DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX
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- This article is about the Japanese version of the game. For the North American version, see DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution.
| DDRMAX2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Designer(s) | Konami |
| Release date(s) | 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Music |
| Mode(s) | Single, Versus, Double |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Input | Dance Pad Controller |
DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX is the seventh game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released in the arcades by Konami on April 17, 2002. Although only officially released in Japan, units exist worldwide. DDRMAX2 contains a total of 116 songs that are playable in normal gameplay, 34 of which are new to Dance Dance Revolution. 20 of these songs are hidden and unlockable.
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," as they were in DDRMAX. The difficulties also still have their Japanese names: 楽 (raku), 踊 (you), and 激 (geki), respectively. By pressing the two arrow buttons on the machine simultaneously, one can change the sorting method from the default (new songs first, then songs introduced in previous mixes, then unlocked songs) to an alphabetical sort, a sort based on song speed, and a sort by popularity (a measure of how often each song is played on the machine).
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[edit] Gameplay
The general premise of DDRMAX2 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-acrylic glass 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. After stepping on a freeze arrow, one must plant his foot there until the green "tail" of the arrow disappears. Successfully holding ones foot on the arrow for the duration of the freeze wins six dance points; failure to do so results in an "NG," which is worth nothing when dance points and grade are calculated. OK's help build up the health bar, and NG's diminish it. You get extra 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 (a failure grade only seen in Light mode on the 1st Stage, or in versus mode if one player fails and the other player 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 (read on about the Extra Stages).
There are two scoring systems: the long-score system used to determine rankings, and an independent dance point system used to determine the grade.
The long-score system has been completely revamped from the last game. Bonus points have been eliminated, and 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 raw 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 'OK' freeze adds six points, and an 'NG' 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. If the first song is in Light mode, then the game will allow a player to fail that song and continue, but will fail the player out of the game if they fail a second song. 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 step, and automatically gives the failed player an 'E' for the song.
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, 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.
[edit] FMV Backgrounds
The arrows scroll over clips of full motion video. The screen refreshes at a full speed of 60 frames per second.
[edit] Groove Radar
The Groove Radar is a graphical representation of the difficulty of a song based in five different areas. The five areas are as follows:
- Stream is the overall density of the steps in the song.
- Voltage is the measure of the peak density of the steps (the highest density of arrows that ever appear on the screen at once).
- Air represents the amount of jump steps within the song. When jump steps appear, two arrows are present, requiring you to jump in order to hit them both successfully.
- Freeze represents the number of freezes (requiring the player to hold a note after it has been pressed initially) in the song (not the length of the freezes).
- Chaos tells the player the number of steps in the song that don't occur on quarter or eighth notes.
The Groove Radar displays up to two graphs, one for each player, depending on the difficulty they select.
The foot-rating system of measuring song difficulty, missing from DDRMAX, returns in DDRMAX2 and co-exists with the groove radar system introduced in DDRMAX. Due to the advent of harder songs such as MAX 300, the foot-rating system, originally a scale of eight and raised to nine in DDR 3rdMIX, has been raised to a scale of ten. Because naming of the foot ratings ceased after DDR 3rdMIX, there is no special name for a 10-foot song. All returning songs from DDRMAX were assigned foot ratings. As of September 2006, the only 6th Mix songs that have no foot ratings are "FOLLOW ME" and "FLASH IN THE NIGHT", because both songs have yet to appear on a different mix.
[edit] Modifiers
Modifiers are changes that can be made to modify the step routine. A menu is available to make these modifications easily. This menu can be accessed by holding the Green select button when you choose your song.
Some of the available modifiers include:
- Speed mods change the speed at which the arrows scroll on the screen. You can increase it to multipliers of x1.5, x2, x3, x5 or x8. The default is "x1."
- Boost, when turned on, causes the arrows to accelerate as they near the step zone. The default is "Off."
- Appearance mods change how the arrows appear on the screen. The default is "Visible." "Hidden" makes the arrow fade out halfway up the screen. "Sudden" makes the arrow fade in halfway up the screen. "Stealth" means the arrows are not visible at all.
- Turn mods affect the pattern of the arrows themselves. The default is "Off." "Left" turns all the arrows 90 degrees left. "Right" turns all the arrows 90 degrees right. "Mirror" flips the step pattern so that all left and right arrows swap, and all up and down arrows swap. "Shuffle" creates a random swap of the arrows, and can vary from turn to turn.
- Other mods affect the difficulty of the step routine. The default is "Off." "Little" eliminates all steps that are more frequent than standard 1/4 steps. "Flat" makes all the arrows appear the same, regardless of their step fraction. "Solo" changes the colors of the arrows to the colors used in DDR Solo 2000. "Dark", a new modifier in DDRMAX2, removes the "step zone," forcing the player to rely solely on the beat to determine when to step.
- Scroll mods affect the direction in which arrows scroll. The default is "Normal." "Reverse" makes the arrows scroll from top to bottom instead of bottom to top. The health bar is also moved to the bottom.
- Freeze can turn the Freeze Arrows on or off. The default is "On."
- Step is the last chance to change the difficulty of the song. The default is whichever difficulty you selected before choosing the song.
[edit] Extra stages
The Extra Stages are back from DDRMAX. Another Extra Stage is renamed One More Extra Stage.
If, on the final stage, you get a grade of AA or better on any Heavy step routine, the game gives the message "Try Extra Stage." The Song Wheel is locked on a song called MAXX UNLIMITED and cannot be changed. You are forced to play its extremely difficult Heavy steps, rated 10 feet, in a Reverse Scroll modifier and a x1.5 Speed modifier, in Dark mode. On top of all that, Extra Stage is played in "Pressure" mode, which means the health bar starts full and does not regenerate if it depletes with missed steps.
If a dancer scores a grade of AA or better on the Extra Stage, then they are forced to play "One More Extra Stage." This time, the Song Wheel is locked on 革命 (KAKUMEI). The player is forced to play its Oni steps in a Reverse Scroll modifier and a x3 Speed modifier, on Dark Mode. One More Extra Stage is played in Sudden Death mode, which means that just one Good, Boo, Miss, or NG instantly fails the stage.
[edit] Nonstop Challenge, also known as Oni Mode
The Nonstop Challenge, also referred to as Oni Mode, is a feature new to DDRMAX2. It was officially renamed Challenge Mode in DDR EXTREME to avoid confusion with Nonstop Mode. It can be selected when you select difficulty before choosing your first song. You have to complete a set course of anywhere from five to ten songs, with set difficulties and, in some cases, set modifiers. You cannot pick your own modifiers in Oni Mode; in particular, you must play all songs at default speed. The life bar is replaced with a battery, and you have four "lives". Any GOOD, BOO, MISS or NG costs you one life, and the game ends if you lose all four. A preset number of lives (anywhere from 0 to 3) can be recovered at the end of each song.
In Challenge mode, the dance point system is slightly modified (PERFECTs and OKs are worth 2 points and GREATs are worth 1, everything else is worth 0), and your score is displayed as a percentage of the maximum possible dance points. The courses Naoki Standard, Nearly = 130, and Paranoia Brothers are used for rankings. Players are ranked first by how long they lasted, and then, in case of a tie, by percentage score.
Oni mode courses in DDRMAX2 sometimes have special song remixes that have a special difficulty, referred to as the Challenge difficulty and color-coded navy blue. The fan name of the mode comes from the Japanese name for the difficulty, 鬼 (oni, Japanese for demon). There are nineteen of these songs, and they are not available in the regular game mode in the arcade version of DDRMAX2.
[edit] Link data
Some machines have the ports to insert PlayStation memory cards. Such memory cards have to be PlayStation 1 (not PS2) memory cards with Link Data from the home version of DDR 5th Mix (the home version of DDRMAX2 cannot create arcade-compatible Link Data). 5th Mix can create two different kinds of arcade link data; the Link Data file for DDRMAX2 is known as "New Version" Link Data and is backward-compatible with DDRMAX arcade machines as well. Link Data serves two primary purposes: Score-saving and Internet Ranking. The user can save his or her scores from arcade performances, and whenever the game is played in the future, the arcade game will load the scores for each user and show them on the song-selection screen to show the player's best performances. These scores can also be viewed at home with DDR 5th Mix. DDRMAX2 also provides Internet Ranking codes based on the user's performance in the Challenge Mode courses. As with all of Konami's Internet Ranking events, the webpage for the game would allow users to enter in a generated password which contains their initials and scores for that session, and the webpage would display the rankings for those who have submitted codes. Link Data saves these passwords so that they may be entered much more conveniently.
The arcade game can exchange custom stepchart data with DDRMAX2, as well as any earlier version that has songs that are in DDRMAX2, though this requires special steps to be taken in DDRMAX2 to write a PlayStation 1-formatted save file, which must then be copied to the PlayStation 1 memory card by the user.
[edit] Home versions
The home version of DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX was released in Japan on April 24th, 2003, for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console. It has 74 songs, including most of the new songs from the arcade version, eight new home-exclusive songs, and two songs that are a preview to the next arcade version, DDR EXTREME. All the Challenge-difficulty songs from the arcade version are available for play on the home version, most of them hidden and unlockable. There are a total of 32 hidden songs. Dancing characters are made available in the home version, taking advantage of the PS2's superior computing power over the arcade hardware. DDRMAX2's hidden songs can be unlocked automatically by accessing its save data in the home version of Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. In addition, DDRMAX2 can be used to unlock the hidden songs in DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX
DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution, with the mix number omitted, is the home version released in North America for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console. The North American version is considerably different from the Japanese version.
[edit] Music
Notable songs from this version include:
- MAXX UNLIMITED: The successor to "MAX 300", expanding upon its difficulty in many ways. It has the same number of steps (555), but the maximum possible combo has been increased to 600 with the inclusion of numerous jumps. The rhythms are more complex, and the gratuitous use of BPM changes and Freeze arrows are designed to throw the player off. The last third of the song plays at 320 BPM, becoming progressively harder as the song nears its end. MAXX UNLIMITED's Double steps follow its Single steps much closer than MAX 300's do. Many players actually find this song to be less tiring than MAX 300, despite being considered harder overall in other ways. This MAX song is more like a trance song than MAX 300 (which is more of a hardcore techno song).
- TSUGARU: One of the first songs to feature 1/32nd steps, TSUGARU is considered a classic 9-footer characterized by a long series of gallops that begins at about 1/4th of the way through the song.
- BURNING HEAT! (3 Option Mix): The entire song (and its Heavy steps) are composed of triplets (1/12th notes). The song itself is a remix of the Gradius II first stage music, and toward the end plays a few seconds of the video game's 8-bit music from the NES version of Gradius II. The song's Heavy steps are quite difficult, because aside from the high speed, there are many groupings of triplets, sometimes in awkward, unintuitive patterns that are difficult to perform because of an engine flaw that causes the game to incorrectly synchronize the timing of triplets.
- KAKUMEI: A remix of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude by dj TAKA with NAOKI. It is DDRMAX2's One More Extra Stage, and is also one of the only three songs in DDR to have a lower foot rating on Challenge than on Heavy.
- D2R: means DDR/Dance Dance Revolution. it is the prequel of the song Dance Dance Revolution in DDR EXTREME.
[edit] Soundtrack
The Original Soundtrack for DDRMAX2 was produced by Toshiba-EMI under their Dancemania dance music brand. It contains all 31 normally selectable new songs, all 18 Challenge remix songs, and one preview track from DDR EXTREME. It was released on May 29th, 2002.
[edit] External links
- Konami (US Home Page), makers of DDR.
- Konami (Japanese Home Page)
- Official DDRMAX2 website, from Konami. (In Japanese)
- Dancemania (In Japanese)
| Japan/Asia: | 1stMIX - 2ndMIX - 3rdMIX - 4thMIX - 5thMIX - MAX (6thMIX) - MAX2 (7thMIX) - EXTREME - Best Hits - Extra Mix - Party Col. - FESTIVAL - Mario Mix - STR!KE - SuperNOVA - Universe - Hottest Party - SuperNOVA 2 |
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| North America: | DDR - DDR USA - Konamix - MAX - MAX2 - ULTRAMIX - EXTREME - ULTRAMIX 2 - EXTREME 2 - ULTRAMIX 3 - Mario Mix - SuperNOVA - ULTRAMIX 4 - Universe - Hottest Party |
| Europe/Australia: | Dancing Stage EuroMIX - PARTY EDiTiON - Disney Mix - MegaMiX - Fever - Unleashed - Fusion - Unleashed 2 - Mario Mix - Max - Unleashed 3 |
| See also: | Dancing Stage - Disney versions - Game Boy versions - DDR Solo - List of DDR games |
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Notable Dance Dance Revolution songs
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| Songs: | MAX series - PARANOiA series |
| Artists: | BeForU - Takayuki Ishikawa - Naoki Maeda - Taku Sakakibara - List of Bemani musicians |
