Platform: PlayStation2
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Kids & Family
Release: Sep 2008 Rated: Everyone 10+
Features: awesome soundtrack packed with 65 major hits and brand new songs
Brand new LAN battle mode lets up to 8 player battle simultaneously
Create your own workout and fitness program through an enhanced workout mode
new DDR characters and enhanced graphics
utilize the eyetoy to implement yourself into the game
Summary: I haven't yet played through this exhaustively, but I have a couple hours in, so here are my first impressions.
The Bad:
- The difficulty levels have been artificially inflated by 2 feet. And now they go to 13. ("Ours goes to eleven!") Huh?!? I should not be able to barely pass a 9-footer while sight-reading a song for the first time. I'm presently a barely 7-footer skill level on all of the older games I have. I have to pick songs 2 feet harder than I normally play to get the same intensity workout with this game, and this is going to limit my skill improvement in this version.
- The new "hip urban" announcer voice is really quite irritating. I have the voices turned off during the songs, but you still get them at every intro and exit screen. At least they've left in a lot of the Japanese announcer bits; I don't wince if I don't understand.
- Like Supernova2, the load time between songs is really long. When I'm trying to keep my heart rate up, a minimum of 30 seconds between songs in game mode or exercise free play is killer. The older games are a lot better about this, and better about allowing you to skip to the next screen before the current screen is fully displayed.
- Exercise mode continues to be separate from game mode. I don't understand why only one edition of this game has gotten it right by allowing calorie counting _with_ grading. Why wouldn't you want both together?
The Good:
- The song selection seems pretty good, and has considerably fewer slow songs than Supernova2's list. I especially love that they included OK Go's treadmill video as background for their "Here We Go Again".
- The game pops up a notice box every time you unlock a new character or song. It adds to the long load time sometimes, but in general I think this is a good feature.
- The main menu idle demo now explains how to play the game, which could be useful for new players.
- The challenge level on regular game-list songs now includes actual challenges instead of just harder steps. The one I've played so far included a "don't step on any arrows" step, which definitely added a challenge in trying to make sure my weight was only on the center pad when it hit.
Overall, I'm glad I have DDR X, as DDR is my primary cardio exercise, so having a variety of music on hand is good. It's going to get more play than Supernova2 due to the better song list, but it's still not going to get as much as the older games (especially Extreme) that have much shorter load times and other desirable features like calorie counting in game mode.
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Kids & Family
Release: Sep 2008 Rated: Everyone 10+
Features: awesome soundtrack packed with 65 major hits and brand new songs
Brand new LAN battle mode lets up to 8 player battle simultaneously
Create your own workout and fitness program through an enhanced workout mode
new DDR characters and enhanced graphics
utilize the eyetoy to implement yourself into the game
Summary: I haven't yet played through this exhaustively, but I have a couple hours in, so here are my first impressions.
The Bad:
- The difficulty levels have been artificially inflated by 2 feet. And now they go to 13. ("Ours goes to eleven!") Huh?!? I should not be able to barely pass a 9-footer while sight-reading a song for the first time. I'm presently a barely 7-footer skill level on all of the older games I have. I have to pick songs 2 feet harder than I normally play to get the same intensity workout with this game, and this is going to limit my skill improvement in this version.
- The new "hip urban" announcer voice is really quite irritating. I have the voices turned off during the songs, but you still get them at every intro and exit screen. At least they've left in a lot of the Japanese announcer bits; I don't wince if I don't understand.
- Like Supernova2, the load time between songs is really long. When I'm trying to keep my heart rate up, a minimum of 30 seconds between songs in game mode or exercise free play is killer. The older games are a lot better about this, and better about allowing you to skip to the next screen before the current screen is fully displayed.
- Exercise mode continues to be separate from game mode. I don't understand why only one edition of this game has gotten it right by allowing calorie counting _with_ grading. Why wouldn't you want both together?
The Good:
- The song selection seems pretty good, and has considerably fewer slow songs than Supernova2's list. I especially love that they included OK Go's treadmill video as background for their "Here We Go Again".
- The game pops up a notice box every time you unlock a new character or song. It adds to the long load time sometimes, but in general I think this is a good feature.
- The main menu idle demo now explains how to play the game, which could be useful for new players.
- The challenge level on regular game-list songs now includes actual challenges instead of just harder steps. The one I've played so far included a "don't step on any arrows" step, which definitely added a challenge in trying to make sure my weight was only on the center pad when it hit.
Overall, I'm glad I have DDR X, as DDR is my primary cardio exercise, so having a variety of music on hand is good. It's going to get more play than Supernova2 due to the better song list, but it's still not going to get as much as the older games (especially Extreme) that have much shorter load times and other desirable features like calorie counting in game mode.