to see that Kinect is able to pick up four bodies at once, considering Dance Central will only pick up two.

Where the game lets you down is in the navigation, although they have adapted the swipe to select style that Dance Central first adopted, it’s far too sensitive and I found myself reaching for my controller to navigate in the end. It actually gets worse when choosing a difficulty for a song, the different levels were placed above your head and you literally had to jump about to select the easier dances.

Once you are in the game and actually dancing though it’s pretty good fun and Kinect handles really well. The symbols to show you what moves were coming up are quite difficult to interpret at times so I found myself learning from the bright-neon characters themselves. You are not given any visual feedback about where you were going wrong in moves like you would in Dance Central, except for the “Ok”, “Good” and “Perfect” prompts. To be fair though, you can’t actually fail a song and this is not a Dance Simulation game, you are just there to have fun. After each dance, you’re awarded stars, which go toward increasing your mojo level. Reach a certain level, and you unlock new content, such as playlists or dances.

The choreography has been brilliantly thought out for each song, there are classic old school dance moves like the Running Man, to some fast paced Hip-Hop action in songs like Black Eyed Peas “Pump it”. Each song has a different backdrop from a TV set to an igloo in the Artic and each person you dance along with feels like they have their own character, some songs genuinely made me laugh at the songs.

Apart from trying to get the best score possible for your dancing you can activate sweat mode, which will give you points based on how energetic your performance was. Like most Kinect titles this will give you a good workout so if it makes you work a little bit harder that can only be a good thing. Within Sweat Mode there are some brilliant playlists to help you along the way. There is also a quite a fun mode called ‘Simon Says’ and that’s what it is. Whilst dancing through the different songs you will be prompted to do different things such as spin around, jump. stop or throw some random moves. The more I played it the more addicted I became to it. It’s just a shame it’s hidden away in the menus.

If you are a real exhibitionist then the excellent ‘Just Create’ mode will be perfect for you. Using the Kinect camera, you can record your own routine to a song and play it afterwards with friends. You also get the chance to download other user’s choreography’s and share yours on the Just Dance website (In fact looking at the website shows that 7 people have viewed me dancing in my shorts, scary stuff). It’s worth noting that you can’t share all the songs, there will be an icon indicating which ones can be though. I was really impressed with the way this mode was handled. You are given a neon makeover just like the characters you have been trying to copy throughout the game; you can then replay the video back to yourself for full comedy value. Coach Me mode is perfect for practising the moves you are struggling with, it will also record you then let you view your performance to see the mistakes you are making, in my case plenty of them.

If you like your achievements this isn’t the game for you, there are some real tough ones in there. For example “I Could Do This All Night” requires you to dance every song in the “Songs” menu in a row while in the same game. I’m pretty sure I was shattered after 10 songs let alone 50. No doubt those with more dedication and ability than me will get these but they will take a lot of work.

Just Dance 3 is a great experience overall, if you are a great dancer you’ll love pulling off all the moves, if you are an awful dancer (me) you’ll have great fun trying. The game is fun enough to keep playing on your own and no doubt will be a blast with your mates. The visuals are excellent, track list is superb and for the most part Kinect stands up to the test. The ‘Just Create’ mode is an excellent addition to the game and is perfect for some party games. Even if this isn’t your sort of game it is still worth checking out, you never know, it might surprise you.

About Dave Moran

When Dave isn't changing nappies or learning the latest songs on Cbeebies you'll find him taking the world on at FIFA or avoiding the sawn-off shotgun in Gears of War 3

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