Those who know me well know I am a big fan of the video game series Just Dance. The games, which have been developed and published by Ubisoft since 2009, are pure fun – and if you happen to score points along the way and can beat your friends by being the best dancer of the group, while also working up a sweat even though you hate exercising, that's just a bonus.
Ubisoft launched Just Dance 2024, its 15th game in the series, in October with a spectacular launch event at Versailles in Paris to celebrate the game's exciting partnership with the iconic French landmark. The teams at Ubisoft and the Palace of Versailles collaborated to create a "map" – how the teams refer to the songs featured on the games – that allows players to dance the night away at the Palace of Versailles in a baroque-inspired routine with a modern, jazzy twist.
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Just Dance 2024
But that's just one example of the exciting features on Just Dance 2024. As someone who has been a long-time fan of the game and has seen (and played) it at different stages of its evolution, it was incredibly thrilling to not only be one of the first to play Just Dance 2024 but to travel to Ubisoft's studios in Paris to see exactly how the game is made.
The song list
The first thing I want to know when a new Just Dance game is released is the song list. Just Dance 2024 has a set list of 41 songs including popular hits like Gimme More by Britney Spears, I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston and Destiny Child's Survivor – perfect for, ahem, older generations.
There are plenty of more recent songs such as Miley Cyrus' Flowers, Despechá by Rosalía and Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo.
And then there are all the songs that you will most likely know when you hear them, even if you don't know what they're called, like Makeba by Jain and Kill Bill by SZA. (Maybe this is something that just happens to me.) Anyway, I recognise them when I hear them, and they make me want to (just) dance.
Here's a link to the full song list.
The new features
Workout Mode
When I first started playing Just Dance it was my main form of exercise, and it seems many others were in the same boat. A 'Just Sweat' mode was introduced with its second game, and Just Dance 2024 Workout Mode is leagues ahead.
Some of the songs feature a second choreography that incorporates moves that wouldn't be out of place in a gym class. I tried the fitness version of Miley Cyrus' Flowers, which included some lunge-like and stretch movements. There's a fitness version for Destiny's Child's Survivor that is very different to the main version, which makes me feel like I could be Beyoncé, Kelly or Michelle.
Really, you work up a sweat doing any of the dances, but there's the added element of being able to count the calories you've burned when doing Workout Mode. When I played against a friend at Ubisoft's Studios I beat her in the actual scoring (hitting the moves) but she burned more calories than me. I'm not sure which one I felt more competitive about.
Challenge Mode
If competing against your loved ones isn't enough, Just Dance 2024's Challenge Mode allows you to test your dance skills against other players on a world leaderboard. You compete against the 'ghost' of another player so you can track your performance as if they are dancing at the same time.
So if you're competitive… about dancing… like I maybe am… this is a good option for you, especially if your friends aren't as into this game as you are. There's nothing wrong with trying to be the best Just Dancer you can be.
The choreography
Just Dance has always been a game for all dance levels, and Just Dance 2024 features the levels easy, medium, hard and extreme. As soon as a choreographer designs the choreography for a map it's checked for how playable it is. The dance moves associated with the player's right hand – which is how the game is scored – are scrutinised. The choreography goes through multiple changes from first go to what eventually gets filmed.
There are many things that are considered when deciding what difficulty level to make a map, according to Estelle Manas, Just Dance's choreography director.
"With the creative team, we all exchange our ideas and vision, and sometimes I could say, 'OK, on this map, I think we really need to make it a duel, but extreme, because the musicality is so interesting and so complex, and there are a lot of different and unique parts in the music," Manas told Nine at the launch event for Just Dance 2024 in Paris.
"So it's going to be difficult to make it an easy one because we can not loop movement if the musical parts are not the same, for example. Or maybe the music is so cool and we want to make something really difficult or extreme because the music needs it."
If a song is extremely popular or has an existing music video with recognisable choreography, that's also factored in. "For example, for Kpop fans, the official choreography is very important," Manas said. "We also need to make something more accessible because the song is so well known that we cannot just think about the hardcore player. You need to think about everybody."
The next-level aesthetics
When I first started playing Just Dance the game seemed revolutionary at the time – but this was 14 years ago! The dance coaches didn't have facial expressions and there wasn't much going on in the background.
Admittedly I haven't played all of the games between Just Dance 2 and the more recent releases, so fast forward to 2023 and I am blown away by how much the game has evolved. The coaches have faces! The sets are incredibly detailed! The camerawork makes the songs look like actual music videos!
There's also a common misconception that the dance coaches are CGI, but they are very much real people who wear the costumes, makeup and wigs we see in the game. It also means they have to film the dances multiple times completely dressed up.
Benjamin Jouffret is the costume designer and character lead for Just Dance and told 9Product Reviews that the conception of the characters happens at the start of the map's process during a brainstorm with the creative team.
"Then from this day I instantly start finding some ideas and create a moodboard," he said. "We have a really short time, like one week, to create the characters, and then we are going to produce it."
For some maps, where the artists are iconic like Lady Gaga or Britney Spears, it's hard to avoid similarities between the dance coaches and the celebrities. "If you like the song, if you like the artist, you want to have the vibe of the music video and the artist," Jouffret explained. "So we try to create something new, something Just Dance, but inspired a bit by the artist – maybe the hairstyle, the makeup, an element of costume, or just the mood of the song."
He enjoys the free rein that comes with lesser-known artists and songs.
"But for some maps and artists that are not that popular, or more new in the market, we can create something really different and creative for the music video, and we can really create a whole new concept," he said. "For example, the map A Queda on Just Dance 2024, we can really propose something new to the players and they will not be disappointed because often they don't know the song."
Another fun thing to look out for is how the dance coaches' left hands have been adorned to represent the players' right-hand points-scoring movements.
Some just wear gloves but Jouffret has also been able to incorporate more creative designs with some of the coaches, such as the black and gold moth dance coach in Cure For Me, who has a purple swirl going up her left arm that glows as you play.
While your focus will most likely be on the dance coaches if you're playing, you have to take a moment to appreciate everything happening in the background.
The production design is incredibly layered and every detail has been considered. It makes the maps entertaining to watch even if you're not the one dancing.
Just Dance 2024 is available to purchase and play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
The writer travelled to Paris as a guest of Ubisoft.
