Just Dance 2023 Edition contained several big changes to the longstanding annual franchise. The game went for a purely digital rollout, with all physical copies being relegated to the "redemption code in box" format. The game also targeted modern consoles, leaving out the last-generation platforms that would've traditionally been supported. The biggest change of all was the move away from being a stand-alone annual release to more of a platform with constant updates, including their Just Dance+ subscription service. With that in mind, it is surprising to see Just Dance 2024 Edition, a game that is both an update and a stand-alone title.

Even if you've gone away from the series for some time or have never played it before, it's comforting to know that the core gameplay loop hasn't changed. You pick a song, choose how many players are participating, and get to dancing. You simply mimic the dance moves that are shown, and a little display in the bottom right shows you which moves to expect shortly before the on-screen dancer starts performing them. Your score is based on how well you perform those moves in relation to the routine, and you get a number of overall stars based on the performance. Due to the limitations of the original game, the title really only pays attention to the movements of the hand holding the controller, which can either be the Joy-Con for the Switch or mobile devices for every other platform, including the Switch. This gives Nintendo's portable console an edge, since Joy-Cons are much smaller than normal smartphones and you're less worried about breaking them. Having smartphone support means that the likelihood of not having a way to get in the maximum number of dancers is practically nonexistent. Thanks to the limitations at hand, you can simply move your device at the right time to get the highest scores possible, but considering the nature of the game, it defeats the purpose as a party game meant for fun rather than being a high-score chase.

This year's iteration brings 41 songs, with a few of them being repeated with different dance numbers in mind. A few of the songs are done by cover artists, but a large chunk is performed by the original artists. Like before, there's a wide range of genres from different time periods being represented. "Treasure" by Bruno Mars, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by Whitney Houston, "Butter" by BTS, and "How You Like That" by BLACKPINK are just a few of the tracks, so there's bound to be something for just about every taste. In addition to this, the Just Dance+ service is still present, so you still have a huge back catalog to go through if you're willing to spend monthly for access.

Speaking of access, the game offers quite a few ways to play through the songs. Aside from selecting an individual song, you can go through a playlist of different themes, such as by decades or ones made for a good workout or going through a pseudo story mode, where you're trying to gather a bunch of dancers for a giant dance battle. Online play is also available, whether it's via competition on leaderboards or dancing in real time with friends. It's all cross-platform, so not everyone needs to be on one platform to get some dancing going.

If you've played Just Dance 2023 Edition, then all of this will seem very familiar, and it should since this is exactly the same game. From the playlists to the interface to the events to the fact that your profile carries over the same XP level and rewards as before, Just Dance 2024 Edition is Just Dance 2023 Edition. That might seem outrageous or a little off-putting, but Ubisoft hasn't gone back on its promise of becoming a service model. If you never owned last year's version, then you're getting the same game but with the 2024 song lineup instead of 2023's track list. If you do own last year's game, then installing Just Dance 2024 Edition doesn't result in two different games in your system but a merging of the track lists, so you can easily go between the 2024 songs and the 2023 songs without having to quit into another game.

Trophy and Achievement hunters will lament that there are no new goals to go after because of this, but it does result in something pretty neat to ensure that the player base isn't fragmented. When playing online, owners of the 2024 version can play against those who only own the 2023 version, and vice versa. For example, two people who own two different versions can still play a 2023 track like "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift and then jump right into "Survivor" by Destiny's Child from the 2024 game. It's a neat feature and provides some insight about how this will work going forward. Ubisoft can still pump out yearly releases alongside the Just Dance+ material, while players can still enjoy the songs without being forced to buy every iteration, so long as their friends have the version of the game they're missing.

You already know whether you're a fan of the series, and Just Dance 2024 Edition won't sway your opinion. With that said, it is great to see that the game makes a strong, conscious effort to keep the song library fresh without juggling different games; each iteration is now essentially a big track pack expansion. It's also good to see that the video quality has only gotten better, with a combination of dynamic backgrounds and a few songs that feature different animation styles (instead of people in full-blown costumes). It may still be the only dance game in town, but at least you'll be assured that there's some effort in earning that title rather than winning it by default.

Score: 7.5/10