The dance style is a cross between futuristic and Egyptian. The routine is performed by a trio of a 3 women. During the chorus, the backup dancers turn males.
P1/P3
The backup dancers, P1 and P3, begin as female cat dancers similar to the music video. Their skin is reddish brown and they wear light blue tops and skirts with dark blue and gold highlights. Their hair is dark blue cut in a bob style having an ombre effect changing to light blue.
During the chorus, C1 turn into the male servants (but with blue skin) similar to the music video and are wearing necklaces and purple shorts and shoes. They appear as shirtless. During the bridge, they have neon color schemes with neon red and purple pants and black skin with red light shadings.
P2
P2 is a woman. She has blue hair with red highlights, an Egyptian crown colored in the shades of the outfit, a red like bra shaped top, a blue long skirt with no fabric on front and a big red design, tied with gold chains like a belt. As for footwear, she has gold bejeweled sandals with heels on. During the chorus, she is in a golden bodysuit bejeweled with decorations. During the bridge she has the same outfit as in the verses, but with a black skin and neon outlines.
P1
P2
P3
Background
The background seems to have come from the music video. There is a red carpet within a sand fortress and it takes place within a desert. During the chorus, pyramids appear with a color blue in the top and bottom of a pyramid in a dark sky in the background.
Gold Moves
Classic
There are 3 Gold Moves in the Classic routine, all of which are the same:
All Gold Moves: Cross your arms over your chest and then shake your head during the line. Gold Move 3 is the final move of the routine.
Gold Move 1
Gold Move 1 in-game
Gold Move 2
Gold Move 2 in-game
Gold Move 3
Gold Move 3 in-game
Mashup
There are 3 Gold Moves in the Mashup:
Gold Moves 1 and 2: Bend over and put both your hands behind you while semi-crouching. (She Wolf (Falling to Pieces)) Gold Move 3: Cross your arms over your chest, and then shake your head. (Dark Horse [P2])
Dark Horse is the first of three classic routines for a song by Katy Perry to not be a solo routine, it is followed by This Is How We Do and Swish Swish.
This is also her second routine to have a male dancer, after I Kissed a Girl (On-Stage Mode).
Dark Horse is the second trio routine in the series where the lead and backup dancers are recorded separately, after The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?).
Juicy J’s part was taken out from the version of the song used in the game.
However, he can be heard saying "Love tripping" before the bridge.
The line "We’re down to earth" is misinterpreted as "But down to earth".
In the picture of the full song list, Dark Horse was not listed.
The gameplay takes many elements from the music video.
The background resembles the one in the music video a lot.
The dancer is wearing an outfit similar to Katy Perry in the music video.
The beginning is just like the second verse of the music video.
The painting at the beginning and at the end of the routine is inspired on the one from the teaser of the official music video.
Some of the moves after the first chorus are taken from the official music video.
There is a total of eleven dancers in the Classic mode. However, only three are playable.
In the song selection menu, four backup dancers can be seen instead of the two playable ones. This is the first time non-playable clone backups are seen in the background of the song selection menu for a song with backups. It is followed by Hey Mama.
On the World Dance Floor, whenever this song is chosen for play without voting, the backup dancers are not selectable. Instead, the player will choose between two topics (like solo routines that were chosen without voting or VIP), and the player will be advised to follow P2.
In the Mashup, the coaches seem to have been enlarged.
In the Mashup, the unfinished pictogram for Iko Iko appears. This same pictogram also appears in The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)’s mashup.
Similar to It’s My Birthday (Just Dance VIP) and The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?) (Community Remix, Dark Horse (Community Remix) does not include pictograms. This is because it only counts scoring for the lead dancer.
In the Just Dance Now files for Dark Horse, there are four beta pictograms that use the default pictogram colors (green, red, and magenta).
In the Mashup of Fatima, the pictograms for P2 are pointed to a more orange color.
In the Mashups for Birthday and Fatima, P1 and P3 are removed and only P2 is dancing.
The pictogram for Gold Move 3 in the Mashup is a cropped version of the Gold Move 1 pictogram from the original routine, resulting in it having a red outline.
A cropped version of the Gold Move 1 pictogram was used instead of the Gold Move 3 pictogram because the pictogram color on the Gold Move 1 pictogram is most similar to gold.
P2 (C2 only) is the first dancer in the series to have golden skin. It is followed by the Extreme version of Scream & Shout and the alternate version of OMG.