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Parents' Guide to

Just Dance

By Christopher Healy, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Unresponsive controls make dance game difficult to play.

Game Nintendo Wii 2009
Just Dance Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • Just Dance Game: Screenshot #1
  • Just Dance Game: Screenshot #2

Community Reviews

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age 6+

Based on 10 parent reviews

Shigazaru
Shigazaru Adult
December 11, 2018
age 2+

Great to get the kids moving

I don't know why there is an age restriction on a dance game . Kids love it. All the family dance togrtoge
Christ-Lover
Christ-Lover Parent of 8, 8, 9, 12 and 15-year-old
April 8, 2012
age 7+

You just have to know the songs.

Okay, for all of you complaining about how the language, first of all, WHY would you play a song that you don't know? And if you do know it, then why would you let your small children play it if it's soo inappropriate? If you don't know the song, look up the lyrics, or, even better, play it before your children do. You might be surprised to hear that they muted out the bad words. And even if they do hear the bad words, what's the worst they can do? Seems like lots of children these days are exposed to cusses these days. So what? If anything, it makes them more mature, to know that you can't use those words at a young age, I mean. It's not like because they hear it in a song they're going to run around shouting it to everyone (and I'm sorry if they do but I have never heard that happen to anyone). They might sing it out loud, yes, but if they do and you don't like it, simply have a talk with them, and if they don't, THAT'S when you ban the song (or if you wanna be more strict, the game, but I wouldn't wanna go that far). Well, hope I helped.
See all 10 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Here's how JUST DANCE is supposed to work: While an onscreen dancer, clad in era-appropriate garb, dances to hit song from the last four decades, up to four players try to mirror the choreography with Wii remotes in their hands. The Wii remote allegedly senses how close the players are to perfectly mimicking the virtual dancer's moves, and grades them accordingly.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (10 ):
Kids say (32 ):

So what went wrong with this game? Well, you can't fault the soundtrack -- Just Dance features a really nice selection of songs to groove to, including Irene Cara's "Fame," Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold," and Dee-lite's "Groove is in the Heart." The funky iPod-ad-style visuals are also pretty cool. And it definitely gives you a good workout. So why does this game potentially frustrate players? Because the scoring makes no sense whatsoever. In trying out Just Dance, players who appeared to pull of a pretty darn good imitation of the onscreen dancer got tons of X's in their score column, meaning they'd missed move after move. At the same time, a 3-year-old who grabbed a remote and jumped around wildly somehow managed to hit a series of "GREAT" moves. Dancing to these songs is fun, but if there's no sensible scoring being done, why play the game? You might be better off simply playing the music and just dancing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how well or how poorly one does at a virtual skill in a video game has no bearing on how successful they would be at that same skill in real life. Do poor scores in a dance game mean your a bad dancer? No more than high scores at Guitar Hero mean your ready for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Game Details

  • Platform: Nintendo Wii
  • Available online?: Not available online
  • Publisher: UbiSoft
  • Release date: November 27, 2009
  • Genre: Music & Dance
  • ESRB rating: E10+ for Lyrics, Mild Suggestive Themes
  • Last updated: August 31, 2016

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