Day 4: Dance Dance Revolution Extreme

Playstation 2
2004

This game was the DDR game destined to be the best--having obtained the soundtrack to the arcade version, and of course, having PLAYED the arcade version well before the import to the PS2, I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, this entry failed to meet them. The music videos are back in this game, as is Endless Mode--which is nice, but some of the songs just suck, as does the majority of the set list. The most enticing songs in the list in the beginning are the Neverending Story theme, Kim Wylde's Kids in America, Darude's Music, and the remix of Faith Hill's There You'll Be. The rest are somewhat of a joke--Kung Fu Fighting? really? And since when did Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon have a theme song that one could dance to? In terms of the song list, this game is definitely the most disappointing--way too many lousy songs, not enough good songs from the arcades. That is, until you unlock them all, which is extremely frustrating and tedious--and trust me on this one, ALL the best songs from the arcade are unlockables.

Have fun trying to figure out how to navigate this menu.
It looks simple, but looks can be deceiving.

New to the series is Party mode--which was supposed to help sell the Playstation 2 add-on, Eye Toy. Unfortunately, with or without the Eye Toy...it sucked. Thank god it was removed from the later versions of the game...or was it...? I could honestly care less. Also intolerable with this DDR is the whole design of the game. Gone is the arcade-perfect song selection and level selection graphic design. In it's stead, we get a god-awful song selection screen in the form of a jukebox(a failed throwback to the other DDR's maybe?), with the difficulty level built-in and easily missed. On top of that, the controls are bass-ackwards--press left and the cursor goes right, and vice versa...same with the difficulty adjustment. If a player has a preference, they're best adjusting it in the Options Menu so it stays there. Konami really screwed themselves over in this game--I honestly wouldn't be surprised if fans sent letters--because the next game is infinitely better.

PROTIP: When making a Dance Dance Revolution
game, don't focus on graphics too much. Because
they get out-dated in moments, and the focus should
be on songs--not pretty(ugly) graphics.

Graphics: 3.5: The music videos move smoothly, the arrows don't break at any speed or distortion setting, and some of the music videos and non-music video backgrounds are fun and appealing, but the graphic design of the menus(green and pink message bars? woof!) are inexcusably poor. Wish they would've gotten rid of some of the more pointless music videos though(here's lookin' at you, Your Rain!) Plus, the background animations are repetitive and highly song specific--you'll sometimes see the same waterfall 33 times before the minute and a half song ends.



Sound: 3.5: I don't know how else to dock down points for the poor selection of songs in the early and middle stages of this game. I played through the game and obtained all the goals in order to simply play the hyper-awesome arcade songs, like The Legend of Max, A and V. It's too bad that THIS game is the only version they're available on...

Control: 4.0: It's a DDR game. Once again, playing on a Red Octane or metal arcade-style pad is great excercise and all, but playing on a cheapie pad is frustrating since they slide around so easily. Aside from that, this game loses points here for the counter-intuitive song selection menu.

Fun Factor: 3.0: Unless you're a real DDR Aficionado and ya gotta have 'em all--or you actually LIKE the starting lineup songs in this game, don't bother picking this one up unless you absolutely HAVE to play A, V, or the Legend of Max. If you can find it used for a nominal fee--only then should you really go for it.

The Best Songs
Playlist 1
1) A
2) Neverending Story
3) Ecstacy midnight blue mix
4) V
5) The Legend of Maxx

Playlist 2
1) Kids in America
2) There You'll Be
3) Tsugaru or 321 Stars or B4U
4) Tsugaru Apple Mix
5) Drop the Bomb