Over the last few years we’ve seen a paring down of the special features available in the Just Dance games. We’ve said goodbye to World Lab, au revoir to the World Dance Floor and since the Kinect was discontinued, see ya later to precise movement tracking.
However, the latest edition of Ubsoft’s popular dance game franchise, Just Dance 2025, is offering up a beta version of their newest feature – Camera Controller Mode, which gives players the option of tracking their moves via their phone’s camera. Previously, movement while dancing was tracked solely by the movement of a phone held in the player’s right hand, which meant that we were never confident that the scores awarded were accurate. We were excited to give Camera Controller Mode a go – would it provide an antidote to the lack of challenge in Just Dance?
Camera Controller Mode allows players to place their phone in landscape on a surface in front of them. The game then uses the phone’s camera to track their full-body movements. This new mode is available for all songs in the 2025 edition of the game, but only a few of the older titles. It relies not only on good lighting (kinda killing the party vibe), but also a suitable place to put your phone and a room big enough to stand far enough away from it. Was it more precise? Well, we achieved a pretty decent 4 out of 5 stars on a medium difficulty song that we had never played before, which was higher than most scores gained when using the hand tracking – so the jury’s still out on that one.
Camera Controller Mode is a pretty innovative feature, but it’s the only new one in Just Dance 2025. We see the return of a couple of features from Just Dance 2024 – Challenge mode, where players can challenge their friends and Workout mode, which tracks calories burned while dancing. However, we’ve lost the story playlist – something that we enjoyed from the previous two iterations of the game. It seems that Ubisoft have been channelling their efforts into securing the deals on the latest chart hits and making them look as good as they possibly can, with the songs on this year’s version of the game looking bigger and brighter than ever.
In terms of the songs – or maps as they are referred to in the game – we reckon that this collection is the best for some time, with many being chart hits we actually know, like and want to dance to. Ariana Grande fans will rejoice the fact that five of her most popular songs have been included, such as yes, and? and One Last Time which all feature on a dedicated playlist. Other recent hits include Paint The Town Red by Doja Cat, the ubiquitous Dua Lipa song, this year’s offering being Training Season, Exes by Tate McRae, Lunch by Billie Eilish and the song of the summer – Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter.
We noticed a distinct lack of international flavour in this year’s offering but K-POP is represented by BLACKPINK with Pink Venom and latin beats coming courtesy of Mi Gente Lo Siente by Don Elektron & Gotopo. It wouldn’t be a Just Dance game without some novelty songs, and there are Christmas and Halloween ones to choose from, and the ability to dance along with Spongebob and Patrick who are celebrating Spongebob’s 25th birthday.
Plus there are some retro favourites such as Vogue by Madonna, Basket Case by Green Day and Poker Face by Lady Gaga. In total there are 40 new songs to choose from.
Nothing about how you play the game has changed – you follow along to the dance moves shown by the ‘coach’ with current and upcoming moves denoted by a stick person in the bottom left of the screen. You are awarded points for how well you hit the move which enables you to reach stars (up to a maximum of five) as well as a colourful animated text – ‘OK/good/perfect/super’ popping up on screen to keep you motivated. At the end of the song you can see how many points you achieved, placing you on a world and friend’s leaderboard.
You can play with up to 6 players in local multiplayer, and there is choreography for everyone, from easy to more challenging, as well as different intensities. If members of your party don’t feel like dancing, then the lyrics are shown in the bottom left to sing along to.
The interface of Just Dance hasn’t changed much over the years either. There’s the home page and songs page that both list the songs you can play (we’re not quite sure the point of having both of them), the playlists section where you can build your own playlists as well as access Just Dance’s curated ones and the profile area where you can check your progression and customise your Dancer Card.
Just Dance 2025 Edition also contains a shop where you can buy previous editions of the game and music packs that feature 6 themed songs from previous games. Of course, there is also the option of the Just Dance+ Subscription, which gives you access to the full back catalogue of the game with 350+ songs. Buy the regular edition of Just Dance 2025 and you’ll get a month’s subscription, the Deluxe version comes with 4 months and Ultimate with 13 months. Of course, all these versions of Just Dance 2025 come with different price points on the Xbox Store pages.
Ubisoft certainly likes to make a show of their accessibility credentials, and this year they’ve partnered with group Galantis and Ubisoft’s Neurodiversity ERG to produce a special map with the song BANG BANG! (My Neurodivergent Anthem) to raise awareness of ADHD.
As in previous editions, Just Dance 2025 includes some songs that cater to people with different disabilities. For example, there are jump-free, ground moves-free and seated songs. However, there isn’t an awful lot of choice, with just three seated songs available in Just Dance 2025 (versions of Basket Case, Espresso and yes, and?). To access more you’ll have to search for them in Just Dance+, while you have it.
Whether you’re there for the chart-toppers, the workouts or the nostalgia, Just Dance 2025 Edition keeps the fun alive and well on the dance floor. Despite some minor flaws, the game continues the franchise’s tradition of bringing people together through dance, with a dazzling playlist of new hits and classic tracks. Camera Controller Mode is the only new feature and we’re not yet convinced it actually works as we would like, although it is only in beta mode so functionality may improve. I guess we’ll see if it returns in Just Dance 2026.
Just Dance 2025 Edition: Get Ready to Move to the Beat! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/just-dance-2025-edition-get-ready-to-move-to-the-beat/
Buy Just Dance 2025 Edition on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/just-dance-2025-edition/9N8TS85CBS48
