Christmas is the season of goodwill, family, giving and sharing and getting everyone together to suffer mass embarrassment!  Thus Just Dance was very well timed and has no doubt featured highly on suggested party games lists this yuletide season.  I for one made sure that we packed our copy of Just Dance when we headed off to the celebrations on Christmas day and I’m pleased to say it was well received and with good reason.

The idea behind Just Dance is very straightforward: you watch the dancer on the screen and, holding the Wii remote, try to emulate the moves he or she is making.  Points are awarded for accuracy (in both following the moves and keeping to the rhythm), how well your body movements flow and finally the amount of energy you put into the dance.  A little stickman on the screen shows you which move is coming up next; however, in fairness, during an unfamiliar routine the best you can hope for is to move your arms into the correct starting position as it can be a little tricky to second guess what might come after that.  Thankfully it becomes much easier to follow once you’ve done a few dances and the moves become more familiar.

The game can be played with 1-4 players.  Given that you move both your arms and legs during play you’d probably need a fair amount of space to play with the full range of players (unless you trust your dance partners enough to know they won't go wrong and bump into you every ten seconds): however, we managed to accommodate 2 players fairly easily playing in a relatively small room.

Just Dance has three modes of play.  Warm Up simply enables you to warm up for the game and you don’t score anything during this section. Quick Game allows you to choose a track and get straight down to the dancing.  Challenge lets you dance to a set number of songs (up to 10), which you can either choose manually or allow the game to choose for you.  The latter is probably the fairest way for multiplayer games as it ensures you both get a fair chance at drawing a song you are particularly good (or bad!) at.  Challenge is broken down into three modes: Classic, Last Man Standing and Strike a Pose.  In Classic you dance as best you can to score points.  Last Man Standing sees you being given seven lives and losing a life for every incorrect move you make.  Finally Strike a Pose requires you to dance until you see a ‘Stop’ sign and remain frozen until the ‘Go’ sign comes up.  You lose a lot of points if you don’t remain frozen in between.

It’s really a case of ‘something for everyone’ in Just Dance as there are a range of tracks both old and new including Eye of the Tiger, Womanizer, Fame, I Like to Move It and Pump Up the Jam.  In total there are 32 tracks from The Beach Boys to MC Hammer to Fat Boy Slim.  You can customise the game to display the lyrics so it’s a nice distraction for those who aren’t playing: you could always have them singing along in the background!

Despite my utter lack of any natural rhythm I still found this really enjoyable and pretty easy to follow.  After dancing to several tracks in a row you certainly get your pulse racing and it’s a nice, active and involving game.  Most importantly, it’s really really good fun and an unusual way to get people up and dancing.  If you enjoy music, a dance or a workout and are game for a bit of a giggle, then this could certainly be the title for you.

**Review by Donna Haw**