DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution

"Ugh, this is ugly"

Oh, man, Konami screwed this one up big time. Fans of the arcade DDR MAX2 will NOT like this redux of the arcade classic. Many songs have been taken out, and replaced with some far from stellar ones. But first, we need to get to the other aspects of the game.

Graphics: 10/10
Graphics are the easiest thing to get right in a DDR game, and MAX2 is no exception. The backgrounds are crisp, the arrows fly up at a very smooth 60 FPS, and for licensed songs, you get parts of the song's music video!

Another thing I liked in DDR MAX2 was the return of a character option. Having played DDR 5th Mix first, I grew up with a character select feature, and I was quite pleased when I heard that characters were making a comeback for MAX2. That's not all. You can also go to the Options menu and select what character you want to use, you can have the game randomly choose one, or you can turn the whole thing off altogether. All in all, great graphics, but as I said before, they're the easiest thing to get right in a DDR game.

Sound: 10/10
Again, another easy thing to get right in a DDR game. The way to get the most out of the sound is if you use a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound system. This makes it more like the arcade version, and it's more fun to play. Also, you get to hear the announcer and crowd cheering or jeering, depending on how you're doing. The songs are great and there are no interruptions unless it's called for in the step patterns.

Gameplay: 10/10
DDR is not your conventional "pick-up-and-play" kind of game. You have a pad (or controller) with four arrows. When a colored arrow reaches the stationary silhouette arrow, you step on the corresponding arrow on the pad. Step patterns get harder as you go up in difficulty, and you can see how hard a song is by the number of feet on it. Foot difficulty ranges from 1-10, with 1 foot being a Beginner's Mode song, and 10 feet being a MAX on Heavy (i.e.: VERY hard).

This game takes a lot of time and patience to get good at. Gameplay is smooth, but the game is no fun if you don't have a dance pad.

Song Selection: 1/10
OMG. This is the WORST Japanese-to-English DDR mix to hit the States. A ton of better songs have been taken out and replaced with wussy ones. I mean to DDR players, how messed up is this: they took out Waka Laka and Tsugaru (Apple Mix)!!! Those are 2 of the most fun songs to play in DDR and they threw them out like yesterday's trash. Oh yeah, did I mention that Yozora no Muko--the most fun song I have ever played--was replaced by a piece of garbage song? This enrages me, and makes me want to mod my PS2 so I can import DDR MAX2 (7th Mix in Japan). And that's not all. A lot of catas have been taken out, too. The only ones worth playing that are there are Xenon, Vanity Angel, and Kakumei.

Another thing that is lacking in this redux is the customary two Paranoia songs. Even in DDR MAX (6th Mix in Japan), the guys at Konami were smart enough to give us 2 Paranoias (Evolution and MAX Dirty Mix). In MAX2, we get stiffed with only one Paranoia mix (KCET Clean Mix), and although KCET claims to be a 9-footer, it's not. I was also really hoping for MAX 300 to be alongside MAXX Unlimited, but it wasn't.

This is the REAL cruncher in the song selection score (pardon the alliteration): The brain donors at Konami had the nerve to take out a lot of songs that were only available on Challenge Mode. Now Kind Lady Interlude isn't that bad, but sticking us with Silent Hill Challenge and not giving us Sexy Planet Challenge or Afronova Challenge is disgusting. All in all, the song selection left a LOT to be desired, but Konami had to keep people coming into the arcades.

Extras: 6/10
The game has all the customary modes like Training Mode, Edit Mode, and the quite useful Workout Mode. What I liked was the Endless Mode, but it's no fun to play if you like freedom in selecting your songs or knowing which one will be next.

A thing that the better players didn't like was the exclusion of Oni Mode, and in it's place, the Nonstop Mode was put in. I didn't like Oni Mode because it was too hard, and I'm such a laid-back player, I like margin for error. However, Nonstop Mode is like regular play, only you select a preset song list (like in Oni Mode) and you try to pass all the songs without losing your entire life bar, which is exactly like your regular play one. However, all this had been done before, and I didn't like some parts of Endless Mode.

Final Scores:
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 10
Song Selection: 1
Extras: 6

Final Score: 6 out of 10

The Last Word: Unless you're a DDR newbie, steer clear of this game. A DDR arcade purist like me will NOT like this game at all.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/04