YMMV / Just Dance

A-M

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • In "Bum Bum Tam Tam", there is a Gold Move that requires the players to point at each other. Problem is, it comes up just as the singer says "as novinha saliente". "Novinha" is a Brazilian slang for a young woman, normally in the teenage years, while "saliente" in this context refers to a person with uncontrolled sex drive. So it looks as if the dancers are accusing each other of being horny teenagers.
  • The male and female dancers in "Zooby Doo" are wearing inflatable costumes that make it look like they're riding dinos. The problem is that the dino's head and neck are pretty much directly attached to the dancer's crotch, and there's a pelvic thrust move in the chorus that is supposed to make it look like the dino's are dancing but ends up looking like...something else. The part where the male and female dancers rub their dino's heads together doesn't help either.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: The dancers in "Girlfriend" represent Avril Lavigne's alter egos from the original music video. However, with the boyfriend nowhere in sight, it comes off less like they're fighting over someone and more like they're singing to each other.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Not even Ubisoft was expecting this to become a Cash-Cow Franchise. In fact, Just Dance is so massively popular on the Wii it continued being ported to that console until 2020, long after Nintendo discontinued it. It also continued to support Kinect until 2022, which was released four years after Microsoft discontinued the device. It is rumored that one of the reasons Kinect support was dropped for 2023 Edition was because Microsoft specifically asked Ubisoft to stop supporting it.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • The Extreme dances for "Blurred Lines", "Pound the Alarm", "John Wayne" and "Tumbum" are almost universally considered quite simple in comparison to other Extreme routines.
  • The alternate version of "Worth It" is a special case. Being the first Extreme routine to also be a Dance Crew level at the time, most of the difficulty stems from cooperating with the other players, and it can get chaotic as dancers struggle to swap places and try not to bump into each other during certain moves. That being said, if you decide to tackle it by yourself, even the standard non-Extreme version proves more of a challenge.
• Archive Panic: As of 2023, there are 15 main games in the series, with many having 40 or more songs in a game, several of which have more than one choreography. A newcomer that plays through Unlimited or Just Dance+ would need several months to experience everything the franchise has released up to then, moreso when they are receiving updates that will feature newer songs and routines. And that's without taking the spin-offs into account.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The Just Dance service, starting from 2023 Edition, turned away many fans of the franchise due to its delayed launch, completely new engine (which was laden with glitches at launch), and new streaming service Just Dance + replacing Unlimited, which had less than half the songs of the latter service at launch, and the two were not cross-compatible. Fans who preferred to play handsfree with PlayStation Camera or Kinect were left in the dark as the new game is not compatible with either (and the Xbox Series X does not support Kinect at all, while PS5's camera does not support motion tracking), making it the first game since 2 to be completely unplayable with full body tracking, and only with a controller on the right hand. What also doesn't help is that 2023 Edition, 2024 Edition and JD+ maps are slowly but gradually being added to Now and Just Dance China, but not Unlimited; while the Just Dance China does use the same engine as 2020 through 2022, meaning the new maps are compatible with it, the former two games do not support camera controls, as Now only uses smartphones and Just Dance China is exclusive to Switch (although it wasn't planned to be).
• Award Snub: By winning every Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Video Game, Just Dance has done this to every other video game nominee that many have felt are better and should have won.^note Exceptions were 2015 and 2020, in which a Just Dance game wasn't nominated and Minecraft won instead.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Starting from 2016, Panda has developed a divisive reputation within the fanbase. Fans dislike him complain of being overused in routines and songs where they believe he should not be, several of his non-Ke$ha routines are poorly received and his overexposure in advertisement. On the other hand, fans still find him as charming as he was when he first debuts in C'mon, and his routines are quirky yet charming in a quality that is appealing to both children and adults. While his negative reception slowly subsides following the new era (especially when he has a cuter redesign that makes him more endearing), he is still a divisive character overall.
  • Ron, the coach of Chacarron. Many fans find his routine to be amusing, as well as the coach looking cute and features prominently in Twitter posts during 2022, making him seen as a funny character to be around. However, detractors quickly despise him for being in a "Troll song" and him appearing too frequently in the posts is reminiscent of Forced Memes, which doesn't sit well with him. It gets even worse with the reveal of STAY (Inflatable Version) in 2023 Edition, dragging the coach into further heated discourse.
  • While almost every character from "Enter the Danceverses" and "Dance With The Swan" are well-received or liked, Wanderlust is notorious for both its intense haters and fans since the day he was revealed. Detractors resent him for his clashing design, appearing in more routines than any of the previous Just Dancers, his backstory and, despite having said backstory, is defeated twice and tricked once, making him a Memetic Loser to his detractors. Defenders point out that he is still memorable and likable enough, his routines are fun and enjoyable and he is has valid reasons of being beaten by Night Swan, with the latter establishing as a dangerous villain in the story.
• Best Level Ever:
  • Some routines are almost universally loved by fans such as "Disturbia" and "Rasputin".
  • The Extreme routines are often considered this, due to being more elaborate and visually impressive than the standard choreographies. Some may cross into That One Level territory, though.
  • While not an "Extreme" per se, the "Old School" version of "Walk This Way" is beloved for similar reasons.
  • The alternate routine for "Handclap" starring Umutcan Tütüncü has received a fair amount of praise on social media.
  • "Drum Go Dum" received near universal acclaim by fans and critics upon release, as it takes the concept pf "Worth It"'s alternate choreography to a higher, more difficult level, in addition to faithful appearances by K/DA members.
  • "Telephone" swiftly became the most beloved song from 2023 Edition from pretty much release, with a fun yet still complex dance, stunning visuals, a popular coach and being an amazing tribute to Lady Gaga by bringing back every single past coach from each of her songs (not counting alternates) all to one of her most famous songs featuring another music queen, Beyoncé. JD fans have said that it's arguably the best routine the developers have ever created in the entire series, and it's much more appreciable when you learn that not only they had to remake all of the old costumes, but according to JD's official Twitter, the recording process took up to 4 AM.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Hatsune Miku "glitching" halfway through the Ievan Polkka. The stop motion effect comes out of nowhere and serves no purpose other than making the player freak out.
  • At some points in "Bum Bum Tam Tam", a man dressed in a cat costume shows up, stares awkwardly at the two dancers for a while, then leaves just as unceremoniously.
  • "Treasure" within the context of the "Dance with the Swan" playlist in 2024 Edition. It grinds the story to a jarring halt, clashes horribly with the overall Darker and Edgier tone and themes depicted in the playlist, adds nothing to Jack's character development and robs him of agency in a pivotal moment, paints a shockingly unflattering picture of him (even if it's a fake version of him) as an obnoxious egomaniac, and could be easily be skipped without the player missing out on anything important.
• Broken Base:
  • When Ubisoft released the Expansion Pack that was Summer Party, fans either loved that they could get all the Just Dance 2 DLC in one game, or hated it because they had already paid for said DLC. This is alleviated because Summer Party does not actually include all the DLC, and also allows players to access two routines that were previously exclusive to the Best Buy Edition.
  • The Just Dance Kids games. Either they're criticized for being Easier Than Easy or they have gotten some decent song picks and slowly are Growing the Beard.
  • Ubisoft recycling DLC in later games, starting with Just Dance 3. Most players hated the lack of new songs, while others who were playing their first Just Dance title got to try the popular tracks they missed out on before.
  • This also ends up applying to the dances every year. Are they getting better in terms of effects and movements, or getting worse with simplified routines? This would eventually be answered with 2022 being a noticable jump in quality of the dances from 2021 and it would only get better with 2023 Edition.
  • The Unlimited service. Does it make the yearly releases obsolete, to the point that Ubisoft should start focusing solely on it? Is it too costly and inferior to DLC, since you can no longer access the songs you paid for after the license expires? Or is it simply a good optional feature that fans can subscribe to when they don't feel like digging up the previous games? Once the replacement service Just Dance+ with 2023 Editionlaunched, most were annoyed that the service had only small selection of songs available at launch (which also happened when Unlimited started) and some who had bought a subscription for Unlimited right before 2023 launched got really irritated when they later learned the subscription doesn't carry over into +. For the players who do use these services, it's great when a song you want to play is on +, but if it's currently not, the best option is to go back at least one game and play it on Unlimited.
  • The inclusion of "Solnyshko" in 2018 for the Russian fanbase. For starters, it's a pretty old song (released in 1999; two previous Russian-language picks, "Ulybausya" in 2016 and "Imya 505" in 2017 were from 2013 and 2015, respectively). Then the base is further broken by those who enjoyed that song back in the day and those who hated it.
  • Kids Mode in Just Dance 2018. Defenders say it is a fun new mode that allows younger fans to enjoy the game without being exposed to suggestive lyrics and complicated dance moves. Others will argue that Just Dance was already kid-friendly as it was, and wish the time and effort spent developing Kids Mode had been dedicated to creating routines for more popular songs instead, as well as if it's worth having over other modes.
  • The "Double Rumble" levels, which are exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version. Some think that there is no reason not to include them in other versions of the game, while other people think that they qualify as a tech demo at best.
  • Yet another one concerning 2018: the removal of the mashup mode. Mashups have been present since the third game and were popular enough to inspire some fans to create their own routines. However, some people thought their quality had been gradually decaying in the previous games and are indifferent towards their absence.
  • "Mi Mi Mi" in 2019 has gotten a notable divisive reaction in regards to both the classic routine and the song. The routine (which heavily uses claymation) has either been praised for its uniqueness or derided for the creepiness of the claymation dancer, which clashes with the realistic coach besides him. As for the song...on the one hand, it's a track fans have been requesting for awhile now; on the other, they used a cover of the song, which the series already has an iffy history with. Fans either bemoan how bad of a cover it is or are neutral towards it/just happy the song got in the game.
  • The new menu layout unveiled for 2019 was either praised for its ease to use and for showing previews of the levels or criticized for its minimalistic design and being too harsh on the eyes due to its neon colors and white background, compared to other games that featured a dark background.
  • The series' rather excessive use of Regional Bonus. One camp argues it's unfair and even illogical to restrict some songs to a few specific regions of the globe, given that each level did take substantial amounts of time and resources to make. The other camp will claim that the niche nature of said songs limits their appeal, and thus are okay with them only being available through Unlimited.
  • The introduction of lore in the main series heavily divides the fanbase into different splinters and only increases with each year. Many fans enjoy the lore due to fleshing out the coaches and the setting, providing each routine a sense of personality and character in them. They also justify coaches having canonical names and personalities that make them likable and interesting, beautiful backgrounds and elements, and a sequence of choreographies that are engaging and fun. Other fans, however, disliked the story due to it being cluttered and the characters involved are very underdeveloped or very flat, complaining of the heavy use of cutscenes to songs, and very lacking or subpar worldbuilding, especially with seemingly important background elements such as The Flow. Other fans are generally indifferent with the lore, seeing it as unnecessary filler for a dancing game.
  • Newer and modern games. Fans on one half claiming that the newer games are a step up from the previous installments, and feel more fresh. Others say that the older games had more charm, and preserved much more of the original feel, and the yearly installments are getting more bland. This isn't helped by the removal of modes and features, such as the controversial world dance floor change, or the much maligned 'Quickplay Mode' being the only remaining supported feature, outside of "Kids Mode".
• Common Knowledge: Contrary to what fans think, there is no "lore" that is implemented in the franchise from Just Dance 2023 Edition onwards. Maps featuring the Just Dancers are placed into separate playlists for each game, rather than being a proper Story Mode, and all of the other lore bits are shared on social media accounts, most of which are never utilized within the game sans serving as Easter eggs or texts in avatars.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: When 2023 Edition was revealed with the supported being the next-gen PS5, Xbox Series X & S and Nintendo Switch, fans that had been used to camera consoles for years became very sad (and very mad) that the series was going back to only remote-controls as many of them like having to dance freely which itself was already an example of this trope. Because of this, many players switched (no pun intended) to the Switch since you can only use the controller app on smartphones as the controller on the PS5 and Xbox consoles whereas the Switch also supports usage of the Joy-Cons as with previous games that are on the system. Needless to say, there are likely a lot more Switch copies of the game being sold than the other two since while a pair of Joy-Cons are usually about $80 each which is pretty expensive on it's own, it's way better than a several-hundred-dollar smartphone that can easily fly out of your hand if you're not careful without the usage of accessories to prevent that happening. Players have talked about how the developers should just make their own camera device so they can still use full body movement again but are unsure of how exactly this could be implemented into each of the consoles to make it fair across all platforms.
• Contested Sequel:
  • 2016 has been praised for introducing Unlimited and presenting many routines that have since become fan favourites, such as “Born this Way” and “Circus”. However, its tracklist has repeatedly been called one of the weakest in the series, due to the abundance of songs that are either covered, lesser known, Merchandise-Driven or considered grating. It’s also a huge difficulty spike from 2015, with a number of dances going so far as requiring the player to perform moves like splits and death drops.
  • Ironically, 2017 has been contested for the exact opposite reasons. By featuring songs old and new from all around the world, it has probably the most diverse soundtrack in the series, something that has been noted and praised by fans and critics. However, the choreographies themselves had a mostly mixed reception, with many calling them simplistic and uninspired.
  • Just Dance 2022 became this within the fanbase when it released. Some fans claim that it is a fun shakeup of the usual formula and a vast improvement, both in the choreography, details and visual effects. Other fans claim that it is a more watered down version of previous installments, especially for its lack of change in its menu, lack of new features, re-cycling of old Kids Mode tracks and the elements such as CGI coaches and more dynamic visuals more distracting and disorienting than fun as it can take away from the point of the game, something that would only be exaggerated in the following game. Although it did explain why the menu and features were the same in that the new game with it's revamped experience required so much work that it's understandable they only focused on new songs and not changing the menu only they knew was going to be used for only one more year.
• Creepy Awesome: The stage for Sevdaliza's "Human" from 2022 is undeniably creepy, given it takes place in near-complete darkness (sans a few spotlights and the coach's glowing glove) with a decidedly inhuman-looking coach, but the routine is quite impressive — managing to be both fluid and deliberately janky at once — which, combined with the stage, fits the song's tone well.
• Critic-Proof: The first game got negative reviews for its poor motion detection and lack of content, ending up with an aggregated score of 49 on Metacritic. However, its commercial success enabled the series to take off.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "Toxic" from 2023 Edition sees Agent D making her debut: dancing through a plane and fighting against assassins in tuxedos. How does she deal with them? By casually ejecting them out of the plane with no promise of parachutes. None of this is mentioned again… well, except for the understandably shocked reactions from the fanbase.
  littlesiha (during a lore analysis on the map): You heard it here first, folks. Murder is legal in the Just Dance Cinematic Universe.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Now have its own page.
• Estrogen Brigade:
  • Jack Rose has a rather sizeable female fanbase, both due to him being a Sharp-Dressed Man as well as skill with showmanship and deep-seated motherly issues. He's probably the most notorious example of this from the game, with even the people running the Just Dance social media accounts openly fawning over him.
  • As of the "Dance with the Swan" story playlist, Wanderlust has earned himself a few fangirls of his own, especially in his corrupted design. His father, the Traveler, isn't too far behind either.
  • Vester de Ville from "Sacrifice" has a decent amount of female fans due to many finding him to be a rather attractive vampire. Unfortunately, his map heavily implies he may not quite swing their way.
  • Cygnus, the coach of "Beggin'", has his fair share of fangirls, in large part due to being the coach for the Måneskin version of the song and being designed in a way reminiscent of Damiano David himself.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Night Swan, the main villainess of Enter The Danceverse, is an imposing sorceress who abducts coaches in her conquest for "perfection". She is also beloved for her striking and imposing design, her interesting choreography and routine, the familial-yet-dysfunctional relationship with Jack Rose, and being more interesting than the main heroes. Her outright winning in 2024 Edition's continuation of the mode only made her even cooler.
  • Amanita, the coach for the Extreme version of "Without Me" and the apparent arch-nemesis to the heroic coaches from the classic map, seems to be portrayed as more competent in comparison to her opponents, partly due to how complicated the choreography for her dance is.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "God is a spoon" for the coach of God is a woman, due to the shape of her outfit resembling a spoon. This even escalated to being recognized by Ubisoft, as the coach's official name was made Spoon in a Just Dance+ update.
  • Due to his blue skin coloration, Wanderlust receives plenty of nicknames regarding his prominent feature, either out of spite or playfulness, with two prominent nicknames being "blueberry" and "Smurf".
  • Before her name being revealed, Night Swan have been nicknamed "Madame X" by fans, due to her appearing in a tarot card reading "X" in the Season 1: Astral trailer.
  • "Chicken" for Pulse, which is treated more of a running gag similar to "God is a spoon".
• Fans Prefer the New Her:
  • The Bride's new look, titled Bridezilla, in "Sweet But Psycho" is meant to show how she's undergone Sanity Slippage over what happened between her and Rasputin. The mismatched nature of the design was beloved by several fans, who said that it adds a lot of character for a dancer's whose outfit many thought was rather bland for someone so iconic to the franchise.
  • Similarly to his lover, Rasputin's new look in "I Am My Own Muse" has him disheveled and miserable, but many fans actually think he looks better with the more punk rock appearance.
• Fandom Rivalry: With the Dance Central series. DC fans claim JD's routines are too repetitive and dull, and JD fans accuse DC of robotic animation and Harder Than Hard dances. However, if the fanbases did their research, they would know that Just Dance has been pushing for more lively and harder routines, by incorporating “Extreme” and alternate modes, and Dance Central actually has multiple levels of difficulty.
• Fanon:
  • The unknown identity of Jack Rose's father had led to a treasure trove of speculation, with the three most popular guesses being Cygnus from "Beggin'", Vester de Ville from "Sacrifice", and Captain Crimson from "Jump in the Line" and "Sail".
  • A fair amount of fans believe the Traveler and Si'ha Nova didn't stop at Wanderlust, either creating Original Characters who are his siblings or headcanoning canon coaches without a confirmed backstory (such as Clementine from "Can't Tame Her", before her lore was revealed) as such.
  • It's common in fanfics to see the coaches use Seilos' name in place of "God" due to Seilos' canonically being a Goddess of some kind, believed by many to be the de-facto creator of the Danceverses due to her map labeling her as "All-Mother".
  • Jack Rose being a Sir Swears-a-Lot sees decent popularity in fanworks.
  • There are fans that interpret that Wanderlust is bi or pansexual due to him having arguable Ship Tease moments with both Sara and Jack Rose.
• Fanfic Fuel: Since most information about the series' worldbuilding (Especially) is relevantly scarce, both per coach and in general that leaves much, MUCH potential for fan interpretation, which includes the following:
  • What each coach's personality, lifestyle or powers are?
  • What are the events that said coach experienced in the past?
  • Both before JD 24's and JD 25's story modes released, people wrote their interpretation of a possible story playlist for the respective games.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Given that levels that appeal primarily to young children have been a part of the series since the very beginning, it can be a bit puzzling as to why Kids Mode faced as much backlash as it did since its introduction in 2018. It's mostly agreed that earlier games managed to balance out the kid-appeal factor by having a reduced number of routines aimed exclusively at children, and most of said levels used well-known songs that made them interesting for adults too. By comparison, Kids Mode takes up 20% of the games it is featured in and consists mostly of public domain songs or simplistic melodies composed specifically for it, making the mode overall unappealing for the general public.
  • Fans complain about the amount of meme songs that Ubisoft added in the games when meme songs are already present as early as Just Dance 4, with "Gangnam Style" as the precursor routine. However, these routines are usually minimal and are designed well for the game as well as relevant, which can be said with "The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)" as it is relevant when 2015 is released. What makes meme songs unappealing is being forced to be added in the game, with songs such as "Dame Tu Cosita", "Baby Shark", "Skibidi", and, infamously, D Billions's "My Name Is" (likely as a joke of sharing the same name from one by Eminem) added despite that they are almost dead memes or have shorter life span, making it irritating to fans who want other songs.
  • CGI dancers. The first instance of this was a routine starring Rabbid Peach dancing to Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl". However, it was initially seen as a cute (if unnecessary) reference to a well-received crossover game. The concept only became truly reviled with the reveal of the "Shaky Shaky" routine, which many clamored was a betrayal of what Just Dance stood for, as one of the franchise's differentials compared to other dancing games was precisely the use of real dancers in its levels and the fluid motions that came with it. While some of the future routines still incorporate CGI dancers with far better reception than "Shaky Shaky", it remains a heavy topic amongst fans, especially when it comes to maps such as "Bangarang" and the China-exclusive "Ugly Beauty" alternate, both of which have their coaches animated in CGI but designed to look like the traditional coaches.
  • Incorporating an actual plotline into the franchise had greatly divided the fans. However, 2021 and 2022 had the love story between Si'Ha Nova and The Traveler, which detailed a Star-Crossed Lovers sencario. However, they were very well-received due to being contained to one song. The "new era of Just Dance", however, storylines take a much larger focus to the point that it has a debately bigger focus than the actual routines, annoying fans that want to simply focus on dancing and not have to worry about following a story.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The engines for the Nintendo and Sony consoles led to a case of It's Easy, So It Sucks! because you do not actually have to be actively moving to get 5 stars. Tilting the Wii Remote/Move Controller at certain times will still get recognized. This is downplayed in that the scoring in those consoles is much stricter when it comes to timing. In the Kinect, you can usually afford to perform a move a little too early or too late and still get a Perfect. With the Wii Remote or PS Move, not so much. However, in every game since 2, any motion at all from the Wii Remote or other motion controller will guarantee at least an "OK", with the "X" rating only showing up if no movement is detected at all. One can simply shake the controller for the entire song and easily get at least one star.
  • Just Dance 3 has a lot of content and encourages players to get high scores in order to unlock everything. However, any sense of difficulty is thrown out of the window the moment "Simon Says" mode is obtained, which makes getting extra points so trivial it's possible to finish a level with nearly double the amount of points required for 5 stars. If it wasn't for the game not keeping track of the score when said mode is played, it would be the go-to option for completionists.
• Genius Bonus: The coach for Eminem's "Without Me" (Extreme Version) is a supervillainess with a mushroom motif. In the background of the Classic routine, she makes a cameo and is identified as Amanita, which is a genus of notoriously toxic fungi.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Franchise-wise, Just Dance has attracted a predominant size of Brazilian fans. The company has acknowledged this via including original songs like Tico-tico no Fubá, Te Dominar and Carnaval Boom in 2017. Notably, the very first winner of the Just Dance World Cup, Diegho San, is Brazilian. Pre-2023 Edition the Xbox One version of the game was the most popular among Brazilians, topping the Dancer of the Week leaderboards on the majority of songs on that platform.
  • Despite not being released outside the Chinese version of Just Dance Unlimited, "Gokuraku Joudo" immediately catches the attention of many international fans for being an Extreme routine with highly praised choreography, coach designs and background. Many of these fans also voice their dismay and wanting "Gokuraku Joudo" to be released to international fans via Just Dance+ instead of being a Chinese-exclusive.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "New Face" ends with the message "From the Just Dance Team with love ♡". Cue in backlash for Just Dance 2018.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • A fan made a drawing about the coaches for Dancing Queen being congratulated and given back their gloves, before the actual routine is released in Just Dance Unlimited in August 2018.
  • "Save Your Tears" from 2022 goes from bittersweet to poignant with the Word of God confirmation that Wanderlust from the following installment is the son of the Traveler and Si'ha Nova—meaning not only they found a way to stay together but also started a family.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One song in each of the first two games in the series ("Dare" in the first game and "Pump Up the Volume" as Downloadable Content in the second) ends with the moonwalk. Can you guess which solo artist "moonwalks" over to the first licensed game despite being dead?
  • One of the phone apps in the background of "Call Me Maybe" has a Just Dance icon. Over two years later, Just Dance Now is unveiled for Android and iOS.
  • The "She Wolf (Falling to Pieces)" dancer in 2014 is an ice queen with her hair in a braid that hangs over her left shoulder, reminiscent of Frozen's Queen Elsa... Whose signature song, "Let It Go", was included in the following installment of the game, complete with a dancer dressed like Elsa (and one dressed like Anna, for some reason), much like "Prince Ali" in 2014.
  • 2020 had "Rain Over Me" by Pitbull and Marc Anthony, and fittingly, the classic routine has a rain motif. Then the next year, the similarly-titled "Rain On Me" by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande comes out and turns out to be a big hit for both artists. Because of this, people basically expected the song to be on 2021's tracklist, especially after the songs and their more low-quality routines that had been revealed. The people who worked on the games must have been at least slightly annoyed at this timing of events, to create another rain-themed routine so soon, especially as both song names are so similar.
  • Before "Black Mamba" by aespa was released, people noted the similarities of the teaser images and videos for works of other artists, thinking this was plagiarism. Then, when the music video came out, people did the same, the video specifically with the one for "POP/STARS" by K/DA. Then in Just Dance 2022, both songs are revealed to be in the exact same installment.
  • A fan comic features Kaa'rik and Masi'el, the coaches of "Wet Tennis", being taken away for not being featured in Just Dance 2023 Edition, as their song and designs were leaked but not made part of the main song list. Fast forward to March 16, 2023 and they are featured in Just Dance+ via "Season 1: Lover Coaster", before being upgraded to main song list status via the map for "Woof".
  • Plenty of fans speculate that the cover-only red-suited male coach for 2014 to be the dancer for "Treasure", with evidences of varying credibility. Fast forward to 2024E, Jack Rose, who wears a red suit, is the official coach for "Treasure" in its inclusion.
• Ho Yay:
  • The routine for "Sugar", which is themed after a wedding, portrays two homosexual couples. That is, if you disregard that Rita Piña, the coach from "Drop the Mambo" was originally supposed to be performed by a woman, or that the coach from "PoPiPo" is, well, a carrot.
  • The routine for "The Weekend" is a standard silly dance of two male office workers. However, one of their moves is sitting on the floor back to back and looking at each other, and some of the later moves requires walking together in a rather close arm-to-shoulder hug.
  • The routine for "Say So" appear to be even more intimate and homoerotic than "The Weekend", due to the female coaches constantly looking at each other and performing moves that looks like one is flirting with the other. Their very first verse moves includes close body contact and sliding their hands on each other's backs.
  • "Thank U Next" ends with Grace, the coach of the routine, walking over to her locker featuring a polaroid of her with the coach of "Good 4 U" surrounded by hearts. That combined with the confirmation that the "Good 4 U" coach's name is Ari and the lyrics in the songs surrounding that name suggests that they may be more than just friends. The subtext only became more obvious come "Vampire" in the following game, which depicts the girls dancing at prom together, presumably after being dumped by their original prom dates.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: This is the main criticism longtime fans direct at later games, starting with Just Dance 2017. Most of them agree that, while the difficulty of the Extreme routines increased exponentially, the Classic levels as a whole became considerably easier, both due to an abundance of moves that are easier to follow and because the scoring system feels a bit more generous than in the earlier games.
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!:
  • The Hip Hop Experience. Choreographies that are considerably more complex than those in the main series, coupled with the exclusion of pictograms in favor of short video segments that barely inform the player which move to perform next make for a brutally difficult rhythm game to anyone without some prior dancing experience.
  • Just Dance 2016 gets this in some circles. While some fans enjoy the energetic and oft-times flamboyant choreographies, others criticize them for being too demanding and taxing on the players.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Any choreographies that uses the same concepts from previous routines tend to get less favorable or divisive reception in later games, due to either it being overused or Uniqueness Decay. Notable examples include "Me Too" (sharing the same visual theme with "Birthday"), and many of the routines featuring the Panda (such as "Daddy Cool" and "Con Calma").
  • "Dance Lab", a feature in Just Dance 2018 has mixed-to-negative reception due to it sharing near identical mechanics with "Just Dance Machine", a feature in Just Dance 2018, with reasons that each level has a fixed segment of dance snippets, as opposed to the randomized routines in "Just Dance Machine".
  • The "Gift Machine" feature continues to draw ire from fans as it appears in each game starting with Just Dance 2018, due to it becoming the same as it was in its inception, with no further innovations or changes to make it unique.
• Improved Second Attempt: "Toxic" from 2 is widely considered to be one of the worst routines ever created, with a boring choreography, lame visuals and what is widely agreed to be the worst cover the series has ever used. When the song returned for 2023 Edition, the routine was given a massive overhaul, getting a much better choreography, far more engaging visuals, the original music being used and even getting an extreme version, leading to the song being viewed far more positively by many fans.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Despite the huge Broken Base surrounding the idea, many fans jumped onto the "new era" games ("2023 Edition" and "2024 Edition") due the introduction of actual plotlines across multiple songs and even across games.
• LGBT Fanbase: As a dancing game with heavy emphasis on pop songs, extravagant characters and exuberant levels, Just Dance unsurprisingly developed a strong following among gay men. Some levels even seen to be designed specifically to cater to a gay audience, such as the rainbow and unicorn-filled "Holding Out For A Hero" and "Narco".
• Memetic Loser: Wanderlust, due to him getting transformed into a Night Swan minion in "Majesty" and getting defeated by Night Sara in "Swan Lake", even though he is supposed to be a powerful, wise prince. The fact that Night Swan successfully took advantage of his naïveté by disguising herself as Sara to have him hand Discoball to her in "Canned Heat", allowing her to set her plans back in motion, doesn't help.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Among non-fans, the simple fact that the series still sees releases on the Wii even with the Wii U having come and gone and Nintendo Switch being the current console has been met with comments on how it's the last thing keeping the Wii alive, with a whole ton of jokes on the matter. This becomes discredited after the release of Just Dance 2020.
  • Taylor Swift in the same sentence with Just Dance and "not happening". ^ExplanationDespite being a popular singer herself, no songs by Taylor Swift appear in any game despite being having heavily requested songs by the fans, reaching to memetic levels similar with Geno's status. Later instances replaces Taylor Swift with other artists instead such as Melanie Martinez, Mariah Carey and even Rihanna (due to her no longer appearing in the franchise starting with 2016) and CupcakKe (with her being more as a joke than anything serious). Hilarious in Hindsight due to "Love Story"'s inclusion in 2022 and "I Knew You Were Trouble"'s inclusion in 2023 Edition.
  • God is a spoon. ^ExplanationThe classic dancer for "God is a woman" is widely mocked for the costume resembling like a spoon, as seen in the comments and one person even made a mock routine for it. Became an Ascended Meme in 2021, where it is an unlockable Alias. It was taken one step further in 2024 Edition, where the coach’s name was officially revealed to be Spoon.
  • Chicken. ^ExplanationPrior to Pulse's name reveal, he is jokingly called by fans as "Chicken" due to a couple of Tweets that playfully call him as one. It then quickly explodes to the point that it is treated as his actual name, even when the name "Pulse" is revealed. Ubisoft quickly caught wind of this and quickly makes a cheeky reference to the meme with his alleged favorite dish: a whole rotisserie chicken
  • Jacklust. ^ExplanationAlso known as Wanderrose, it is a very popular (and infamous) ship between Wanderlust and Jack Rose, springing up from the initial release of 2023 Edition. It quickly explodes in popularity, having legions of fans that will defend it to death, all while only having two scenes where they are together that does not carry romantic subtext. The ship has near omnipresence in fan arts and in fanfiction, with Archive of Our Own nearly has more than 200 of its current amount centering or featuring Jacklust! Not even the developers coming out stating that they're friends would deter them from shipping, with demands from their shippers to Ubisoft very loudly, much to the annoyance and occasional anger of non-Jacklust shippers.
  • X cheats Y/Cheating Headcanons. ^ExplanationIf there is a coach (usually a female) featured in a song about breakup, having a solemn routine or both, expect for fans to have shared headcanons of which coach cheats on said coach, even with coaches that may or may not make sense in the first place, and expands it to either having said cheated coach trying to ruin the cheater's life or pulled in a dramatic fight just for the sake of it. The common coaches depicted in these headcanons include The Bride, Dolores, Arleen and the coach of Happier Than Ever.
• Moe:
  • Chiffon, the dancer for "Birthday", in 2015. Matching with the routine being pure saccharine, Chiffon is a bubbly, smiling clown-like coach that fans find her genuinely likable.
  • Beedabop, the dancer for "Heat Waves" in 2023 Edition, is an adorable rusty-looking robot coach dancing solo in a factory and sporting a constant smile on his face.

N-Z

• Narm: "Kill Bill" would have passed by normally like any other censored song in the series...if it weren't for the fact that the word "kill" in the chorus is constantly replaced by a sword slicing sound effect. It makes it hard to take the routine seriously since the censorship barely diminished the implications. Then again, it could fall into Narm Charm due to the song's message likely to be satirical as well.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Thanks to a facial glitch, the "Tightrope" dancer looks very frightening◊.
  • In the mashup for "Crucified", the coach from "Love You Like a Love Song" suddenly bursts into flames and becomes the coach from "Sympathy for the Devil". It's sure to catch many players off guard.
  • "Applause"'s background consists of people trapped inside some sort of fabric and struggling desperately to escape... and failing. Then during the chorus, it shifts to four shadowy figures dancing chaotically in a dark environment. It just screams "asylum for the insane".
  • Nearly everything Night Swan did in Enter The Danceverse; who is a very dark and imposing coach that is also an outright villainess. Her entrance in "CAN'T STOP THE FEELING!" gives shivers to everyone, both in-universe and out-universe, as she kidnaps the four companion coaches and brainwashes them to be part of her ever-growing army, as depicted on "Witch". When she appears in "Majesty", she outright brainwashes almost every single person in the coliseum, including Wanderlust, who does nothing to him but being friendly to him, cementing Night Swan as a credible threat to not just The Just Dancers, but also to potentially everyone!
  • In the "Dance with the Swan" story playlist, Night Swan successfully corrupting Sara, Wanderlust, Mihaly and Brezziana, leaving only Jack Rose left to stop her.
• Obvious Beta: The first game's engine made it pretty much unplayable, as the motion tracking was so poor it penalized the players no matter how accurate their dancing was. The graphics were also subpar, and the choreographies were much simpler and very repetitive, as the developers had yet to grasp how to make the game work with the Wii and they didn't know this would become a series.
• Older Than They Think: Incorporation of story and lore bits to the franchise has been considered a surprising yet divisive move, where fans either love it or despise it. However, a storyline of coaches happens as early as 2011 in ABBA: You Can Dance with the Mini Musical Mode; featuring the coaches Annie, Betty, Butch and Alice in a teen love story musical.
• Periphery Demographic: Although the franchise is mainly aimed at children and teenagers, a surprisingly large amount of adults seem to enjoy it as well, especially senior citizens, which is why they continued to make entries for Wii until 2020. Hospitals and nursing homes continued to use the Wii rather than buy more expensive next-gen consoles, causing Ubisoft to continue releasing Just Dance installments for it.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Jack Rose/Wanderlust are known as Jacklust or WanderRose
  • Sara/Wanderlust is known as WanderSara
  • Brezziana/Mihaly is known as Brezzihaly
• Popular with Furries: The game series have a decent amount of furry fans thanks to the routines having Funny Animal coaches and the panda and the reindeer being the series mascots, in fact "2024 Edition" "Dance with the Swan" story playlist introduced Mihaly's panda form as seen in "Never Be Like You" and "Swan Lake".
• Porting Disaster:
  • Applies to pretty much every game ported to seventh generation consoles from 2016 onwards. While the core of the games is still there, large amounts of content have been omitted, including the Unlimited service, the story modes, Dance Quests, mashups (except on the Wii) and the online features. Thus, the games are pretty much mission pack sequels to 2015.
  • The Switch version of 2017, despite being released after all other ports, has some glaring issues. Being the first game in the series to rely on the Joy-cons, the tracking feels a bit off, even when compared to the Wii Remotes in other versions of the game. The game is also more prone to lagging, which can be especially problematic while playing through Unlimited. Finally, two very popular songs (Zayn's "Like I Would" and Wham!'s "Last Christmas") have been omitted from this version and transferred to the streaming service for no apparent reason.
  • 2019 on the Nintendo Switch is incompatible with the smartphone controller app and suffers from buffering and other performance issues that are not present in other versions of the game.
• The Problem with Licensed Games:
  • The Smurfs Dance Party's, made to accompany the release of The Smurfs. Boring and robotic dance moves, weird CGI models, bland covers of popular songs, broken motion controls, and the already cringe-worthy concept made this game forgotten.
  • Michael Jackson: The Experience got really harsh reviews from critics, who cited its bare-bones presentation, lack of polish and scarce amount of content as major negatives, ultimately comparing it unfavourably to The Beatles: Rock Band. To rub salt on the wound, some of them also called it inferior to Just Dance 2, given that this one had more modes to play, double the amount of songs and more accurate motion controls.
• Ron the Death Eater: Rasputin got hit hard during 2023E following the release of "Sweet but Psycho", with fans quickly taking The Bride's side and blaming him for her Sanity Slippage. This seems to have diminished by 2024 Edition, which features a redesigned Rasputin as the coach for Fall Out Boy's "I Am My Own Muse", depicting his side of the story.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • In the Wii versions of 2014 and 2015, downloaded songs can only be played if they are stored within the system's internal memory. Since the Wii can only store 512 MB of data, and each DLC is about 60-70 MB in size, juggling files between the internal memory and the SD card is a necessity whenever the player wishes to dance to the song they paid for. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if it wasn't for the fact that every previous game had the option to load the DLC directly from the SD card.
  • The shifting camera angles in "I Love It" have not been well-received at all, to the point that the effect has not been reused in any other level made so far until Just Dance 2022. Just Dance seems to have learnt from the failures of "I Love It" regarding shifting camera angles in following games, as it moves slower, smoother and doesn't just block choreo from being seen.
  • When you first boot up Just Dance 2018, you can only select from 15 of the 41 songs included in the game to play. The rest is only unlocked after you complete at least 2 other songs. While this isn't overly irritating, it's mind-boggling that this system was included in the game when the previous entries had everything ready to play from the start.
  • The gift machine (which lets you pay 100 Mojo for a random reward) isn't a terrible idea, but its implementation in 2018 can be pretty annoying to deal with. If you have 100 or more Mojo, the game will ask if you want to play the gift machine every time you've completed a song. If you do choose to play it, you have to sit through a boring 12-second animation every single time you buy an item from it, and no, you can't buy multiple items at once. To make matters worse, if you get an equipable item or a new dance routine, the game will waste even more time by asking you if you want to equip it / dance to it, and the cursor defaults to "Yes". Thankfully, these issues were fixed in future instalments.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • Trying to get 5 stars in a song without pictograms.
  • With the addition of Superstar and Megastar, it is popular among fans to achieve them, along with "All Perfect" rating and a score of 13333.^NoteThe maximum score in every game excluding the original Just Dance and the use of other modes.
• Sequelitis:
  • While every game has its fans and critics, 2015 has a notoriously vocal hatedom. Its tracklist is looked down upon for being comprised almost entirely of Pop songs that got dated mere months after the game’s release, and the possible saving grace, the DLC, consisted mostly of recycled songs from the previous two games. To make matters worse, the game has only a fraction of the content from its predecessor: While 2014 had over 20 alternate levels, this one only had 8 (10 if counting the PAL Exclusive alternate routine of Papaoutai and the Downloadable Alternate routine of Let It Go).
  • 2018 has an even worse reputation than 2015. Its tracklist is usually seen as a downgrade from 2017, due to a number of obscure or "filler" songs; and while some routines like “Boom Boom” and “Swish Swish” have been praised for being a remarkable improvement upon the rather simple choreographies from the previous year, others like “Shape of You” and “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” have been called the absolute worst in the series. To make matters worse, it's also the game that introduced the much-maligned Kids Mode.
  • While Just Dance: Disney Party had a share of iconic songs from its movies, its sequel only consisted of Disney Channel songs, which let down many.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop:
  • 2 is much easier to score on than the first game, because of the (mostly) vastly improved motion detection.
  • Coming right after what many consider to be one of the hardest games in the series, 2017 tones down much of the difficulty, featuring routines that are noticeably simpler and more repetitive than its predecessor. There are exceptions, though, with the Extreme version of "Scream and Shout" being the most notable one.
  • The Extremes in 2021 are generally much more slower paced and easier to grasp then their predecessors, although this could have been done intentionally to make the alternates more accessible.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike:
  • In general, the choreographies in 4 and 2016 are more complex and demand more attention to learn than their predecessors. The latter game in particular is infamous for having two of the hardest Extreme routines in the series, as well as some regular routines on par with the Extreme levels from 2014. See That One Level for details.
  • 2019 not only has 6 on disc Extreme routines, the most in the entire franchise, but also makes accessing them much more challenging than before. While unlocking alternate levels in previous games was a simple matter of purchasing them with the in-game currency, this time it can only be done by getting a Super Star score (11000 points or more) in the song's original choreography.
  • 2022 cranks it up to feature 9 Extreme routines, with four being Classic routines. Additionally, several routines either have higher difficulty, more intense movements, or a combination of both. Many of these songs also features more than one dancer, which further causes the routine to even more difficult.
  • 2023E takes it much further that 2022 looks easier in retrospect. The game, as of "Season 2: Showdown", has a total of 11 Extreme routines, with 6 being Classic routines instead of being Alternate routines. Additionally, there are even less Easy routines overall, with plenty of the routines either Medium or Hard, and even some of the Easy routines are more difficult than what they claim. Some of the harder routines are also difficult enough that they are comparable to Extreme routines of older games!
• Ship Mates: Jack Rose/Wanderlust shippers are friendly with Brezziana/Mihaly shippers as mentioned in Shipping below. Those who are more partial to Sara/Wanderlust usually prefer to have Jack shipped with either Brezziana or Mihaly.
• Shipping:
  • Jack Rose and Wanderlust is a hugely popular ship within the fandom that spans a whole trend of fanart and fanfiction (although, if anything, Wanderlust clearly has more Ship Tease with Sara). This stems with their most significant interaction in the routine for Majesty, where there are two significant moments of interaction between them, one of them being a Gold Move eerily similar to The Traveler and Si'Ha Nova's Gold Move in Save Your Tears (Remix), something that fans took notice. This hasn't stopped fans from taking to them as the Fan-Preferred Couple of the game, and pushing it to the developers to make it canon, staying adamant in their support even with constant disapproval from Ubisoft.
  • While not as popular as Jack Rose/Wanderlust, Sara/Wanderlust also get this, thanks to the more frequent and solid Ship Tease moments between them.
  • Brezziana/Mihaly also gets shipped a fair bit, usually as Ship Mates to Jack Rose/Wanderlust. They're also frequently shipped with coaches outside the main Five-Man Band, as is the case with the ship between Mihaly and Liza Friday, also spawned by "Majesty" and popularized by the works of fanfiction writer TheLisSilentYall.
• So Okay, It's Average: Just Dance 2016 and 2017 are mostly seen as this by older fans of the franchise. They are not fan favorites like 4 or 2014, nor do they benefit from Nostalgia Filter like 1, 2 and 3, but are still considered decent in their own right, and are not bashed nearly as much as 2015 or 2018.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • "Titanium" could be this to "She Wolf". Both levels use songs by the same artists, employ similar moves in their choreographies and feature a female coach with some sort of special ability (Technopathy for the former, Cryokinesis in the case of the latter). They also have rather depressing endings, with "Titanium" shutting down and "She Wolf" being frozen alive.
  • "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" from 2018 is this to "Funkytown" from 2. Both levels are for a popular song from the previous century, have a low difficulty choreography, and are performed by an alien coach in front of a monochromatic background.
  • Unlimited exclusive "10.000 luchtballonnen" is this to 2014's "99 Luftballons". Both levels feature dancers in a background with balloons in it, having a diffuculty of "Easy", sung by female vocalists, and are anti-war songs performed in non-English.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel:
  • With how Critic-Proof the first game was, Ubisoft could have easily just released a Mission-Pack Sequel for the second game and wiped their hands of the matter. Instead, they've listened to feedback from both players and critics and have actively worked to make sure each new installment is better than the last.
  • Just Dance 2019 is this to 2018. The latter is often mockingly referred to as the "black sheep" of the franchise by longtime fans, while the former has enjoyed a positive reception, with only some minor criticism directed at the decision to slash off all extra modes save the much-maligned Kids Mode. Its tracklist and choreographies were also praised, with only two levels ("Shaky Shaky" and "Bum Bum Tam Tam" alternate) receiving significant backlash.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • 2018 falls under this with Wanko Ni Mero Mero's Sayonara sounding similar to BABYMETAL's Gimme Chocolate.
  • There have been many instances of Ubisoft writing original songs to serve as substitutes in case certain already-existing tracks aren't cleared to be used in the game. "Nitro Bot" from 2014 and "Yameen Yasar" from 2021 are the two most notable examples, and 2020 oddly features an aversion through "The Beautiful Freaks", intended to be a substitute for "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", but ultimately discarded in favor of the actual song.
• Tear Jerker: Now has its own page.
• That One Achievement: Good luck on the Perfectionist gold and silver medals in Just Dance 3, where things like how old your system is and whether the remotes have fresh batteries suddenly matter a LOT more than they should.
• That One Level: It has its own page!
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A recurring complaint whenever a song with an iconic choreography makes it into the game without incorporating some of its official moves, with "Mashed Potato Time", "Bang", "Sorry" and "Single Ladies" being the main targets of this. Ubisoft took notes of this, with many routines using moves from the official choreographies of certain songs in the following games, most notably K-Pop songs.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Jack Rose in "Dance with the Swan" has quite the diminished role in contrast to "Enter the Danceverse", only being there to get distracted by his mother via a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment of a map while she brainwashes the other Just Dancers behind his back.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: From 2023 edition, Night Swan makes a quick cameo in "Telephone", prompting much speculation over what her intentions with the Lady Gaga coaches were. Ultimately, said intentions were never really made clear as it's a mere cameo. Night Swan never tries to capture the other coaches and the Lady Gaga coaches never appear again in either story mode.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Some fans like to headcanon Jack as a trans man, which spawned from the Brazilian Portuguese version of the game mistranslating "Kid of the Swan" (which is the avatar based on Jack) into "Daughter of the Swan".
• Underused Game Mechanic: The Double Rumble levels in 2018 allowed the use of both Joy-Cons so that the game kept track of both hands during gameplay. This innovative feature greatly contributed to the players' immersion and improved the motion detection by the Switch, but was sadly restricted to only a few songs (none of which were part of the main tracklist) and was dropped completely come Just Dance 2019.
• Unnecessary Makeover: Although the Evil Makeovers of the Just Dancers have been mostly received positively by the community, some fans maintain the argument that, while indeed very elaborate and aesthetically compelling, they (with the exception of Sara's) add nothing to the story as it stands. By all accounts, especially considering the rumors of 2024 Edition having a reduced budget compared to its predecessor, Night Swan's triumph could've just as easily made clear by having Wanderlust, Brezziana and Mihaly turned into regular Swan Soldiers.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Not so much the earlier games, which focused on general throwbacks and lesser-known dance-tunes with maybe one or two recent pop hit in between. The later games however, with their focus on "current" pop songs and artists, dates itself by the next installment.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Coaches with anything other than white skin often fall into this, due to their appearances look far more realistic compared to most coaches, with the coaches from the Disney maps being frequently called out for looking too real.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many people mistook Blake, the player two dancer in Bring Me to Life, to be a girl, owing to his rather androgynous design, long hair, the fact he appears to have lipstick on and the fact Blake, while a gender-neutral name, is more popular for girls than boys.
• Viewer Species Confusion: Si'ha Nova and Wanderlust have been both labeled as aliens in multiple occasions due to being Blue-Skinned Space People. Canonically, they are labeled as deities, but they could be extraterrestrial beings as well.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: One of 2023 Edition's most widely beloved aspects is just how pretty all of the routines are, with many routines' visuals going above and beyond with how flashy and intricate they are.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Just Dance is supposed to be a kid-friendly series, but there are plenty of suggestive dance moves, routines and song lyrics that parents would not want their kids to learn (a complication):
  • Sexy and I Know It features gratuitous amounts of wiggling (read: shaking your junk so hard it bounces up and down).
  • The alternate dance for "Rich Girl" is a bit too reminiscent of what an exotic dancer might preform.
  • One of the Just Dance Machine routines in 2017 is dedicated to twerking, in a franchise targeted to children!
  • "Make It Jingle" makes the Just Dance Machine segment look tame by featuring twerking and butt movement in almost every part of the choreography itself!
  • "On Ne Porte Pas De Sous-Vêtements" takes it up to eleven by featuring the use of twerking and gratuitous amounts of air humping, background elements featuring undergarments and voices in different languages saying "We do not wear underwear". The song's title literally translates to "We don't wear underwear".
  • Both "Numb" and "Bring Me to Life" are about extremely dark subject matter, with the former being about a child raging about the high expectations their parents set for them, as well as implied depression themes, while the latter is about desiring to be freed an abusive relationship.
  • "Chaise Longue" features very blatant sexual double entendres (with one lyrical reference itself a reference to a dirty joke in "Mean Girls") that the only word censored is "beer", all setting in a routine featuring two country women relaxing and fooling around in the countryside.
  • In 2018, some Unlimited songs are on the game's Kids Mode despite the lyrics talking about not kid-friendly topics.
    • "C'mon" by Kesha marks the debut of the Panda coach, so surely the routine must be one that kids can dance to, right? Well, the lyrics are about partying hard, including references to alcohol (Budweiser is left uncensored), and its lyrics are mentioned in the ESRB description for suggestive material. This song got removed in the 2019 and later editions of Kids Mode.
    • "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow. Don't mind the lyrics about a woman drinking hard and having a bar brawl that ends up in a gunshot. As long as the song sounds happy and the coaches are Funny Animals, it's in Kids Mode! This song stayed in 2019's Kids Mode, but starting from 2020, this song would be removed in the mode.
    • 2018 features (a cover of) "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by Baha Men as one of the Unlimited songs in Kids Mode. If one pays attention to the lyrics of the song, they will realize that the song contains some suggestive lyrics, and overall isn't about actual dogs being released. The coach being in a literal dog costume and the chorus being the only part that most people know of the song don't help at all.
    • And yes, if you're wondering, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" is included in Just Dance Kids.
  • Additionally, some other songs not on Kids Mode such as 3's Lollipop and 2015's Birthday have upbeat and cheery tunes and visuals that are very bright and colorful that it may appeal to kids, despite lyrically, the former being an Anti-Love Song and the latter being an Intercourse with You song.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Some people interpreted the cat-vs.-dog war in "Miłość w Zakopanem" to be representing United States vs. North Korea. Adding to that, the routine starts off with a cat and dog leader having an argument in a political setting.
• The Woobie:
  • Jack Rose. His mother purposefully kept him in her shadow while he was growing up, both because he wasn't "perfect" and because she didn't have time to bother with him. Even once he does manage to become famous when he becomes an adult, as "Locked Out Of Heaven" implies, he still feels stuck in his mother's shadow, while she has no issues using him as a pawn. Even when he finally finds friends with the other Just Dancers, his mother traps him in an unflattering illusion so that he won't get in the way while she corrupts his new friends. Even when Jack tries to save him, he's too late and all he can do is watch as his corrupted friends sail off, helpless to stop them.
  • Sara, in "You Should See Me in a Crown", gets sent to Eternyx, where she is promptly Mind Raped by Night Swan, with any attempts at freeing herself resulting in failure and resulting in her getting Brainwashed and Crazy.

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