A Blast from the Recent Past: Revisiting Just Dance 2019 on Nintendo Switch
It’s funny to think about reviewing Just Dance 2019 now. We’re years past its prime, with Just Dance 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and even 2024 hitting dance floors since. You might be asking, why bother dusting off this older title? As someone relatively new to the Just Dance phenomenon, I wanted to experience a slightly older entry point to understand the series’ appeal and see if Just Dance 2019 still holds up, especially for newcomers venturing into the world of motion-based rhythm games. This review dives into my experience, exploring what Just Dance 2019 offers and whether it’s worth considering in a world saturated with newer dance game iterations.
Familiar Footwork: Presentation and User Interface
If you’ve ever glimpsed at a Just Dance game, you’ll immediately recognize the visual formula in Just Dance 2019. Each song unfolds with vibrant, silhouetted dancers against dynamic backgrounds, all synchronized to the music. On-screen prompts at the bottom guide your movements, indicating the upcoming dance steps. Graphically, Just Dance 2019 is perfectly adequate in HD on the Nintendo Switch and remains playable in handheld mode, though detaching the Joy-Cons for motion tracking is essential, essentially turning the Switch screen into a mini-monitor. However, for a truly immersive experience, playing on a larger screen is definitely recommended. While the visuals aren’t groundbreaking, they are bright, energetic, and effectively convey the dance moves, mirroring the series’ signature style established since its Wii beginnings. The user interface is clean and snappy, making navigation straightforward.
However, as with any music-based game, the soundtrack is paramount. Just Dance 2019 presents a somewhat eclectic mix, which is where my initial struggle with the game began. My personal musical preferences lean towards J-Pop and instrumental music, genres largely absent from the mainstream Just Dance tracklists, and Just Dance 2019 is no exception. While the Just Dance Unlimited subscription service does offer a broader range, including some international tracks, the base game’s song selection is heavily pop-centric.
That being said, Just Dance 2019 does include some instrumental gems, most notably a fantastic, energetic rendition of the Pac-Man theme. This track, complete with amusing Pac-Man and ghost costumes for the dancers, proved to be a surprising highlight. Beyond that, I did discover a few vocal tracks within the main playlist that, despite my initial unfamiliarity, grew on me. Ultimately, your enjoyment of the soundtrack will depend heavily on your taste in popular music. Exploring the tracklist beforehand is crucial, or, like many players, you might find yourself drawn to the extensive library offered by Just Dance Unlimited. The game certainly nudges you towards subscribing to Unlimited, highlighting its vast content library at almost every turn.
Getting Down to It: Gameplay and Motion Tracking
The core objective of Just Dance 2019 is, unsurprisingly, to dance! The game comes with a solid selection of songs spanning various genres and eras, although the emphasis is definitely on contemporary hits from around 2019. For someone like me, stepping into Just Dance with a background primarily in rhythm games focused on video game music or Japanese pop, the predominantly Western pop soundtrack was uncharted territory. With 97% of the tracklist being completely new to my ears, it was a dive into the unknown.
However, amidst the unfamiliar tunes, the Pac-Man theme remix stood out as a welcoming anchor. Its catchy melody and playful visuals, featuring dancers dressed as Pac-Man characters, provided an engaging entry point to the game’s motion-based gameplay. Just Dance 2019 relies on motion controls, tracking your movements via the Joy-Con controller in your right hand. You mirror the on-screen dancer’s actions, following the prompts that appear in the bottom right corner. Like other rhythm games, timing is key, syncing your movements with the beat of the music. While motion controls can sometimes be less precise than button presses, I found Just Dance 2019 surprisingly forgiving and accessible. Achieving a three-star rating on many songs, even on the first try, proved relatively easy, except for some of the higher difficulty tracks with faster tempos and more complex choreography.
Playing Just Dance 2019 while standing and actively moving is also a surprisingly good workout. While not excessively strenuous, the game’s “Sweat” mode is a testament to its potential for physical activity. You can genuinely get your heart rate up and burn some calories while dancing along. Alternatively, for a more relaxed session, you can even play seated and focus on arm movements, though the game is designed for full-body engagement and doesn’t support handheld mode for “cheesing” scores with minimal movement.
Despite enjoying the core gameplay loop, one recurring element became hard to ignore: the persistent and aggressive promotion of Just Dance Unlimited. This subscription service, which has continued through subsequent Just Dance releases, is heavily advertised throughout Just Dance 2019. Unlimited significantly expands the song library, offering access to a vast catalog of tracks from previous Just Dance games up to 2019. Within Unlimited, I discovered older, more familiar songs and even another video game-themed dance track – a Tetris-inspired routine. During a free trial around the game’s launch, I found the Unlimited song selection more aligned with my tastes and generally more enjoyable. However, the base game felt somewhat limited in comparison, and I wasn’t compelled to subscribe beyond the trial period.
The game’s design further emphasizes Unlimited. Even within the base game menus, Unlimited songs are visible but locked, marked with a prominent “Unlimited” label. While you earn “Mojo,” an in-game currency used to unlock alternate dance versions and customization options, Mojo cannot unlock Unlimited content. This creates a somewhat disjointed experience. Just Dance 2019 feels like it wants to be a live service game with constant updates, yet it remains a traditional, standalone retail release with a heavy reliance on a subscription model. Compounding this issue, songs from Just Dance 2020, 2021, and 2022 (and beyond) are not accessible within Just Dance 2019‘s Unlimited library. This yearly release cycle effectively renders each Just Dance entry somewhat obsolete, particularly on platforms like the Switch, where older titles are often delisted to promote newer versions, as has happened with Just Dance 2019.
Final Verdict: To Dance or Not to Dance in 2024?
In conclusion, Just Dance 2019 is a game that series veterans likely already own. For newcomers in 2024, it’s a harder sell at full price. If you can find it at a bargain price, it offers a similar core experience to other Just Dance games, and subscribing to Just Dance Unlimited on a newer title will grant you access to most of Just Dance 2019‘s songs anyway.
Playing Just Dance 2019 closer to its 2018 launch, even with a Just Dance Unlimited trial, felt somewhat underwhelming. The base game tracklist felt limited and heavily reliant on personal music preferences. For me, the Pac-Man dance was the standout track, primarily because of its familiarity amidst a sea of unknown songs.
The persistent push for Just Dance Unlimited raises questions about the value proposition of the standalone Just Dance games. Why couldn’t a selection of Unlimited tracks be included in the base game, or offered as purchasable DLC, rather than locking players into a recurring subscription? This subscription model, still prevalent in Just Dance 2024, feels convoluted. Perhaps a better approach would be to offer a smaller base game with a curated tracklist and allow players to purchase individual song packs or subscribe to Unlimited for wider access. As it stands, Just Dance 2019 and its successors don’t quite feel like the ideal entry point for new dancers. While the Pac-Man dance provided fleeting fun, the overall experience, coupled with the subscription pressure, didn’t fully click with me.
Therefore, recommending Just Dance 2019 at its original MSRP in 2024 is difficult. Even back in 2018 with Unlimited, it felt like a somewhat incomplete package. The current model of yearly Just Dance releases heavily reliant on subscriptions creates confusion about the purpose of each standalone title. For novelty, the Wii version of Just Dance 2019, with the Wii Remote’s arguably superior motion controls and no Just Dance Unlimited pressure, might be a more intriguing retro option. Alternatively, investing in the newest Just Dance release and subscribing to Unlimited is likely the best way to experience the breadth of the Just Dance library, including songs from Just Dance 2019.
Just Dance 2019 gets a 5 out of 10.
