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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, a Worthwhile American Release, August 27, 2002
For a while, American fans of the dancing video game Dance Dance Revolution have been cheated. While the game went popular at the arcades in Japan, Konami of America didn't bother bringing it to the US, apparently feeling people would rather have more shooting, fighting, and racing games that are blending into each other. Eventually, after a while, Konami released Dance Dance Revolution USA into American arcades - and were summarily booed for it. Not for releasing the game, but for doing such a poor job of it, with a paltry number of songs compared to Japanese versions, and and out of date game engine.Soon after, they released a home version for the Playstation, simply titled "Dance Dance Revolution" - and were booed again, for the same reasons as the arcade one. A poor selection of songs, and an old game engine. Finally, though, with Dance Dance Revolution Konamix, Konami of America showed a decent effort at bringing Americans this incredible dancing game - just in time for them closing up their offices. The game uses the 4th mix engine. To those of you unfamiliar with it, that may not mean anything, but let's just say that there were newer, cleaner updates to the game engine in Japan that had previously been released, leaving us to wonder why the older version. It isn't too bad, though, since everything you'll want to play is present. Standard single mode is there, of course, along with versus mode, for two players at once, and double mode, for challenging the advanced players by requiring them to use both mats. The number of songs per game is also selectable, up to 5 at a time. Nonstop courses are there, allowing you to play up to five songs straight through, using the same life bar, no breaks between songs, and allowing you to string together huge step combos - if you can get the steps down. You can edit the nonstop courses, picking from among the 52 songs. 52 songs? Yes, unlike the 20 songs in the first US Playstation DDR release, Konami has given players a wonderful amount of songs, taken from anywhere from the first release, up through DDRMAX (without the freeze arrows). Classic songs like Dynamite Rave, Paranoia, and, sadly, Let Them Move, sit alongside newer songs such as On The Jazz and Dive, along with a happily vocal-free version of After the Game. Some people may complain about the selection, as other popular songs such as Butterfly, Kick the Can, Dam Dariram, or Dub-I-Dub have been left out, and there are a sizable number of more techno/trance songs such as Salamander Beat Crush, Genom Screams, and Wild Rush. However, all of the songs are dancable, and there is a great variety of step difficultues, from a pair of 1 footers for beginners, to a selection of great 9 foot catastrophic songs, such as Drop Out, Dead End, and the popular Matsuri Japan. Only 30 of the songs are available when you first start playing, but as you play, more and more songs become unlocked - assuming you have a memory card, of course. For the creative players, there is also an edit mode, allowing you to modify the existing steps for songs, or even create your own from scratch. You can record the steps by tapping the game pad or dance pad as the music plays, select sections of the song to play and tune the steps, and you don't have to worry about synchronizing the beat to the steps as in PC clones. However, there are a few bugs with edit mode, suggesting that it didn't recieve proper testing, though they aren't often a bother. If you've been a longtime fan of DDR, and have a number of imports from Japan already, you'll probably not find Konamix to be much of an addition to your collection. If you don't have any home versions, this is probably the best one to start with, and it is perfect for new players to get into the game, with enough songs to challenge you at any skill level.
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