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The Lowdown
Pros: 105 songs to play, excellent music and variety, lots of gameplay
modes
Cons: Its still the same old DDR, missing some of the favorite songs from
the arcade rendition
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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While Dance Dance Revolution is slowly gaining popularity in America, DDR
has been out for quite sometime in Japan. Its been about six years since
the first DDR mix and the series hasn't changed much. The concept of the
game is simple. Directional arrows scroll up the screen, which represent
dance steps. You need to step down on the corresponding arrow when it
reaches on top of the screen. In writing it sounds simple, but this game
will test your eye-hand.. err.. eye-foot coordination. All of the songs
have cleverly designed dance patterns that include jumping, freeze
arrows and off-beat steps. It's a fun experience, once you get over the
initial embarrassment.
Before the arcade version was released Konami asked the Japanese audience to vote on what Beatmania (another popular rhythm game in Japan made by Konami) songs
they wanted to see on this mix. Some of the songs that were chosen are
V, air, Frozen Ray and A. Konami also included many DDR classics like
Brilliant 2U, La Senorita, Silent Hill and Dynamite Rave. All of the new
eight mix songs remain intact from the arcade version. So you'll be able
to play 1998, Speed over Beethoven, We are the Champions, bag, and
Graduation in the comfort of your own home. For the more advanced DDR
players this mix includes all of the Paranoia remixes, Trip Machine
remixes and Max songs. This version of DDR also features some totally
new songs. Some are taken from DDRMax2 US like Try 2 Love U and more
deep 2.1, but some are entirely new like A Stupid Barber, Scorching moon
and Max period. Unlike past Japanese PS2 releases there is more "new"
stuff.
Since this is a music game the quality of music is probably the most
important factor in the game. The songs for the most part are very good.
There is a house/eurobeat slant to the music, since eurobeat is popular
in Japan. Songs like Hyper Eurobeat and 1998 are very energetic and make
you want to get up and move. There are some slower Hip Hop and R&B songs
like Put Your Faith in Me and Try 2 Love U. For the first time some
Latin music is included. Gamelan de Couple (from Konami's Mamba
A-Go-Go series) and La Copa De La Vida (yes that Ricky Martin song) are
some examples. There are even sports classics like We Are the Champions
and We will Rock you. Compared to the other DDR mixes this mix boasts
high quality music that spans multiple genres. The only minor complaint
is this mix features the least amount of licensed music compared to the
other DDR mixes. The American DDRMax2 just got songs from popular
artists like Crystal Method, 4 Strings and Dirty Vegas while the
Japanese Extreme mix gets one song from Wildside.
This version features all of the classic DDR features and more. Diet mode,
Nonstop mode and Oni mode all return. Oni mode and Nonstop feature a new
challenge in this mix. There is the new "marvelous" step that requires
you to be on beat by 1/64th of a beat, which is a real challenge. If you
grow tired of the standard courses you can even make your own with the Nonstop
and Oni course editor. Edit mode returns too, so you can make your own steps
and trade them with other people. This game also has arcade support so
you can get additional steps by bringing your memory card to a DDR
Extreme machine. Konami chose to listen to their fans and bring back
dancing characters. Every single character ever created was added to the
game, in all of their incarnations. This means popular characters like
Rage and Emi have outfits from 3rd, 4th, and 5th mix. Unlocking the
characters is a bit of a pain. Each time you clear nonstop mode you
unlock two characters. So the process is a bit tedious, but well worth
it if you're a DDR fan. As a final special bonus, inside the options menu is an option that can
unlock all of the secrets from the Japanese versions of DDRMax and
DDRMax2.
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme plays like a homage to the entire series.
Everything from the old school characters to the classic songs makes DDR
fans reminisce. Still this game is DDR, and DDR hasn't made any real
improvements since DDRMax. Konami isn't going to win over too many new
consumers, but fans of DDR rest assured this is the best Playstation 2
DDR mix yet.
Import Friendly?
The Dance Dance Revolution series has always been one of the more import friendly games.
All of the menus are in English and the announcer speaks in English!
What more can you ask for?
US Bound?
Since DDRMax2 was just released in the US and this game isn't
announced don't expect it anytime soon. Also this game is likely to lose
many of the Japanese and Dancemania songs when it makes it over to this
side of the world.
Overall
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme is like all the other DDR games in the
series. If you're a fan of DDR you should get it, if you're not this mix
is a good place to start since it has such a wide selection of music.
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