Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix

"If only it had better songs..."

Gameplay: Well, the gameplay on this is exactly like all the other Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) games. You are on a dancing pad (or your fingers on a controler for all the people who can't buy a pad for some reason) and you follow the steps that they show on screen. Course, like all the other DDR games, you can take it another step and do it freestyle, which is... well dancing in your own way just making sure you are paying attention to the steps on screen. This may sound easy, but it tends to get hard for a new person to do a slow easy song. With practice, you will be able to play the game better. Now to compare DDR 4th mix with the other DDR games, the menus layout is great, however it's missing some modes that past DDR games had, like paint mode and an Arcade Ranking System. Past DDR games also had better music, like the Famous Butterfly by SMILE.D.K. and Boom Boom Dollar by King Kong and D. Jungle Girls. The game goes another step by adding Solo mode, which is based on Konami's DDR Solo series, having to play with 6 step panels instead of 4. There is also a Challange Mode where you can test your DDR skills... that is if you can read what you have to do in japanese or refer to one of the FAQs for it.

Story: There isn't really much of a story to this game, in fact, I don't even think theres any kind of story whatsoever. Your just a guy/gal who is dancing to the beat of different songs.

Audio/Video: The graphics in the game is not really that great, the design on the characters look great, but who has time to look at them when you are trying to dance here? The big part about this game would be the music, which is the core of all DDR games. The music is great in this game, but I perfer DDR 3rd mix music over 4th mix. One annoying thing about the game is the announcer... he tends to get REALLY annoying after dancing for long periods of time. You can turn off the announcer's voice in the options menu if he annoys you that much. All in all the music is great, but not as great as to 3rd mix.

Replayability: Of course your gonna play this game again after getting an A rating on a song that you liked, expanding your DDR skills to other songs and so on. You can try to get A ratings on ALL of the songs, you control pad players out there might even invest money on a Dance Pad and play more. This game is really fun to play again and again and again. If you get bored, you can always import the other versions of DDR and play the other songs. If you are good enough, you can join tournaments and see how great you are. Just don't play TOO much though, you might injure yourself.

To buy or to rent: Well... unless you have a rental store that has import games for rent, you may have to buy it at an Import Shop or online. If you do have a rental store, then rent it first then see if you like it, if you don't, then you don't, if you do, buy the game somewhere that has import games.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/01, Updated 06/16/01