Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2

"Releases like this clearly reveal the series' age, especially in the wake of new competition"

Quick pros and cons:
+ DDR gameplay is still fun...
+ Great songlist this time, including a significant number of songs completely new to DDR
+ The intricate new Dance Master Mode can be addictive and entertaining
+ Most of last year's big problems were fixed
+ Some fun new modes were added
+ There's online play now...
- ...but it's bare-bones, with practically zero options
- More than 2/3 of the content is locked from the start
- The better you are at DDR, the more boring the unlock process is
- The scoring/grading system is still flawed, and it impacts online play now, too
- Virtually all of the EyeToy features introduced last year are gone
- Just one of the 100% brand-new stepcharts has a difficulty above 8. The rest of the hard stuff is years old
- Compared to the new competition, this is the same old thing

Dance Dance Revolution 5th MIX didn't go over so well in Japan. Players were getting better at DDR, and since the hardest songs in 5th were just as hard (or possibly even easier) than the hardest songs in 4th Plus, the new songs were mastered quickly. The gameplay had not changed.

Players were getting bored of DDR, and needed something new.

The second coming of DDR began in 2001 with DDRMAX, which added two things: the freeze arrow, and songs that were--on average--significantly more challenging than the old ones. The hardest songs in DDRMAX, like Flash In The Night, So Deep and MAX300, took some real time to master even for players that had "mastered" DDR before. Although the second coming of DDR wasn't as popular as the first, it breathed enough new life into the series to bring back many players that had gotten bored of it...for three more versions, at least.

I feel like this is now happening all over again with the DDR series worldwide. The series is not advancing. The hardest song has been the hardest song for almost three years, and the number of 9 and 10-footers has barely changed in that time. As the number of skilled players increases--which it has been doing over the last three years, as hard as that is for some people to believe--this is becoming more and more of a problem. In this same period of time, the core gameplay has not changed at all; it's still steps, jumps, freezes and that's it. Many players are getting bored of DDR and are either moving on to the In The Groove series or quitting stepping games entirely.

One of the big factors affecting this is the lack of a new arcade version. Home versions lack the social and performance aspects of the arcade, which are two of the game's biggest draws to begin with. At home, freestyle is pointless; the only real point is to clear songs and improve accuracy. KCEH has done their best to breathe life into the Ultramix series on Xbox, with challenging new steps, full-featured online play, the periodic release of new songs and even sharing of user-created steps...but most DDR players seem to only buy the PS2 versions. And the sad fact is that while DDR Extreme 2 isn't a bad version of the game (on the whole, it's quite a bit better than last year's), it does nothing to address the series' growing problem.

At first glance, Extreme 2 looks quite a bit different. The standard "game mode," which has now been renamed to Free Play Mode, is no longer the first option on the cluttered main menu. The first item on the list is now Dance Master Mode, an expanded Mission Mode that's almost double the size of the last one. Like in last year's version, you'll be asked to complete various challenges, including clearing songs, meeting various criteria and dealing with strange modifiers not usable in normal play. Unlike last time, however--when Mission Mode was an optional bonus--Dance Master is the main way to unlock the hidden songs, courses and other content in the game.

The unlocking is actually done through the Shop, where you "spend" earned points to "buy" new songs, etc. While points can be earned through just about every mode the game contains, the only way to add new items to the shop is by playing through Dance Master Mode (or by failing its missions enough that the game pities you). And as before, the harder missions you'll encounter are tricky, challenging exercises that will drive you mad for a while and then give you a feeling of satisfaction once you've finally cleared them.

This, at first, sounds great. And for players new to DDR, it IS great. Dance Master's first few dozen missions generally take place on Beginner and the easier Light songs, and even absolute beginners have a chance to complete missions, unlock stuff and be happy. But what if you've played the game before, you generally play Standard or Heavy, and find Beginner and Light boring? Too bad! You're forced to play through the easy missions anyway. There's no way to add a handicap, skip to the harder stuff or even add any modifiers (including speed). And the better you are at the game, the longer it will take for you to reach anything you'll actually find challenging. I'll admit that quite a few of the missions have second goals that are harder to reach than the "just clear it" goal--and those require a bit more skill--but nonetheless, several hours of boredom is hardly the way to reward longtime fans of the series for their continued support.

Once you're through the snoozefest, though, and reach the harder missions, Dance Master becomes pretty entertaining. It's fun to discover the paths that reach the hidden missions, tricky to complete all of the challenges with the best result possible, and entertaining to choose your unlocks once they become available in the Shop. It's just too bad that the early missions couldn't have had a Hard version.

On the other hand, if Dance Master doesn't sound interesting to you... too bad. If you jump into the Free Play mode (or any play mode besides Dance Master, for that matter) right away, you'll only find 24 songs on the list. The other 50--many of which you've possibly played in the arcade many times already--need to be unlocked, and Dance Master is by far the fastest way to do it. Quite a few courses and extra modes are locked, too. Playing the other modes will get you points for the shop, sure, but the points are worthless if there's nothing to buy, and you'll get bored of the 24 available songs long before you unlock everything if you stick to Free Play mode.

So once you've completed all of Dance Master, saved up a bundle of points, gone on a shopping spree and unlocked everything, what do you get? In case you're wondering, about half of the songs in the game can be played in the arcade version of Extreme. The majority of the other half is mostly new to DDR, although it also contains some repeats from older Japanese versions or (with different steps) the Ultramix series on Xbox.

The new licenses this time, for the most part, actually aren't very new at all; they're either a couple of years old (or more), or are covers of songs that are a couple of years old (or more). Oops! I Did It Again, Pump Up The Volume, Genie In A Bottle, Block Rockin' Beats and Spin Spin Sugar are just a few examples. Their steps often show some imagination--like Get Busy's clever, tricky Heavy steps--but most of them aren't all that challenging (most are rated 6 or 7). Also, at least for me: the fact that the songs are old makes this version feel older than it really is, which was a problem this version definitely didn't need! Even new players might be turned off by the fact that several of these songs were thoroughly played out by their local pop station ages ago.

The licenses brought over from Japanese DDR include pre-MAX favorites like Butterfly (Upswing), Boom Boom Dollar (K.O.G. G3), and In The Heat Of The Night, as well as the newer Irresistiblement, Speed Over Beethoven and even the difficult Cartoon Heroes. The new Konami Originals include great new crossovers from beatmania IIDX as well as a few original compositions. There are a LOT more completely new-to-DDR songs than last year, as well.

Overall, the songlist is--as usual--packed with both energy and diversity, and it's quite entertaining to listen to. Most players seem to agree that this year's list is better than last year's (the same is true for the Karaoke Revolution covers), and possibly one of the best songlists in a North American version so far.

There are other significant improvements from last year's game as well. The universally-hated interface from last year was scrapped and replaced by one that looks prettier than the old "MAXtreme" interface but is just as functional. Useful features like the Groove Radar were restored, and you can now call up a "quick menu" that allows you to save your data, go to the Shop or perform other useful functions on-the-fly without having to exit to the main menu. The Dance Play Settings option was restored, so you can turn off the corner buttons again. For those who are honing their timing skills, you can now use the "Marvelous" step timing in normal play (why do they spell it with two "L"s?). You can slow down the steps in Training Mode again, although for some reason, the music will disappear when you do this. For those who liked Workout Mode the old way...it's back to the old way again. The announcer in Oni (Challenge) mode finally will say something other than "you did alright until halfway!" when you pass a course.

On top of this, there are some new features that many players will either overlook or ignore, but they're nice to have anyway. ALL of the background videos have been thrown out and replaced with new ones. Quality-wise, they look way better, but they're more generic and less interesting than the old ones. Of course, you aren't watching them while you're playing, so who really cares? This also makes me wonder why they redid them in the first place.

The Nonstop and Oni (Challenge) course-based modes were moved into a new spot on the Main Menu called Advanced Mode, and both Nonstop and Oni share the same courses now. Oni devotees may feel that this "cheapens" the courses a little bit, but it also means that everyone can enjoy every course now. The courses themselves mostly aren't terribly challenging, but you can easily create your own...and the ability to create long Nonstop courses (introduced in MAX2 USA) has now been restored. Two new modes you'll also find in Advanced Mode are Survival and Combo Challenge. Rather than give you something truly new and interesting, KCET just basically took Endless Mode (which is also still there) and changed it slightly. In Combo Challenge, the game ends when your combo does, and Survival is like an Oni course that lasts until you fail. These are fairly pointless, but some people might like them.

The last significant new addition is online play. Unfortunately, it's very basic. All songs are chosen randomly. You can't choose who you want to play against; that selection is random as well. And while you can choose what difficulty you want to play on, there's no guarantee that you'll be on the same difficulty as your opponent... and since the winner is determined solely by score, which in turn is determined solely by percentage (not number) of steps hit accurately, this means a Light player has a huge advantage over a Heavy player. You can choose to play on the same level your opponent uses, but this puts the control squarely into their hands.

So basically, the online play is not amazing by any means, but it's a start, and a step in the right direction. Next year's implementation will hopefully have a decent matching system and a set of features that at least approaches that of Ultramix 2.

As you can see, there's a lot of good stuff in Extreme 2. This of course means that it's now time to go over what's not so good.

Once again I'll mention that Dance Master Mode is the cornerstone of this game and the way to get all of the unlocking done. If you totally hated the Mission/Challenge modes in the past, you might not like Dance Master either...but if you don't play it, you're stuck with a mere 24 songs for quite some time. And once again: the better you are at DDR, the longer it will take for Dance Master to become interesting.

The flawed grading system used in last year's versions has returned this year with no improvements. Once again, a player with 270 Perfects and 30 Greats will receive a grade of AA, while a player with 299 Perfects and 1 Good will be knocked down to a grade of A. The scoring system--which is also used in the online play--awards a HUGE bonus based ONLY on whether you got a full combo or not, and this determines your grade. So this also means that in the above example, the 270/30 player would win a match against the 299/1 player. In other words: the better player will not always win. So anyone concerned about using the grading system to track their improvement, or anyone concerned with competing online should be aware of the flawed system. It unfortunately doesn't seem like KCET is bothered by the fact that the grading system no longer fairly judges a player's skill.

Remember all of the EyeToy features introduced last year? They weren't exactly the most exciting things since sliced bread, or even "revolutionary," but they were interesting enough that I figured KCET would try to improve them for this year. Apparently that didn't turn out to be the case. 100% of the EyeToy features were cut from Extreme 2, except for the Hands & Feet mode... and it's pretty much the same as last time: Light-level steps with some hand targets thrown in. While not too many people will cry over this one, it's too bad they didn't try to expand upon all the extra work they put in last time around. Now, it seems like that work was a complete waste of time.

The problems I've mentioned so far can be relatively minor ones depending on what type of player you are. Now I'm going to go back to where I started this review: the fundamental problem. The core gameplay is still 100% identical to that of DDRMAX's, first introduced in Japanese arcades over four years ago and introduced here in 2002. Dance Master Mode, as unique as it may seem, does not change that.

This would be easier to swallow if the difficulty had been increased, but that hasn't particularly happened either. All of the new Single-mode stepcharts created for Extreme 2, except for one (Love Is Orange's 9-foot Challenge steps), are rated 8 or below. Most of them are actually 6s and 7s. There is indeed a small selection of difficult steps in this version--it's nice for North American gamers to finally be able to practice Paranoia Survivor MAX on their PS2s without a modification of some sort--but they're all years old, and any true DDR fanatic will have played (and possibly conquered) them in the arcade several times already.

This would also be easier to swallow if there wasn't any competition. This year, there are two good alternatives on PS2: Pump It Up Exceed and In The Groove. Both games provide more innovation, more challenge and more content than this version of DDR does. This is not to say that those two games are unconditionally better, but if you're looking for a new experience, both are better choices.

Various magazine and Web site reviews use phrases like "more of the same" to describe DDR Extreme 2. The fact of the matter is that they're absolutely right. It's true that there are more new-to-DDR songs this year than there were last year, and a couple of new modes. But it's also true that if you were able to thoroughly master last year's version, only one of the songs in this version will actually take real effort to complete... and we've been able to play that song in the arcade for over two and a half years.

So, just like last year's version, your ability to enjoy this version depends on what kind of DDR player you are. If you're just a casual player and your skill level has remained constant, you will enjoy this version at least as much as last year's. If you've just been introduced to DDR, you'll love this new version. But if you're a skilled Heavy player already, and you play for challenge, you simply won't find enough significant new features or challenges here to justify spending $40. After tearing through and completing the unlocks, you'll put the game on a shelf and it'll stay there, and that's not worth it. Pump and ITG would both be better purchases.

Being a DDR fan since the series' first domestic home version release in 2001, it is extremely frustrating to me that KCET has done nothing in the last 2+ years to even TRY to advance the series. The community has done its best to keep the game as fresh as possible by holding tournaments and other events, but this can only go so far. When was the last time someone referring to DDR said, "have you seen the steps for -----? holy crap!" or "----- is amazing... the song's great and it has the most amazing steps... I couldn't have done any better." Those sorts of things need to happen again. If they don't, we'll just keep hearing "more of the same" for the next few years, interest will wane and the series will fade away.

Graphics: 9
The actual in-play graphics haven't changed much from last year's improvements, which is fine. The background videos were all redone, but they lack the personality of the old ones--and oh yeah, they're completely unimportant. The new interface is more professional-looking and functional than last year's ugly effort.

Sound: 9
The songlist is better than last year's, although some people may be disappointed by the old age of the licenses. The music is diverse and goes well with a game of this type, as is typical of the series.

Gameplay: 8
The gameplay is as good as it's ever been, but it hasn't changed in years, and it's starting to age. The difficulty has not increased, and no new innovations have appeared, even as new competition has.

Features/Replay: 6
If you've never played DDR before or are still at the 6-7 foot level, you can probably jack this to 10. But for series vets--the folks most likely to be buying--this version offers no significant new experiences or challenges, and after you're done trudging through the unlocks, you might already be done with it. If you use and enjoy the online play, you can probably raise this a point or two, but Versus play at your local arcade is still much more engaging, competitive and challenging.

Overall: 7
In order for DDR to be perceived as anything besides "past its prime" by this time next year, KCET is going to have to try harder. By then, we may be able to play In The Groove 2--a truly stellar and engaging delight--on our PS2s. I know I'm going to enjoy that a heck of a lot more than Extreme 2, which behind its exterior is truly just "more of the same." Perhaps KCEH can do better with Ultramix 3.

Also try: In The Groove 2 (arcade), In The Groove (PS2), Pump It Up Exceed (PS2/XB)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/05