Just Dance 2026 - Review

I dive into Just Dance every few years, usually because I am just not up on modern music and half the songs, if not more, are unknown to me. Now I will fully admit that I was not the one who was going to review the game this year, but schedules shift and life gets in the way. So, as it has been a few years, what has changed and is the party still worth going to?

The last time that I played a Just Dance game, Just Dance Unlimited was just coming back online and that was the big thing. Since then, quite a lot has changed about the series, the biggest being that now instead of a traditional release, the game is more of a service. With each years release, you can opt to buy it as normal, but if you own the past few releases as well, content from those games are all bundled together within the most recent game. Much like how Rock Band 3 content was playable in Rock Band 4. What this meant for me, was that upon booting the game up, I was bombarded with songs available from the past few years of games, along with songs in the updated Just Dance+. This is something that I don’t like, the first option should be the songs that were from this years release, but that took a few clicks to find. What was more frustrating is that the game would present songs from the 2024 or 2025 release, but as I don’t own those, I was not able to play them, which begged the question why show them?

Now, I generally don’t play Just Dance as my sense of rhythm is about as accurate as a metronome buried in cement, but I do like to play occasionally. Which is why I was so happy when the gameplay was the same on the Switch as it was on the Wii. This is a great example of if its not broke, don’t fix it. While there is a lot going on here, dancing instructions, song lyrics, star rating and such, the dancing still feels fun. Now a lot of that comes down to the vibrancy of the visuals, the coloured glove being a big part of the experience. At no point did any of the songs feel like they were hard to follow, thanks to those bright visuals, though my dancing speed lacked when some songs were more intense. However, I would love to see a practice mode, where you can learn some of the more demanding moves, should you want to.

I did put a bit of time into the games calorie burning mode, which really isn’t much different to the regular dancing, it just guesses how much you have burnt. Something that was new to this years release was the party mode, hosted by Dr Gigavolt. As far as designs go, think of his as an eccentric Dr Robotnik, with an outfit inspired by Joker and you are on the mark. This new mode is interesting as it gives you rounds to complete, but each round will pick a random song and have you dance a small portion of it. Your goal is simple, the better you dance, the better you score and if you get at least the target amount, you move on, the catch; a host of disruptors can get in the way. These can be action or visual based, the latter like the blooper in Mario Kart, it won’t stop you, but is annoying while it lasts. Honestly, this was a fun mode, I could not see anyone buying the game for it, but when you want to dance and don’t know what songs to pick, it’s a great way to get around that, the challenge is just extra.

Speaking of song selection, this is going to be the part that you either love or hate about the game. Now when I look at the track list, I know a few of them like All-Star by Smash Mouth or Thrift Shop by Macklemore. The problem I had, was that there were more songs I did not know by name, a few of them when I started listening to them were familiar, but just unknown by their actual name. What is annoying is that I knew a few songs by name, like Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, however the lame cover of it was not appreciated. There were quite a few songs that had covers and I just don’t like it, the series is popular enough that they should pay for the right song and if they can’t get it, use another song. Cover songs annoyed me in Guitar Hero and they still do today and for a series like Just Dance to still be using them, it just feels cheap.

As for presentation, the core of the game still looks the same as it did back with the Wii original, now just in higher resolution. The time between selecting a song and it loading in was minimal, seconds at best and there were no quality dips that I spotted. As I said before, the vibrancy of the visuals is a big draw for the series and over the years, seeing more details applied to things shows just how much has changed. Characters now look like people and the costumes are fun, which means even if someone is not going to dance, they won’t be stuck watching crash test dummies on the screen. In the settings you can disable things, like the lyrics or even dance moves, if you so desire, which is a nice touch.

Which is why its menu system is just horrific. I can understand from the company side, that they want people to be aware of the extra ways to dance, but with a menu that bloated, I don’t think they have gone about it the right way. As I said earlier, the game would throw up playlists or songs from past games, which I don’t own and it knows that, as its all connected. Now again, I understand they want people to get Just Dance+ and you do get a 1-month trial with each copy of the game, but I would have loved to have been able to turn all those things off. You can access the songs from the game, if you go into another screen, but I shouldn’t have to do that every time I want to play a song from this year release.

The quality of the music is still amazing; it was one of the best parts about the Wii originals. This just means that if you do put it on at a party, the quality will be enjoyed by all, that is until you hear any of those lame covers. While there were a number of songs from this years release that stand out as covers, I did spot a few from the Just Dance+ catalogue that were the same, looking at you Disney songs. You can create a playlist of non-cover songs, if you wanted to avoid them, but it is again something that feels like it should be provided by the developer.

Just Dance 2026 is still a fun time, assuming you like dancing. While it has been a number of years since I played a game, I didn’t feel like I had to relearn anything complicated to bust a move once more. The song selection is going to be entirely dependent on your own tastes and while I didn’t know a lot of them by name, I did know more than I thought once they played. The games biggest issues are that it is focused more on pushing people to Just Dance+ and showing content you might not have access to. The inclusion of cover songs is just not something that should be done anymore, there are countless artists around the world who would love to be included, so swapping them out would be fine. If you are a Just Dance fan, then you are likely already shaking your groove thang, but if you are a casual dancer, there is a lot to enjoy here, just be prepared for a few hazard on the dancing stage.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Ubisoft

The Pros

The dancing is still just as fun as always, even for someone without much rhythm as myself

The track list is fairly varied, with quite a number of song that I even know…

The Cons

…however the bunch of cover songs just feel cheap and out of place

The game is pushing its subscription service very hard with its menus and feels wrong