It seems fitting that Ubisoft made the effort to release Just Dance 2017 on the Nintendo Switch with the franchise being so successful on the Nintendo Wii. The title has been out on other consoles since last year, so how does it compare to these other versions?
Like with the Nintendo Wii versions of Just Dance titles, this latest iteration on the Nintendo Switch also makes use of motion controls in the Joy-Con controllers when it’s being played. Not only that, but it supports the use of a mobile application to enable one or more players to play the game. It’s necessary to hold the controllers in a certain manner regardless of what is being used. In practice the controls don’t always feel like they work as intended. But given the target player group that will make use of the title, it certainly doesn’t feel particularly important that the controls are that precise.
There are different modes to keep players amused, but at its core Just Dance 2017 can just be played for fun by selecting one of the music tracks in the main mode. However, these other modes can prove to be just as engaging for those that wish to get more out of the title.
Just Dance Machine is one of the more unique modes, in that it asks players to help aliens recharge their spaceship by dancing. The basic story doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence considering the lack of goals beyond gathering enough energy by doing a good dance performance. Yet the real reason for trying it is to dance to five brief random instrumental short music clips in a short round. It’s thrilling to not be able to know what music track comes next and it ends up being more enjoyable than just dancing to music with lyrics. It’s the sort of wacky idea that Ubisoft has capitalised on in the past with the likes of Rabbids and it definitely works here.
Then there’s Dance Quest where the player takes on various opponents (other players and/or CPU) to see who can perform the best in three music tracks . It’s quite a fun mode and each set of music tracks unlocked, by completing the previous one, provides another worthy challenge. There are different difficulty levels to test players that may want a different challenge depending on skills. World Dance Floor feels like an extension of Dance Quest and one that works out better. Basically it involves dancing online against other players from all over the world and see who gets the best score. At the end a song is picked by the players and it goes on and on. It;s a very competitive mode and more interesting than just playing against CPU characters.
Those interested in seeing just how effective dancing can be for burning calories can do so with the Sweat mode. It’s not the most taxing of exercises but it’s a novel idea knowing how many calories are potentially burned per song based on the player’s performance. The better the player does the more calories that are burned. At least it’s still a decent workout for the arms and other areas. Even if it also applies to music tracks that are played in other mode without the calorie count.
Anyone with a voyeuristic streak can view the extensive amount of user content that consists of short clips of people playing the game in Just Dance TV. However, it doesn’t seem possible to know which version of the game the video clips (more like gifs) were created in or to watch any that are not recent – only most popular and recent. There is no apparent way to search for specific content like friend content. It wasn’t possible to find any option to upload content to this service in the Nintendo Switch version, so players can only watch clips that are very likely solely from other versions of the game.
The music tracks that the premium Just Dance Unlimited service provides offer more diverse choices compared to what is included in the base game. It does come with a three month of the trial, but it’s necessary to pay a monthly fee to continue benefiting from the use of this ever growing list of music tracks or be limited by what is on offer in the base game.
It’s somewhat frustrating that the base game uses currency earned by playing to unlock music tracks. It’s kinda odd given the limited number of music tracks available to players with an expired Unlimited subscription or when the Nintendo Switch isn’t connected to the Internet. The idea to unlock content that is visible to players in a title such as this doesn’t work that well as an incentive to continue playing. It would have felt more natural if new music tracks were automatically unlocked with progress as players made use of the different modes.
The fact that it’s only possible to stream Unlimited music tracks is somewhat problematic given that they tend to buffer when the server might be experiencing issues. It would have made better sense to at least download the ones being played and then remove them if the subscription expired. This also means that the Unlimited music tracks are not accessible when the console is not connected to the Internet. The fact that it’s not possible to play the subscription music tracks without an Internet connection makes it less likely for players to make good use of the title on the go. Unusually the title crashed a couple of times, which tended to happen whilst accessing the online modes.
At least this latest iteration of Just Dance continues the tradition of presenting itself in a stylish manner in terms of the user interface and the choice of silhouette dancers used to represent different music styles. Even some of the questionable dance moves, like ones in groups, end up paying off and make for more interesting choreographies.
Just Dance 2017 on the Nintendo is a decent effort that is somewhat let down by technical issues and the lack of diversity in the music tracks list included in the base game when compared to the premium service.
