Just Dance 2019

Remember the good old days of plastic instruments? Me too, my friend, me too. Now they’re little more than landfills full of toy guitars. Even an attempt at bringing plastic instruments back a few years ago with new entries of Rock Band and Guitar Hero didn’t work out so well. Still, that doesn’t mean rhythm games are gone.

We’ve still got Just Dance, after all, and in particular we’ve now got Just Dance 2019. Let’s get this party started!

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Just Dance 2019 is…well, it’s Just Dance! There’s a pretty solid chance you’ve played it before; there’s even a pretty solid chance that you’ve played it on Switch. Sure, you may have played it elsewhere, too, but games like these are really a match made in heaven for the Switch. Playing it on other consoles will let you use your smartphone as a controller, so there’s more than one way to get your groove on.

Much like before, you’ll hold the Joy-Cons and those will track your movements as you gyrate wildly to whatever song demands gyrating. Gyration is basically the whole of the game, with pretty much everything else serving to make it more convenient to do so, and you can lope about with friends and foes alike in the various game modes, including online play. Don’t expect too many frills here, though as always I was a little surprised with how well the game recognizes each movement given the motion control arrangement.

No, instead of frills, what you’ve got is songs. There’s around 45 on the game card, most of which I didn’t recognize because I’m getting old, but if you’re a Just Dance aficionado then you’re not going to be satisfied with that, are you? No, you’re going to want to drop the $25 that the Switch version would like you to spend for a year of Just Dance Unlimited, which offers a stupidly huge amount of songs that will provide more gyration than you could possibly desire. Given the annual release setup of the series as a whole, I get the feeling that there’s plenty of folks who are more than happy to pay for Unlimited, and to be fair if you do you certainly get your money’s worth.

For the record, my favorite from the base set of tracks would probably be Just Dance’s take on club classic “Rhythm of the Night.” It’s no “Beep Beep I’m a Sheep,” but what is? Other songs run the usual poptastic gamut, meaning that you’ll probably want a specific taste to get the most out of this title and also that younger players and teens might enjoy the selection a bit more.

As for how it looks and plays…well, it’s Just Dance. It’s about the same as it’s always been, which means it’s a music video that you dance along to. That’s pretty much what you’d expect and my goodness, Just Dance 2019 gives it to you. I found the game ran well enough at all times as well. Given that it is, again, basically just a series of music videos, I’d certainly hope that’s the case! Sound-wise, well, it’s a bunch of pop songs and they all sound like pop songs. I miss “Beep Beep I’m a Sheep.” Thankfully that’s still on Unlimited.

So that’s it, then! Just Dance 2019 is more Just Dance, so if you want more you could certainly do worse than this. If you like rhythm games in general and don’t mind looking like a bit of a doofus, you could still do worse than this. If you pay for Unlimited, you could do MUCH worse than this, given what a huge amount of danceable content awaiting you. If you’ve got friends, kids, or both, you might want to give Just Dance 2019 a look.