The Music Games General Thread

[SSF2T Old User]

because why the fuck not...

Dance Dance Revolution:
Current Version - DDRA20+
Official Site (Japan Only) - https://p.eagate.573.jp/game/ddr/ddra20/p/top/index.html
DDRA20+ Info: https://remywiki.com/AC_DDR_A20_PLUS
Latest News: 6th COURSE TRIAL will begin on Feb 11th. Players that complete the course will unlock: 梅雪夜 / Qrispy Joybox feat. mao

StepMania/ProjectMoondance:
Stepmania/Outfox 5.3 Alpha 4.9.7 - https://projectmoon.dance/releases/5.3.0-alpha-4.9.7
Regular Stepmania Build (5.0.12) - https://www.stepmania.com/download/
beware's DDR Extreme - https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/thread?threadid=5076
Stepmania 3.9 (for older files not compatible with newer Stepmania versions) - https://sourceforge.net/projects/stepmania/files/stepmania/3.9/
User & Official DDR Simfiles (including BG videos from DDR Extreme onwards) - https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/simfiles.php
Japanese Simfiles (Foonmix, D3Mix, Pop*Candy, etc...) - https://mega.nz/#F!FWIxTRxA!z1MFr2B_QBLW4mZJngDZEw

Beatmania IIDX:
Current Version - BMIIDX 28 Bistrover
Official Site (Japan Only) - https://p.eagate.573.jp/game/2dx/28/top/index.html
BMIIDX 28 Bistrover Info - https://remywiki.com/AC_BISTROVER
Latest News - 15th WEEKLY RANKING song is: Romanticが止まらない / Remixed by BEMANI Sound Team "L.E.D."& IOSYS

Pop'n Music:
Current Version - pop'n music 解明リドルズ
Official Site (Japan Only) - https://p.eagate.573.jp/game/popn/riddles/index.html
pop'n music 解明リドルズ Info - https://remywiki.com/AC_pnm_Kaimei_riddles
Latest News - A new client will be available in the 解明！MN探偵社 event on Jan 28th.

Sound Voltex:
Current Version - SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR
Official Site (Japan Only) - https://p.eagate.573.jp/game/sdvx/vi/index.html
SOUND VOLTEX EXCEED GEAR Info - https://remywiki.com/AC_SDVX_EG
Latest News - Officially released on Feb 17th for Valkyrie model cabinets.

Groove Coaster:
Groove Coaster 2 on Android/iOS - https://groovecoaster.com/apps/en/
Groove Coaster (Steam Version) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/744060/Groove_Coaster/
Groove Coaster WAI WAI party on Nintendo Switch - https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/groove-coaster-wai-wai-party-switch/

 

[Larry Bundy Sr]

DanceDanceRevolution A20 PLUS​

Release Information​

• Release dates:
  • 20th anniversary model cabinets: July 1st, 2020
  • Other cabinets: July 6th, 2020

Releasing an arcade game smack dab in the middle of a fucking global pandemic is a chad move

SUMMER DANCE CAMP 2020​

The SUMMER DANCE CAMP 2020 event is a collaboration event between DanceDanceRevolution A20 PLUS and DANCERUSH STARDOM. From July 7th, 2020 to September 7th, 2020, stamps could be earned by playing either DanceDanceRevolution or DANCERUSH STARDOM. Three stamps are offered once per day, one for the game being played and two for the opposite game. By collecting a certain amount of stamps for a specific game, songs will be unlocked for the respective game.

GOLDEN LEAGUE PLUS​

GOLDEN LEAGUE PLUS started on July 30th, 2020, for 20th anniversary model cabinets only.

List of periods:

• 1st Period: July 30th to August 19th, 2020
• 2nd Period: August 27th to September 9th, 2020
• 3rd Period: September 24th to October 7th, 2020
• 4th Period: October 29th to November 11th, 2020
• 5th Period: November 26th to December 9th, 2020
• 6th Period: December 24th, 2020 to January 13th, 2021

Running timed events during a fucking global pandemic is a gigachad move

Like even Andamiro delayed the next Pump it Up and just extended updates and support for Pump it Up XX through 2021, lol. Konami just gives no fucks. Like, shit, weren't most Round 1s and Dave & Busters closed for most of 2020?

 

[SSF2T Old User]

Konami just gives no fucks. Like, shit, weren't most Round 1s and Dave & Busters closed for most of 2020?

Remember, Konami is evil now. All they are known for now is Pachinko machines and taking their franchises out to the shed to shoot them in the back of the head. I would totally believe they would try to get people to coof on each other while dancing.

 

[Larry Bundy Sr]

Remember, Konami is evil now. All they are known for now is Pachinko machines and taking their franchises out to the shed to shoot them in the back of the head. I would totally believe they would try to get people to coof on each other while dancing.

Not just evil, but dumb as a box of rocks. The release schedule for arcade DDR games has been insane since the very beginning.

For those out of the loop, Dance Dance Revolution was a pretty big deal in Japanese arcades for a few years. The thing is, arcade machines are very, very expensive, many costing well into five figures, especially for very large cabinets like DDR. Upgrade kits, too, cost a few thousand dollars, despite just coming with a disc, a security cartridge, and some extra art and a marquee to help advertise the game on the cabinet. I'm not sure how much they cost back in the early 2000s, but upgrades for similar games traditionally cost around the $2000 mark, and still do to this day.

See the cardboard signs on the sides of the cabinet? The thing on top, above the lit-up marquee? Those are EXTREMELY rare, and probably worth more than the cabinet itself today. Why? Well, they got thrown out, of course. They're not very durable due to just being cardboard, and they're tricky to ship. So finding a complete upgrade kit is practically unheard of.

The thing is, Konami released upgrades for DDR at a breakneck pace. https://remywiki.com/DDR_History lists out when each game and its revisions were relased, and you can see how you barely had time to settle in to one version before its sequel came along. September 26, 1998, you just got your brand new Dance Dance Revolution machine. Your customers are curious as to what this new thing is. It cost you over a million yen, but it was worth it. This is the big new game, this is the one that'll bring people flocking in from all over. TIme to rake in the profits- oh wait, it's November now, time to order the upgrade disc. After all, you gotta get it, it adds two more songs. WOooooooooooOOOoooooooooooo

no WAIT now it's January 1999 and DDR 2ndMIX is here! Better upgrade again! It adds a million songs including Kung Fu Fighting and Tubthumping which has Hulk Hogan in the background for some reason

then came a bunch of variants and updates, two of which within a week of each other: the ever-so autistically named "DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX with beatmania IIDX CLUB VERSiON", or as we call it, "Club version", which you could link up to a Beatmania cabinet and play in tandem, and also a version of 2ndMIX that allowed the player to bring in edits from the PlayStation version and save their scores to their memory card.

So, did you just spend an arm and a leg upgrading your machine yet again? Great! You've barely had it for a year and now it's time for DDR 3rdMIX!!!! With more songs than ever, including a song that's literally about premature ejaculation:

So, you know, fuckin' get on it. Or just hold off, until the following June, when 3rdMIX Plus gets released! It's 3rdMIX again but now it has a song that'll make any furry bust a big ol' nut:

3rd Plus was really unremarkable.

Did you just spend another small fortune updating your machine to 3rdMIX Plus? SUCKERRRRRRRRRRRR HAHAHAHAHAHA because only two months later, 4thMIX would roll around, this time with an obnoxious screen where you'd select your genre, and the game would present a subset of songs, with no way to access every song available all at once. That's alright, though, because just four months later, 4thMIX Plus would come along and fix everything.

And I mean everything, to the point where it's one of the quintessential mixes to have to this day. It had nearly every single song from the main series, and no genre select crap, so you could actually browse through every song in the game, now with well over a hundred. And by "main series", I mean, it didn't include songs from the Club versions, some from the Korean versions of 3rd, or specifically Strictly Business from 1st, for whatever reason. But, it was still a gigantic slew of songs available, and still often thought of as one of the best mixes.

By the way, we're at December 2000, now. If you bought your DDR machine the day it came out, you've only had it for a little over two years now, and if you bought every single upgrade you could in Japan, 4th Plus would be your 12th. Imagine buying an arcade machine that's as expensive as a car, only to spend as much or more on upgrades for the damn thing every time you turn around. Sure, it was immensely popular, but could you still pull a profit when you're shelling out a couple of grand every few months? You've gotta stay competitive with the other arcades, after all.

I didn't even mention True Kiss Destination or Dreams Come True, since those are band-centric games along the lines of The Beatles: Rock Band or Guitar Hero: Van Halen. It's kinda weird that they got full-fledged arcade releases, like, imagine being really into Rock Band, but the only way you can play it is at the arcade, so one day you go, all amped up to play your favorite tunes, and you get there and suddenly there's a new mix installed. It's Green Day: Rock Band, so you get to play nothing but Green Day all day. You'll be better off just biting your lip, closing your eyes, and taking yourself away to ParaParaParadise.



So THEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNN, just three months later, 5thMIX comes out. 5thMIX axes most of the back catalog from before 4thMIX, but it has a pretty solid selection itself. And, best of all, it finally increases the framerate to 60FPS. This makes a YUUUUGE difference in any game where timing is strict and important, making it the earliest mix that's palatable to most people who started with a later one.

That being said, all along, each version of DDR has used relatively the same hardware, all based off of the PlayStation 1. 5thMIX was also released on the PS1 as a home version, so... why did it take them this long for such a fundamental upgrade, when the PS1 could do 60fps DDR all along? Seriously, it makes all the difference in the world, and it's just perplexing that they released so many versions without smooth scrolling.

Seven months pass. No weird revisions or Plus versions this time around. Konami's really changing it up big this time. What's next? What could it be?

A very graphically appealing upgrade, now with full motion background videos, and the all-important SPEED MODS! Speed mods are the things where you make the arrows scroll faster, and as a result, they're more spread out, allowing for difficult songs with dense charts to be much, much easier to understand. Everyone uses them, and it's a feat to beat some songs without them.

But, also, Konami smashed that reset button and wiped out EVERY single song from previous mixes. DDR 4thMIX Plus had a grand total of 150 songs, while DDR 5thMIX had 122. DDRMAX had... just 42. That's it, a full 108 songs less than the version from two mixes ago.

And while the song list had some highlights, it did seem to weigh towards the more extreme side of saccharine bubblegum pop. And it had a song about internet porn, because of course it did:

Five months after that, guess what it's time for? Oh, you didn't like buying an upgrade that only had 42 songs? Shut the fuck up, and

DDRMAX2, Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX, a new mix with another nice selection of songs, probably the best one, and a number of older songs re-added after DDRMAX screwed the pooch. No revisions, no expansions, nine months until the next.

And then, on Christmas of 2002, Dance Dance Revolution Extreme was released. 240 songs total, a slew of new ones, and a whole lot of old ones. It was by far the best one, both in terms of quality and the best bang for your buck, and if you've played a DDR machine, it was almost certainly running DDR Extreme.

The point of this giant post was that there were just so many versions and revisions released in a tiny amount of time. 1stMIX came out in September of 1998, Extreme came out in December of 2002. Imagine a game that came out in 2017 that kept getting constant revisions once every few months, except you had to pay a fortune for each one, or get left behind by your competitors; especially with Japan being in an endless recession at the time. Jeez. Those kind of update models are commonplace with live service games today, but you never actually have to pay for those; they're updated frequently to keep the playerbase engaged. How well it actually worked for them, I don't know, but it really didn't dawn on me just how hostile and crazy their upgrade model was until I grew up.

I didn't plan on writing out an entire history of DDR but I did because , but considering how much Konami's acted up over recent years, it's clear to see that they've always acted unhinged, even in their glory days. DDR was concurrent with the earliest days of Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid, with the first two entries in those franchises, along with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, all coming out around that short period. They also had a ton of various other kinds of music games, including GuitarFreaks, the game that Guitar Hero ripped off (but Konami never sold in the west because they're insane). It's like, if Squaresoft had the Midas Touch during the SNES and PS1 days, Konami inherited it in the late PS1 - early PS2 days.

And then they fucked everything up

 

[Basil II]

But do any of these games let me move my body freery?

 

[SSF2T Old User]

I didn't plan on writing out an entire history of DDR but I did because ,

You can relax now, I'll take over.

Their home versions weren't exactly great either, more specifically in the west. Nevermind how Europe got completely dicked over with their Dancing Stage series, but the USA versions weren't up-to-par with their Japanese counterparts. Most of it had to do with "licensing issues", which I always thought was a bullshit excuse. It's the kind of bullshit that prevented Butterfly, the song that EVERYONE fucking knew and liked, from appearing on DDR USA PS1 and stayed away from the states until Ultramix 3 on XBOX... that's 7 years it took from 1998 to 2005 for USA players to finally get that song into their homes. Not only that, but there are some covers and artists that never made it in the USA versions that I never understood why.

Spoiler: List Of Dancemania Songs That Didn't Make The Cut In The US

• Kung Fu Fighting - Everyone in the USA had heard of the original, but we never got this one, even though BusStop had their other songs appear in later USA DDR titles
• Let's Get Down - It samples Celebration by Kool & the Gang... an old song everyone's heard in at least 1 birthday party and/or block party
• Strictly Business - This song was in the movie Blade, which also aired in 1998. That could have been a good opportunity to cross-promote the movie to new people in the US, but nope... this was a one-and-done in Japan and never saw the light of day again.
• That's The Way (I Like It) - Who the fuck HASN'T heard of KC & The Sunshine Band?!?!
• Bad Girls - Another classic disco song that got a cover. Fun Fact: The BG Image is still in the disc for DDR USA PS1 (without the gun to keep that "E" rating), so just like Butterfly, it was a victim of "licensing issues"
• Tubthumping - Apparently it was more of a top charter in the UK than the US but I distinctly remember hearing this song a lot growing up
• Hero - So here's a brain-teaser... why would Konami release a "2008 X-Edit" on DDRX PS2 when the original never saw the light of day in the US?
• Holiday - It's like Konami thinks nobody in the US had ever heard of Madonna before
• It Only Takes A Minute (Extended Remix) - Another popular disco song from back in the day. Was remade again in DDRMAX2 7th Mix in the form of "A Minute (Extended Mix)" by X-Treme... which never made it in the USA either. X-Treme's "My Fire" was in DDR USA PS1, so there's no excuse as to why at least THAT version would have issues being in the west.
• So Many Men - Another one of those "party songs" everyone knows. The fact it never saw a USA release is even more baffling since Me&My, the artist that made this cover, had their other song "Dub-I-Dub" appear in DDR USA PS1. Even worse, it was in the USA Arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution. What the fuck was the problem with bringing it to consoles?
• Xanadu - Yep... the same name of the movie in the 80's... nowhere to be found in the US.
• GOTCHA (The Theme from STARSKY & HUTCH) - ... do I really need to say anything? The subtitle is a dead give-away as to why this should have been in the USA as well
• HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW (MM GROOVIN MIX) - This is on here only because the original was in DDR USA PS1, so it doesn't make sense to not include this version as well
• Saint Goes Marching (Remix) - I'm sure there are people that have heard of the original as a kid in elementary school or something.
• Shake Your Booty - See Thats The Way (I Like It)
• If You Were Here (B4 ZA Beat Mix) - See HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW (MM GROOVIN MIX)
• Lupin the 3rd '78 - I'm not 100% sure on this one, as I have no idea if weebs were into Lupin III (ルパン三世) in the early 2000's
• Na-Na - Based on Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam, which everyone fucking knows. Also it's made by BusStop
• THE TWIST (Double Pump MIX) - Another "party" song that everyone knows.
• OOPS!...I DID IT AGAIN (Fired Up MIX) - On one hand, I'd say "ok point taken, it's a long version song that was exclusive to DDR 5th mix". On the other hand, they trimmed "Hot Limit", another 5th mix long version exclusive, for DDR Universe (Xbox360)... don't see why they couldn't do the same for this one, specially since it's 10x better than that ugly piece of shit we got in DDR Extreme 2
• No Limit (RM Remix) / Tribal Dance (Almighty Mix) / Maximum Overdrive (KC Club Mix) - Question: What do these 3 songs have in common? Answer: 2 Unlimited being the artist... you know that artist that made Twilight Zone (Which DID make the cut for USA).
• SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW - Hello?? Wizard of Oz anyone?!?!
• WITCH DOCTOR (GIANTS TOONS VERSION) - The original song is so popular that Alvin & The Chipmunks sang their own cover for it. And yet it escapes the USA's grasps.
• LIVING IN AMERICA - REALLY?! America is in the fucking name for christ sakes!!! Even Dancing Stage got this fucking song and their not even American
• SO FABULOUS SO FIERCE (FREAK OUT) - Even though we got the original in DDR SuperNova 2, IMO this is the better song. Hell, this song was also in 102 Dalmatians, which was released in 2000. I'm sure SOME kids would recognize this song.
• WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS (Factory Team Remix) / WE WILL ROCK YOU - It's an insult that these songs aren't in the USA version considering everyone knows who the fuck Queen is
• BURNIN' THE FLOOR (MOMO MIX) - Believe it or not, this IS a Dancemania song from the album "Dancemania SPEED 9". The USA got the other two versions, so what was the issue with this one?

For the record, this list in the spoiler only covers up to DDR Extreme, as by the time SuperNova came out, Konami was cutting ties with the Dancemania Label in general.


DDR USA PS1 is the closest the US got to having an almost near perfect arcade port of any DDR game. Basically being a mix of 1st-3rd mix minus some lesser known Dancemania licenses (although even that is questionable due to the bullet-points above).

Konamix was just 4th mix with Konami Originals only and no Dancemania licenses, which on one hand... dumb... because the Dancemania licenses is what made DDR what it was to begin with. On the other hand, it's one of my favorite home versions of the game because artists like Naoki Maeda, Takayuki Ishikawa, Yuichi Asami, and Taku Sakakibara make some REALLY good shit... at least back then. Celebrate Nite is my #1 favorite DDR song of all time.

But then the PS2 versions happened and they became nothing more than "catch-up" games because by DDRMAX 6th Mix, they had a FUCK-TON of songs. Regarding the PS2 USA versions, not only were half the songlist for the games revivals of songs from previous USA games (mainly Konamix), but they started to commit the ultimate sin of adding "Mainstream Licenses", which only got worse with each game, as you would see trash like Chris Brown, Sean Paul, and Gwen Stefani. That shit seeped into the arcades though, as we now have... ugh... Party Rock by LMFAO.

In Japan, there were NO revivals (with the exception of the first 3 mixes on PS1). Instead, almost all of the games had something called "System Data Support" which unlocks secret data of previous Japanese DanceDanceRevolution titles, given if you have a compatible save file on your memory card. In other words, if you had a DDR Party Collection save file, you can unlock EVERYTHING instantly on DDRMAX/DDRMAX2/DDRExtreme.

DDRMAX, the first PS2 DDR game in the USA, was nothing more than a collection of 2ndMix (Club Ver.) & 5th Mix songs (ontop of the Konamix repeats) with only 5 songs from the 6th Mix arcade counterpart. DDRMAX2 might as well be it's own game since it dismantled it's one noteworthy "gimmic", which were challenge exclusive songs that were playable in "Oni" mode (a nonstop mode in which you're only allowed to fuck up 4 times). Granted, the USA releases at that point were 1 version behind of the latest arcade release since by then DDR Extreme was in arcades and it has released the Challenge Only songs to be playable in it's main mode... however, rather than keep them all in one game, they were chopped up and split throughout the various PS2 games up until DDR Supernova in which Konami just said "fuck it" I guess. "祭 JAPAN (FROM NONSTOP MEGAMIX)" is the ONLY Challenge Only song to not see a USA release. STILL IN MY HEART(MOMO MIX) found a new home in Ultramix4 with new complete charts, and MY SUMMER LOVE ( TOMMY'S SMILE MIX ) wound up in X2 for PS2... with only challenge charts... it's like a big-ass zit on the hairy-ass cheek that is X2.

DDR Extreme took it another step further by not only getting the eye-toy into the mix, not only making one of the songs have a fucking cryptic unlock code to enter that nobody knew about till a year and a half later when a fucking burger king campaign came out, but by also going "HEY, WHO WANTS KARAOKE WITH THEIR DDR? NO ONE? TOO BAD!", which is why we have a (if you can actually believe it) worse cover of "Believe" (you know, that Cher song South Park was making fun of). For context, Konami decided to branch out from dancing and dip their foot into singing with their "Karaoke Revolution" series (give ya 3 guesses how well that series faired), so they decided to do some cross-promotion, even going as far as sticking a playable demo in DDR Extreme 2.

The Ultramix games on XBOX is honestly, IMO, hidden gems. The games were made by Konami's Hawaiian branch (which I didn't even know that was a thing before these games) and some of the licenses they use are from the label "A Different Drum", in which if you haven't heard of it, you should totally check out, specifically artists like Daybehavior, Neuropa, and Alien#Six13 The label is defunct as of 2014 unfortunately. Only complaint I have with this series is that some songs are locked behind a fucking paywall via DLC, which as you can guess, isn't a thing with these games anymore, which is a REAL fucking shame because songs like "i feel... Junk Circuit Mix" and "Love Me Do The Acolyte's remix" are fucking AMAZING. (Thankfully the latter is in DDR Universe as an unlockable). These songs also include things like Celebrate Nite (Euro Trance Style) having a complete chart instead of a Challenge-Only one.

My experience stops after DDR X, which I would write about but I'll just leave this here. I never owned a 360 and never touched the Wii titles, but i do know one thing... the japanese "ダンスダンスレボリューション フルフル♪パーティー" game can die in a fire because it introduced the "rebooted" versions of Dynamite Rave, Brilliant2U, and Celebrate Nite... which sound fucking HORRIBLE. It's got that "modern" feel to it that I despise so much in music these days... like it's trying too hard or something

Spoiler: Comparisons Between The Old & New

Celebrate Nite

Dynamite Rave

Brilliant2U

Oh and get Mario Mix on the GameCube... that shit is surprisingly fucking GOOD

 

[ForgetfulFerret]

Not just evil, but dumb as a box of rocks. The release schedule for arcade DDR games has been insane since the very beginning.

For those out of the loop, Dance Dance Revolution was a pretty big deal in Japanese arcades for a few years. The thing is, arcade machines are very, very expensive, many costing well into five figures, especially for very large cabinets like DDR. Upgrade kits, too, cost a few thousand dollars, despite just coming with a disc, a security cartridge, and some extra art and a marquee to help advertise the game on the cabinet. I'm not sure how much they cost back in the early 2000s, but upgrades for similar games traditionally cost around the $2000 mark, and still do to this day.

View attachment 5954

View attachment 5955

See the cardboard signs on the sides of the cabinet? The thing on top, above the lit-up marquee? Those are EXTREMELY rare, and probably worth more than the cabinet itself today. Why? Well, they got thrown out, of course. They're not very durable due to just being cardboard, and they're tricky to ship. So finding a complete upgrade kit is practically unheard of.

The thing is, Konami released upgrades for DDR at a breakneck pace. https://remywiki.com/DDR_History lists out when each game and its revisions were relased, and you can see how you barely had time to settle in to one version before its sequel came along. September 26, 1998, you just got your brand new Dance Dance Revolution machine. Your customers are curious as to what this new thing is. It cost you over a million yen, but it was worth it. This is the big new game, this is the one that'll bring people flocking in from all over. TIme to rake in the profits- oh wait, it's November now, time to order the upgrade disc. After all, you gotta get it, it adds two more songs. WOooooooooooOOOoooooooooooo

no WAIT now it's January 1999 and DDR 2ndMIX is here! Better upgrade again! It adds a million songs including Kung Fu Fighting and Tubthumping which has Hulk Hogan in the background for some reason

View attachment 5956

then came a bunch of variants and updates, two of which within a week of each other: the ever-so autistically named "DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX with beatmania IIDX CLUB VERSiON", or as we call it, "Club version", which you could link up to a Beatmania cabinet and play in tandem, and also a version of 2ndMIX that allowed the player to bring in edits from the PlayStation version and save their scores to their memory card.

So, did you just spend an arm and a leg upgrading your machine yet again? Great! You've barely had it for a year and now it's time for DDR 3rdMIX!!!! With more songs than ever, including a song that's literally about premature ejaculation:

So, you know, fuckin' get on it. Or just hold off, until the following June, when 3rdMIX Plus gets released! It's 3rdMIX again but now it has a song that'll make any furry bust a big ol' nut:

View attachment 5957

3rd Plus was really unremarkable.

Did you just spend another small fortune updating your machine to 3rdMIX Plus? SUCKERRRRRRRRRRRR HAHAHAHAHAHA because only two months later, 4thMIX would roll around, this time with an obnoxious screen where you'd select your genre, and the game would present a subset of songs, with no way to access every song available all at once. That's alright, though, because just four months later, 4thMIX Plus would come along and fix everything.

And I mean everything, to the point where it's one of the quintessential mixes to have to this day. It had nearly every single song from the main series, and no genre select crap, so you could actually browse through every song in the game, now with well over a hundred. And by "main series", I mean, it didn't include songs from the Club versions, some from the Korean versions of 3rd, or specifically Strictly Business from 1st, for whatever reason. But, it was still a gigantic slew of songs available, and still often thought of as one of the best mixes.

By the way, we're at December 2000, now. If you bought your DDR machine the day it came out, you've only had it for a little over two years now, and if you bought every single upgrade you could in Japan, 4th Plus would be your 12th. Imagine buying an arcade machine that's as expensive as a car, only to spend as much or more on upgrades for the damn thing every time you turn around. Sure, it was immensely popular, but could you still pull a profit when you're shelling out a couple of grand every few months? You've gotta stay competitive with the other arcades, after all.

I didn't even mention True Kiss Destination or Dreams Come True, since those are band-centric games along the lines of The Beatles: Rock Band or Guitar Hero: Van Halen. It's kinda weird that they got full-fledged arcade releases, like, imagine being really into Rock Band, but the only way you can play it is at the arcade, so one day you go, all amped up to play your favorite tunes, and you get there and suddenly there's a new mix installed. It's Green Day: Rock Band, so you get to play nothing but Green Day all day. You'll be better off just biting your lip, closing your eyes, and taking yourself away to ParaParaParadise.

View attachment 5958

So THEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNN, just three months later, 5thMIX comes out. 5thMIX axes most of the back catalog from before 4thMIX, but it has a pretty solid selection itself. And, best of all, it finally increases the framerate to 60FPS. This makes a YUUUUGE difference in any game where timing is strict and important, making it the earliest mix that's palatable to most people who started with a later one.

That being said, all along, each version of DDR has used relatively the same hardware, all based off of the PlayStation 1. 5thMIX was also released on the PS1 as a home version, so... why did it take them this long for such a fundamental upgrade, when the PS1 could do 60fps DDR all along? Seriously, it makes all the difference in the world, and it's just perplexing that they released so many versions without smooth scrolling.

Seven months pass. No weird revisions or Plus versions this time around. Konami's really changing it up big this time. What's next? What could it be?

View attachment 5959

A very graphically appealing upgrade, now with full motion background videos, and the all-important SPEED MODS! Speed mods are the things where you make the arrows scroll faster, and as a result, they're more spread out, allowing for difficult songs with dense charts to be much, much easier to understand. Everyone uses them, and it's a feat to beat some songs without them.

But, also, Konami smashed that reset button and wiped out EVERY single song from previous mixes. DDR 4thMIX Plus had a grand total of 150 songs, while DDR 5thMIX had 122. DDRMAX had... just 42. That's it, a full 108 songs less than the version from two mixes ago.

And while the song list had some highlights, it did seem to weigh towards the more extreme side of saccharine bubblegum pop. And it had a song about internet porn, because of course it did:

Five months after that, guess what it's time for? Oh, you didn't like buying an upgrade that only had 42 songs? Shut the fuck up, and

View attachment 5960

DDRMAX2, Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX, a new mix with another nice selection of songs, probably the best one, and a number of older songs re-added after DDRMAX screwed the pooch. No revisions, no expansions, nine months until the next.

And then, on Christmas of 2002, Dance Dance Revolution Extreme was released. 240 songs total, a slew of new ones, and a whole lot of old ones. It was by far the best one, both in terms of quality and the best bang for your buck, and if you've played a DDR machine, it was almost certainly running DDR Extreme.

The point of this giant post was that there were just so many versions and revisions released in a tiny amount of time. 1stMIX came out in September of 1998, Extreme came out in December of 2002. Imagine a game that came out in 2017 that kept getting constant revisions once every few months, except you had to pay a fortune for each one, or get left behind by your competitors; especially with Japan being in an endless recession at the time. Jeez. Those kind of update models are commonplace with live service games today, but you never actually have to pay for those; they're updated frequently to keep the playerbase engaged. How well it actually worked for them, I don't know, but it really didn't dawn on me just how hostile and crazy their upgrade model was until I grew up.

I didn't plan on writing out an entire history of DDR but I did because , but considering how much Konami's acted up over recent years, it's clear to see that they've always acted unhinged, even in their glory days. DDR was concurrent with the earliest days of Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid, with the first two entries in those franchises, along with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, all coming out around that short period. They also had a ton of various other kinds of music games, including GuitarFreaks, the game that Guitar Hero ripped off (but Konami never sold in the west because they're insane). It's like, if Squaresoft had the Midas Touch during the SNES and PS1 days, Konami inherited it in the late PS1 - early PS2 days.

And then they fucked everything up

You can relax now, I'll take over.

Their home versions weren't exactly great either, more specifically in the west. Nevermind how Europe got completely dicked over with their Dancing Stage series, but the USA versions weren't up-to-par with their Japanese counterparts. Most of it had to do with "licensing issues", which I always thought was a bullshit excuse. It's the kind of bullshit that prevented Butterfly, the song that EVERYONE fucking knew and liked, from appearing on DDR USA PS1 and stayed away from the states until Ultramix 3 on XBOX... that's 7 years it took from 1998 to 2005 for USA players to finally get that song into their homes. Not only that, but there are some covers and artists that never made it in the USA versions that I never understood why.

Spoiler: List Of Dancemania Songs That Didn't Make The Cut In The US

• Kung Fu Fighting - Everyone in the USA had heard of the original, but we never got this one, even though BusStop had their other songs appear in later USA DDR titles
• Let's Get Down - It samples Celebration by Kool & the Gang... an old song everyone's heard in at least 1 birthday party and/or block party
• Strictly Business - This song was in the movie Blade, which also aired in 1998. That could have been a good opportunity to cross-promote the movie to new people in the US, but nope... this was a one-and-done in Japan and never saw the light of day again.
• That's The Way (I Like It) - Who the fuck HASN'T heard of KC & The Sunshine Band?!?!
• Bad Girls - Another classic disco song that got a cover. Fun Fact: The BG Image is still in the disc for DDR USA PS1 (without the gun to keep that "E" rating), so just like Butterfly, it was a victim of "licensing issues"
• Tubthumping - Apparently it was more of a top charter in the UK than the US but I distinctly remember hearing this song a lot growing up
• Hero - So here's a brain-teaser... why would Konami release a "2008 X-Edit" on DDRX PS2 when the original never saw the light of day in the US?
• Holiday - It's like Konami thinks nobody in the US had ever heard of Madonna before
• It Only Takes A Minute (Extended Remix) - Another popular disco song from back in the day. Was remade again in DDRMAX2 7th Mix in the form of "A Minute (Extended Mix)" by X-Treme... which never made it in the USA either. X-Treme's "My Fire" was in DDR USA PS1, so there's no excuse as to why at least THAT version would have issues being in the west.
• So Many Men - Another one of those "party songs" everyone knows. The fact it never saw a USA release is even more baffling since Me&My, the artist that made this cover, had their other song "Dub-I-Dub" appear in DDR USA PS1. Even worse, it was in the USA Arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution. What the fuck was the problem with bringing it to consoles?
• Xanadu - Yep... the same name of the movie in the 80's... nowhere to be found in the US.
• GOTCHA (The Theme from STARSKY & HUTCH) - ... do I really need to say anything? The subtitle is a dead give-away as to why this should have been in the USA as well
• HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW (MM GROOVIN MIX) - This is on here only because the original was in DDR USA PS1, so it doesn't make sense to not include this version as well
• Saint Goes Marching (Remix) - I'm sure there are people that have heard of the original as a kid in elementary school or something.
• Shake Your Booty - See Thats The Way (I Like It)
• If You Were Here (B4 ZA Beat Mix) - See HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW (MM GROOVIN MIX)
• Lupin the 3rd '78 - I'm not 100% sure on this one, as I have no idea if weebs were into Lupin III (ルパン三世) in the early 2000's
• Na-Na - Based on Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam, which everyone fucking knows. Also it's made by BusStop
• THE TWIST (Double Pump MIX) - Another "party" song that everyone knows.
• OOPS!...I DID IT AGAIN (Fired Up MIX) - On one hand, I'd say "ok point taken, it's a long version song that was exclusive to DDR 5th mix". On the other hand, they trimmed "Hot Limit", another 5th mix long version exclusive, for DDR Universe (Xbox360)... don't see why they couldn't do the same for this one, specially since it's 10x better than that ugly piece of shit we got in DDR Extreme 2
• No Limit (RM Remix) / Tribal Dance (Almighty Mix) / Maximum Overdrive (KC Club Mix) - Question: What do these 3 songs have in common? Answer: 2 Unlimited being the artist... you know that artist that made Twilight Zone (Which DID make the cut for USA).
• SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW - Hello?? Wizard of Oz anyone?!?!
• WITCH DOCTOR (GIANTS TOONS VERSION) - The original song is so popular that Alvin & The Chipmunks sang their own cover for it. And yet it escapes the USA's grasps.
• LIVING IN AMERICA - REALLY?! America is in the fucking name for christ sakes!!! Even Dancing Stage got this fucking song and their not even American
• SO FABULOUS SO FIERCE (FREAK OUT) - Even though we got the original in DDR SuperNova 2, IMO this is the better song. Hell, this song was also in 102 Dalmatians, which was released in 2000. I'm sure SOME kids would recognize this song.
• WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS (Factory Team Remix) / WE WILL ROCK YOU - It's an insult that these songs aren't in the USA version considering everyone knows who the fuck Queen is
• BURNIN' THE FLOOR (MOMO MIX) - Believe it or not, this IS a Dancemania song from the album "Dancemania SPEED 9". The USA got the other two versions, so what was the issue with this one?

For the record, this list in the spoiler only covers up to DDR Extreme, as by the time SuperNova came out, Konami was cutting ties with the Dancemania Label in general.


DDR USA PS1 is the closest the US got to having an almost near perfect arcade port of any DDR game. Basically being a mix of 1st-3rd mix minus some lesser known Dancemania licenses (although even that is questionable due to the bullet-points above).

Konamix was just 4th mix with Konami Originals only and no Dancemania licenses, which on one hand... dumb... because the Dancemania licenses is what made DDR what it was to begin with. On the other hand, it's one of my favorite home versions of the game because artists like Naoki Maeda, Takayuki Ishikawa, Yuichi Asami, and Taku Sakakibara make some REALLY good shit... at least back then. Celebrate Nite is my #1 favorite DDR song of all time.

But then the PS2 versions happened and they became nothing more than "catch-up" games because by DDRMAX 6th Mix, they had a FUCK-TON of songs. Regarding the PS2 USA versions, not only were half the songlist for the games revivals of songs from previous USA games (mainly Konamix), but they started to commit the ultimate sin of adding "Mainstream Licenses", which only got worse with each game, as you would see trash like Chris Brown, Sean Paul, and Gwen Stefani. That shit seeped into the arcades though, as we now have... ugh... Party Rock by LMFAO.

In Japan, there were NO revivals (with the exception of the first 3 mixes on PS1). Instead, almost all of the games had something called "System Data Support" which unlocks secret data of previous Japanese DanceDanceRevolution titles, given if you have a compatible save file on your memory card. In other words, if you had a DDR Party Collection save file, you can unlock EVERYTHING instantly on DDRMAX/DDRMAX2/DDRExtreme.

DDRMAX, the first PS2 DDR game in the USA, was nothing more than a collection of 2ndMix (Club Ver.) & 5th Mix songs (ontop of the Konamix repeats) with only 5 songs from the 6th Mix arcade counterpart. DDRMAX2 might as well be it's own game since it dismantled it's one noteworthy "gimmic", which were challenge exclusive songs that were playable in "Oni" mode (a nonstop mode in which you're only allowed to fuck up 4 times). Granted, the USA releases at that point were 1 version behind of the latest arcade release since by then DDR Extreme was in arcades and it has released the Challenge Only songs to be playable in it's main mode... however, rather than keep them all in one game, they were chopped up and split throughout the various PS2 games up until DDR Supernova in which Konami just said "fuck it" I guess. "祭 JAPAN (FROM NONSTOP MEGAMIX)" is the ONLY Challenge Only song to not see a USA release. STILL IN MY HEART(MOMO MIX) found a new home in Ultramix4 with new complete charts, and MY SUMMER LOVE ( TOMMY'S SMILE MIX ) wound up in X2 for PS2... with only challenge charts... it's like a big-ass zit on the hairy-ass cheek that is X2.

DDR Extreme took it another step further by not only getting the eye-toy into the mix, not only making one of the songs have a fucking cryptic unlock code to enter that nobody knew about till a year and a half later when a fucking burger king campaign came out, but by also going "HEY, WHO WANTS KARAOKE WITH THEIR DDR? NO ONE? TOO BAD!", which is why we have a (if you can actually believe it) worse cover of "Believe" (you know, that Cher song South Park was making fun of). For context, Konami decided to branch out from dancing and dip their foot into singing with their "Karaoke Revolution" series (give ya 3 guesses how well that series faired), so they decided to do some cross-promotion, even going as far as sticking a playable demo in DDR Extreme 2.

The Ultramix games on XBOX is honestly, IMO, hidden gems. The games were made by Konami's Hawaiian branch (which I didn't even know that was a thing before these games) and some of the licenses they use are from the label "A Different Drum", in which if you haven't heard of it, you should totally check out, specifically artists like Daybehavior, Neuropa, and Alien#Six13 The label is defunct as of 2014 unfortunately. Only complaint I have with this series is that some songs are locked behind a fucking paywall via DLC, which as you can guess, isn't a thing with these games anymore, which is a REAL fucking shame because songs like "i feel... Junk Circuit Mix" and "Love Me Do The Acolyte's remix" are fucking AMAZING. (Thankfully the latter is in DDR Universe as an unlockable). These songs also include things like Celebrate Nite (Euro Trance Style) having a complete chart instead of a Challenge-Only one.

My experience stops after DDR X, which I would write about but I'll just leave this here. I never owned a 360 and never touched the Wii titles, but i do know one thing... the japanese "ダンスダンスレボリューション フルフル♪パーティー" game can die in a fire because it introduced the "rebooted" versions of Dynamite Rave, Brilliant2U, and Celebrate Nite... which sound fucking HORRIBLE. It's got that "modern" feel to it that I despise so much in music these days... like it's trying too hard or something

Spoiler: Comparisons Between The Old & New

Celebrate Nite

Dynamite Rave

Brilliant2U

Oh and get Mario Mix on the GameCube... that shit is surprisingly fucking GOOD

Have sex lol

 

[Larry Bundy Sr]

Have sex lol

No.

 

[SIGBUS]

im going to assume everyone here has atleast heard of friday night funkin once

Friday Night Funkin' by ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, The Funkin' Crew, Inc.

The coolest rhythm game

ninja-muffin24.itch.io

it's a pretty fun game with some great music
what do you all think of it?

 

[ForgetfulFerret]

im going to assume everyone here has atleast heard of friday night funkin once

Friday Night Funkin' by ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, The Funkin' Crew, Inc.

The coolest rhythm game

ninja-muffin24.itch.io

it's a pretty fun game with some great music
what do you all think of it?

gay

 

[SIGBUS]

gay

since you said that im going to shit my diapers and cry in a corner because one users opinion differs from mine :(

 

[ForgetfulFerret]

since you said that im going to shit my diapers and cry in a corner because one users opinion differs from mine :(

And im going to brag about how i intellectually owned you to my secret dm group and jerk each other off about our high iq.

 

[SSF2T Old User]

im going to assume everyone here has atleast heard of friday night funkin once

Friday Night Funkin' by ninjamuffin99, PhantomArcade, The Funkin' Crew, Inc.

The coolest rhythm game

ninja-muffin24.itch.io

it's a pretty fun game with some great music
what do you all think of it?

Just finished playing it on hard. After playing all the weeks and finishing the last song on week 6 and not getting any sort of end credit scene or nothing new, I was like ".... wait, thats IT?". I felt empty, and wanted more.

It's not "DDR/StepMania" perfect. Some of the timings on the arrows with the beat/melody of the songs were a little off (as in 1/8ths that should have been 1/16ths and vice-verse). But for what it is (basically Simon-Says DDR), it was really fun. My favorite week was Week 4 with The Mom. Her songs were the best out of the bunch (with Week 6 being 2nd place and Week 1 being 3rd place).

For the record, I was playing the Win64 version. I couldn't play the Linux version because my distro doesn't have the newer version of "GLIBC" that the game needed to run (2.29.. my distro only has 2.28 available at the moment). Also this game "MIGHT" be resource heavy... it would always freeze for a few seconds (up to 5) whenever it would transition to a new week and/or song during the week.

 

[SIGBUS]

Also this game "MIGHT" be resource heavy... it would always freeze for a few seconds (up to 5) whenever it would transition to a new week and/or song during the week.

this could be something with haxe, i had the same resource heavy problem but i did try out on a i5 750 and suprisingly still ran fine (until it just randomly crashes while selecting a song)

 

[Syrup]

I love persona 5 dancing and making my ships dance with eachother. Ren x Yusuke x Futaba 4 evar