Dancing Stage EuroMix

Dance Dance Revolution
PlayStation cover art
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Distributor(s)	Konami
Series	Dance Dance Revolution Bemani
Engine	DDR, DDR PlayStation
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation
Release date(s)	Arcade EU May 4, 1999 PlayStation EU June 1, 2001
Genre(s)	Music, Exercise
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Distribution	CD-ROM
Cabinet	Custom
Arcade system	Bemani System 573 Digital
CPU	R3000A 32 bit RISC processor
Sound	PlayStation SPU
Display	29" CRT (Raster, 256x224 & 740x480)

Dancing Stage EuroMIX is the 2nd release of the Dancing Stage series, the European version of Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games by Konami. The arcade version was released in 1999, followed by the Sony PlayStation version in 2001. An updated "Internet Ranking" version of the arcade machine was released later on, containing 6 new tracks (as advertised by a sticker on the game's name banner).

To date, Dancing Stage EuroMIX is one of only two European home versions of the Dancing Stage franchise to coincide with an arcade game, the 2nd one being Dancing Stage SuperNOVA.

Gameplay

The core gameplay of Euromix is the same as the previous Dancing Stage games. Euromix featured a brand new scoring system, instead of being heavily combo-based like the last two mixes, combos are of virtually no importance. The maximum score for each song is 10,000,000 (all Perfects). Perfects are worth twice as many points as Greats, and steps toward the end are worth progressively higher points than steps toward the beginning. In nonstop mode, a 2x, 3x and 4x multiplier apply to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th songs respectively, making a perfect nonstop worth 100,000,000 points.

Internet Ranking

Konami released an upgrade to the Dancing Stage EuroMIX arcade cabinet known as the "Internet Ranking" version, though the name is slightly ambiguous since the machine itself does not possess the ability to connect to the internet. An interesting feature of this machine is that it contained 6 more songs than the original arcade version, as advertised by a sticker on the arcade machine's marquee. The 6 additional songs were all production's by Konami's own music composers.

The Internet Ranking version of the game added an extra option to the song selection wheel which had similar functionality to the built-in nonstop mode, except the player must play a selection of songs which have already been chosen. The selection of songs on an Internet Ranking machine changes depending on the current month.

Upon completing an Internet Ranking nonstop course, the machine would display the player's final score along with a code consisting of numbers and letters, which could be submitted to Konami's website as part of a Europe-wide ranking chart. The overall highest ranking players were awarded prizes by Konami for their achievements.

Home version

The home version of this game contains a number of additional features that maybe were not plausible features for a game in an arcade environment. These include:

• Training mode - This mode allows the player to play through only certain sections of a song, with various options to change the speed at which the song plays, and how the on-screen arrows are displayed.
• Lesson mode - Not to be confused with Training mode, this mode features a number of simple lessons to assist new players in learning the correct technique to playing the game.
• Workout mode - With this mode selected the player can keep a count of how many calories they have burned while playing songs in Dancing Stage, which could encourage people to use the game as part as a fitness/keep-fit regime.
• Records - The home version of the game keeps track of the highest grades, scores and combos attained for each song and saves them to this screen.
• Options - This allows the player to customise the game play in a number of ways, such as the brightness of background videos and the volume level of sound effects during the game.
• Character select - In the arcade version of Dancing Stage EuroMIX characters are chosen randomly, but the ability to choose a character before playing the game can be enabled from the Options menu.

Similarities to equivalent Japanese versions

The game is based on the same interface as the Japanese game Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMix, except with a songlist that is a cut-down hybrid of Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix and Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMix's songlists, with the addition of 8 European-exclusive songs. Unlike Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMix, the home version of Dancing Stage EuroMIX does not feature "Edit Mode", a feature in which the player can create their own custom routines to songs featured in the game. This also means that the arcade version does not feature PlayStation-compatible memory card slots.

Unlockable content

One of the downsides of the home version of this game is that it has no unlockable features. For some video game players this dramatically reduced the lifespan of the game, since there is no incentive to play the game for long periods of time except for the player's possible desire to improve their own scores.

There is however the hidden feature of Double Mode, in which the user must perform a routine spanning both player's dance pads. This is selectable by holding the O or X buttons on the home version, or by holding down both yellow arrow buttons before pressing the green decide button after inserting a credit on the arcade version.

Music

The music in the different versions of these games come from three different sources. All versions of the game contain 8 specially licensed tracks from Universal Music Group. These songs are signified by having similar graphics in the song selection wheel and by displaying the Universal logo at the bottom of the screen.^[1]

In the arcade version of the game, there are also 10 tracks licensed from EMI Group plc, which previously appeared in Japanese versions of the game. All of these songs can be found on CDs belonging to Toshiba-EMI's (the Japanese division, a joint venture with Toshiba) compilation series Dancemania. Despite some of these licenses (most notably songs such as "Captain Jack (Grandale Mix)") being very popular with players of the arcade game, they did not appear in the home version of the game. It is likely that the songs were omitted from the home version of the game because they would have been too expensive to license for this format additionally.

The remainder of the songlists of each version consist of songs composed and produced by Konami's inhouse music composers - primarily Naoki Maeda and Yuuichi Asami though under the guise of several different pseudonyms.

References