Just Dance

Released to mixed-to-unfavourable reviews. It was criticized for its simplistic gameplay, poor motion detection, and not including progression or additional content beyond what was included on-disc. At the same time, the simplistic gameplay of Just Dance was praised for being accessible to a casual audience, its "fun" soundtrack and dance routines, and for becoming more enjoyable as a multiplayer party game. A major commercial success, selling over 4.3 million copies worldwide and establishing a franchise that, as of November 2024, had collectively sold over 90 million units, making it Ubisoft's second-largest franchise.

• Title — Just Dance • Developer — Ubisoft Paris • Publisher — Ubisoft • Series — Just Dance • Platforms — Wii • Genre — Music, rhythm • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

• Illustration — Gameplay of the track "Hot n Cold" in Just Dance After selecting a song and either a short or full version of it, players are presented with an on-screen dancer, as well as an occasional display of scrolling pictograms/silhouettes representing specific poses. While holding a Wii Remote in their right hand, players follow the moves of the on-screen dancer and their choreographed routine. Players are judged by their animated score icons on a ranking scale for the accuracy of each of their moves in comparison to that of the on-screen dancer, and receive points. There are three judgements, "X", "OK" and "Great". The "X" means that the player did not copy the move, "OK" means that the player tried, but did not exactly copy the move or almost did it, and "Great" means the player copied the move exactly. Some moves are shake moves, where the shake meter appears in front of their animated score icons, giving the players a chance to shake their Wii Remotes as fast as they can to receive bonus points. There are two scoring targets for each song: 10,000 points for a Standard target, and 15,000 points for a Master target. Along with standard play, three other modes are included; the "Warm Up" mode serves as a practice mode. In "Strike a Pose" mode, players are instructed at random to freeze (similar to red light green light). In "Last One Standing" mode, players are given seven lives; players lose lives on mistakes, and regain them after scoring five correct moves in a row; a player is eliminated if they lose all of their lives.

The concept of Just Dance originated from a minigame developed for inclusion in the Rayman Raving Rabbids series. Ubisoft France's managing director Xavier Poix and his team felt the Wii Remote and Nunchuk would work well for music games; Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 featured a music minigame that IGN compared to Guitar Hero, where players shook the Wii Remote or Nunchuk when prompted to play an instrument. For Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party, the concept was iterated into a pose-based dance game. Proving popular in demonstrations, the concept was refined and redeveloped into a stand-alone game. Just Dance was developed by a small team of around 20 at Ubisoft Paris and was pitched six months prior to its eventual release. Poix explained that unlike the Raving Rabbids games, which he described as being a "gamer's game", Just Dance was designed to contrast skill-based rhythm games with a concept and control scheme that would be accessible to a mainstream audience, encouraging them to "[get] off the couch and [have] fun together". Ubisoft producer Florian Granger noted that Just Dance was designed to help players overcome their inhibitions and anxiety towards dance, helping them build a "vocabulary" of moves they can practice in a "safe context", and with the game itself being the focal point of attention rather than themselves. He reminisced that "everyone remembers going to a nightclub or school disco where it takes a couple of hours before anyone has the bottle to get up and dance. Most guys do the fix-placed-beer-bottle dance or neck-shake to the beat." Creative director Gregoire Spillmann argued that dance games at the time had instructed players to press buttons with their feet, rather than actually dance. Acknowledging Dance Dance Revolution players who use its gameplay as a base for their own dance routines, Spiller likened Just Dance to be a reversal of the concept, in which the dance moves themselves were "fit" into the gameplay, and could be applied outside the game as well. The team deliberately focused on building the mechanics of Just Dance solely around the Wii Remote, rather than dedicated accessories such as dance pads, arm or leg bands, as well as the Nunchuk attachment. Spillmann explained that such accessories were "distractions" that restricted the motion of players; for instance, the team felt that the Nunchuk's short cord limited how it could be used in routines, and that removing it helped the game focus less on precision and more on letting players feel like they are dancing. The absence of dedicated peripheral also contrasted with other music games that utilized increasingly intricate and expensive controllers. While Poix felt that his team had developed a game that could potentially become successful, his colleagues at Ubisoft Paris doubted Just Dance. Poix explained that "people thought it would never work, because people don't dance, or that it wasn't precise enough for people to actually learn to dance." Granger felt that the development team would be "cynical" of Just Dance due to the oversaturated market of casual games on the Wii, but noted that there was a "sense of excitement" among them, as it would be based upon a proven codebase, and used "respected" games such as Dance Dance Revolution as an example to build upon. The game was also planned to be called We Dance, but Ubisoft renamed it to Just Dance in order to avoid confusion with a game with a similar title called We Dare (which was also created by Ubisoft).

Just Dance features a soundtrack consisting of 33 songs. • Song — Artist — Year • "A Little Less Conversation" — Elvis Presley vs. JXL — 2002 • "Acceptable in the 80s" — Calvin Harris — 2007 • "Bebe" — Divine Brown — 2008 • "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — Kylie Minogue — 2001 • "Cotton Eye Joe" — Rednex — 1994 • "Crispy Duck" — John Brooks — 2005 • "Dare" — Gorillaz — 2005 • "Eye of the Tiger" — Survivor — 1982 • "Fame" — Irene Cara (credited as In the Style of Irene Cara) — 1980 • "Funplex (CSS Remix)" — The B-52s — 2008 • "Girls & Boys" — Blur — 1994 • "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" — Cyndi Lauper — 1983 • "Groove Is in the Heart" — Deee-Lite — 1990 • "Heart of Glass" — Blondie — 1979 • "Hot n Cold" — Katy Perry — 2008 • "I Get Around" — The Beach Boys — 1964 • "I Like to Move It" — Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman — 1993 • "Jerk It Out" — Caesars — 2002 • "Jin-Go-Lo-Ba" — Fatboy Slim — 2004 • "Kids in America" — Kim Wilde — 1981 • "Le Freak" — Chic — 1978 • "Louie Louie" — Iggy Pop — 1993 • "Lump" — The Presidents of the United States of America — 1995 • "Mashed Potato Time" — Dee Dee Sharp — 1962 • "Pump Up the Jam" — Technotronic — 1989 • "Ring My Bell" — Anita Ward — 1979 • "Step by Step" — New Kids on the Block — 1990 • "Surfin' Bird" — The Trashmen — 1963 • "That's the Way (I Like It)" — KC and the Sunshine Band — 1975 • "U Can't Touch This" — MC Hammer — 1990 • "Wannabe" — Spice Girls — 1996 • "Who Let the Dogs Out" — Baha Men — 2000 • "Womanizer" — The Gym All-Stars (as made famous by Britney Spears) — 2008

Just Dance received generally mixed-to-negative reviews from critics; Metacritic lists the game with an aggregate score of 49 out of 100 based on 21 critic reviews, indicating a "generally unfavorable" reception. GameSpot was relatively positive, praising Just Dance for having simplistic gameplay, and remarking that its dance routines were both "fun" and "hilarious". However, the game's motion detection was considered "frustrating and unrewarding", and the game was also panned for its graphical quality, and its absence of career modes or downloadable content. In conclusion, giving the game a 5.5 out of 10, GameSpot felt that Just Dance would appeal best as a multiplayer party game, where players can "attempt the silly dances, laugh at each other's mistakes, and sing along to the cheesy pop tunes", but was "water-thin" as a single-player game. Nintendo World Report felt that the game's soundtrack was "fun" but "cheesy" at times. The game's user interface was described as being "colorful" but minimalistic, while the appearance of the on-screen dancers were compared to iPod commercials. It was also noted that the pictograms additionally used to represent moves sometimes contradicted with the instructions implied to the player via the on-screen dancer, "making it look like timing relies on the pose you make rather than the movements you do", but that "once you 'get it', Just Dance becomes very enjoyable, very enduring, and extremely silly and fun." In conclusion, it was felt that Just Dance was "very rough but shows promise, especially when played with friends." Sam Bishop of IGN felt that Just Dance was "an experience so devoid of depth or even basic game concepts that it would be considered a rip-off even if it was one of those Chinese knock-off systems masquerading as an existing console", further criticizing the game for its basic gameplay mechanics, "sloppy" motion detection, absence of variation or unlockable content, and not including the Lady Gaga song of the same name (which would be included on Just Dance 2014). The review concluded by urging readers not to buy, rent, or consider playing Just Dance, "lest someone at Ubisoft find out and they prep a Just Dance 2. Such would be the end of all things, mark my words."

In contrast to its critical reception, Just Dance was a major commercial success for Ubisoft; for a period, it was the top-selling video game in the United Kingdom, and in March 2010, Ubisoft announced that Just Dance had sold 2 million copies worldwide. In October 2010, the company announced that over 4.3 million copies of the game had been sold worldwide.