Blaming it on the boogie with Just Dance 2023 Edition

Since way back in the Wii days of 2009, we’ve had annual releases of Just Dance with which to expand our choreographic repertoires. They came on discs, or cartridges, and collated recent hits with a few classics thrown in. Now things are changing, as Just Dance takes on a live service model. Yes, this is the last actual annual release, as it will all be incremental, ongoing updates from hereon in.

While collectors of physical games will likely shed a tear or two – even this year’s release is just a code in a box – this is all good news for those who like to regularly take on new challenges.

And dance challenges there are, as you’d expect! While most years have seen little advancement other than song lists, there’s quite a substantial shift in presentation in Just Dance 2023 Edition. The first notable difference is the menu system, which appears to have taken several cues from video streaming services in its look and feel.

The bigger visual difference, however, is in the look of the core included 40 new songs. Jump into a cover of The Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice, for example, and you’ll be rewarded with a Claymation tale that’s quite beautiful to watch, let alone boogie along to. Other songs also offer varied backdrops, which, while retaining the classic gameplay of a flow of dance move icons to emulate, also veer into more interesting graphical territory than previous JD iterations.

As for those 40 songs, they continue the more recent tradition of keeping it very much chart-friendly dance music, with everything from superb Swedish-produced mega-pop to recent K-pop sensations – see the full track listing down below. If you wish to branch out, then there’s the option of a Just Dance+ subscription. This replaces Just Dance Unlimited, which featured a vast array of songs that could be played, spreading the genre love for those who had broader musical tastes. Just Dance+ offers a more limited selection – indie loving us desperately searched for faves including Blur and Madness to no avail, but at least The Presidents of the United States of America’s Lump is still present and accounted for. The “Phew!” comes with the promise of regular additions to the array of tracks available.

"A very welcome addition that more social JD players will welcome with open arms (segueing into arms akimbo, then to the sky, then…) is online multiplayer."

Proceedings kick off with a new thing to take on in Enter the Danceverses. This is a brief but fun story mode that consists of six songs and is basically a tale of good and evil, that kicks off with a big burst of JT – and that’s certainly no bad thing!

Beyond this, regular options to play whichever song that you choose are present and accounted for, completion of which unlocks a plethora of bonus goodies, ranging from backgrounds and borders to avatars and emotes.

A very welcome addition that more social JD players will welcome with open arms (segueing into arms akimbo, then to the sky, then…) is online multiplayer. Now up to six friends (including you) can have their own little private dance party, even if they’re dotted all over the planet.

Other changes include the removal of both sweat and kids’ modes, which may disappoint some fans. Ah, but at least we still have those lovely physical copies of all the previous years’ releases ready for playing though.

As for controlling the whole shebang, playing on Switch is easy as you can share the Joy-Con love about, but all formats support the newly updated Just Dance 2023 Controller smartphone app. Easily hooked into play, it works as previous iterations dating right back to Wiimote waggling did, where you hold on and try to emulate the moves happening onscreen. Some moves are easier than others to imitate, however song difficulty ratings help you discern the easy from the “Hey, I’m not Lady Gaga you know!” type choreography.

While initially appearing very online dependent, Just Dance 2023 Edition does offer the ability to download its 40 songs for offline use. The obvious downside with being code-based now is that owners of the game don’t have the ability to just pop over to a mate’s place with their disc and play. Still, this can be worked around by logging into your account wherever you go, it may just take a little longer to get up and dancing.

After more than a dozen years the Just Dance juggernaut has taken steps towards amping things up, and fans of the series are sure to find much to love as Just Dance 2023 Edition ushers in its new era.

Here's the full track list: Anything I Do/CLiQ Ft. Ms. Banks; Alika, As It Was/Harry Styles; Boy with Luv/BTS Ft. Halsey; Bring Me to Life/Evanescence; Can’t Stop the Feeling!/Justin Timberlake; Danger! High Voltage/Electric Six; Disco Inferno/The Trammps; Drivers License/Olivia Rodrigo; Dynamite/BTS; Good Ones/Charli XCX; Heat Waves/Glass Animals; If You Wanna Party/The Just Dancers; I Knew You Were Trouble/Taylor Swift; Locked Out of Heaven/Bruno Mars; Love Me Land/Zara Larsson; Magic/Kylie Minogue; Majesty/Apashe ft. Wasiu, Million Dollar Baby/Ava Max; More/K/DA ft. Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, Lexie Liu, Jaira, Burns & Seraphine; Numb/Linkin Park; Physical/Dua Lipa; Psycho/Red Velvet; Radioactive/Imagine Dragons; Rather Be/Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne; Sissy That Walk/RuPaul; Stay/The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber; Sweet But Psycho/Ava Max; Telephone/Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé; Therefore, I Am/Billie Eilish; Top of the World/Shawn Mendes; Toxic/Britney Spears; Walking on Sunshine/Top Culture; Wannabe/ITZY; Watch Out for This (Bumaye)/Major Lazer, The Flexican, FS, Green & Busy Signal; We Don’t Talk About Bruno/Disney’s Encanto; Welcome to the Playground/Bea Miller; Witch/Apashe ft. Alina Pash; Woman/Doja Cat; Wouldn’t It Be Nice/The Sunlight Shakers; Zooby Doo/Tigermonkey