ABBA: You Can Dance

ABBA: You Can Dance is a dance rhythm game for the Wii, developed by Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Bucharest and published by the French gaming company Ubisoft. It was released on November 15, 2011, in North America, November 24, 2011 in Australia and November 25, 2011, in Europe. The game is a spin-off of the Just Dance series, and features 26 songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA and includes a "Karaoke Mode" which allows 2 players to sing via USB microphones.
The development team was reportedly excited to work on an ABBA game, putting in effort to ensure that they accurately represented ABBA by examining a variety of ABBA content. For original content, they also tried to be original while also in keeping with ABBA. The game received mixed reception, holding a 66 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Gameplay
The game is based on Ubisoft's concept franchise, Just Dance and uses very similar style of play to the Wii version of Michael Jackson: The Experience. It includes one main game mode, where players have to follow the moves of a member of the Swedish pop group ABBA or non-ABBA character. It also includes a "Mini Musical Mode" which is a story mode that has six songs in the same story. The game also includes a "Karaoke Mode" which allows 2 players to sing along to the lyrics via USB microphones.
Track listing
The game features 26 songs, all by the Swedish pop group ABBA.
Development
ABBA: You Can Dance was developed by Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft Bucharest, studios of Ubisoft that worked on the Just Dance series. The decision to make a dancing game based on ABBA was, according to the development team, due to ABBA and Just Dance being about "uniting people through their varied styles of music." They stated that they were excited to work on an ABBA game when given the opportunity. The team chose the band's most popular songs, such as "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen", and "Take a Chance on Me", but also wanted to reflect the variety of moods and aesthetics ABBA songs represent. To design the dance scenes, they hired professional choreographers, who worked with their level designers. Certain songs, such as ballads and slower songs, were harder to choreograph for. They came up with "unexpected yet strong and playful dance styles." The team reviewed various footage of ABBA performances, including music videos, anecdotes, backstage photos, live footage, and TV shows. The backgrounds were also designed with the intend to convey certain elements from ABBA's work. Some costumes were taken from ABBA music videos, while others were original, meant to get as close to the spirit while still being original.
Reception
When discussing the forthcoming release of ABBA: You Can Dance, GamesRadar+ writer Andrew Hayward felt that the song selection was slim, though being relatively cheaper than typical Wii games helped. Metacritic lists the game with an aggregate score of 66 out of 100. The Guardian writer Sarah Ditum found the idea of ABBA being used as the basis for a video game to be a good one, appreciating that the choreography was appropriate for the music. However, she felt that the game was somewhat limited and that it stops being engaging relatively quickly, though she appreciated that it was cheap. Cubed3 writer Adam Riley was more positive about the game, feeling it would be enjoyed by fans of dancing games and ABBA alike. Wired writer Dak felt that this would be a game that would get family members "dancing to the classic tunes of ABBA." PC Mag writer Jeffrey L. Wilson included it in his list of the top 10 Wii games of 2011, exclaiming his enjoyment for the modes of play in the game. The combined sales of ABBA: You Can Dance and seven other Ubisoft dance games from November 20–26, 2011 totaled more than one million copies sold.
See also
SingStar ABBA
Just Dance 2014
Just Dance Now
Just Dance 2018
References
External links
2011 video games
ABBA
Band-centric video games
Dance video games
Just Dance (video game series)
Music video games
Video games based on musicians
Ubisoft games
LyN games
Video games developed in France
Video games developed in Romania
Wii games
Wii-only games