Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps
If you are ready to get your groove on by turning on your Xbox then Ubisoft’s Just Dance 4 is the game for you. With 44 songs on the disc when it ships out and more songs available for download through the Just Dance 4 store, it is sure to keep you dancing for hours on end. Not only is it something that will keep you dancing just for those dance parties with friends but also for workouts using the new Just Sweat Mode that the Ubisoft team has added.
The songs on this iteration of the Just Dance series will take you from Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” all the way to Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.” Everyone within the family is sure to find music in the game that they will enjoy dancing to. While some of the dance moves can get a bit tricky, there is really no punishment for doing them wrong. As long as you follow along with the shadow of the dancer on the bottom of the screen, you are sure to figure out the basics of the moves. This game is fairly forgiving in that it doesn’t appear to track the entire movement of the body using the Kinect but only certain parts of it.
The menus in the game seem to have a huge problem within them. You are supposed to be able to use your hands and use the Kinect throughout the menus; however Ubisoft has created a “sticky” finger situation so you are able to show the game where you want to be at. This causes a problem with the interface in the fact that the hand within the game gets “stuck” to things that you may not want to connect to, causing frustration. The Xbox controller can be used to navigate through the menus and does alleviate this issue though, but it is still frustrating.
In the Just Dance Mode of the game, you can enjoy many different types of dances where you are able to dance either by yourself or with other players. In songs that appear to be a multiple dancer song, just choose the dancer that you want to be and focus on that character. While it can be a bit confusing at the beginning, once you figure out how to ignore the other characters on the screen it gets a little easier, although not entirely. There are many songs where you can dance with up to three other people as well, as long as you have the space to do so in a safe manner. Each of the characters on the screen do a little bit different part of the dance and do interact with each other, making the dance quite fun.
In the Just Sweat Mode, there are four different types of exercise styles that you can choose from and then within them there are three different time frames that you are able to choose from. During the mode, your calories are calculated for you and you are not only doing dances from a certain era but also doing a warm-up and some cool downs as well. There are also some other exercises that are built into the time frame that you are doing the Just Sweat Mode so it is not just a dancing session that you are participating in. It is actually like you are taking part in an exercise class and it’s quite a bit of fun. It is not exactly clear as to how the game calculates the calories you are burning and whether or not a person of a different build using the Just Sweat Mode would burn the same calories as the next person.
The newest thing to be added to the Just Dance game is Just Dance TV. This is where you can upload your videos and pictures that are being taken while playing the game, sharing them with your friends and family on Facebook. Not only that but you can also share them on Just Dance TV through the Xbox. This is where a bit of voyeurism seems to have taken over with this game. People are able to upload their videos of themselves and their family members dancing to the games and then you can see them on the “Most Popular” channel or the “Most Recent” channel. While it is a bit entertaining it is also unnerving to say the least. If enough people “like” your video that you have placed up on Just Dance TV then anyone with a connection to the internet and Just Dance 4 will be able to see your videos.
The dancing in the game is fun. It isn’t as jittery as Just Dance 3 and does a much better job at tracking the movements of the body. As the game still only appears to track just your right hand, it is a bit disappointing that it does not use the Kinect to its full functionality. The song choices span a large amount of decades and yet do not make you feel as if someone was just picking out songs that they felt would sound good. They truly feel like they all fit together cohesively and they work well together when put on Non-Stop Shuffle, where there is no control over which song will come up next. This is definitely a game that will be able to cross over the generations and make everyone in the family happy. It is also something that the kids can pull out when they want to have a sleepover and want to play a game with just their friends.
A copy of Just Dance 4 was received by The Married Gamers for review.
Hi, how do you make it so you can use the xbox controller to select songs?
when i watch youtube videos of random ppl playing just dance 4 on a ps3. Sometimes you can see them on the screen whille they are playing. is this possible ,and if so how do you you turn that feature on ?