We Created Holiday Fun with Just Dance 4 #cleverJD4

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps

Nothing marks the holidays more than family and friends getting together to celebrate special occasions.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are optimal times to get that family moving especially after indulging in all that holiday cheer and especially calories!  From foods enriched in calories and fat, an after dinner fun time is a sure way to work off some of those calories.  If you are going to get your body moving, why not with some music, family and friends to some grooving tunes with Just Dance 4?

Ubisoft has Just Dance 4 on Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U and Playstation 3.  We tried out our family friendly competition on our Wii console this time.  The songs were appealing to the adults and there were other features that appealed to different family members such as the ability to choose which dancer you want to be in Just Dance mode and for those super competitive family members, choose sweat mode and see who can go the distance.  What I liked post the get together is I can make this a workout since it tracks calories burned while listening to some great jams like Pink's So What.  My girls and I have fun and of course, they strive to beat me as they have that competitive edge.  I like that they are getting a workout without realizing it.

Some of the other nice features of Just Dance 4 include:

• Six rounds of dance challenges to get the group moving and groovin' 
• Each person has their own time to shine with individual choreographs and moves for each member of the dance crew
• 40 all new songs from Billboard hits to what us more seasoned folks might remember as dance classics and the best of the best
• For those striving to get a work out, sweat mode IS the theme for you as you will sweat!
• and much more!

This is definitely the fun game year around and a hit if you are looking to get in shape with great tunes, constant moves and a way to learn some new dance moves!  My family loves it!

Check out my other giveaways here.

Just Dance Summer Party Review for the Wii

 My kids love the Just Dance series and they love their Wii.  They love the collection of Just Dance games because of the songs and the sheer fun of dancing.  I'm delighted that they like it because it gets them moving and having fun.  The Just Dance Summer Party is packed full of summer fun tunes that includes songs from Katy Perry who they love!  They were dancing and grooving while working up a sweat.    This Summer Party version has over 20 tunes that are from the 80's, 90's and current and although you might think a child would grumble over the 80's and 90's music, they are the catchy dance tunes and some are from movies they are used to like Kung Foo Panda.

One of the features they liked was being able to dance together and when one doesn't want to play, they can dance solo.  They are both competitive so they really enjoy the dance offs to see who will score the highest.  This video shows them cranking it up to Katy Perry's Firework.  After this one, my eight year old said, "Oh, I had enough, I'm sweating!"

In this video, they were dancing and just giggled over the alien who dances with them.  You can hear how giddy my youngest is on the video.  

Track List

• A Band of Bees - "Chicken Payback"
• Blur - "Song 2"
• Carl Douglas - "Kung fu fighting" (Dave Ruffy / Mark Wallis remix)
• Estelle feat Kanye West - "American Boy"
• Katy Perry - "Firework"
• M/A/R/R/S - "Pump Up The Volume"
• Panic At The Disco - "Nine in the afternoon"
• Rihanna - "Pon De Replay"
• Steppenwolf - "Born To Be Wild"
• The Supremes - "You Can’t Hurry Love"
• V V Brown - "Crying Blood"
• Countdown Dee's Hit Explosion - "Barbie Girl"
• Love Letter - "Why oh why"
• Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen - "Professeur Pumplestickle"
• Studio Allstars - "Maniac"
• Sweat Invaders - "Skin-to-Skin"
• The Hit Crew - "Here Comes The Hotstepper"
• The Lemon Cubes - "Mambo NO. 5" (A Little Bit Of Monica)
• The Lemon Cubes - "Moving On Up"
• The Reverend Horatio Duncan & Amos Sweets - "Down By The Riverside"
• The World Cup Girls - "Futebol Crazy"
• Game Exclusive -- A R Rahman, Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger - "Jai Ho!" (You are my destiny)
• Game Exclusive -- Sweat Invaders - "Funkytown'"

 

It can have up to four player local support and with the dance battle, dance party or sweat option, there are more ways to engage the family and have fun while getting a workout!  Overall, they just love the Just Dance Summer Party and I think it's now their favorite one.  My youngest said, "this is cool, Mom!"  She really has had a great time playing it.  We received it on Thursday and she's played it each day.  If you like to dance or your kids like to dance, this is ideal to purchase especially if you are looking for some fun family time, want to get the kids moving or to exercise.  I love it as well.


You can purchase Just Dance Summer Party by clicking on the title.









Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this UbiChamps blog post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

New Wii Super Mario Brothers With $10 Video Games Credit & New Releases

Order New Super Mario Bros. Wii and get $10 off a future video game purchase. The promotion code will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account up to two (2) business days after your product ships. To redeem your reward, add a Video Games item sold and shipped by Amazon.com to your shopping cart and proceed to checkout. The discount will be visible after you have begun the checkout process. Offer valid when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. This offer will be extended to all existing pre-orders. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time. Offer valid for one purchase per customer.

Some of the other new games just released or soon to be released include:

Tony Hawk: Ride Skateboard Bundle and for the avid skateboarders, this looks cool.  I can't imagin a skateboarder would not love this gave.  It's a little hefty but the skateboard itself raised the price I would think.

EA Sports Active:  More Worksouts - I have yet to try this game out but would love to.  I heard it's great.

This is the other one that I've been interested in hearing the reviews as it's different and has that funny, crazy Jenny McCarthy as the teacher and a camera to ensure you are exercising correctly.  This won't be released until November 24.

Product Features:

• Personalized to You - Your unique plan is based on the results of your fitness test, combined with your personal fitness goals. This plan will mix the right level of intensity with exercises focused on achieving your goal.
• You’ll Always Do the Exercises Correctly - The camera projects your image onto the TV screen so you can see yourself exercising next to Jenny.
• Exercise Controller-Free - The camera sees you, so it works without requiring any additional hardware (such as Wiimotes, nunchucks, and balance boards), leaving your hands free to focus on the exercises.
• Exercise That’s Fun and Motivational - not only is Jenny your in-game workout buddy, but you can choose from 6 background colors, 100 motivating animations, and more than 75 music tracks.
• More Exercises Than Any Other Game - Your Shape includes close to 500 exercises – which means that your routine is always focused on meeting your goals.

New Wii Games & Trading In Old Games

Guitar Hero 5 was released last week and if you find that it's a fun family game like we do, you probably are interested in buying it.  Amazon has listed that if you buy the whole package, there is a new "improved" guitar but you can buy the stand alone verison too.  It's only getting a a three out of five stars from 10 reviewers.
Here is what one reviewer wrote:

Pros:



1. Party Mode is a blast, you enter into it.. no failing, just jamming.. Songs come to you randomly and people can jump in and out as they please, any set up you want.. 4 singers, sure.. 3 guitarists and a drummer.. fine. The thing I maybe like best about it though, is if no one is playing at all.. it still cranks the music over your surround sound.. very nice touch.

2. The set list is great, very diverse and very fun. Importing your downloads from World tour is a bonus, downloading songs off of World Tours disk(and Smash Hits to come later) is even better. Some of my early favorite tracks or artists: Judith, Deadbolt, American Girl, Band of Horses, Children of Bodom, What I got, Spirit of the Radio and King Crimson.. plus many many more.

3. The career mode is better, yet a lot more simple.. no longer are you trying to collect money, there is a challenge for each and every song.. Hit 300 kicks on Blue Orchid, 250 snares on They Say, these types of challenges made me want to play these songs, even though they were easier drum songs.. and it was fun to achieve the challenge.. I even played guitar and bass, to get complete some of the challenges, which is something I haven't done for awhile now.. as I had become all about the drums, until now.

4. The little things, the change of the drum set up(if you're like me, and use the Rock Band 2 drums, you'll know what I mean) The cymbals are mapped to what they are supposed to be now.. and that adds a lot of fun to the drums.. The menus are easy to navigate through, everything seems very seamless, which is very welcome if you've ever played World Tour. Picking and sticking with your own band is also very cool in quickplay.. unlike Rock Band 2 where your characters always change at random(unless you're in the tour) here you can select your band.. and they stay.. very cool small touch.

5. Many more, but I'll just end this by saying.. for the first time in a long time, I didn't want to go right back to Rock Band 2.. which means this game certainly is worth a pick up. Even by those that are Rock Band 2(only) enthusiasts.

Cons:

1. I noticed this quickly.. its not as easy to pick the song you want to select as it should be.. yes, there is a sort function, and a lot of nice ones(drum intensity, or guitar, vocalist or bass intensity. Along with the normal genre and by band sort) but the problem is.. you have to hold down yellow to quickly get down the page, and it just doesn't work.. there is no way to look at each genre and select from there, so that was a disappointment.. Also, say you are trying to test yourself.. so you play Demons on drums.. you pass it.. you want to try the next one in line.. well, you start all the way back at the top again, and have to go through all of the songs(145 on my game with all the imports), so that's a little discouraging. Not a deal breaker, but.. a small pain.


2. The avatar integration is a little silly.. they just don't blend on screen.. sore thumb is an understatement(unless you have your whole band as avatars, then I guess it could be cool) .



Here are some of the other new releases:

New Wii Releases




I had no idea that Amazon offers trade in's for your old games. You don't get much but it's better than them just sitting around to the point where you can't even sell them for $1.00 at a garage sale.

My daughter's favorites are the Sports games which is nice since it does require her to expend a little energy!