I figured I’d do this one real quick, because I mostly talked about one band last Friday, and figured I’d expand a bit. One thing I noticed that was missing from my previous Needlejuice articles was a quick mention of other albums I recommend for each band and/or artist I discuss. There’s a lot of artists signed onto the label, and though many of them have multiple albums on it, they also frequently have albums that aren’t on there.
I figured I’d give many of them a little bit of extra visibility by listing the albums I, personally, enjoyed the most and felt like adding to my own collection. Not every band discussed across these past articles is listed here; I already covered everything I’ve got from Nuclear Bubble Wrap, and some bands haven’t wowed me to the point of getting more. I might also discuss in a later article some albums listed below that are indeed available on the label, so this list is bound to be modified over time. The albums for each band/artist are listed chronologically.
So, to make this quick, and in the order that I’ve talked about them: The list!
I’m hard at work on the next articles, since I have huge plans for VGFlicks this time around. Plus, I didn’t get a mystery box of music last year, so I figured I’d just go through fewer albums this year.
I’ve done this intro each year since 2024 now: Needlejuice Records is an indie label from Nashville, Tennessee, that I greatly enjoy. I started off knowing just one band from their lineup, then expanded thanks to mystery boxes, and now I’m going as far as to try and at least hear everything their artists have put out. Some bands I’ve discovered this way are now big favorites of mine. Are you into indie rock? Maybe metal? Prog? Techno? Punk? Vaporwave/slushwave? Comedy music? Damn near every genre’s covered in some fashion. The label is very LGBTQ+-friendly, and has both a Bandcamp page and a website. (And a Discord server, too, accessible from Bandcamp.)
This time, I’ll do things differently by focusing on a specific band. This journey of mine began with one musical act: Nuclear Bubble Wrap (shortened NBW), whom I discovered around 2010. Crazy to think that’s been 15 years. Songs from the band were posted to a forum dedicated to “Weird Al” Yankovic by the band’s frontperson (and one of its singers), Jace McLain, which is how I first discovered them. McLain, one of the founders of Needlejuice Records, still puts out music both with this band and as a part of a few side-projects.
I did buy some physical albums from the label in 2024, including an anniversary box set of NBW’s fourth album, Exploding Head Syndrome (shortened EHS), packed with three additional CDs – so instead of bogging down a whole list of 10 albums with constant repetition, I figured I’d just dedicate an article to covering all four discs. Along with the other album of theirs I’ve got that I haven’t covered yet. And maybe throw in another album that felt like foreshadowing towards the existence of the label.
Once again, I rank from my favorite to the least favorite, starting with…
Psycho Delicacy
This was the first NBW, non-EP album to be made up entirely of original songs (zero parodies) that all have either a comedic or psychedelic edge. Sometimes both. At a sprawling 72 minutes and 21 songs, Psycho Delicacy, released on May 13th, 2014, is NBW’s longest official album, funded through Kickstarter. I backed it; along with the physical CD, my reward included a bonus disc containing demos from their next album, Multiverses, and other random songs.
One more entry in the Game Eulogies, this is turning into a yearly thing here. Okay, this one isn’t dead, but it might as well be.
Oh yeah - my copy defaults to French. Oh well!
Created by FOAM Entertainment and released on May 12th, 2016, Riff Racer is no longer available for purchase on Steam. Its concept, and the reason people loved it so much, was that it was like a more advanced version of Audiosurf. In both games, there are songs available from the get-go, and you could race on those for a high score, toggling difficulty to your liking. However, the big draw was that both games allowed you to upload your own music tracks, after which the game would procedurally create a stage based on your settings, with the song as basis and background.
I will give the game that; it looked really damn cool.
No no no!! I'm tailspinning! I'm going sideways! Ironically, none of this, not even falling off the track, is much of a step back.
Both games allowed; past tense. Audiosurf still does it, because it generates the game track client-side. Riff Racer used to do it server-side. As in, the server in FOAM Entertainment’s studios. Which means that, now that the game has been delisted and the servers shut down, well… you’re left with the inability to pick a track from your collection and turn it into a custom level. Unfortunately, that specific feature was the entire selling point FOAM Entertainment was counting on. Makes complete sense that they’d no longer sell the game, then – with that feature gone, what's the point. (A few games I’ve done Eulogies for should take notes and delist too. Damn things can still be bought even when they literally don’t work anymore.)
Excuse me while I stare at my collection of 3,000 songs that will never be used here...
And, if you've been reading this blog for a while, then you know that I’m a big fan of music in general, I listen to a lot of stuff. And for years I would amass music, because I wanted it of course, but there was frequently that tiny voice at the back of my mind, “hey, when the time rolls around to review Riff Racer, I’ll have all those songs to try out, it’s gonna make for fun gameplay recording sessions, right?” Well, I got around to it too late then, didn’t I.
Which isn’t to say that fans of the game haven’t found some way to make it work, creating their own servers and giving detailed instructions to let anyone connect their copy of Riff Racer to those custom servers. Which, for some reason, makes track generation possible again. Although I commend the effort and ingenuity, I don’t think I’d feel enough interest going through that just to play on some tracks. I just don’t have the attachment to this one that others may have had. And I was too late to cultivate such an attachment, too.
You have a couple of carsd to choose from, and you could earn in-game money to spend on... uh, stuff, I guess. Doesn't really matter much anymore, does it.
Yeah, there’s no way I’m gonna play 20 hours of that one. I doubt there’s much point in telling you to buy it, but yeah – if you own it and haven’t touched it, and have no plans of touching it, you’re not missing out. Go back to Audiosurf (1 or 2) instead.
Continuing today with the remainder of the albums from the mystery box.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live in London ‘19
The members of KGLW have released more bootlegs in 2024 than ever before (37!!), which makes their previous 14 bootleg-friendly live concert releases pale in comparison. The way the bootlegging program works is that the band openly offers the stems and files on their website, free to download, and any label can use them to create their own variant of any album made available, be it a live concert, a demos collection, Teenage Gizzard (which I discussed), or Polygondwanaland. The band’s one request is to be shipped copies of the created variant, to sell on their label p(doom) records’ own website.
Their most productive year for those, prior to 2024, was 2019. That year, the band’s albums were the boogie and blues-inspired Fishing for Fishies, and the intense thrash/doom metal of Infest The Rats’ Nest. Along came six live “official live bootlegs” recorded between July 12th and October 14th, three of which (Brussels, Adelaide and Paris) were released in January 2020 to amass money for a charity fighting the Australian Bushfires. The other three (Asheville, London and Milwaukee), released in late 2020 or in 2021, also prominently feature tracks from 2019's studio releases.
I heard them all. And despite being the only one I own out of those six, Live in London ’19, recorded at Alexandra Palace, might be my least favorite. I know live bootlegs aren’t the place for incredible sound quality (…or might not have been, but then again, compare this to the sound quality of their 2024 live output), but even here it doesn’t feel so great. Maybe it’s because I’m a lyrics guy and I like to understand the lyrics when I listen to music that has them, and it’s a bias.
Don’t get me wrong, this album has lots of fan favorites from King Gizz’s discography. The Mind Fuzz Suite (though it’s missing its finale!), Evil Death Roll, Rattlesnake and Float Along – Fill Your Lungs are examples. However, when compared to the other live bootleg albums from that year, London ’19 has little that makes it stand out. The longest track, Crumbling Castle, while still my favorite, doesn’t even reach 11 minutes. Very few songs here are given the jam treatment, so it feels like it just doesn’t have enough of what makes KGLW concerts interesting.
If it’s only your first or second time hearing a live performance from the band, it’s fine on its own. However, at the time, there were already plenty of live bootlegs with more adventurous setlists. Honestly, it’s only middling in comparison to the rest of their output; on its own, it’s pretty good and does feature the range of their sound from the time (let’s just say, they’ve expanded it a lot in 5 years).
Doing this again this year! Same concept as last year. I feel it’s just right to do this, as though I am doing my part to promote Needlejuice, a record label that has its big names, but also a lot of lesser-known artists that can benefit from the spotlight. Needlejuice Records, from Nashville, specializes in indie artists, providing physical versions of these artists’ albums (in vinyl, cassette and CD formats, and beyond). They have a Bandcamp, a website and a Discord server. From 2021 to 2023 ('24 was too busy a year for them to do it), they sold mystery boxes through which they pass their overstock, even adding extra goodies. Each mystery box I purchased contained three vinyl records, three cassettes and three CDs, with a bonus vinyl test pressing and an extra surprise.
In my previous article, I said I wasn’t sure why it took me a full year before ranking the albums from the first mystery box I purchased. I do have an answer; before making this list, I want to make sure I understand each album within the wider context of its creator’s discography. Which is a fancy way of saying that, like the madman I am, I shove every studio release from each artist into a single Spotify playlist and listen at random, getting a good feel of each artist’s stuff and giving me a new perspective on the album I received. I even plan to check which albums I enjoyed the most in that playlist, and will buy those too.
Why yes, my music collection is big, why do you ask?
I purchased a second box in late 2023 and received it in early January 2024. This has given me a year to hear these albums several times (some more than others) and do that deep discography dive. I threw into that playlist every studio album from these artists, and for good measure, I also included any new albums from artists I had already heard (from the previous list) and who had new stuff out.
Another 11 albums, once more ranked from favorite to least favorite. Remember that if I rank an artist lower, that doesn’t mean their stuff is bad – it can just be that it didn’t click with me. Maybe it will click with you. Oh, and the previous article was too long, so this time, I’m splitting it into two parts. Starting with…
Nick Lutsko – Swords
The sad clown says it all.
Nick Lutsko, from Chattanooga, Tenenssee, has been releasing music since 2012. He made a name for himself providing comedic songs for Netflix and CollegeHumor, including a longer stint making satirical tunes for entertainment company Super Deluxe. He has albums that are satirical, albums that are more comedy/horror (he has released a few songs every Halloween since 2021), and the occasional serious one, with today’s album being an example of the latter. He performs live with The $100K Band.
Keeping up with the news, even if to do funny stuff with it, means being constantly exposed to everything messed up about the world. Lutsko came out of a long period of writing satirical songs, I paraphrase his words, “disillusioned with the zeitgeist”. If there’s a group of people that’s painfully aware of the state of the world, it’s comics and comedians.
Swords is an odd beast; Lutsko hesitates to call it a concept album, though the signs are there. Each title is a single word starting with S (so… S-words?). Most songs are about a deeply troubling aspect of the world we live in. Starting with self-destructive willful ignorance (Sideshow) and xenophobia (Superior) and moving on to social media addiction (Straitjacket), hopelessness (Sometimes) and more. If the lyrics to Software, the closing track of the album’s original version, were too subtle, the video spells it out: It's about the general unwillingness to prevent school shootings from happening so damn often in the U.S.. Ouch. The songs are tied by recurring motifs and lines, and the instrumentation to many tracks incorporates circus-like music in some capacity. The result is indie alt-rock/progressive pop that sounds incredible from beginning to end.
Although this album has elements of his career up to now, it also stands as his most serious. The cassette I got included the tracks from “Seven Inch Swords”, a minidisc follow-up that includes Spineless, a song so good I keep thinking it’s part of the original Swords. It also includes two demos and two live versions. I think Swords is his best work so far, and I love it, even though he himself admits to it being “a bit of a bummer”.
If you want to hear more from him, Nick has the satirical Songs on the Computer duology; and he compiled his recent Halloween songs onto HAUNTED, released in 2024. He has also been working on a follow-up to Swords titled Ends, and I am HYPED for it. One single has already been released.
I wanted to do something very different, a surprise article for once, something that would allow me to showcase some stuff I enjoy. This is an article about music, not gaming – and it’s an easy one to do while I work on the reviews proper.
What’s "Needlejuice" in the title? It’s an independent record label that formed in September 2017 and operates from Nashville, Tennessee. It has both a website, a Discord server and a Bandcamp page, and features a lot of (but not exclusively) artists from the LGBTQ+ community. It favors indie bands and musicians and covers a very wide variety of tones and genres, from the comedic to the serious, from pop to rock, from psychedelic to prog passing by vaporwave. The label is dedicated to production of physical media: CDs, of course, but also cassettes, vinyl records and more. This short description doesn’t do them justice; I’ll simply close on saying they deserve to be more known. Maybe your new musical obsession is waiting for you somewhere in their large catalog.
My 2022 box also included a shirt!
Since 2021, the label has been offering mystery boxes on their site at the end of the year. The boxes include albums in three formats – the Tier 1 box had one CD, one cassette and one vinyl, Tier 2 had two of each, and Tier 3 had three of each, plus a vinyl test pressing and extra goodies. The first such box I purchased was in 2022. (Why did it take me till 2024 to write this? ...Hell if I know.) When making a mystery box, the label considers the buyer's purchase history, ruling out what they already own, and will include albums both old and new. The box I ordered in 2023 had stock fresh from the year as well as albums that date all the way back to 2008.
I figured I would help with their visibility in my own way, by listing down the albums I obtained in that first box from the one I enjoyed the most to the one I enjoyed the least. This is all subjective, and that I didn’t like a band or artist doesn’t mean they’re bad – merely that their stuff didn’t click with me or fit my personal preferences. Even with the ones I didn’t like, I’ll do my best to be positive. In summer of 2023, thanks to Spotify, I did a deeper dive into all these bands’ larger discographies, so my adoration for the bands may not match the position they’ve been given here - I’m ranking the albums themselves. I’ll also include an embed to my favorite track off each album.
If anyone from Needlejuice reads this and notices some facts that are incorrect, tell me and I'll correct them!
Starting with...
Nuclear Bubble Wrap – Problem Attic
I’ve been following Nuclear Bubble Wrap (whose frontman Jace McLain is also one of the founders of Needlejuice Records; shortened "NBW") since roughly 2010, when I discovered the band through a forum dedicated to "Weird Al" Yankovic. Back then, the band did both parodies and original comedy music, but evolved in the following years to ditch parodies and focus on a psychedelic sound, albeit retaining a comedic and often geeky edge. They appear a few times on this list.
Problem Attic (geddit?) has been described by McLain as the last album of a trilogy, and whereas their previous two albums discussed anxiety and depression, this one covers the sources of both in modern society for the younger generations. The first half is more comical in tone, with tracks about murderous AI, late-stage capitalism, and conspiracy nuts. Side B is where the facade breaks, with songs about sexist legislators, climate change, police brutality and the growing dread towards the future. The title track is a brutal takedown of the older generations who allowed, if not encouraged, things to get this bad for their personal benefit, their children be damned.
It is, as far as I can tell, their most socially charged album, and will probably remain such. It’s a bleak but sobering listen with biting satire and only a few alleviating moments, like a song about how the Mars rovers are awesome or another about T. Rexes being perfect creatures because they can’t jerk it. Yes, you’ve read that right.
Jace McLain and the second singer, Kyle Thorne, offer great performances. I cannot recommend this album enough, it’s a great display of their skill. I’m so hyped for their next full-length release.
Not your average music game, in that the music is more like garnish – but that’s okay if the idea is novel enough.
Squares! Ever-bigger squares!
Developed by Ste Curran and Twistplay, published by Chilled Mouse and released on July 19th, 2016, Chime Sharp is a game that’s like… er… no combination of existing titles does it justice. Let me try to explain it, as it’s a bit tricky to discuss even with screenshots on hand. In short, while the stage’s song plays, you set on a field of square a succession of pentominoes. (You know tetrominoes, the figures made of four squares, most famously used in Tetris? Same, but with five squares.) Each stage has its own set of pentominoes, and those available can differ from a stage to another. You have to place these pieces on the field and form "quads", squares with a minimum size of 3X3.
The pale blues are sections where a quad once stood. Meanwhile, two quads still exist on the grid.
A square or rectangle created this way will fill up with a timer bar, and while it isn’t full, you can keep adding pentominoes to any side of it to increase the size and score value of the area you’ve made. With each successful size increase, the in-piece timer resets. But wait! What about the music? Well, here’s the interesting part. Once a successfully-created area’s timer has run out, it will stay in place. Meanwhile, as the music plays, a beat moves left to right across the playing field and deletes the finalized squares and rectangles, leaving empty squares of a new color in their place instead. You thus have access anew to that space to create new squares. Any bits from pieces placed that weren’t part of a square will stay there, becoming roadblocks in your attempts at placing new pentominoes to make more points. The game keeps track of the percentage of squares on the playing field whose color has changed, with a base goal of 60% necessary in each stage in order to unlock the following game mode. The BPM of a song playing in one stage influences the speed at which the beat/wave moves through, and the playing field can also be different at times, with spaces in which you cannot fit any pieces.
Music's pretty fine, at least.
The end result involves a lot of spatial puzzling, a lot of quick thinking, and pretty good reaction speed as well. Everything is done with the mouse; left-click to place a tile, the wheel to spin it around. Can you grow a square big enough for a major score, and keep it big before it vanishes? Can you actually fill up 60% or more of the grid?
Other modes further play around with the concept, upping the difficulty. As an example, the Sharp mode, unlocked after getting 60% coverage in a song’s Standard version, has the “beat” going left to right instantly deleting the squares created, rather than giving them time to solidify. And so on; to unlock a stage’s Strike Mode, you need to get 60% coverage on Sharp Mode, and for Challenge Mode, 60% coverage in Strike Mode. As for new songs and stages, those unlock the more you play.
As you can see, I haven't unlocked all of the songs yet. Not sure I ever will, to be honest. I still feel like I gave the game fair dues, overall.
I always get a little leery when discussing games that I don’t think are bad per se, just not to my interest. It happens! Decent game, and though it’s disappointing that it didn’t grab my attention more, I can at least recognize the effort. Maybe I’m lacking a little too much in musical theory to actually notice how the music changes to the squares you add to the playing field. Good concept, pretty fine execution and a lot of modes for each of the 15 stages… But that’s about it. The game notably doesn’t come with options regarding sound and volume, and you can’t add your own tracks for a customizable experience. That said, it’s perfectly fine for what it is and accomplishes what it wants to do. By all means, if it intrigues you, do check it out.
I haven’t done one of those in a while. Three times in the past, I wrote reviews in December for Just Dance titles. I nurture a special attachment to the famous mimic-the-movements-on-screen franchise from Ubisoft (yes, them again). What convinced me to buy a Nintendo Wii, in 2012, was playing Just Dance 3 at my cousins’ place. As a result, that was one of the first games I ever purchased for the console… as well as one of the first games I reviewed on this blog, way back in 2013.
…Fuck me, I’ve been writing this blog for almost ten years. July 19th, 2023, will be the tenth anniversary.
I just love how colorful that franchise is.
Anyhow, following that original review of Just Dance 3 in 2013, I would go back to this franchise a few more times. In 2015, I covered both the 2014 and 2015 editions, and in 2017, I looked at the 2016 edition as well. And although my sessions have been sparse as of late, I try to play a bit of these games from time to time. I got today’s two games (yes, two in one article) because I have an aunt who had rediscovered the joys of the motion control-based Nintendo console, and wanted to play something else than just Wii Fit. My response, naturally, was this franchise. I bought these two games, and so did she.
There was something interesting to purchasing older editions of Just Dance, if only because I’ve become so accustomed to newer ones in comparison. Franchises always have to begin somewhere. They can end up looking very different as they evolve, but there’s a starting point. Hell, today’s two titles were separated by only two years and, yet, the changes were massive. Will this feel like a beloved trip down memory lane, or a look back we could have done without? Let’s see.
After going through the three games that were the genesis of Rayman, it’s almost weird to skip forward to what is, so far, his last game. Ubisoft’s higher-ups have stated that their interest now lied in their copy-paste open-world franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry… y’know, the adult stuff. I sincerely hope that Rayman’s appearance in next year’s DLCs for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle sparks new interest in the character. In the meantime, we have this title, which I really hope wasn’t the swan song.
A Wii U and a PC are very different beasts when it comes to controls. There's one less screen, for one.
Rayman Legends was released on August 30th, 2013 in Europe and September 3rd in the United States for most versions (Windows, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360, Vita), with later releases for PS4 and Xbox One in 2014, and Nintendo Switch in 2017. Notably, the game was originally thought as a Wii U exclusive, but a fear following low sales of other recent titles by the studio made Ubisoft yet again overdose with ports for every console available, forcing some Wii U-based gameplay mechanics to be adapted for other consoles. Thus, one critique of Rayman Legends when compared to its predecessor Origins is that gameplay has barely changed, with only the Wii U-based mechanics being proper new stuff. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, shall we?
(I was supposed to post this one last Friday... Oops.)
An adventure always has to start somewhere. At the parents' place, as an example.
Early in the life of this blog, I talked about the webcomic Brawl in the Family. After that webcomic ended, its creator, Matthew Taranto, went into game design. He provided art for some indie games such as Nefarious… and also made his own game, full of the wholesomeness, adorableness, comedy, wit, and most importantly, music we’ve come to love from his work.
Developed by BitFinity, published by it and Sunken Treasure Games, and released on September 2nd, 2016, Tadpole Treble is the story of Baton, a tadpole that literally just hatched from her egg. Just as she was making her first wiggles in this watery world, she’s gobbled up by a large bird. She fights to free herself and is dropped at the top of the island’s mountain. This poor baby must find her way home!
These trouts are so big compared to the poor little Baton!
A level paying tribute to the 8bit days? Okay, I love this game already.
The gameplay is very musical – Baton moves on the water stream like the lines of a musical staff. Notes come in from the right as black, spiky things that the tadpole must avoid by moving up and down. She has a base attack, used by hitting the Right key or the Space bar. And as Baton progresses through the level without getting hurt, a meter raises, and when it’s full, you can hold down the attack button to turn Baton invincible for a moment, which also allows her to destroy black notes. Now, make it to the end of each level without losing all of our tadpole protagonist’s HP.
This island is HUGE! But so gorgeous!
Taranto included a handful of songs where he sings. They're very much welcome.
The secondary goal is to collect the 100 Bubbles in every level, some of which require utmost timing and precision. Along the way, several actions Baton can do will give her points, and your score at the end of a level grants you a letter grade, all the way up to S. She can use her attack on bamboo poles, on cymbals that appear, and also use it on a few other instances. Last but not least, each level has a Challenge Fly that can be gathered by accomplishing something in that level – what must be done? The goal differs in each level. The game gives some clues. The fan-made guides will help more.
Singing along may be tempting, but focus on guiding Baton through.
The main game only has 12 levels, but every single one of them is memorable. In design, in music, in challenge as well. My favorite level is Thunder Creek – awesome song, awesome concept for the level, awesome design all around. This is the type of game that isn’t that difficult to beat – getting to the end is doable in two hours at most. But completing it? Gathering all 1200 Bubbles, finding all the flies, completing every bonus mode? Git gud. Upon completion of the Story Mode, an extra mode opens, titled Concerto, in which you must try to finish all the levels in a single run, with only one life bar.
The game also includes: A Composition mode allowing you to create your own songs, your own levels, with a few fanmade examples available in the game’s Steam Workshop; multiple extras that can be unlocked by reaching a certain threshold of Bubbles brought to Etude, the giant bullfrog requesting them; and plenty of secrets, Easter Eggs, and references to famous video games. All of which is to be expected from this game’s creator, really.
If a battle was to happen between Etude the giant bullfrog and a bear, I would have to think long before placing a bet.
I'd better brush up on my vomposition skills.
I loved, loved playing this one. I had some idea of what to expect – it’s a tadpole moving on a staff, avoiding obstacles to the music. But beyond expectations, playing it is a whole other thing. It’s definitely a game to try out. You’ll be wowed, you’ll be surprised, and you’ll most likely find yourself looking up the songs online to hear them again. It’s cheerful, it’s gorgeous, and it’s a treat to play, get it, get it now, and play it. If you like music and rhythm games, you’re going to love it.
I discussed some levels that I disliked, now it’s time
to end this overall look at the Just Dance franchise with a final list of
levels that I personally enjoy. Mind you, there are few of those from JD2015
because they were all covered on my previous lists. This will contain mostly
levels from JD2016, and a few from JD2014. I had a decent list of levels I
wanted to include here, but for the sake of keeping it to a single list, I’ve
kept it to 12.
Before the list proper, a few honorable mentions:
JD2014: Maria (Ricky Martin), Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A
Man after Midnight (ABBA)
JD2015: Tetris (Dancing Bros.)
JD2016: Balkan Blast Remix (Angry Birds), Born This
Way (Lady Gaga)
Well, no time to waste, let’s jump into this right
away!
Dammit, I don't want to like One Direction!
But... that music... it's... so decent... I am... impressed!
Ack! No, that's how they assimilate you!
I honestly have no idea how One Direction found their
way once again into my Top list. Sure, they’re at the bottom, but they reach
the list! No Control is on the first page of Just Dance 2016, so it’s one of
the first titles a player sees. And it’s a fantastic dance crew level. It’s not
too difficult for someone who just started playing the franchise, and it’s also
a great moment to present the dances with multiple choreographies that slightly
differ for each participant. I have a blast every time I play this level, I
almost cheer when it passes by in the World Dance Floor. That’s the mark of a
great stage. Definitely ranks up there with the better content we can access
through Just Dance.
A song to dance to with your father, or your son.
Or with your father and your son, if you're three
generations enjoying video games.
I wanted to avoid DLC content for this list, because
it’s unfair to include levels you would have to pay for. However, I covered all
good levels for JD2015 on my previous lists and I couldn’t exclude this one.
Papaoutai is that French song that has been a surprise hit all over the world
(and it’s great to play to a French song for once). It’s so catchy, we almost
forget that it’s about Stromae growing up without a father because said father
died in the 1994 Rwandan genocide! Think about THAT the next time you tap your
foot to this ditty! The choreography is great, featuring a father and his son,
often doing movements one at a time as though the two were separated. That
doesn’t stop them from getting together at the center of the screen, son at the
front, father at the back, for an awesome moment where they complete each
other’s moves. It’s just a great choreography and I think it’s the favorite DLC
I ever bought from the series.
There are just too many great moments in this level.
A singele image doesn't do it justice.
Any fans of comic books? You’ll be delighted by this
level. It starts with comic books spread on a table, then the dancer leaps out
from the cover in the center for the choreography. That’s actually a pretty
cool costume too, reminding me of famous hero costumes like Wonder Woman and Miss
Marvel, among others. The choreography itself is enjoyable, with the dancer
swinging her arms in circles, punching upwards… The developers went a step further with the backgrounds, throwing in various references to comic book styles.
The written onomatopoeia shows up at various places, explosion pass by through
the screen, the camera often moves back ever so slightly to reveal the sides of
the panel. The best might be when pages zoom in on the backgrounds and we see
panels drawn in the styles of famous comic book artists like Jack Kirby. I have
a total geek-out on this level! No wonder I love it!
That is not the Lion King I grew up with, but it's a Lion
King I could get used to. Besides, who doesn't love catchy
songs about tragic tales of loss and murder?
Once again, a song that is surprisingly dark for how
catchy it is. “Dancing savannah animals” isn’t exactly what comes to your mind
for a song about a tragic murder in a club. Still, as with any item on this
list, Just Dance delivers with a level that looks great, plays great, and is
overall just loads of fun. No, I didn’t pick it just because it’s got a lion,
although I’m biased towards always picking that dancer whenever I play the
song. What else can I say, the lion looks cool with those Lennon specs. If lions aren’t your go-to wild animal, we also have a hippo, a lemur
and a giraffe. I chuckle at the thought of the motion capture session for this
particular song. Gotta love how colorful everything is, yet again, even if I
could say that for 95% of all friggin’ Just Dance levels. I also love the conga
parts in this choreography, it’s a nice touch, especially since the song’s
genre lends itself to that.
Just in case you needed a reminder of the sheer EPIC of the visuals
in this one.
I don’t know half the names on this song. I did
discuss it in my proper review of Just Dance 2016, though, and spoiler alert,
another song I discussed there will show up later on this same list. Hey Mama
is one of those levels that is fun when you just play it, but fantastic once
you realize all the work that went into it. You mimic the moves of a dancer
dressed like a flight attendant, I think, and two guys in the background.
Replicated to infinity. I don’t think you comprehend the concept of infinity
until you see the same thing repeated to what seems like an infinite number of
times. The camera moves back from the dancers to reveal the two guys behind the
flight attendant, in the middle of a hangar. Oh, and just to hammer in the
endless repetition of these guys, at one point the main crew is on a moving
platform, passing by more floors crowded with these guys. Holy macaroni. If you’re
dancing to the level, you might not even notice them, but thanks to YouTube,
you can. It’s jaw-dropping.
I should probably add that a Just Dance level
featuring a few copies of the same dancer isn’t quite as impressive, unless you
turn it up to 11 as with Hey Mama did with its thousands of copies of the same
dancers. It’s more impressive if you use all different dancers showing up for
cameos, as seen with a dance higher on this list.
The original song by The 5th Dimention was very groovy, but also five minutes long, so the game instead relies on
this cover by The Sunlight Shakers, which is shorter. I dunno why, I love this
sort of music, even if it’s as far from metal as can be. The cover is still
really good, and keeps all that’s really necessary for a Just Dance version of
the original track. I might have been a hippie in a past life, because I love
this song and the designs around it. The characters are two women in hippie
garb, and the choreography sees great chemistry between them. Hugs and
hand-holding are a part of it, too, and you all know how much I loathed whole
“Hold My Hand” routines in previous Just Dance titles; here, it’s manageable
since it’s temporary and doesn’t cause problems. Gotta love the visuals that
change drastically between Aquarius and Let The Sunshine In, going from watery
blues to vibrant warm colors, sun in the background and flowers sprouting
around. It’s a damn good level for a damn good cover of a damn good song.
Classical music in a game? Why, yes! And it works! As
a matter of fact, it also becomes a shout-out to the physical comedy of silent
films. Two jockeys dance on a race track, behaving as though they were riding
horses. Items come towards then like hurdles to jump on, while the background,
like a green screen, plays a recording that makes the race track feel so much
longer. That’s when you realize that everything is a prop, and the dancers are
actually on a stage. We’ve been played! This one is fun, not very difficult,
and all-around very enjoyable. The comical elements are well present, and I can
attest, everyone I’ve played this song with have had a great time. It’s also
the first time my mother scored 5 stars on a song on her first try, something
that would not ever be achieved again. Yes, sometimes my parents play too. This
is an inclusive game!
This is not your system crashing!
It's bound to surprise you at first, too.
The 2016 edition had a lot of odd tracks, including
the Balkan Blast (AKA the Angry Birds theme song), Chiwawa, the William Tell
Overture, an Irish Meadow Dance, and then this one. The Ievan Polkka is a cheery,
funny song, and it’s sung by Hatsune Miku, which I’ve never really been
listening to. The voice does seem to add to the hilarious, though. To think she
dances on the screen while holding a leek… yeah, this is basically Meme: The
Just Dance Level. (And that’s before JD2018 came out with “Beep Beep I’m A Sheep”!) The background is pretty basic, a series of screens forming a complete
picture and sometimes showing different images. Best part might be when the
track seems to glitch along with the character who freezes on the screen in
different poses, before resuming as if nothing happened. Do not adjust your
system, it’s fine. I love the silly tracks in the series, it’s a nice change of
pace from the ones given to modern pop songs.
One of them looks like some metal band drummer, and I like that.
AKA the only “seated dance” that doesn’t suck. This
one shows the two dancers in a close-up, only torso and up. It’s probably one
of the least exhausting dances in Just Dance history, though. The concept is
simple. These two guys are in a car, a really good some comes up, they dance in
the car. Just the arms and head. Making faces along with the music. It’s the
first time we get such a close-up of these porcelain white characters, and it’s
actually pretty cool – if you don’t mind the slight uncanny valley of these
bodies of utter whiteness, especially when they’re mouthing to the lyrics, and
all that’s in their white mouths is just more white. Seriously though, the guy
on the right is the better of the two. This level is just amazing – not that
the original choreography for Teacher isn’t good, mind you, I just largely
prefer this one. And while it’s a great level, never ever imitate these two
during a car ride, because the driver lets his hands off the wheel far too
long.
Why do I suddenly want to go watch Deadpool again?
With George Michael’s untimely passing in Christmas 2016, early
this year I was interested in revisiting the duet choreography for this song.
Yes, the track that sounds unbearably romantic, yet is about guilt from
cheating on one’s spouse. Of course, as a result of the misleading music, the
choreography for the song is very romantic. Even if it shouldn’t be. A man and
a woman on a lascivious dance, requiring great chemistry between both partners
(making this kinda awkward if played by two people with no romantic interest…).
I’ve criticized other Just Dance levels for this, but here, it truly works. And
while it makes things a little tricky if playing alone, it’s still enjoyable.
You will just feel silly hugging yourself, is all. The level as a whole
breathes that romantic vibe, even if it’s not supposed to be. Really, one of the strengths of Just Dance is when you see levels that combine the mood of the track with dancers that embody that mood and a fitting animated background. It's difficult to get all the parts right, but here, that was definitely achieved. Also DAYUM, that saxophone.
Remember: As soon as you start listening to this song, a saxophonist lurks
in the shadows near you, playing along to the track. That's why the
saxophone always sounds so real when you listen to this song.
Saxophonists are great players, but also creeps.
I talked about it at length In my review, and it’s one
of the shining examples, along with Hey Mama, of the improvements made in the
newer game. The sole dancer switches between a few different models, one which
wears clothes like Bruno Mars’ in the official video for the song. Yet, despite
the model changing frequently, the choreography seams flawlessly. On top of
that, the character is moved around a giant colorful city, with plenty of
monuments visible. Oh, and just in case that wasn’t enough, the character is
joined by multiple dancers from levels in previous Just Dance games in the
background. It’s not two guys
repeated thousands of times, but it’s impressive regardless. It ties the entire
Just Dance universe together, in a weird way. And it’s all over this song,
which is a treat no matter how often you listen to it, even three years after
its release. Would there be a better way to celebrate the series? Probably, but
this is as close as we get.
Just Dance Town. Population: Innumerable.
And we hope you like it as much as they do.
This level has it all: Great song, great choreography, great
backgrounds, it plays super-well, it's just the right level
of difficulty... and it's HOT.
Sometimes, all it takes is a simple song with a simple
level, along with cool graphics. No matter how many improvements the franchise
has seen with time, a fun dance is a fun dance, and nothing trumps that. This
is one of the unexpected entries on the list, even passing by some of the most
beloved levels in the series to steal the #1 spot. “Follow The Leader” is a
one-dancer choreography assisted by multiple dancers in the background, all of
which move in rhythm with the main one. I also love the juxtaposition of cold
and hot, represented by the factory at the back. Cooler colors in some scenes
featuring giant gears, and larger hot scenes with floating particles, lava thrown
upwards, even more gears, and a whole crew of back-up dancers in the dark.
Damn, is it me or it’s getting hot in here? The changing colors on the dancer’s
clothes wasn’t anything new by that point, but it meshes so well with the
backgrounds. The choreography is great, not too easy, not too hard, and very
enjoyable every time I play it. Truly a fantastic example of what can be
achieved with this franchise.
I don't get it. We're close to winter in Quebec, there's snow on the ground,
we are below zero Celsius, and I am sweating!
This is too hot. I'm hyperventilating!
Well, I guess that’s truly all I had to say about Just
Dance. Closing the book on that franchise now. It was a fun time, wasn’t it?
Some cussing, some praising, a lot of music. Really, you should give the
franchise a try, if you haven’t. And if you already love it, more power to you;
keep enjoying it. I know I love it.
Next week… Hm… I really should do another Steam Pack.
