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This page explains in detail the interactions between the Just Dance series and the Mario series.

Just Dance Wii[]

20111013 October 13, 2011

In-universe link: Elements from Mario exist within Just Dance

Just Dance4Arrow L Mario

Just_Dance_3_Ubisoft_meets_Nintendo_-_Just_Mario

Just Dance 3 Ubisoft meets Nintendo - Just Mario

The "Just Mario" song.

One of the songs featured in the Japan-exclusive Just Dance Wii is a mix of music from Super Mario Bros. titled "Just Mario", while its artist is listed as "Ubisoft Meets Nintendo" and the on-screen dancer is Mario. This song was made available to the western players on December 14, 2011 for download to the Wii version of Just Dance 3.

The video for the song starts zooming into a TV screen with gameplay footage from Super Mario Bros., showing Mario stomping on the first Goomba of the game and taking the Super Mushroom found afterward. This scene actually features no music and starts with the game's title, then scrolling with the background as Mario starts running, like in the original game's demo, however, unlike the demo it features sound effects.

Mario then says his catchphrase "It's-a me, Mario!", and the song starts with the main theme from Super Mario Bros. As Mario dances in Just Dance's graphics, the background shows sprites of the NES game, also showing a Spiny, a Koopa Paratroopa, Lakitu's Clouds and a Lakitu passing by. At a certain point a brick block appears and, as part of the choreography, Mario smashes it by jumping, making a coin appear.

A Starman comes into the scene in its bouncing motion from the original game, and as Mario touches it, the music changes into the invincibility theme. As Mario dances to this music, he flashes of different colors, supposedly being invincible, just like in the game. A Warp Pipe then appears from the ground and Mario is seemingly sucked in.

Mario's then transported into an new enviroment, and as soon as he arrives he gets a Fire Flower that was lying on the floor, turning into Fire Mario as the Underground theme from Super Mario Bros. starts playing. Note that in the actual game Fire Flowers are never found on the ground, but only hidden in blocks. The background once again shows sprites from the game, but despite the music played and the way the area is accessed, these are actually from Castle levels, since there is lava with Podoboos coming out of it, while Mario is standing on the bridge where Bowser (or his False counterparts) is fought. At certain points a Goomba and a Koopa Troopa walk in so, as part of the choreography, Mario knocks them out by shooting fireballs. He's ultimately hit by a Buzzy Beetle, changing back into Super Mario and jumping back into the Warp Pipe. Note that in the actual game a hit would change him into Small Mario, while he changes from Fire Mario to Super Mario only in games from Super Mario Bros. 3 onwards.

The Super Mario Bros. theme then starts again but this time the background shows a end-level flag and fortress while there oddly also are eyed hills from Super Mario World. The triangular flag, as well as the flag on top of the fortress, have Just Dance's intials "JD" on them. While Mario dances a Green Toad shows up in the background and blinks, while a Koopa Paratroopa flies by and Bowser shows up on top of the fortress. Note that in the original game there only were Red Toads, so it was made green probably just to better blend with the background. At a certain point the "Hurry Up" jingle plays and the music speeds up just like when the timer is at 100 in the original game. In this section a brick block appears too, for Mario to break and get a coin. At the end a pipe once again appears from the ground sucking Mario in.

The video ends with gameplay footage of Mario jumping out of a pipe, grabbing the flagpole and winning the level, with the message "Thank You for playing!" appearing. Note that the Warp Pipe is here directly next to the flagpole, while in the actual game it always has block stairs leading to it. This scene features some minor inconstances with the dancing scenes: the top of the screen shows Mario having no coins, while he should have 2, his score is at 4900, while it should be at 3800 (100 for each of the 5 killed enemies, 1000 for each of the 3 power-up gotten, 50 for each of the 2 brick blocks, 100 for each of the 2 coins), and the time is at 289, while it should be at less than 100. Also Mario desn't get any point for grabbing the flagpole, but the time is accurately converted into points in the end (50 points for each time unit, making 14450 points, bringing the total up to 19350).

Note that one might prefer considering the dancer just an actor impersonating Mario rather than the actual character, because in the video Mario's face can clearly be seen as a mask, never changing its expression nor blinking or moving its eyes. We decided to consider him the actual Mario because no matter how Mario is portrayed, this is an actual, official portrayal of him. Also in the video he uses the original power-ups from the game and fights the actual enemies, so it's assumed he's supposed to be Mario in-game, not just a dancer. Another thing that would make this a Sub-universe link rather than an in-universe link is the start of the video, zooming into a tv screen, possibly meaning that the whole video is fictional within the game's universe. We decided to consider it actual and real because Mario appears in Just Dance's solarized graphics, having a totally white skin and wearing only his left glove, so he's portrayed as an actual Just Dance character.

License[]

While developed by Ubisoft, Just Dance Wii and Just Dance 3 were published by Nintendo, so they had the license to include Mario elements.

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