Get Up and Dance Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

In the past 14 months we've had no fewer than 11 PlayStation Move dancing games, with Ubisoft's Just Dance 3 due to land in December. That swamped market — dancing games make up over 10% of Move's library — gives precious little room to breathe for each new arrival, so can Get Up and Dance make a name for itself?

By now you're probably getting the feeling that if you've seen one PlayStation Move dancing game you've seen them all, and Get Up and Dance does very little to break the mould: follow the on-screen dancer's moves to one of 40 licensed tracks, with icons showing what body part to move and where. There's a fitness mode, a practice mode and multiplayer game types — so far, so standard.

In fact, there's definitely something very familiar about the whole package: it lifts its gaudily silhouetted dancers straight from Ubisoft's mammoth franchise, to the extent Ubi even investigated legal proceedings against publisher O-Games, though nothing ever came of it. Of course, we're not suggesting this is the first game to take Just Dance as its template, but it sticks closer than most.

Get Up and Dance Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

Probably the game's biggest contribution to the genre is the co-operative story mode of sorts, where you and your friends take to the stage together, aiming to keep your approval rating high enough to avoid the talent show-style red crosses that see your career come to an end. It's good to see content added for groups considering the genre's obvious multiplayer appeal, with save files letting you pick up and come back later down the road.

Whether in a group or solo, the on-screen icons are a little cluttered. Arrows show what to move and where, with two tones used to indicate which movement comes first, but they're not as clear or as large as you'd like — with limbs everywhere, some resemble insects more than dance moves. You can just about get along by following the neon dancer, but it's a poor second choice.

Move recognition is decent, although as with most games you can shake to cheat if you really want to. Where's the fun in that, though?

Conclusion

Dance games on Move are rapidly approaching critical mass, and Get Up and Dance simply doesn't do enough to stand out from the crowd: whereas the genre gained its popularity by sharing the joy of dancing, Get Up and Dance never gets there, feeling more like it was borne from a desire to fit in rather than innovate. It's no disaster, but it's no disco diva either.