Thank you Ubisoft for sending us a physical copy to review!

We have been enjoying the previous Just Dance entries on the Wii U for the past couple of years. While the Switch version doesn’t have video support, the convenience of using the smaller joy-cons is a nice trade off. The Switch exclusive rumble mode is cute and fun to play. The mobile app is a nice option if you don’t have enough joy-cons on hand. Up to six players can dance locally with the possibility of competing against thousands online. During our play sessions, we saw up to eighty players online in the World Dance mode.

The built in Kids mode is great for having them play songs they are familiar with and not having to be worried about the sexual content present in the standard mode. My kids liked the song “Beep Beep I’m a Sheep” and “How Far I’ll Go” from Disney’s Moana. Seeing Blue (Da Ba Dee) in there is nice, but unfortunately it’s a cover and not Eiffel 65’s version. Just Dance Unlimited adds many other kid favorites like “Ghostbusters”, “Let it Go”, “Under the Sea”, “Y.M.C.A.”, “Who Let the Dogs Out?”, and “Prince Ali”. Ninety days of Just Dance Unlimited is included with the game but after the trial period, you can pay $4.99 for a month, $9.99 for three months, or $29.99 annually.

Forty new songs are introduced in Just Dance 2018 and there’s plenty of variety in artists, music styles, and time periods. The oldest song in the game, “Carmen (Overture)” is from 1875; "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" comes in second place from 1959. I also enjoyed Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust.” Most of the songs in this game are hits from the past couple of years from artists like Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Hatsune Miku, Selena Gomez, Nicki Manaj, Ed Sheeran, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Shakira, and many more.

I like how many of the songs are locked until you play a couple of songs beforehand. I found it funny that some of the locked songs are still playable in the Kids mode. If you enable the sweat mode, you’ll see how many calories you burn in each song. To keep things interesting there are shuffle and non-stop options.

The gameplay remains the same where you have to mimic the moves of the dancer on the screen. Some of the songs have multiple dancers to choose from so make sure you’re following the correct one! Depending on how accurate you are, your movements will be rated as ok, good, perfect, or not counted at all.

You’ll earn experience and mojo coins for each song you dance to. You can spend your mojo coins in a vending machine to earn new skins, avatars, songs, and alternate dance routines. Dance Lab scenarios can also be unlocked through this vending machine. Dance Lab has you switching between several different routines/roles per song. It’s pretty fun. If you’re a member of Ubisoft Club, you can unlock a free song that’s only available for a limited time.

While there are many kid friendly songs in this game, there many more that are not. Like other Just Dance games, many of the songs talk about love, hooking up, and drinking. Some of the dancers are shown in bikini-like outfits and their dance moves can be sexual in nature at times. If you have Just Dance Unlimited activated, you have access to most songs from previous games that we’ve called out for various reasons.

Overall, Just Dance 2018 is a solid entry to the series and offers plenty of new content to justify its purchase. Like all previous games in the series, there are some questionable lyrics and dance moves. The separate Kids mode is a welcome addition. If you don’t mind suggestive lyrics, skin shown, and twerking in the normal mode, there’s plenty of fun to be had and calories to be burned by playing this game.