Dance Dance Revolution Extreme

"Let's D-D-R! 8th mix is a hit!"

Dance Dance Revolution has arguably saved arcades. Ever since it's original release a few years back, it has brought people flooding back into arcades by the dozen, and with each new release, it has only gotten better, cooler, and all-around more fun for everyone, and the newest installment, DDR Extreme, is no exception.

Officially the 8th version of the game, Konami's DDR Extreme offers an unheard-of range of difficulty, so that it may be enjoyed by the newest of newbies all the way up to the most decorated experts. With the four basic difficulty settings of Beginner, Light, Standard, and Heavy, plus two additional game modes for extra challenges, players can feel free to progress at their own rate rather than one the game decides on without ever being too hard or too easy.

The basic object of the game is simple to understand, but not quite so easy to pull off: When the music starts, arrows will begin scrolling up the screen from the bottom, pointing in one of 4 directions (up, down, left, or right). When they reach the top of the screen, it's the players job to step on the corresponding arrow on the dance platform as closely as they possibly can to the time the onscreen arrow reaches the top. Each step is graded based how how close you came to stepping at the right time: A "Perfect" means you stepped at exactly the right time. A "Great" means you were just a little bit off the beat. A "Good" means you were a little bit more off than a Great. A "Boo" means you were way off but you at least hit the arrow. A "Miss" obviously means you didn't hit the arrow at all. In addition to the regular arrows, there are two other kinds: Jumps, where you have to hit 2 arrows at the same time; and freeze arrows, also called hold arrows, which are arrows with long green tails, and must be held down for the entire length of the green tail. Successfully holding the freeze arrow gives you an "OK," but if you pick up your feet too soon, the arrow turns black and you receive an "NG," meaning No Good. Generally speaking you want to try to get Greats, or even better perfects, and OKs all the time. As you dance, you will see your lifebar at the top of the screen fluctuating. As you get perfects, greats, and OKs, this green meter will fill up. Once it gets full it will start flashing yellows and reds and oranges in congratulations. But if you start getting Boos, Misses, and NGs (Nothing happens with Goods) the lifebar will decrease. If it gets too low it will start flashing red, and a Danger warning will appear onscreen. Once the meter hits rock bottom, it's Game Over.

For beginners the game offers a quick tutorial about how to play the game, includes an onscreen dancer for the player to watch and learn from during the song, and features a special immunity to failing a song so as not to crush the spirits of beginning gamers. Once the player moves up to Light mode, the game features all kinds of backgrounds that zoom around while you dance, though you'll probably be too focused on the arrows to enjoy them while you're playing. The backgrounds often overlap, but they don't ever seem to get old and are very rarely distracting. Some are cool, some are weird, and some, like an image of a jazzercising rabbit or a group of line-dancing frogs, are just plain funny.

One of the most impressive things about DDR Extreme is it's song selection. Extreme dwarfs all of its previous versions with more than 230 songs to choose from, each with it's own unique sound and each with its own natural difficulty level that can cause the normal difficulty settings to overlap. Some songs are so naturally difficult that on Standard mode they are more challenging than some Heavy songs.

DDR Extreme is also very customizable. By holding down the selection button after choosing a song, a list of options appears that allows players to customize the steps of the song they have chosen. These "mods," as they are commonly called, come in many different categories: Speed mods, which increases the scrolling speed of the arrows onscreen; Appearance, which changes exactly how the arrows look; Arrange, which changes the arrangement of the arrows throughout the song; and several more.

In addition to the normal game mode, there are two special modes designed with the long-time player in mind. The first of these is Nonstop mode, where players play sets of 4 songs in a row without any time to rest in between. The courses are all pre-chosen, but for those with a daring spirit there is also an option to play 4 completely random songs and hope for the best. All of the mods available in normal mode are also available here. Nonstop also includes an additional step grade, called Marvelous, which is a grade even higher than Perfect. If you're getting a lot of Marvelouses on Nonstop, you know you're right on the beat!

The 3rd and most challenging game mode is appropriately called "Challenge Mode," or as many affectionate players call it, "Oni" mode. The layout of Oni mode is basically that of Nonstop, but with much stricter rules. Like Nonstop mode, players choose courses which will be played without any breaks between songs. However, all of the courses are at least 5 songs long and can be as long as 9 songs. In addition, players are not allowed to use mods of any kind. And most challenging of all, your lifebar changes into a 3-piece battery icon. For every step you make that is NOT a Marvelous, Perfect, Great, or OK, one of the 3 pieces will disappear. After the 3 pieces are gone, one more wrong move and it's game over. Fortunately you will get a bit of a refill after each song; exactly how much refill you get depends on the difficulty of the song.

As you climb to the harder and harder modes, it becomes very apparent that DDR is not only fun, but a very good cardiovascular workout. If there was ever a way to get your daily exercise while playing video games, this is it. Anyone who doesn't believe it can see for themselves. It's very hard to watch people pass the hardest songs in the game such as "Max 300" and "Paranoia Survivor" and say it isn't a workout, because it is.

All in all, the only reason this game doesn't have a 10 rating in my eyes is because I believe no game deserves a perfect 10. And though the problems with DDR Extreme are very minimal, they are there. The only two worth mentioning, though, are these:

First, despite it's impressive song selection, Extreme has left out some fan favorites, such as "Ghosts," "Dream a Dream," and "Sandstorm" to name a few. Second, with a select few songs the arrows and the song are not in perfect sync, forcing the player to step a little early or a little late to get perfects on those songs.

Despite these minor shortcomings, DDR Extreme is easily the best mix in the series. And since it is probably going to be the last official release of the game, it's good that Konami has ended the series on a very strong note.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/04