How could there be anything more than dancing in this game?
You'd be surprised. I started playing Just Dance in 2023 and it's rewritten my brain chemistry. I didn't think anything would rival my fixation on DBZ, but here we are.
Just Dance is a series of rhythm games that started in 2009, with the original Just Dance on the Wii. The gameplay is simple, and hasn’t changed much since 2009: You dance along with the coach(es) on-screen, with pictograms to help you predict what’s about to come. Scoring is typically done with a motion controller held in your right hand, with the exception of games that support camera scoring (such as Xbox versions of the games).
The songs vary quite a bit, with a few Just Dance originals and covers. A lot of the older games have extra modes and features, such as Party Master mode and the now-defunct All-Stars Mode. There have also been several spin-off games, from Just Dance Wii/Wii U (exclusive to Japan) to Michael Jackson: The Experience and The Black-Eyed Peas Experience.
I didn’t seriously get into this game until 2023, when they added lore. But I’ve always enjoyed playing it. The lore (as shaky as it is) captivated me.
”Wait, Just Dance has lore?”
Yes. Believe me, I tried to do an infodump on the lore itself, but it ended up being so fucking long that it doesn't really fit in the website. Gotta conserve 50GB somehow. Yes, there legitimately is that much lore tied to Just Dance. And I was only going over stuff that had at least some story attached to it. So... You'll get a run-down of what led up to the official lore, instead.
Lore was originally introduced in Just Dance 2020, specifically with All-Stars Mode, which was originally a 10-year anniversary celebration. This was a playlist of songs, one from each of the previous games, with added animations in-between. The animations depicted the travels of an anthropomorphic panda, aptly named Panda, who would befriend the different coaches of each map.
All-Stars Mode introduced the concept of a larger Just Dance universe, specifically the idea of several different planets that the songs take place in. This was later spun into the Danceverses, the universe in which . Lore was revisited in Just Dance 2022, with several routines from that game becoming canon pieces of the story. All-Stars Mode itself isn't canon, but several routines featured in it were given lore later on (such as the subplot between Rasputin and The Bride).
It’s important to mention that Just Dance lore isn’t the most concrete. A lot of it comes from official social media posts, as well as direct information from the former Loremaster, Aurore. Another good example is littlesiha’s rendition of Telephone, where she cosplayed as various coaches from other maps and revealed their official names. Not to mention, there have been various retcons, as well as conflicting pieces of lore that we don’t have a solid answer on. And, well… Just Dance is still a game about dancing, at the end of the day. Telling a conventional story is a little difficult. I’d compare it to music videos/albums that are meant to tell some kind of narrative. Story Mode tends to be pretty concrete, but in my honest opinion, a decent amount of Just Dance canon is up to viewer interpretation. And I think that's cool.
We got proper Story Modes in Just Dance 2023 and Just Dance 2024, but no conclusion in Just Dance 2025 (outside of one prequel-type map). The storyline follows a team of coaches called the Just Dancers, consisting of a deity named Wanderlust and his accompanying sentient discoball, named Discoball; a human woman named Sara who happened to be playing the game when she met Wanderlust; an influencer in the Danceverses, named Brezziana; a shaman named Mihaly who follows the guidance of Master Panda; and Jack Rose, a pop star. Jack's mother, Night Swan, happens to be an evil witch who wants to take over the world, by turning people into swan minions that obey her every command.
It goes off from there.
Sideplots include: A recurrent universal dance competition a-la Eurovision, high-school lesbians, The Bride from Hot N Cold marrying and breaking up with Rasputin from that Just Dance 2 routine, a teenage boy tormented by an eldritch deity in his dreams, and Night Swan putting a bunch of Lady Gaga coaches in prison.
Also, if you remember that one version of Toxic from Just Dance 2...
Yeah they turned her into a secret agent, and supposedly every Britney Spears song in the game has some connection to a woman named Agent D. There's other subplots, but we don't have that kind of time.
Favorite characters?
Jack Rose who is totally me:
Shadow Rider, Wanderlust, Sara, and Bangarang Ex:
Talia, Julia, Ari, Alzena, and Scotty:
Why these people in particular? It's between me and the kin gods.
Favorite maps?
Boom Clap, STAY, Cure For Me, and Todo De Ti.