"The Dance Dance Revolution franchise continues to grow its considerable fan-base, reaching a level of critical and commercial success reserved for only a handful of transcendent video game brands," said Jason Enos, Senior Product Manager at Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2 is a tent-pole release for the franchise that has found its way from arcades to living rooms and beyond - it will be a must-have game for any DDR fan."

A release date has not yet been announced.]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:26:00 -0500 Tim Grube http://www.gamebump.com/go/e3_07_ddr_universe_2_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/e3_07_ddr_universe_2_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/e3_07_ddr_universe_2_announced# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

"DDR UNIVERSE2 offers new features and gameplay options that will appeal to aspiring and existing DDR fans," said Jason Enos, Senior Product Manager at Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "The next generation graphics make this the best-looking DDR game to date while the new features and online capabilities offer gamers a wider array of options than ever before. For non-stop action and fun, this is a must-have game for Xbox 360 owners."

A release date not yet revealed. 

]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:20:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_dance_factory_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_dance_factory_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_dance_factory_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Every Dance Dance Revolution fan’s dream is to use DDR steps to their own favorite music. Codemasters’ Dance Factory allows you to do just that. Sounds like a DDR killer doesn’t it, considering that all you need is this one game because the playlist will feature all of your favorite tunes and none that you don’t like. The list is only as large or as small as your own personal collection. Too bad it doesn’t even come close to toppling Konami’s giant.

You can use your own songs to dance to. That’s it. Seriously. Oh, and it comes with five preloaded tracks that you may not even touch.

Dancing to your favorite tracks is a dream come true for dancing rhythm fans, but Dance Factory has some serious shortcomings that ruin the dream. The random note generator at first seems like an impressive feat. I say at first because you’ll eventually notice that the note patterns are predictable within one song. You’ll see one pattern repeated over the course of a few measures, change into another one, and then repeat that pattern. The transitions in distinct patterns also don’t make any sense in the context of the songs’ rhythm.

The biggest downfall of the note generator is that it isn’t very good. It misses the timing of some of the steps. The more you play Dance Factory, the more you realize that certain notes and even large sections of songs have the dance arrows a half-beat off. This of course means that while technically you’re hitting the step on the correct beat, the game reads you as a step too fast or too slow leading to many a failed song. The generator on one of the songs I used was so bad that just about the entire song was unplayable. On another occasion, the entire last 30 seconds of a song had no notes to step to – until the very last down beat. And I’d like to point out that during a slow breakdown part of the song, I had some relatively busy steps to perform.

Generating the steps for the songs is a pain in the butt as well. It takes some patience, but it moves fast enough that it doesn’t seem tedious. They even included a little puzzle game to help bide the time as it reads the tracks. The problem is that it loves to fail to read tracks. So, when you try to read a whole CD, it’s almost a guarantee that at least one track will get skipped because of some reading hiccup. The worst thing is when the entire generation process craps out leading to a hard reset of the system. At least you can save step patterns so that when you insert the CD again, it’ll read it quickly.

Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself – “what about creating your own steps?” Don’t even bother trying here since you can only create a dance in real time. Yes, the only way you can create a dance is to jump and step around on a pad while it’s playing in real time. Being able to slow the song down or place steps upon a grid of some sort would have worked so much better, but no, anything of the sort is nowhere to be found.

Dance Factory offers three difficulty modes – easy, normal, and pro. Easy is very simplistic. Normal offers a decent challenge, though DDR vets will find it way too easy. Then there’s pro. To put it bluntly, pro mode is useless. All pro offers is very fast moving arrows, sometimes so fast (depending on the song’s beats per minute) that the patterns are impossible to read. And since it’s based on a song’s speed, the only challenging songs are fast ones. DDR fans will find this troubling because they know that there are some slow songs that are just as challenging as some of the fastest ones because of how technical they can be. Well, that’s not the case here, especially since sixteenth notes are nonexistent, and eighth notes very rarely make an appearance, even on pro.

Another gripe is workout mode. If you have low self-esteem, avoid this mode at all costs. I don’t understand how hitting a note perfectly gives you a “super fit” message, but completely missing a step give you a “pork out” message. So, just because I missed a step because of the game’s horrible step generator, I’m told I’m porking out? I still stepped and moved, so doesn’t that mean I still burned a few calories, not gained some? Whoever let this slide must be a thin person who felt good about themselves.

The cover mentions that Dance Factory is compatible with all dance mats. That’s not entirely true. Konami pads, i.e. the one’s packed in with DDR games, are not good to use because it’s missing the square and triangle buttons. Triangle is necessary to exit most menus and since the Konami pad doesn’t have one, it’s impossible to go back in a menu without a controller plugged into the open port. Now, in the options, there is a way to change what buttons control confirm and exit, but of all the schemes available, none offer X for confirm, circle for back (or vice versa), which means if the square- and triangle-less Konami pads are all you have, you’re out of luck. Nice job programming there guys.

Lastly, the graphics are sorely lacking, but it has a good excuse. Because you have to replace the game disc with a music CD, the backgrounds are simplified so that it can run it through the PS2’s RAM. What I dislike about them is that some of the purchasable backgrounds are so busy flashing that it disrupts viewing the arrows clearly. As if having the arrows off by a half-beat isn’t enough, you have to deal with a visual handicap.

Dancing to your own songs is a very novel idea - one that Codemasters sought to cash in on. Unfortunately, while the idea is awesome, the execution is downright putrid. The step generator, quite frankly, is horrible, what with its mistimed offbeat steps, low challenge (unless you’re looking to break a leg speed record on pro), and constant glitching when reading tracks. Despite the fact that Konami’s series has a static playlist, you’re better off buying another version of DDR than dealing with this piece of crap called Dance Factory. Or better yet, just pop in a CD and groove your own way.

The step generator sucks. I can’t put it any other way.

There’s really nothing much to be said considering that it runs off the PS2’s RAM.

Your soundtrack, your rules; that is if you can actually find a playable song that’s on-beat.

It would be so fun if the generator actually produced on-beat steps.

It’s as deep or as limited as your own personal collection. You will find some that work.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:26:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/konami_reveals_partial_song_list_for_ddr_supernova http://www.gamebump.com/go/konami_reveals_partial_song_list_for_ddr_supernova http://www.gamebump.com/go/konami_reveals_partial_song_list_for_ddr_supernova# Today, Konami announced a partial song list for its upcoming PS2 DDR release dubbed SuperNOVA. The press release mentions that there will be over 70 songs on the final list, which impressively spans many genres and styles of music. Sneak a peek below at some of the songs they've revealed.

Partial SuperNOVA Song List (not including hidden tracks)

Battle Without Honor Or Humanity - By Tomoyasu Hotei
Centerfold(130 BPM move it remix) - By Captain Jack
Come Clean - By NM featuring Susan Z
Curus - By D-crew
Dance, Dance - By Fall Out Boy
Do You Want To - By Franz Ferdinand
Doll - By ÇsðüÇqÇ`
Flow (True Style) - By Scotty D. revisits U1
Fly away - By ChiyoTia
Freckles (KCP Re-Edit) - By Tiggy
Funkytown - By Lipps's, Inc
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - By Cyndi Lauper
Heaven is a Place on Earth (German Election Mix) - By Julia
Hit 'n' Slap - By Asletics
Jerk it Out - By Caesars
L.E.F. (Loud Electronic Ferocious) - By Ferry Corsten
Let's Dance - By David Bowie
Mr. Dabada (Groove Wonder Remix) - By Carlos Jean
Mugen - By ÇsðüÇqÇ`
My Only Shining Star - By Naoki feat. Becky Lucinda
No.13 - By Taka respect for J.S.B
Peace(^^)v - By BeForU
Robogirl - By The Crystal Method
Shivers(Radio Edit) - By Armin van Buuren
Shout - By Lulu
Since U Been Gone - By Kelly Clarkson
Star Gate Heaven - By SySF. feat. Donna Burke
The Other Side(radio mix) - By Paul van Dyk feat. Wayne Johnson
True Love - By Jun
Turn On the Music(Axwell Radio Edit) - By Roger Sanchez
Video Killed The Radio Star - By The Buggles
Xepher - By Tatsh

Though the PlayStation Portable may have its shortcomings, if it’s one thing Sony’s sleek handheld doesn’t lack, it’s basic RPGs – most of which have been coming from Sony’s in-house Japan developers. Titles like Kingdom of Paradise and the Untold Legends series have at least given PSP RPGers something to tide them over until more high-quality games (including Square’s just released Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth) have hit the market, and in that vain comes NIS America’s Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light, another Sony in-house title made in Japan.

Blade Dancer is a basic RPG that throws in an average hero, a “save the world” quest, a flashy opening, tons of enemies to plow through, and a lovely anime style that RPG fans will appreciate, but it isn’t enough. Despite the fact that the title is actually playable, its flaws will combine to overwhelm you and will leave you both frustrated and infuriated at its gameplay.

Blade Dancer begins with a typical plot-base: gamers are cast as Lance, a young adventurer hoping to test his skills in the secretive kingdom of Foo, which has just begun opening its doors to the rest of the world. Though Lance is eager to jump into the fray and help as many people as he can get his hands on (slaying dozens of foes while he’s at it), Blade Dancer doesn’t start with a traditional main quest; instead, the game allows the player to freely roam around town while picking up side quests, meeting NPCs, and learning the immediate layout of the land. Eventually the player is thrust into the primary storyline, which sees Lance (who may, or may not be the famed “Blade Dancer” – judging from the moon on his face, I’d say it’s a solid bet) fighting against an evil force from Foo’s dark past. In the process, there’s a pretty girl who needs rescuing and a world that needs protecting from this sinister figure, and of course a few allies who are willing to help Lance along the way. 

The action in Blade Dancer can be summed up in a simple formula: you maneuver Lance through the town, picking up quests and preparing for danger before actually trading the security of those big gray walls for lots and lots of monsters. The missions are quite standard and involve you seeking out characters, foes, and items to exchange for rewards. Prior to leaving town to embark on an adventure, however, you’re forced to stock up on items – especially crafting objects – because every piece of weaponry in the game has a durability meter that represents the likelihood of its shattering during combat.

And because your weapons break, you’re faced with two options: either purchasing duplicates from the weapon store (easy, but pricey) or making your own copies. To do this it’s off to the appraiser’s office, where an NPC will charge you the flat rate of 100G to disassemble your desired object (weapon, potion, or armor). Once you’ve broken Lance’s new sword into pieces, you can then pay to have the appraiser break each piece into its pieces, and so on until you’ve got a set of recipes that will eventually lead you back up to your new sword.

After you’ve enriched the appraiser it’s off to the crafting broker, who will sell you some of the basics needed to craft duplicates of the sword you just reassembled yourself (that lazy appraiser won't help you here). Crafting is a big highlight in Blade Dancer’s gameplay; if you’re the RPGer who is delighted by the opportunity of creating junk and then selling it at mark-up, or using that junk because weapons constantly break on you, you’ll have a great time. Lance is gifted with 100 item slots to hold all those crafting materials, complete with an arrange (i.e., stack) option, so there’s plenty of room to collect crafting goodies. To obtain them, though, you’ll have to use both the crafting broker and the game’s battle scheme, as some materials are only dropped off monsters.

Once you’ve filled Lance’s slots with potions and duplicate swords, it’s time to move outside for some actual fighting. Enemies in Blade Dancer come in small groups and are represented on-screen by giant flying skulls; the skulls’ color indicates how below (blue) or above (red) your level the opponents are, while a nice, angry white skull is a perfect target. The skulls patrol set paths and either make chomping gestures while they’re fleeing from Lance or soar right into him to instigate a fight. Then the now-traditional active-time battle system kicks in and things get a bit more interesting. Blade Dancer’s fight sequences make use of lunar clocks, which are small circles next to each teammate’s name. As the “hand” on the clock comes full circle, an exclamation point lights up and it’s time to select that character to plan an attack; characters can also use items, run away (always handy), or equip a different weapon (preferably one that won’t break during the fight). However, there's no defense option.

Each attack, whether it’s derived from an opponent or an ally, fills up the shared lunar gauge, which is the bar at the top of the screen that determines a character’s “lunabilities”. Lunabilities are special abilities that are unleashed from within each character, and each requires a certain amount (points... ) of lunar energy, which is taken from the lunar gauge. They range from solo specials to powerful group attacks that involve the whole team, and also contain the typical heal, defense up, attack up, etc., spells. The lunability feature definitely increases the game’s difficulty level, as you’ll want to use up points on the lunar gauge before your opponents do and also keep tab on whose raising the bar the most/preparing to go lunar on Lance’s team. When someone is about to launch a lunability, hitting that person (again, friend or foe) will often break the charge and return those lunar points to the gauge.

All of this fighting and exploring would be incomplete without several towns to visit and various environments to explore, and Hit Maker at least made an attempt to enliven the experience. The game makes use of the typical waterfall or steam, along with lush, green forests and blue skies overhead. For more enhanced visuals, character animations are smooth and are highlighted by long segments of Lance running from place to place, while the cutscenes (which use in-game graphics and vibrantly colored storyboard character depictions) give the game much needed presentation points. Lunabilities performed during battles are also nice touches and provide the gamer with some graphical flash. 

To keep up with the average visual presentation, Blade Dancer features some lovely background music used for towns and important moments. The game’s opening theme is also very catchy, and voiceovers thankfully offer two options: either the energetic English approach, or traditional Japanese voiceacting (pick the latter). Typical ambient sounds – Lance’s feet hitting the earth, sword slashes, etc., - also abound. 

A key word used for describing the majority of Blade Dancer’s gameplay is “mediocre,” and that’s on a respectful note. To put it bluntly, nearly every aspect of the game is going to irritate you, beginning with the plot. Lance just sort of falls into the main storyline: He journeys to Foo, seeking adventure, and happens to find it (i.e., the bad guy). He essentially does what he can because he can, and despite his noble promise to help people, the gamer doesn’t take away much in terms of explanation or character depth – which is why I didn’t bother to detail the rest of the party. Tess, Gozen, and Felis are as static as Lance and should be considered as nothing more than animated place holders for Lance’s back-up attacks, and this is a bad thing for an RPG because RPGs encourage you to form attachments to characters and events – which requires context.

The next fault concerns the representational skulls in place of real enemies, which not only cheapens the experience (you’re not avoiding life-threatening dragons or challenging terrifying pirates, but skulls... ) but aggravates you as the skulls line up while they chase you down. In the end, you’re fighting several battles as the skulls catch up to you, such that you’re battling in succession; the real pain here is that you can’t stop to heal yourself between the mayhem (Hit Maker recommends lengthening fights in order to cast heal spells before the win for precisely this reason). You get the same problem during exploration when you’re stuck in certain areas – like closed corridors – because the skulls quickly regenerate and resume patrol. Add to this the fewer save spots/life points (save circles don’t heal you, and therefore the game needs life points) and weapons that routinely break for a hellish good time.

Moreover, there’s a serious balancing issue. Despite the blue/white/red marked skulls, some of the blue skulls house opponents that can and will decimate your team on occasion, while white skulls can be harder than the red. The improper balancing (paired with the inability to heal before the next fight) means that you’ll be dying a lot, especially while traversing areas teaming with white/red skulls. And frequent dying, of course, adds to the already frequent loading times, which occur as you zone into new segments of town or even enter/leave a house.

Another flaw is really three-fold. Lance runs quite slowly throughout the large areas, so when you’re running from place to place (in town) before you set out for monster-slaying and girl-saving, prepare for a lot of backtracking, which amounts to a lot of wasted time. More so when you’re working with fewer save spots, because when you load up after a death you’re headed straight through the same areas only to die again. Furthermore, due to the game’s poor balancing, you’ll be spending a lot of hours leveling up, going back to town to re-equip and forge duplicates, and then more travel time running all the way back to where you left off.

Blade Dancer’s presentation also takes a few hits. The environments are quite bland and amount to a bulk of gray – castles, walls, streets – or brown – walls, streets, etc., - or green (those forests again). There’s also a slight draw-in problem for characters and items, as they only pop up when you’re approaching them and hence, you can rarely see anything off in the distance. Many of the areas feature spots covered in a light mist or very tight hallways (that you can’t avoid baddies while you walk through), and again, this cheapens what you’re seeing. Characters models, while average, are also recycled between characters of the same class/type (i.e., peasants). Animations are smooth when you do get them during cutscenes/while Lance plays errand boy, but in some spots they’re almost removed entirely. For example, during battle sequences when Lance or an ally approaches an opponent, he just pops up in front of the selected target and swipes – there’s a three second gap during which Lance is running to his foe that is removed from the action, and Blade Dancer doesn’t need that gap.

The audio fares no better. The player gets absolutely no sound while she travels through areas outside of town, with the exception of Lance’s footfall and the strange noise emitted from the skulls as they target Lance for the kill. The game offers no music during very long bouts of roaming for missions, and that’s an extreme downside for an RPG that forces you to put in that extra roaming time.

I’m also displeased with the crafting system, which is supposed to make it easier (and cheaper) to create duplicates so that Lance and friends can level up with less worries. Unfortunately, some of the items needed for more advanced weaponry aren’t sold at the crafting broker, and this becomes added frustration when you can’t get the items to drop on the field.

Finally, the game’s worst fault is that because the action, the missions, the battles, and Lance are so ungodly slow, you’ll be in the same stage of the game 15 hours in as you were at 1 hour, and that’s just painful. You can spend a dozen hours of your life wading through Blade Dancer’s enemies and not get anywhere – few directions, too many re-spawning baddies, breaking weapons, no music during your hours of struggle, widely dispersed save/life circles, bland environs, lots of repetition, backtracking, and lots of boredom are all present in Blade Dancer – and all are the aspects of the masochist’s RPG. 

And if you are a masochist, feel free to encourage your friends to purchase additional copies so you can create teams for network play because suffering through the main game just isn’t enough. 

As an avid RPGer and NIS America fan, I was definitely expecting more from Hit Maker and Sony's Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light. As it stands, the goal of the game seems to be that you level up to the point that you can walk through a new area without dying in the middle, and this isn’t enjoyable in the slightest. If you’ve got an urge for an extremely challenging and unrewarding (yet functional) RPG, give it a go. Everyone else is better off waiting for the next PSP game. 

Functional, but painful, and I’m not a fan of repetitious pain.

The environs are livable and animations work well, when we get them. Needs more flash.

When we get it. Town music, opening theme, and Japanese voiceovers are nice, though.

It’s not completely terrible and is far from a very bad game, so you may have some fun.

As with most RPGs, if you like it enough to finish, you’ll spend a lot of time with it.

]]> Wed, 02 Aug 2006 19:31:00 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_ddr_universe_screenshots http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_ddr_universe_screenshots http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_ddr_universe_screenshots# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Dancing games have been popular for the last few years both in the arcades and, for those of us who are more bashful, secretly in our own homes. Up until now gamers have been stuck with the songs and routines that Konami provides, but that is no longer the case when Codemasters releases its dance title Dance Factory at the end of March.

The biggest sell for Dance Factory is the fact that players will be able to have an unlimited number of tracks to dance to and can do it to all their favorite stuff from Beethoven to KISS and every musical taste in between. You want punk, rock, jazz, country or classical? You’ve got it all here. Whatever is in your music collection Dance Factory claims it can play and give you a routine to dance to.

Dance Factory is the first game to go stateside that allows you to play your own music in a dancing game. Players simply take out the game disc and put in their own music, CD-R’s are also allowed. Then the game analyzes your CD and you can dance to any track you desire or the whole disc. Gamers can save tracks onto a memory card as well although there is no word how much memory a song takes up.

Besides your own music, Dance Factory features the ability to make your own routines too. Players can save the steps onto their memory cards for future reference.

The game features several difficulty options so that there will be more or less steps to a routine if you want. Factory includes multiple game types too, including fitness mode which features a calorie counter, endurance mode which has you go through a CD, and creature mode which has a little animal dance with you. Players can also take advantage of the EyeToy capability which has players reach for markers on-screen to do a full body workout.

Dance Factory looks to be a hit with fans of the DDR craze and might even be able to convert those who haven’t desired to play the series yet due to music selection. The game hits a narrow audience no doubt, but will provide everything you desire in full music and routine selection. Codemasters appears to have skimped in one aspect of the game, though, and that is the background visuals which are dull and simplistic. Nevertheless, Dance Factory should do well upon its release in late March.]]> Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:11:04 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/ddr_is_headed_to_school http://www.gamebump.com/go/ddr_is_headed_to_school http://www.gamebump.com/go/ddr_is_headed_to_school# Konami has announced that they have signed on to a three-year deal with the State of West Virginia by bringing Dance Dance Revolution to physical education courses to all 765 schools.

The entire phasing will take two years. The first to see the change is the 103 middle and junior high schools which should feature the program in the next few months.

“Bringing the health benefits and enjoyment that DDR provides to school children is a great way to combat childhood obesity that is caused by the sedentary lifestyle of today’s kids,” said Clara Gilbert, Director of Business Partnerships at Konami. “DDR has been a proven success in schools. This first-of-its-kind partnership will help us continue to demonstrate the benefits of DDR to consumers around the country.”

These days, it seems like we can’t go a couple of weeks anymore without a new DDR game coming out. That said, the series gears up for its third Xbox release with Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3. Do some of the new modes give the series some freshness or is it just more of the same?

Dance Dance vets can skip this paragraph; novices, however, take a gander. If you’re unfamiliar with DDR then here is a very brief rundown on how the game works. A series of arrow will make their way up the screen and when they get to the set of outlined arrows at the top, you must hit the directions that correspond to them. On a controller it’s simple and downright boring – that’s why Konami sells the game in a bundle pack with their now-famous dance pad. Playing DDR with this pad and following the movements dictated by the arrows will make it look like you’re actually dancing, that is though only on the higher difficulties. And just like other rhythm games, timing is the key. Hit the arrows at the right time and you’ll get a “perfect” rating and the occasional “great” if you’re off by a split-second. Continue getting those ratings and you’ll perform combos and keep your approval meter high. Get “bad” and “boo” often and you’ll be booted off the pad and the song will end. Got all that? Good.

Now that the basics are out of the way, it’s time to look at some of the other options outside of the main dance mode. There’s party mode that features a good number of minigames to play if you’ve got friends and spare dance pads. You can play against the computer, but it definitely isn’t as fun if you were playing with real people. Attack plays like the versus mode in a puzzle game where step combos will cause viruses to attack the opposing player that prevent them from performing a successful combo of their own. Bomb is almost the same except step combos will pass the bomb around ala hot potato and the one caught with it when the timer runs out loses. Point is an interesting mode in that a point is lost when a player gets a worse rating on a step than the other, thus evenly matched players can expect some of these matches to last for quite a while. There’s also a quad mode, but we couldn’t test that out to its fullest extent since we don’t have four mats here at the office. Lastly, there’s score which is your standard high-point total wins, and challenge mode in which the game throws out goals you’ll need to meet. It’s a lot easier than the previous versions of the oni mode because most of the challenges take place over a small section of a song.

There’s also some things you can do on Xbox Live. You’ll be able to play in some of the multiplayer modes against other dancers across the globe, but the biggest appeal is downloading new song packs. However, at the time of this review there were none available. Also, be prepared to pay for the song packets if/when you download them.

The soundtrack feels quite different than other entries in the DDR franchise. It’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing - it’s just something that I personally didn’t care for either way. If you’re a fan of more popular songs, then you’ll really like this song list. You’ll find newer songs like “Hey Mama” from the Black Eye Peas and for the older crowd “Whip It” by Devo and “Rock Lobster” from the B-52’s. But, if you’re a fan of the Konami originals, especially the classic ones, then you’ll feel that that selection of songs is sorely underrepresented here. Yes, you’ll find the timeless hit “Butterfly”, but beyond that, there’s nothing much to appease fans of the classics.

Despite this being the latest DDR release, the overall experience hasn’t changed much. It’s more of the same even with the new modes, and two of the more advertised modes come off as lackluster and flat-out boring because there isn’t any direction in them.

The first is freestyle mode. Here you can dance however you like to a song with no limitations due to a passing meter or arrow pattern. Thus this entire mode is, well, pointless. It gets worse when text messages appear from time to time to remind you to “jump more” or “get back on the rhythm”. There’s nothing to lead you, there’s nothing you’re aiming for, yet the game is still telling you how to dance? The idea was nice, but unfortunately there’s nothing satisfying about it.

The other is quest mode. In this mode, you’re an aspiring DDR champion traveling to different cities all over the globe to show off your skills and gain a fanbase. To do this, you’ll need to dance songs and acquire points. When you’ve finally accrued the target amount, you move on to the next city. And that’s all – no point, no ending to tie up all the loose ends. Another bad thing is the fact that songs only dole out points in the hundreds while the target amount is in the hundreds of thousands. So, you’re stuck dancing for long amounts of time just to move on to the next city to start the process all over again. The only reason why I can see anyone playing this mode is to get the songs on oni difficulty.

The same tried-and-true gameplay is still fun and solid as ever and should easily please fans of the series. However, it seems that Konami knows that the novelty of the gameplay has worn off and made a number of attempts to freshen things up a tad. Unfortunately, those attempts severely fall flat and what you’re left with is a game you’ve seen a dozen times over, just with a new soundtrack. The amount of enjoyment you get from it will depend on your tastes in music and whether or not you’re tired of the dancing to arrows bit.

Konami has done this a million times over and it’s still great.

Dancers and videos look cleaner than they have in years, but still minimal.

No matter your tastes in music, this game sounds terrific.

Dancing is still very fun, but the new modes aren’t.

With over 70 songs to choose from, you’ll be spending a lot of time on the dance pad.

]]> Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:35:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/flow_urban_dance_uprising_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/flow_urban_dance_uprising_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/flow_urban_dance_uprising_announced#

“Ubisoft is excited to bring the first hip hop dance experience to the Playstation 2,” said Jay Cohen, vice president of publishing at Ubisoft. “Flow: Urban Dance Uprising™’s infectious hip-hop soundtrack, authentic b-boy moves and rich 3D environments will make it one of the most exciting dance games to play.”

The game is expected to feature fifty urban dance tracks including tracks from famous hip hop artists and six modes of play and three difficulty levels to choose from. The EyeToy technology will also be integrated.

Flow is due out this holiday season.

Though the Dance Dance Revolution craze has died down greatly since its peak a couple of years ago, Konami hasn’t forgotten about those who still have the itch to move their feet on the dance pad. We’ve seen DDRMAX 2 and DDR Extreme the last two years and now Konami releases its second game under the Extreme moniker – Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2.

It’s good to know that even after all these years, the gameplay remains as solid and crisp as ever. The timing of the notes and presses is pretty generous this time around; not as unforgiving as a few of the previous entries, but not generous enough to make achieving a triple-A score cake.

The song list still isn’t varied with mostly techno and electronic-upped pop songs. That said, however, it should still satisfy both hardcore fans of the classics and fans looking for more mainstream stuff. You’ll find newer stuff like Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” and a cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”. For the oldies, “Boom Boom Dollar” makes a return as does “Butterfly (Upswing Mix)” and “Captain Jack”.

Dance master mode looks like a new addition to the series, but it’s just mission mode with a new name. In this mode you’ll need to meet a certain goal, like 55 perfects, to move on to the next stage. The new thing I like, though, is that playing this mode for hours on end allows you to open up songs and other bonuses. In DDR Extreme 2, you’re given point values for each kind of step you achieve (perfect, great, good, etc), and at the end of the song, these points are stored in a type of bank. With these points you can buy new songs and new dancer avatars. But, as I said, playing through dance master opens some of these things up in a much faster manner because you are awarded more points than if you were just dancing in free or workout modes.

Eyetoy support carries over into the second Extreme game, though it’s still not much. There are a few hand motion games and the same hand cursors added with dance steps. The Eyetoy games are nothing new and won’t blow your mind away, but they’re still a nice option to have nonetheless.

The newest and biggest addition to the series is the online mode. Here you can upload scores, view leaderboards, and the best part – dance head-to-head against other DDR masters. To keep things at an even keel, skill level is determined by the number of hours you’ve logged, but that can be deceiving since many of the best players only have a few hours because of how recent the game is.

The problem with the online mode is that it’s basically unusable. It’s hard to find anyone online to go head-to-head against. In fact, in the time I spent online with the game, I found no one to play against.

Another major gripe is that only 24 of the 70-odd songs are unlocked and most of them are the mainstream stuff – the majority of the Konami originals need to be unlocked. This may irk the “old guard” of DDR, but it keeps the game alive for a while because of the sheer number of things to be unlocked.

Other than the essentially useless online mode, Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 doesn’t do anything new or “revolutionary”. It’s still a solid game that diehards of the series will eat up, but for those looking for some added spice will be left wanting until Konami ships out the next one.

Still as solid as ever.

Cleaner than previous versions, but still nothing but swirly flashy backgrounds.

Playlist should appeal to a wide range of people. Songs still pump out with loads of energy.

Getting up and dancing is still fun as ever. Online is useless.

New dancer avatars on top of over 50 songs to unlock should keep fans occupied for a long time.

]]> Thu, 20 Oct 2005 23:59:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dance_dance_revolution_mario_mix_ngc1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dance_dance_revolution_mario_mix_ngc1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_dance_dance_revolution_mario_mix_ngc1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Aaron Thomas.

GameCube owners looking for a Dance Dance Revolution fix have been out of luck…until now. Konami and Nintendo are teaming up to bring Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix to the GameCube this October. The game was playable at E3, and I risked embarrassment to bring you the following impressions.

All you really need to know about the game is that it’s Dance Dance Revolution. If you’re a fan of the original or any of its many sequels, then you know exactly what you’re going to get with DDR: Mario Mix. Your job is to tap the arrows on the dance pad that correspond with what is happening on screen, and do it in time with the music - and that’s it. As the game gets tougher, the arrows will move faster and the patterns get more challenging. The game will have five difficulty levels, the easiest being accessible to even those with two left feet, and the hard being reasonably challenging for seasoned veterans of the series.

There are also going to be several mini-games to play that don’t involve dancing. Some of the games are:

Punch Up
Hidden Treasure
Coin Collection
Note Pickup
Flagpole Leap
Banana Storm
Avalanche

DDR: Mario Mix has over twenty five songs, including many re-mixed classic Nintendo themes, like songs from Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario 64, Wario World, and many more. Some of the songs that were playable on the floor include:

Starring Wario!
Here We Go!
Hammer Dance
Roller Coasting
Frozen Pipes
Boo Boogie
Fishing Frenzy
In the Whirlpool. 

DDR tends to be a game that hardcore gamers enjoy, and most of those people already have it on the PlayStation 2 or Xbox. Sure, there are casual people that play the game, but they usually aren’t the ones that go out and purchase it; they go and play it at a friend’s house. DDR: Mario Mix seems like a good game, but it’s hard to figure out who exactly it is supposed to appeal to, and who is going to buy it. I guess we’ll have to wait until October to find out the answer. ]]> Mon, 23 May 2005 22:49:28 -0500