Just Dance 2026 review—Lost groove

With the release of Just Dance 2026, the new era of Just Dance is now firmly established. If this year’s release is any indication, we’re in for a roller coaster with this franchise for the next five years. Ubisoft reinvented the interface and created a continuous package starting with Just Dance 2023, which had a solid setlist in comparison to the very good Just Dance 2022. Since then, the franchise has been good to middling. This year, Just Dance 2026 offers the weakest song selection in a very long time. Many of the dances are uninteresting, the new party mode disrupts what makes Just Dance fun, and the new camera controller is great for letting your hands be free, but isn’t any more accurate than using the Joy-Cons. Just Dance has officially become as inconsistent as an annual sports title.

I felt a rare sensation I hadn’t felt since Just Dance 4: I didn’t want to dance to many of the 42 new songs. I don’t think it’s strictly a song catalog problem; I think it’s a combination of songs, mediocre choreography, and inappropriate difficulty. For example, I like Macklemore’s Thrift Shop, but I didn’t enjoy the tame choreography that doesn’t match the livelier elements. If it were a hard difficulty instead of medium, it could have allowed for more interesting moves. Or perhaps the dance needs to be better. I felt the same way about "Houdini" by Dua Lipa. Even my wife, a huge Just Dance fan, joined me for the cosmic version of Madonna's “Hung Up” and thought it was dull.  Ubisoft has always had to balance matching the difficulty with excellent choreography, but this is the first edition where some easy and medium-difficulty dances do a disservice because of their simplicity.

I felt bored dancing to Doechii’s “Anxiety” and OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars.” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” felt like it ran out of ideas halfway through the dance, and “Show Me What You Got” felt like it was specifically designed to be a workout song, and there is no artistry to it. And I can’t stand “Born to Be Alive” and “Pop Muzik,” and the dances don’t redeem them.

On top of that disappointment, Just Dance 2026 lacks hip-hop and K-pop. I don’t think Don Raja counts as hip-hop, leaving only two hip-hop songs in the catalog, and APT. and Drip are the only K-pop songs. I can usually rely on hip-hop and K-pop, along with Latin and afro-beats, to add spice between the beaucoup of pop songs, but there is little relief this year compared to previous years. 

Ubisoft also stepped backwards in creativity with its camera angles and dimensions. Everything is back to dancing firmly in the middle of the screen, occasionally moving to the left and right, but no longer using the Z-axis. Perhaps that’s because of the new camera controls you can use on your phone. It’s clunky to set up and sometimes doesn’t sync with the game, but once it works, it’s a fine alternative to the Joy-Con. But that also means you aren’t able to truly move around the dance floor, since the camera has to see you to pick up your movements (you must use landscape to get the widest view). It’s obviously a necessity if you’re playing on Xbox or PlayStation, but it’s simply another option on the Switch, and I don’t think the trade-off is worth the reduction in visual creativity, if the camera controls are the reason for going backwards in camera creativity.

While I don’t like most of the setlist this year, there are plenty of songs that I thoroughly enjoyed. “Big Bad Frog” by Austin & Colin is one of the first that comes to mind; its lyrics made me laugh, and the dance works perfectly with its comedic theme. “Bluey Medley” is targeted to young kids, but the dance is surprisingly sophisticated (for young kids) and fun. “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga has grown on me, and the medium difficulty dance uses the whole body in a magical way. “Chichika” by MariaDennis makes me feel like I’m partying in Wakanda. Both versions of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Feather” are smooth and fittingly airy in movement (as are the backdrops). “Good Luck, Babe” by Chappell Roan isn’t a song I’d listen to, but I enjoy the sharp and intense movements. “Say Cheese” by Paul Russell features fluid arm and leg movements that feel great against the pounding beat. I also can’t wait to use “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” at home once the holiday season rolls around.

Along with a few songs I like, I appreciate Ubisoft’s willingness to keep trying things. “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay introduces ballet, and its use is thoughtful, avoiding pointed toes and other ballet tropes that could injure or turn people off. Unfortunately, no other styles were introduced from previous entries, such as contemporary.

Another blemish with Just Dance 2026 is the Party Mode. This activity attempts to inject zaniness into the routine dancing by adding momentary screen obstructions or Simon Says-like instructions that alter your dancing. You can choose your dance difficulty, and your goal is to be as accurate as possible. It sounds whacky and fun on paper, but it’s actually disruptive and uninteresting. The Simon Says moments make you stop to clap, shake your dance hand, or freeze. Freezing obviously references freeze dance, which is fun, but clapping and fist-shaking aren’t fun or funny. I’d rather keep dancing. The obstructions don’t cover enough of the screen to matter, either, so if I miss something, it’s because I missed it. Party Mode feels more like a way to even the playing field when dancing with veterans, but it doesn’t go far enough to make things crazy or challenging.