|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Dance Dance Revolution Extreme
|
Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME is the eighth game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released in arcades by Konami on December 25, 2002. Although only officially released in Japan, units exist worldwide. It features 240 songs, 14 of which are hidden and unlockable. 59 were new to DDR, and 23 were never seen before in any other Bemani game. It was speculated to be the final arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution, but with the announcement of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA, that has proven not to be the case.
For a comprehensive list of the songs available in this game, please refer to the Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME song list.
The interface used is a recoloring and smoothing of the song wheel interface first introduced in DDR 5thMIX. The names of the difficulty modes are "Light," Standard," and "Heavy," [楽 (raku), 踊 (gyou), and 激 (geki), respectively] just as they were in DDRMAX and DDRMAX2. A "Beginner" [習] mode, color-coded light blue, is now available. First seen in Dance Dance Revolution USA as "Simple", it is easier than Light mode. "Challenge" [鬼 (oni)] steps, color-coded dark blue and first seen in DDRMAX2, are also available for some songs, but it is not selectable before the game starts. By pressing the two arrow buttons on the machine simultaneously, one can change the sorting method of the songs from the default order (new songs, then returning songs, then unlocked songs) to a sorting by origin in the Bemani games (new to this version), an alphabetical order, a sorting by song speed in BPM, and a sorting by popularity.
The general premise of DDR EXTREME is the same as the previous Dance Dance Revolution games. One player can play using one dance pad (Single play style), Two players can play using one dance pad each (Versus play style), or One player can play using both dance pads (Double play style).
A player must step to the beat, matching the beat to the arrows presented to them on screen by stepping on arrows on a metal-and-plexiglass dance stage. Depending on the timing of each step, the step is scored "PERFECT," "GREAT," "GOOD," "BOO" or "MISS." A health bar is on the screen, and starts half-way at the beginning of the routine. PERFECT and GREAT steps increase the health bar until it is full. BOO and MISS steps diminish it. GOOD steps have no effect either way. If a player accumulates too many BOOs or MISSes in rapid succession, and the health bar fully diminishes, then they fail the song and the game ends.
Freeze Arrows, introduced in DDRMAX, have returned. Instead of just stepping on the arrow, you have to hold it for as long as the green arrow line remains on the screen. If you hit the arrow and keep it held, you score an "OK," which is worth six dance points. If you do not succeed, it scores an "NG," with is worth nothing when your dance points and grade are calculated. OKs help build up the health bar, and NGs diminish it. You get additional base score points for successfully holding a freeze arrow.
A player may play anywhere from three to seven songs (not including extra stages), depending on how many the arcade owner sets the machine to play each game. At the end of each song, the player sees their accumulated points and how many of each kind of step they stepped. They also get a letter grade, ranging from E (only seen in two player modes when one player fails but the other passes) to AAA (all steps PERFECT), solely determined by the kind of steps they make. At the end of the game, they get a cumulative score based on the last three songs they played plus Extra Stages, if obtained (see below for more information on Extra Stages).
There are two systems for scoring each song: the long-score system, used to determine rankings, and an independent dance point system, used to determine the grade.
The long-score system is the same as in DDRMAX2. The maximum score for a song is the foot-rating for that routine multiplied by 10 million. The highest number of points possible for a single song is 100 million points (for a 10-foot song).
The dance-point system uses individual step values to determine the grade. It goes by the following formula: A 'perfect' step adds two points, a 'great' step adds one point, a 'good' step is worth nothing, a 'boo' step takes away four points, and a 'miss' step takes away eight points. An 'O.K.' freeze adds six points, and an 'N.G.' freeze is worth nothing. The dance points are also tied to the life bar. As always, if a player take too many bad steps and depletes the life bar, they will fail, and the game will end immediately. In two-player games, if one player fails, they can continue dancing, but it ceases to accumulate dance points for the failed player, accumulates score points at only 10 points per Perfect and 5 points per Great, and automatically gives the failed player an 'E' for the song.
If the first song is in Beginner or Light mode, then the game will allow a player to fail that song and continue, but will fail the player out if they fail a second song. In Beginner mode, it will fail only at the end of a song. In Light mode, it will fail as soon as the life bar is depleted.
The grade is dependent on the number of dance points you accumulate: 100% dance points is 'AAA', at least 93% is 'AA', at least 80% is 'A', at least 65% is 'B', at least 45% is 'C' and anything below 45% is a 'D'. If you manage to get a net dance-point total of zero without depleting the life bar and, thus, failing, then you get an 'E'. The final grade for the entire game is an average of the grades from the last three songs and not derived from the actual dance points scored.
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
| What is DDR?(DDR = Dance Dance Revolution) DDR is a game where you use your feet. The DDR controller is a Dance mat that you lay on the ground, it has four arrows on it (UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT) that correspond with the four arrows at the top of your game screen. Arrows scroll from the bottom of the screen to the top four arrows. When the the scrolling arrows reach the top arrows you must hit the corresponding arrow on the DDR controller (arrows are usually called "steps"). This may sound simple, but its not. There are hundreds of patterns the arrows take. This makes DDR challenging, unique, and lots of fun.
Song selection: 8/10DDR Extreme has a massive 70 songs. But many of them are remixes, or have been in DDR Max & DDR Max 2 (also for the PS2). There aren't enough difficult songs to keep expert DDR players happy for very long, but beginners will love the huge song selection. There are a few "radio songs" in this DDR, such as "Y.M.C.A" "Never Ending Story" "We Are Kids In America" and a few others.
Graphics: 8/10The arrows are very smooth and never freeze up. Some of the back ground videos are blurry, but most of the videos are clear. The new way you select songs isn't very good, instead of the "wheel" that was used to pick songs in the arcade DDR Extreme there now is a "sideways wheel". The new wheel looks like something from DDR Konamix (an older DDR). But even though the new way you pick songs isn't too good, DDR Extreme has good graphics.
Sound: 10/10Well of course DDR Extreme has good sound, it's a dance game! The sound is clear, crisp, and the songs sound great. there aren't too many annoying songs either. Most of the songs are catchy and fit well with the steps.
Entertainment: 10/10DDR Extreme is "extremely" entertaining. Most of the songs on easy are simple enough for beginners to enjoy, yet on the harder difficulties the songs are challenging enough for expert DDR players to have fun. Plus, DDR Extreme makes a great party game. DDR Extreme is one of the funnest games out there.
Replay Value: 9/10Beginners will be playing this game for years. However, there aren't enough very hard songs to keep the DDR Pro's playing for too long. Since the song list is so huge it will take a while just to play each song once, and if your new to DDR it will take months, even years to master everything. So if you've never played DDR before you'll be pulling this game out for years to come. If you are a DDR Pro you'll be playing for a few months.
Overview: 9/10DDR Extreme is a let down for hard core DDR players, there aren't enough ultra hard songs, and far too few songs from the arcade DDR Extreme. There are however, more than enough songs to keep almost any DDR player happy for a long time. Plus, beginners won't have too hard of a time picking up playing skills because of the large amount of beginner friendly songs. The new "party mode" is a let down, most of the games in party mode are boring, annoying, and most of all, not very fun. The new "hands and feet mode" is simple to get used to, yet fun enough to keep you entertained for a while, but unfortunately, it's not as fun as the normal game mode. So with all this said my final conclusion is: even with the lack of hard songs, I still give DDR Extreme a nine out of ten.
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Collections: |
0 |
Wishlist: |
0 (Add)
|
|
Views: |
915 |
Cheats: |
2 (View)
|
Videos: |
0 |
Images: |
16 (View)
|
Files: |
0 |
FAQ's: |
0 |
Articles: |
0 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
3.8
User Rating
5 votes
|
NR
Our Score No Rating
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|