Just Dance 2016 returns to consoles and it’s as bright and bold as ever. Grab a headband, some neon leggings and limber up while I tell you how the world most popular dance game as managed to get even better.

I probably don’t need to explain to you what Just Dance is, but I’m going to anyway. Just Dance 2016 involves choosing yourself a music track ranging from today hits to old school classics and then doing your best to mirror the dance moves you see on screen, the more accurate you are the higher the score.

The game comes with 44 songs for you to dance along to, with hits from Kelly Clarkson, Meghan Trainor and Katy Perry. There are also some classics including Summer Nights from Grease and even a special remix of the Angry Birds theme tune. All of the songs are very well chosen, perfect for parties and also great for working out too.

What Just Dance does best is theme each dance very well with each song, as you would expect, the Angry Bird theme tune sees you trying to keep in time with Angry Birds while ‘dancing’ to the William Tell Overture will have you racing horses against your friends. It’s brilliant fun and will have people of all ages joining in. Being able to dance with others for certain routines is a lot of fun, our rendition of Summer Nights would have even had Craig Revell Horwood out of his seat applauding.

Some of the routines are tougher than others but because of the way the videos are presented you ultimately just end up having a lot of fun with the game. Once you have competed a routine you’ll see a playback of you dancing which you can share with the world, as well as applying different effects such as a big head mode. The score you get will give you points towards unlocking new remixes of songs, you can also use UPlay points too.

There are some great new modes to get into the groove with also. Dance Party is the main mode which allows you to play on your own or compete against your friends. Dance quest puts you up against some AI opponents over three songs, with the aim of beating them and unlocking further quests. In the true spirit of Just Dance, Showtime mode allows you to show off your moves and lip sync to your favourite songs before sharing it to the world. The workout mode returns allowing you to really work up a sweat while also getting fitter at the same time.

With Microsoft changing their minds and deciding to sell the Xbox One without Kinect, Ubisoft needed to find a way to make sure that they could cater Just Dance to include those who did and didn’t have the much maligned device, without a viable option sales of the game could easily suffer. Thankfully they have managed to find the solution and surprisingly it works really well. All you need is a smartphone and the Just Dance Companion app, once you have connected the phone to the console you are good to go. It actually turns out to be a bit of a party piece as you can have As many people as you want taking part as all they really need is the app, during the time of the review I had no issues with the phone or Kinect itself.

If you have favourite songs from previous Just Dance games then we have just the thing for you, Just Dance Unlimited allows you to gain access to over 150 songs with new tracks being added weekly. At $40 a year it’s a bit steep in price but if your are desperate to dance to ‘The eye of the tiger’ and ‘Who let the dogs out?’ then this may turn out to be good value.

Just Dance hits all the right moves again, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and doesn’t expect you too either. It’s bold, it’s bright and most importantly it’s fun. Whether you are 9 or 90 you’ll enjoy at least one song and as long as you are prepared to step out of your comfort zone you’ll actually have a good time. Just Dance unlimited is a nice if a bit pricey idea, but will go down really well with fans of the series, also being able to play along without Kinect will see a whole new set of fans being able to access the game which can only help improve sales. Before you ask there are no videos of me dancing and there never will be, it would break the Internet…

Thanks to Ubisoft for supporting TiX

[rprogress value=85 text=”TiX Score 85%”]
[xyz-ihs snippet=”XboxOne”][xyz-ihs snippet=”Pegi3″]