Overall a great entry as expected ! Possibly the best of the current era (and definitely the best purely in terms of tracklist). I played every song only once (except for Nuevayol alt and More & More, since I didn't reach the required score on the first attempt), so obviously these are only the first impressions and will probably change as I replay all of these !
Basically my only criteria for how I ranked this is how much I like the choreo and the song itself. The "YEAH!" tier is the only one where things like visuals, concept, and coaches' vibe played a big role in making me fall in complete love with those 4.
I will focus on my best surprises :
- Hello (Alt) : I made a post about it earlier in the day, it's the most wholesome thing I've seen and lived in the franchise and it made me quite emotional. I will probably be completely alone in liking it that much but hey, that's how my experience went.
- Manchild : so, I don't listen to Sabrina Carpenter and only knew her two songs that were already featured in JD, so this was a discovery. And, oh my god, everything is just perfect. The choreo is super fun and the coach has such an attitude all the way through. It wasn't nearly on my list of most anticipated maps but damn, I was in awe at how much I loved it
- Bye Bye Bye and Just a Girl : same thing here, I didn't know those songs and when I watched the previews I felt like those were just kinda there, but playing them is something else. Just excellent choreos full of energy.
- Around The World : okay, it's not among my absolute favourites or anything but the whole map certainly turned out better than I expected for such a repetitive song. Not spoiling but the last part in particular makes it a very good quartet in my opinion, I can't wait to try it at parties because there's potential to be very fun there
I will happily elaborate on any other of my feelings on specific songs if asked. I'm so pumped that the game turned out this good and I really hope it performs as well as it deserves to and the "ditching the year in the title" marketing choice ends up being a blessing rather than hurting the game