NEW! This game is available now! Read my review of Dance on Broadway for Wii to see if it’s worth buying. Or, read the newest Just Dance 2 review.

One of the weird childhood memories I have is watching the sitcom “Gimme a Break” and watching an episode where the late, great Nell Carter strutting down Broadway while belting out “On Broadway”. At the end of her song, she looks around at the bright lights and declares, “my momma always told me I’d sing on Broadway”. Not a particularly funny line, but like I said, for some reason it stuck. Nowadays when I’m walking in the theater district, I sometimes do the same thing, to the chagrin of those walking with me. But here’s a game which will let me explore my inner Nell Carter, all from the privacy of my home.

As promised in my last post about the Just Dance Sequel by Ubisoft, here are some additional details. Still no official press release, but here’s what I could gather from around the Web.

• The release date for the US appears to be June 22, 2010. You can pre-order Dance on Broadway for Wii from Amazon here, and if the price goes down between now and June 22, you’ll get the lower price. After selling over 2 million units of Just Dance (and counting), I expect this to be a phenomenal hit for Ubisoft, so reserve yours early (I’m reserving mine).
• The cover art is pictured here. From the positions of the people on the box, it looks like it’ll probably work pretty much the same way as Just Dance. I expect it to be very much the same as the original: poor motion controls made up for by a ton of fun.
• It looks like they’ve got a fantastic toe-tapping array of songs. Kudos to the Ubisoft team for spending the money to get licensing for real songs and not relying on generic or public domain tracks. There will be 20 songs in total. So far, here are the confirmed ones:
  • Fame (Fame)
  • My Favorite Things (The Sound of Music)
  • Cabaret (Cabaret)
  • All That Jazz (All That Jazz)
  • Aquarius (Hair)
  • You Can’t Stop the Beat (Hairspray)
  • Time Warp (Rocky Horror Show)
  • Dreamgirls (Dreamgirls)
  • Roxie (Chicago)
  • Lullaby of Broadway (42nd Street)
  • Luck Be a Lady (Guys and Dolls)
• As with the original, you can challenge up to four friends.
• The promotional material says this version will include singing as well, but I’m guessing this just means that like the original version there’ll be on-page lyrics. But for aspiring Broadway stars, it’ll be a great way to see if you have what it takes for the stage!

• I’m curious as to why Ubisoft doesn’t call it “Just Dance 2” or “Just Dance: The Sequel” to capitalize on the runaway popularity of the original. But then again, Ubisoft marketing has not always been known to make the best choices with naming their products (case in point: the naming fiasco that was My Fitness Coach 2, a game I’ll be reviewing very shortly)

This should be a good one.

Jazz hands! 🙂