What you can try before you pay
The free parts are real, and they are narrower than the store page implies.
The Just Dance Controller app is free, and both Ubisoft and console stores occasionally offer free trials or demo builds. The Ultimate Edition includes four single-use trial tokens and two permanently playable songs. The 35-track game, Adventure Mode and local multiplayer all require owning the game.
Before spending $39.99 on a game whose main input is a phone, it is reasonable to want to test the premise. Here is what is actually free and what is not.
Official Ubisoft store artwork.
Free, no strings
The Just Dance Controller app. Free on iOS and Android, published by Ubisoft. It cannot do anything without a game to connect to, but installing it ahead of time means one less step on the evening you actually play.
Store demos and trials, when they exist. Ubisoft and the console stores have historically run limited-time trials of Just Dance titles and the Just Dance+ catalogue. Availability changes without notice and is regional, so the honest answer is: check your console's store page for the game, which is where a trial would appear.
Free with a purchase, but limited
The Ultimate Edition includes four single-use trial tokens and two songs with unlimited play. The trial tokens let you sample songs you do not own, one play each; the two permanent songs stay in your library. It is a sampler, not a second disc, and it is the only way the editions differ in music at all. The editions guide has the full breakdown.
Free if you are subscribed
The Just Dance+ catalogue is not free, but it is not a full-price game purchase either, and if you already subscribe for another reason the marginal cost of playing Decades of Hits content through it is zero. What it is not is a way to try the shipped 35 tracks — those come with the game. The Just Dance+ page covers what the subscription does and does not include.
What is never free
- The 35-track song list. It is the game.
- Adventure Mode. Exclusive to this game and requires owning it.
- Six-player local multiplayer. Requires the game on every platform.
- The five alternate routines. Part of the base game.
There is no free tier of Decades of Hits itself and no ad-supported way to play it. Anyone offering a "free" copy of a console game is offering something else — usually a scam, occasionally a stolen account.
Deciding without playing
If a trial is not available, the cheapest honest test is to answer three questions about your household rather than about the game:
- Do you have a television the whole room can see, and about a square metre of floor per person? This genre fails on space more often than on taste.
- Does everyone have a phone they are willing to hold up for two minutes at a time? The controller is the phone; there is no alternative input.
- Is your Wi-Fi one network, or does it split devices? Pairing problems are the most common first-evening complaint and they are always a network problem. The phone controller guide is a five-minute read that prevents this.
Three yeses and the game does what you expect. If the answer to the second question is no, no edition of this game is going to work for your household regardless of price.
