I'm rather startled at the news that Just Dance is Ubisoft's top-selling Wii game. A cute rhythm game in which you emulate the movements of an onscreen avatar dancing to a pop song, Just Dance is kind of cute but not very well done; when I played it with a friend, it seemed as if the scoring was almost arbitrary. Try as we might, we couldn't even begin to guess when it would or would not award us points or how it was judging our dancing, mainly because there was no useful feedback (the game should have created a virtual player that shadowed the game's avatar).
Why is this game doing so well? It has been drubbed or ignored by most of the gaming press, has only a handful of songs and is a multiplayer game in which winning seems to have little to do with skill level. Apparently Ubisoft tossed a fair amount of advertising dollars to it, as opposed to what they have done with their better games. It also helps that there are a lot of dancing shows on TV nowadays.
It tells you a lot about how Wii owners buy games. They don't read reviews, they just grab things off the shelf that look kind of fun. It doesn't seem word of mouth is even that important; I can't imagine many people saying, "this is a game you have to buy."
Just Dance is certainly not the worst game out for the Wii, and if you don't mind the incompetent scoring system it is kind of fun to dance along with the avatars, but if this is Ubisoft's best-selling Wii game, there's a problem with how Ubisoft is marketing (or in many cases ignoring) their other games.
Comments
Just Dance is my 7-year-old daughter’s favorite Wii game… and mine, too! The music selections rock and have multi-generational appeal. The moves are fun and easy to follow. And best of all, the game gets us on our feet, dancing our posteriors off, and working up a sweat. Every guest who’s visited and played this game goes out and buys it afterward. Funniest of all is watching grown men compete. Who cares about the scoring? Just Dance isn’t so much about competing but about laughing and sharing one of the best forms of exercise. When you’re listening to great tunes, busting moves, and having a blast, everybody wins!
He’s a hardcore gamer. He won’t understand Just Dance’s appeal. The game was made for us not them.
Rocks, you hit the nail bullseye on the head. I’m finding out ordinary people are buying it cause it “looked like fun”. My sister-in-law bought it & used it for my nephew’s birthday party which the kids loved…later, the MOMS joined in and it became sort of a line-dancing activity. It was fun & had most everyone giggling and not mattering if your moves were wrong. Needless to say, I bought a Wii & a couple copies of the video game (Had to get one for my sister, too cause thry were the last ones in the store). It’s addicting & great exercise. Now if they can get the Black Eyed Peas’ “I’ve got a Feeling” & something from Lady Gaga…
Rocks is quite correct. After getting the first comment I posted another entry about the game and how it and why I think people like it and why I was underwhelmed and what this says about the Wii. I usually don’t get many comments on my blog, it’s interesting that this one seems to have struck a nerve.
I bought this game based off of recommendations from Amazon, and I just really enjoy every moment of this game. In fact my whole family loves it too. This just goes to show you that those who review games professionally just don’t get it.
It’s not that game reviewers don’t “get it,” it’s that our perspective has changed from years of playing games. For example, when I was a teenager I went to tons of movies, and I liked everything. It could be a critical masterpiece or a bomb, and I still loved it. But as I watched more and more movies, as I studied film in college and tracked down lots of masterpieces, I started getting pickier, because I had a sense of what movies could be, and were at their best, and because once you’ve seen 20 schlocky action movies, the 21st just isn’t as good as the first.
If you don’t play games, and then you play Just Dance, sure, it’s going to seem terrific. If you’ve played hundreds of games, you’re more likely to notice the ways in which it isn’t terrific. Game critics are unlikely to love Just Dance in the same way that film critics are unlikely to love The Tooth Fairy and music critics are not going to fall in love with Britney Spears (with, of course, some exceptions).
No way around it. If you start reviewing something with the most open of tastes, you’re just going to get pickier and pickier as you go along.
Bottom line: Just Dance is a party game for people to get together and play in large groups. Every “professional review” that trashed this game usually went something along the line of “when I played this game alone” or “when I played this game with my one friend”, then they went on about how they just didn’t see the appeal.
If a game is known for its great online play, then before you write a review, play the game ONLINE!!! Would you really expect anyone to take your review seriously if you never played the game online and based your entire review on your non-online gaming experience?
Just Dance is aimed at in-person group game play, if you have yet to play the game that way, then you never will see the appeal of the game BECAUSE YOU’RE PLAYING IT WRONG!!!
(HINT: if you’re playing Just Dance with 3 college co-eds and you’re unhappy because it was the wii sensor bar you failed to score with, you have TOTALLY missed the point of this game)
P.S. it was PRECISELY because of word-of-mouth that I purchased this game (and to make matters worse, the conversation was IN PERSON and didn’t involve typing–yes, people still communicate that way)
Just Dance is a fun activity, and what makes people so angry is that game reviewers are reviewing it as a game. An activity just has to be something fun people do, and Just Dance successfully gets people to stand up and do dance moves together. But because the scoring is broken, it could have just as easily been done as a DVD that simply guided people through the motions. My objection to the game – and I suspect most game reviewers felt similarly – is that in terms of gameplay it is poor. This doesn’t mean it’s not fun, but there are fun games in this world that can be played in groups that work both as activities and as games, and Just Dance is not one of these. I think it’s great people have fun playing it, but to say it’s a great game is like saying Reefer Madness is a great movie because people enjoy watching it. It’s still badly made.
(Just Dance is not as badly made as Reefer Madness, I’m just pointing out that how much fun people have with something is not always a reflection of how well-crafted it is.)
I purchased Just Dance for fun exercise. I belong to “Sparkpeople.com” and there is a group there for the game. We have challenges where we post our scores for the different songs. Just Dance is a good workout and is fun at the same time. I purchased a Wii for this purpose. My favorite games are Walk It Out, Just Dance, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, Wii Sports and Resort. These are games that get you up moving and burning calories. There is no strategy involved. The nice thing about the Wii, is that people who would not play games are up off the couch playing. That will not satisfy reviewers or hard core gamers, but that is not the Wii’s main audience. Going back to your reference to movies, I disregard movie reviewers that do not have a real entertainment sensibility in their reviews. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you cannot really review a comedy. Same thing goes for the reviews of video games. I find that Amazon comments made by purchasers are much better than most “professional” reviews.
I like how all the “casual” gamers here are getting just as butt-hurt about someone trashing their beloved Wii as any hardcore fanboy would.
The scoring is broken. I have 11 years experience in percussion and choreography with some of the best groups in the nation and I can still get beaten by someone randomly shuffling his feet and waving the remote around.
The Wii version also doesn’t give you exercise for the aforementioned reason that all you have to do is move your hand. Want a real challenge? Get the Kinect version which makes you move your whole body.
I’m going to admit it. I’ve been a nintendo fan for years and years and years. But thinks to retards like these I can understand why people are saying Xbox360s and ps3s are better. This sold more than SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2, ALMOST UNANIMOUSLY SAID 2ND BEST VIDEO GAME OF ALL TIME. And thats not to say the failed rated M games like Madhouse. Playing “kiddy” games like Mario and Pokemon is one thing but DANCING games that have the worst gameplay ever?!
Theres a reason the majority “casual” gamers are considered stupid.
And none of these kinds of games are making you skinnier you fat pigs. Why don’t you actually go outside and exersize instead of playing games that don’t do anything for you.
You lose more calories mast**b**ting than playing any video game.