Just Dance 2026 Edition review: creative spirit keeps the beats thumping

Just Dance 2026 Edition is a bright, creative entry in the long-running franchise that isn’t content to rest on the laurels of the past. After more than a decade as the only popular dance-fitness game on the market, Just Dance could easily become same-ish. Developers could kick up their feet, release a handful of new tracks in a tidy package, and leave ideas of creativity and innovation behind.

But Just Dance 2026 Edition proves there’s plenty left in the tank, and that Ubisoft still has brilliant, bouncy ideas to deliver, even as players grow familiar with the yearly offering.

On the surface, this game will conform to your expectations. As has become standard, it introduces a few dozen new tracks to the franchise, as well as offering a short-term subscription to Just Dance Unlimited, where hundreds of other tracks await. Players take on various dances as they wish, working to achieve high scores by hitting the correct movement patterns, all while having fun and grooving to some solid beats.

But the further you explore, and the more tracks you tackle, the better you understand that Just Dance 2026 Edition is trying something new, and that it positively brims with cool, inspiring ideas.

Just Dance 2026 Edition features a solid array of tracks

The first notable thing about Just Dance 2026 Edition is that, miraculously, it’s on the pulse of pop culture. Music licenses are incredible finicky to sort, and it’s particularly difficult to sort licenses for newer tracks. But Just Dance 2026 Edition arrives with an array that I would call mainstream and popular, and there’s plenty of good picks in the lot.

Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’ is a great, cross-generational inclusion. Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ is also a fantastic get, as is ‘Anxiety’ by Doechii (even if this particular track is entering its ‘go away’ era), and ‘Feather’ by Sabrina Carpenter.

As always, there’s also a neat mix of classic tracks in there too, so that even if you’re not on the pulse of popular taste (and I’m certainly not), there’ll be something you recognise, or at least, something with a good beat to keep you going.

Perhaps the best inclusion in this lot is an unlikely one – ‘Born To Be Alive’ by Patrick Hernandez. This track is one of the reasons I think so highly of Just Dance 2026 Edition, and why I consider it one of the best modern Just Dance iterations. You can see a snippet of this particular track below:

Just Dance 2026 Edition – ‘Born To Be Alive’ Highlight

In amongst your standard Just Dance 2026 Edition tracks, which feature the iconic Just Dancers in all their glory, ‘Born To Be Alive (Reborn Version)’ is a complete stop-motion-style animated short story, where you play a cool cartoon goth girlie performing an infectious dance.

When I first started this track, I assumed the lovely animated style would fall away to a more traditional Just Dance setup. Instead, the animation is the gameplay, and you’re following the movements of the main character as she performs various arm-shaking dances. All the while, you get a neat little story featuring vampires, ghosts, and ghouls, all of which add flavour to the beat.

That’s not to mention how accessible this dance is. It’s clearly designed with a younger audience in mind – there’s some flossing in there, as well as some seeming references to Wednesday – but it has just the right amount of challenge for most players. You’ll spend time skipping, grooving, and arm-dropping to the shoulder-bouncing beat, fighting for your five-star accolade with every last breath in your lungs.

It’s a brilliant track, and a solid workout.

It’s also not the only ultra-cool animated dance in Just Dance 2026 Edition. Accompanying ‘Born To Be Alive’ is ‘Bluey Medley‘ which remixes the theme tune of iconic Aussie kid’s cartoon Bluey into a bobby, easy-to-follow dance for all ages.

Just Dance 2026 Edition – ‘Bluey Medley’

This track is simple but adorable, with animation inspired directly by the Bluey TV show, allowing you to enter the world of the cartoon, and see some of its most iconic sites. The dance map takes you from Bluey’s house all across Brisbane, with recognisable scenes from the Brisbane CBD and nearby South Bank included.

We can always do with more Australian representation in video games, and while unexpected, it’s delightful to see it in this game.

The creative spirit is alive and well here

Both the Bluey track, and ‘Born To Be Alive’ are pure examples of the creativity found in Just Dance 2026 Edition. While there are plenty of cool, standard tracks featuring iconic returning and new Just Dancers – Lady Gaga’s creepy ‘Abracadabra’ pals are a highlight – there’s also plenty of wild new tracks that stretch what this franchise can be.

After nearly two decades of annual releases, Just Dance exists in a particular box. You know what to expect – with each new arrival, you get a handful of new tracks, and with Just Dance Unlimited, you can keep the party going (until they remove your favourite tracks due to licensing issues, which is always a bummer). This latest iteration feels more ambitious than most, making it a pure joy, as well as a perfect entry point for newer players.

Whether you’re keen on the game to improve your fitness (and it certainly helps there), or you’re just looking for an excuse to groove along to a thumping beat, Just Dance 2026 Edition will serve you very well. After all, we can always do with more excuses to groove.

_{A Nintendo Switch 2 code for Just Dance 2026 Edition was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.}

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