Dance Dance Revolution Extreme

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Dance Dance Revolution Extreme
DDR Extreme PS2 JP.png
Japanese PlayStation 2 version cover art
Developer(s) Konami, Bemani
Publisher(s) Konami
Series Dance Dance Revolution
Platform(s) Arcade, PlayStation 2
ReleaseArcade
  • JP: December 25, 2002
PlayStation 2
  • JP: October 9, 2003
  • NA: September 21, 2004
Genre(s) Music, exercise
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system Bemani System 573 Digital

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme [1] is a music video game by Konami and is the eighth release in the main Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series. It was released on December 25, 2002, for Japanese arcades, on October 9, 2003, for the Japanese PlayStation 2, and on September 21, 2004, for the North American PlayStation 2. This game is the ninth release in North America, but despite having the same name as its Japanese counterpart, its gameplay and soundtrack is significantly different [2] and won the Video Music Awards in 2005 on MTV for Best Video Game Soundtrack. [3]

Contents

While the PlayStation 2 version came out in North America, the arcade version was exclusive to Japan. Despite this, the arcade version was exported to many arcades worldwide, most of them being bootlegged. Dance Dance Revolution Extreme was the last game in the main DDR arcade franchise for almost four years, until the worldwide release of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova (branded Dancing Stage SuperNova in Europe) in 2006. The arcade release of Extreme contains one of the largest soundtracks of any DDR game, featuring 240 songs, as well as music from other Bemani music titles. Konami issued an in-game thank you to the fans of Dance Dance Revolution and announced a rejuvenation of the entire series, but did not go into details. Konami's announcement led people to believe that DDR Extreme might be the final DDR release, or that the series might be on hiatus or rebooted in the same manner as Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX .

Gameplay

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme arcade cabinet DDR Extreme arcade at Cineplex Cinemas Yorkdale 20151202.png
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme arcade cabinet

DDR Extreme is similar to DDRMAX2 7th mix. The game introduced "Beginner" and "Nonstop" modes, a mode similar to the previous "Challenge mode", but with an updated "life bar", a graded rating at the end of each course and a random banner. Perhaps the most noticeable changes in DDR Extreme are the extra stage and the updated green color scheme. Players can pick their own song to try to pass the extra stage, including "The Legend of Max". If they do well on the "Extra Stage", they can progress to One More Extra Stage. The banner of Dance Dance Revolution unlocks access to other songs. If the player passes, a special ending is unlocked. New songs are introduced, including the Bemani revival songs [ clarification needed ], like "Beatmania IIDX", "pop'n music" or "Keyboardmania", and versions of DDR Solo, Home DDR and DDR Club songs created by DDR Extreme. A "cheat code" reveals the true number of songs, including hidden songs. Pressing the left and right buttons simultaneously unlocks the Series, Alphabetical, Beats-per-minute, Player-best and Default sort orders.

The home version was released October 9, 2003. This was a follow-up to the DDR Party Collection which featured 58 characters. DDR Extreme included lesson mode and credits too. Also included were 4 new Bemani songs, 6 CS Extreme songs and a new song, Max. (period). Unlocked characters can play all nonstop modes, Nonstop orders can be turned into Oni orders and a 'diet' mode is available.

Courses

Nonstop mode uses the same gameplay and life found in regular modes, except that players must complete four consecutive songs without pausing. Also, players lose more of the dance gauge bar for each missed step as they progress further along each song.

Challenge mode, returning from DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution 7thMix , is the most difficult game mode. In the arcade version, each player begins with four lives, and loses a life for breaking a combo (getting a judgment of "Good" or inferior) or letting go of a freeze arrow. Some songs replenish the life bar when completed, but if a player runs out of lives during a song, the game ends for that player. In the PlayStation 2 version, players are presented with specific goals to meet, such as passing a particular section of a song with different variations, playing a song with special modifiers, or earning a set score.

Nonstop and Challenge modes contain a new step judgment called Marvelous. The judgment uses a stricter timing window than Perfect, representing very accurate steps made by players. Marvelous is displayed after each such step in white, and is not displayed during normal gameplay. A fan project known as Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Pro enables the Marvelous judgment in all play modes.

Difficulty

DDR Extreme introduces two difficulty modes as mainstays in the series.

The first is Beginner mode, which appeared in Dance Dance Revolution USA and Dancing Stage EuroMix. It is easier than Light, only available in four-panel mode, and represented by a light-blue color. The background animations in Beginner mode are replaced with an on-screen dancer who follows the actual step patterns of the song, cueing the player when and where to step. Players are also given a brief tutorial on how to play Dance Dance Revolution after selecting their first stage. By default, "Beginner" mode automatically passes players on their first stage regardless of accuracy; subsequent stages play to end of the song even if failed. Players can exit or enter Beginner mode anytime during stage selection.

The "Challenge" difficulty level is above "Heavy", but the complexity of its step patterns are not necessarily always greater than "Heavy". Challenge mode cannot be selected at the start of the game; instead, players must enter during stage selection, represented by a purple color. Unlike other difficulty levels, relatively few songs have a Challenge difficulty level. In contrast, some songs contain only Challenge step patterns and selecting them automatically chooses the Challenge level for those songs. In the arcade release of DDR Extreme, no visual indicates that a song has Challenge step patterns. In the PlayStation 2 release, icons representing each difficulty level including Beginner and Challenge light up when a highlighted song is playable on those levels. During normal gameplay, Challenge uses the same rules as other levels.

Extra Stage

DDR Extreme uses a slightly different rule for Extra Stage, although the basic principle remains the same. Players who rate AA or better on Heavy/Challenge difficulty access the Extra Stage. However, the player can choose any song for Extra Stage, though the regular ES modifiers (1.5x (speed), Reverse (scroll), Heavy (difficulty), No Recovery dance meter) still used. The Legend of MAX will be added on ES. If the player gets AA on The Legend of MAX as ES, the player access One More Extra Stage (OMES), where Dance Dance Revolution is the sole choice (using 3x (speed), Reverse (scroll), Challenge (difficulty), and Sudden Death dance meter).

Extreme (2004) gameplay

Party ModeDance Dance Revolution Extreme introduced Party Mode which contains a number of mini games, some of which require the EyeToy accessory to play.

Hyper Dash Hyper Dash does not require the EyeToy. The game uses the dance pad like the Power Pad and has players race each other down a city street avoiding obstacles and using power ups.

Feeding Time Feeding Time does not require the EyeToy. A type of food is assigned to each arrow and players must step on the one that best matches the animal being displayed on screen.

Watch Me Dance Watch Me Dance uses the EyeToy to place a live video of the player as the background during normal game play.

Clean the Screen Clean the Screen requires players to move their arms across the EyeToy's view to wipe away visual obstructions during normal game play.

Hands and Feet Hands and Feet add two hand targets to the arrow receptors at the top of the screen during normal game play. A special difficulty appears during song select that lets players play with their hands and feet at the same time.

Magical Ball Magical Ball does not require the dance pad. Players use their hands to knock a ball into a set of block in an effort to clear them all without losing the ball, similar to Arkanoid.

Coconut Panic Coconut Panic does not require the dance pad. Players shake palm trees with their movement and attempt to catch all the falling coconuts.

Song wheel In Dance Dance Revolution Extreme the song wheel introduced in Dance Dance Revolution 5thMix was altered and put in the center of the screen, song scrolling left and right instead of up and down. The banners are displayed at the top of screen with the Foot Ratings listed below in the center of the wheel. The Groove Radar has been removed and Nonstop and Challenge modes are selectable on the wheel instead of during difficulty select.

Workout Mode

Music

The arcade release of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme features 80 new songs of 240 total. Among the new songs, three are from Dancing Stage EuroMix 2, and 11 are from both Club Version releases. The game received two regional releases for the PlayStation 2 (PS2), each with a different soundtrack. The Japanese release features a total of 111 songs, of which 68 are from the arcade release; "Senorita (Speedy Mix)" and Club Version songs are excluded. The North American release features a total of 71 songs, of which 41 are from the arcade version.

Release

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) and published in 2002 by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDEI). Yoshihiko Ota served as executive producer of the arcade release, with Naoki Maeda serving as the lead sound director.[ citation needed ]

The official soundtrack was released on Toshiba EMI's Dancemania series of albums and contains two discs. The first disc contains a portion of the new music featured on the arcade and PlayStation 2 game along with the game's menu music and an uncut version of Graduation ~それぞれの明日 ? ~ performed by BeForU. The second disc is a nonstop megamix of the tracks from the first disc into a single uninterrupted performance. The megamix features the game's menu music and the in-game announcer, Londell "Taz" Hicks, mimicking the feel of playing the arcade game. Taz is also a vocalist for three songs featured in the soundtrack: "1998", "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Hyper Eurobeat".

Promotion

In the fall of 2006, Burger King in North America held a Dance Dance Revolution-themed promotion. Part of the promotion was a minigame on the Burger King website that if beaten provided an unlock code for the then two-year-old Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. Entering this code into the game unlocks the song "Memories". Prior to the release of this code DDR fan groups who had read the contents of the game disc and noticed the song believed its absence to be a last minute change or a glitch.

Sequel

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 is the tenth home version of Dance Dance Revolution to be released in North America. It was released by Konami on September 27, 2005, for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was announced in a press release by Konami on May 17, 2005, and unveiled at the E3 expo in Los Angeles that same day.

The game includes 74 songs, 50 of which are unlocked through normal play or through points earned in Dance Master Mode. The majority of the songs are Konami originals composed by Naoki Maeda. Extreme 2 is the first PlayStation DDR game to include online multiplayer. [5]

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 features a total of 74 songs. All songs feature unique videos designed for this game, except for "Get Busy" by Sean Paul, which features a shorter version of its official music video. Many songs from Extreme 2 appear in subsequent Dance Dance Revolution releases, and their Extreme 2 videos are preserved in these releases. The song "Insertion (Machine Gun Kelly Mix)" is unrelated to the mainstream rapper Machine Gun Kelly. The official music video for Block Rockin' Beats appears in Dancing Stage Unleashed 3 .

Reception

It received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Puzzle/Rhythm Game" award category across all platforms, losing to Katamari Damacy . [7]

Legacy

Fans have modified the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme engine to implement features that were first introduced in subsequent games. DDR Extreme Pro enables the Marvelous timing window in all play modes, [8] a feature that debuted in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 . DDR Extreme Clarity improves upon Pro by adding Slow and Fast timing indicators, [8] a feature only available at the operator's discretion beginning with Dance Dance Revolution X2 , and only available with an e-Amusement membership since the 2014 release of DDR.

The lack of official releases outside of Japan led to bootlegged versions of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme. Most of these merely remove security checks compared to the original. Some have additional modifications, however:

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dance Dance Revolution, Dance Dance Revolution A received a DDR Selection mode, featuring songs from older mixes. Nine songs available in DDR Extreme, including two DDRMAX songs and three DDRMAX2 songs, can be played with the Extreme interface by using this mode. Dance Dance Revolution A20 also offers this mode.

Dance Dance Revolution A20 introduced the Legend License campaign on golden cabinets, adding a new cover version of a song from previous games as free downloadable content monthly. Of the five songs released to date, four are available in DDR Extreme: [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance genre in video games. Players stand on a "dance platform" or stage and hit colored arrows laid out in a cross with their feet to musical and visual cues. Players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented to them and are allowed to choose more music to play to if they receive a passing score.

Dancing Stage is a series of music video games developed and published by Konami. It is a spin-off of Dance Dance Revolution for the European market as well as a few Japanese titles. Games were released for arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Wii.

<i>Popn Music</i> 1998 video game

Pop'n Music, commonly abbreviated as Pop'n, PM or PNM and stylized as pop'n music, is a music video game series in the Bemani series made by Konami. The games are known for their bright colors, upbeat songs, and cute cartoon character graphics. Originally released in 1998, the series has had 22 home releases in Japan as well as 30 mainline arcade versions.

DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMix is the 6th game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released in the arcades by Konami on October 19, 2001, and for the PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, in Japan. 6thMix contains a total of 42 songs, all which made their first arcade appearance on this release. 11 of these songs debuted in various console releases prior to 6thMix. All arcade songs from Dance Dance Revolution to Dance Dance Revolution 5thMix were removed in 6thMix, although many of the Konami originals from those games would later be revived in future arcade releases.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution 4thMix</i> 2000 Video game

Dance Dance Revolution 4thMix is the fourth game in the main Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released as an arcade game by Konami on August 24, 2000, in Japan. 4thMix features 136 songs, of which 37 are new songs available and 12 are new unlockables that require an operator code. Dance Dance Revolution 4thMix Plus is an update that unlocks these 12 songs without an operator code, while also adding 14 new songs of its own, for a total of 150 songs.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix</i> 1999 Video game

Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix, sometimes abbreviated as 2ndMix, is the second game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released as an arcade game by Konami on January 29, 1999. The initial release has a total of 33 songs: 22 brand new songs, and 11 from its predecessor, Dance Dance Revolution.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution</i> (1998 video game) 1998 Video game

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a music video game, developed by Konami, released in arcades on November 18, 1998, in Japan. Dance Dance Revolution is a unique game involving dance and rhythm that defined the genre. It involves timing and balance by having players use their feet instead of their hands like typical video games. In March 1999, the game was released for North American arcades, and for European arcades under the name Dancing Stage. Players and game critics were caught off-guard by the game's addictive qualities winning the new franchise many merits to its design.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova</i> 2006 Video game

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova, released in Europe as Dancing Stage SuperNova is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Europe on April 28, 2006, followed shortly by a North American release in May and a Japanese release on July 12.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix</i> 2000 Video game

Dancing Stage featuring Disney's Rave is a music video game released in Japan in arcades on November 30, 2000. On the same day, it was also released for the PlayStation, but under the name Dance Dance Revolution Disney's Rave. It was later released in September 2001 North America as Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix and in Europe and Australia as Dancing Stage Disney Mix. It is based on Konami's Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series with animated Disney characters and electronic dance music remixes of past Disney songs. They also include a few non-Disney songs that were popular at the time of the game's release. It is considered to be one of the rarest DDR game released in arcades.

<i>Dancing Stage MegaMix</i> 2003 video game

Dancing Stage MegaMiX is the fifth home release in the Dancing Stage series, a European version of the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. MegaMix was the first Dancing Stage game released on the Sony PlayStation 2 game console - and as with Dancing Stage EuroMix 2, MegaMix introduced many new features to Europe, such as Freeze Arrows, the Options menu, and a cleaner interface. Based largely on Dancing Stage EuroMix 2, MegaMiX was separated from the arcade game by a completely different track list of songs. The game was marketed by Konami as a family game and an exercise tool in efforts to make the niche series more mainstream.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution X</i> 2008 Video game

Dance Dance Revolution X is a music video game developed by Konami. A part of the Dance Dance Revolution series, it was announced in 2008 for Japan and on May 15, 2008, for the North American PlayStation 2. The arcade version was announced on July 7, 2008, July 9, 2008 in Europe, and July 10, 2008, for North America. Released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Dance Dance Revolution, DDR X sports an improved interface, new music, and new modes of play. The arcade release featured an overhauled cabinet design with a widescreen display, e-Amusement and USB access, and an improved sound system. Despite such new design of its arcade cabinet, upgrade kit to change the edition of DDR on its first generation arcade cabinet from SuperNOVA2 to X is also available. The PlayStation 2 release has link ability with the arcade machine, multi-player support over LAN, and other improved and returning features such as EyeToy support. DDR X was called a "truly global version", with a multi-regional release by all three major Konami houses.

The music of Dance Dance Revolution X is a collection of tracks that are playable on Dance Dance Revolution X, a music video game first released in Japan by Konami on December 24, 2008, then later in Europe on June 3, 2009 and North America on June 9, 2009. The soundtracks for the different releases are primarily dance, hip hop, and synthpop based with additional tracks covering multiple other genres.

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme has a robust soundtrack. It includes many licensed tracks as well as in-house original music that was written and performed by Konami staff.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution X2</i> 2008 Video game

Dance Dance Revolution X2 is a music video game, and a part of the Dance Dance Revolution series. The arcade version of DDR X2 was revealed by Konami on November 20, 2009. The sequel to Dance Dance Revolution X, X2 began public beta testing on November 25, 2009. The game was released in Japan and Asia on July 7, 2010, North America on December 31, 2010, and Europe on May 13, 2011. It was the last arcade installment of Dance Dance Revolution with international releases until Dance Dance Revolution A.

Dance Dance Revolution X3 is a music video game, and a part of the Dance Dance Revolution series. The arcade version of DDR X3 was revealed by Konami on June 2, 2011. The sequel to Dance Dance Revolution X2, X3 began public beta testing on June 8, 2011. Promotional information for the game revealed the full name for the game, called Dance Dance Revolution X3 VS 2ndMix due to the new "2ndMix" mode in the game. It was released in Japan on November 16, 2011 for dedicated cabinets and November 30, 2011 for upgrade kits, and December 16, 2011 in Asia.

<i>Dance Dance Revolution II</i> 2011 video game

Dance Dance Revolution II, later released in Europe as Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 5, is a music video game in the Dance Dance Revolution series by Konami. It was released on October 11, 2011 for the Nintendo Wii in North America and on November 25, 2011 in Europe. Dance Dance Revolution II is the direct sequel to Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii. This game shares songs with the arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution X3 vs 2ndMix. It features characters from the arcade versions of Dance Dance Revolution. It was the final DDR game release for the Nintendo Wii and is the latest in the series to be released for a home console as of 2024.

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a music video game, the 14th installment of the Dance Dance Revolution series, and the sequel to Dance Dance Revolution X3 vs. 2ndMix. The game was revealed by Konami on October 24, 2012. Public beta testing commenced on October 26, 2012. It was released in Japan on March 14 and 21, 2013 for dedicated cabinets and upgrade kits, respectively, and in Asia on March 21, 2013. A limited test release occurred at select locations in the United States, beginning on August 4, 2015.

Dance Dance Revolution A is a music video game, the 15th installment of the Dance Dance Revolution arcade series in Japan, and the sequel to the 2014 release of Dance Dance Revolution. It was released on March 30, 2016 in Japan and Asia as a dedicated cabinet and as an upgrade kit, with Japan receiving a localized build, while the Korean release was delayed to the next week. This game was also released in North America later in 2016, in the form of new cabinets with e-Amusement connectivity, while Europe received new offline cabinets on December 15, 2017. It is the first international arcade release of Dance Dance Revolution since Dance Dance Revolution X2.

Dance Dance Revolution A20 is a music video game, the 16th installment of the Dance Dance Revolution arcade series in Japan, and the sequel to Dance Dance Revolution A. The game was released on new, golden cabinets on March 20, 2019, in Japan. A software upgrade for older cabinets for Japan and Asia was released on July 24, 2019, with South Korea receiving a localized release on August 1, 2019, and North America on September 24, 2019. A location test in Europe began on October 7, 2019, and ended on March 16, 2020.

References

  1. ダンスダンスレボリューションエクストリーム, Dansu Dansu Reboryūshon Ekusutorīmu
  2. 1 2 "Dance Dance Revolution Extreme". IGN. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
  3. "2005 MTV Video Music Awards Nominees". MTV . Archived from the original on 2015-09-26.
  4. "Konami ships quartet". GameSpot. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  5. Castro, Juan (October 3, 2005). "Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2". IGN . Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  6. "Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Metacritic Review Score". Metacritic .
  7. "Best and Worst of 2004". GameSpot . January 5, 2005. Archived from the original on March 7, 2005.
  8. 1 2 Zanneth. "DDR EXTREME CLARITY". zanneth.com.
  9. "DDR Megamix/King/"Extreme Plus" Discussion Thread". DDR Freak. 9 October 2004. p. 7. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  10. "DDR Megamix/King/"Extreme Plus" Discussion Thread". DDR Freak. 27 January 2008. p. 17. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  11. "DDR Megamix/King/"Extreme Plus" Discussion Thread". DDR Freak. 24 February 2005. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  12. Dance Dance Revolution (July 23, 2019). 【レジェンド楽曲追加】DanceDanceRevolution 20th anniversary modelにレジェンド楽曲続々追加!お楽しみに!#DDRA20 #黄金のDDRhttps://p.eagate.573.jp/game/ddr/ddra20/p/ …pic.twitter.com/Zqc32Psdvh. Twitter (in Japanese).