STACK #219 January 2023

GAMING REVIEWS

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JUST DANCE 2023 EDITION

RHYTHM MULTIPLAYER

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This year’s model of Just Dance is here, and it marks the end of an era… and the beginning of a whole new one! Since the Wii days of 2009, we’ve had annual Just Dance releases with which to expand our choreographic repertoires. Now things are changing, as Just Dance takes on a

live service model. This is the last annual release, as from hereon in it’ll all be incremental, ongoing updates. This is good news for those who like to regularly take on new challenges, and challenges there are! While most years have seen little advancement other than song lists, there’s quite a substantial shift in presentation in Just Dance 2023 Edition . The first notable difference is the menu system, which appears to take several cues from video streaming services. The bigger visual difference, however, is in the look of the 40 new songs. Jump into a cover of The Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t

It Be Nice , for example, and you’ll be rewarded with a Claymation tale that’s quite beautiful to watch, let alone boogie along to. Other songs also offer varied backdrops, which, while retaining the classic gameplay of a flow of dance move icons to emulate, also veer into more interesting graphical territory. As for those 40 songs, they continue the tradition of sticking to mostly chart-friendly dance music, with everything from superb Swedish-produced mega-pop to recent K-pop sensations. A new addition that social JD players will welcome is online multiplayer. Now up to six friends can have their own little private dance party, even if they’re dotted all over the planet. After more than a dozen years, the Just Dance juggernaut is amping things up, and fans of the series are sure to find much to love as J ust Dance 2023 Edition ushers in its new era. AF

X, Y AND Z CONTROL Controlling the whole shebang on Switch is easy, as you can share the Joy-Con love about, but all formats support the newly updated Just Dance 2023 Controller smartphone app. Easily hooked into play, it works like previous controllers dating right back to Wiimote waggling did, just hold on and try to emulate the moves onscreen.

THE CALLISTO PROTOCOL

SURVIVAL HORROR MULTIPLAYER

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The Callisto Protocol feels like a continuation of a story that we’ve already started. It’s not entirely new, but it does build admirably on the success of things that have been done before. Exploring the maximum-security Black Iron prison on the planet Callisto really is a terrifying experience. Every corridor oozes fear, every

corner seethes with danger, and the constant tension only serves to heighten the increasingly frequent jump scare moments throughout the journey, which features heavy injections of monstrosities that sit

mind behind the original Dead Space . And while it’s very much copying the homework of the much-loved sci-fi horror survival series, The Callisto Protocol feels like a necessary and natural successor.

SHOOTING STARS There’s a deep cast of solid actors involved in The Callisto Protocol , headlined by Josh Duhamel, and superbly supported by Karen Fukuhara ( The Boys ), and Sam Witwer, the latter of whom brings his most menacing Star Wars presence to the table.

Combat-wise, the weight of stomping on enemy corpses feels big, and there’s an impressive array of customisable weaponry at your disposal. You have to vary your attack strategies to use every weapon at your disposal in order to take down some tanklike foes. There are some very nice next-gen gaming elements at play. The game looks great during most sequences, the space zombies are grotesquely detailed, and the face capture of the characters is impressive. Then there’s the horrifically accurate and immersive 3D audio, which we recommend playing through headphones for the best experience. The Callisto Protocol is blockbuster entertainment that’s immediately likeable. It arrives quickly, asks some horrific questions, and leaves you wading ankle deep through the viscera. DN

somewhere in the middle of H.R. Giger’s and George Romero’s collective nightmares.

This sense of atmospheric dread accompanies you wherever you go,

necessitating frequent breaks so that you can catch your breath. When you eventually decide to come up for air, you can feel physical tension dissipate in a wave. Comparisons to Dead Space are inevitable. If you weren’t already aware, The Callisto Protocol was developed by Glen Schofield, the

48 JANUARY 2023

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