Just Dance 2

Did You Know?

• All DLC is no longer available for purchase due to the removal of Wii Points on March 26, 2018, and the shutdown of the Wii Shop Channel on January 30, 2019.
• Most DLC songs are still found on the Just Dance: Summer Party disc.
• A Best Buy Edition titled Just Dance 2: Special Edition in-game was released in North America with three exclusive songs: Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash, Funkytown by Lipps Inc.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Just Dance 2 is similar to the original: players hold a Wii Remote in their right hand and mimic the routine of an on-screen dancer to a chosen song. Dancers now wear colored gloves for better motion detection. Players are judged on accuracy and can choose between a full version and a short version of each song. Unlike the first game, there are no animated score icons; instead, players select from on-screen names. Four judgments exist for regular moves: X, OK, Good, and Perfect. X means the move was missed; OK indicates the player tried but was not accurate; Good means the player is almost there; and Perfect replaces the previous game's Great. Shake moves have been replaced with gold moves, where players must follow gold pictograms instead of shaking the remote. Missing a gold move yields an X; performing it well yields a Yeah and bonus points. At the end of a song, players receive a rating out of 5 stars (each star worth 2,000 points, with 10,000 points for 5 stars and 13,333 as the maximum score), a Gold Move motive based on the number of gold moves performed, and an On Fire motive for consecutive Goods and Perfects. Selected songs offer Duet modes with choreography for two players; lyrics appear between the dancers, with pictograms on the left and right. Odd-numbered players take the left dancer, even-numbered players the right. A new Dance Battle mode is a team-based competition across songs and minigames, supporting up to eight players in two teams of four. Minigames include Simon Says and Race. Medleys are videos of short segments from five random songs switching one by one. Non-Stop Shuffle plays songs in random order without selection from the soundtrack.

Reception

Critics suggested Just Dance 2 would compete with Harmonix's Dance Central, noting that the Wii did not require an expensive Kinect camera. The game was commended as a social experience with friends, attributed to choreography described as goofy, absolutely ridiculous, silly, ludicrous, and filled with playful touches, comical spins, jumps, and crossovers. Keza MacDonald of IGN highlighted memorable moments created by the game, such as floundering while doing the robot to Satisfaction or watching a friend attempt Ra-Ra-Rasputin's cossack dancing. A common highlight was the ballet dance segment in A-Punk's choreography; Martin Gaston of Video Gamer noted that two fat men could not look cool pirouetting around each other in Vampire Weekend's A-Punk, but the outlandishness removed concern about looking foolish. Praise was given to the variety of choreographies and songs, the addition of new modes (especially Duet), a download store, and improvements in motion control detection and presentation, including much less amateurish score meters and animated backgrounds. IGN explained that unlike many dance games that recycle moves, Just Dance 2 features on-screen dancers in appropriate gear such as wigs, robot suits, flares, canes, and bobble hats. Problems from the first game persisted: motion controls were still sometimes imprecise, with Nintendo Life reporting questionable end results in dance battles. Will Holdsworth noted there was almost nothing for a solo player to do. Some critics found DLC song prices too high.