DanceDanceRevolution A20 (AC)

ngl I want more pop songs and older songs should be revived if they're gonna get better stepcharts otherwise just go play stepmania or whatever smh

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A lot of people didn't purely because they were American licenses. I mean, i have my own reasons for disliking some of them (like Shut Up and Dance's "syncing") but none of them were genuinely awful. Hillbilly Shoes's chart fucking slaps and i actually do play Break Free from time to time.

All of the licenses in Ace were better than PS3/360/Wii DanceDanceRevolution. That game needs to just be erased from existence. Over dramatic I know

The licenses were ok but not Happy, Break Free, or Shut Up and Dance because those songs are just overplayed to the point of me saying ok I've heard this 1 million times is there anything else. However, when you listen to modern popular music, they just sound the same.

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tbh one could argue all the naoki songs sound the same, all the eurobeat/italo songs sound the same, disco, etc
genres will have common traits throughout, I couldn't tell the difference between trance, house

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Uh should we talk about the new mix other than argue about music genres. Also there's this thing on DDR A that says DDR Extreme what happens if I open it? (presses select button) Oh look, all the konami originals from DDR Extreme, I always wondered how to play songs from older mixes too bad they just have the character on the stage and not the epic Background effects from those good old days.

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Those are actually good musicians IMHO. Especially AW.

Not that I think it's any good, but the argument can't be made that Happy sounds anything like Break Free or Shut Up and Dance. In any case, I think a significant portion of in-house music appeals to the Top 40 template. I wouldn't exactly call Bemani original music ambitious or heterogeneous. I think a case can be made that songs like EGOISM 440 or any of the MAX songs are ones that could not be applied to anywhere except a rhythm game, and I think that is a solid point. Then, though, you get into the construction of each song, most of which have a 4/4 time signature, similar elements, and I wouldn't say most of the songs go anywhere particularly exciting. That doesn't mean they aren't good songs, though.
Two of my favorite songs from any DDR game ever, Love You More and Prey, aren't particularly inspired and actually seem quite derivative and late to the party in terms of their genres. Sota has a very distinct sound, however, and he knows how to make a track with his own style very audible within it, and his ability to arrange sounds a certain way elevates Love You More above the generic uptempo track with disposable female lyrics pitched way the fuck up. I think the difference between Konami originals and the licensed tracks is the craft that is put into them. Unlike a lot of pop acts, I genuinely think a lot of the artists try to put some sort of artistry in their music. Perhaps not all the time (latter-day NAOKI and earlier TAG come to mind) but I really do think the musicians care about the players and they keep us in mind when making the songs.

Now, as for the argument that pop songs sound the same? They certainly do, and that's a smart strategy from a commercial standpoint. But you can't look me in the eyes and tell me that some Konami originals don't start to blend together. U1 downloaded a sample pack in 2013 and has churned out several songs that all sound like they were made in the same weekend (Endorphin, Dopamine, EGOISM 440, EDSM, and potentially a few others that I'm missing). SomethingRandom made a good point about a lot of NAOKI's work sounding the same. I think his work for the series was outstanding, but in my first year of playing (which was back in 2004 so don't judge me harshly) I didn't even know D2R and BURNIN' THE FLOOR were two different songs. Then you can get into whoever arranged the HP1/HP2 covers and Konami originals, which really start to blur together. HP1's originals in particular blend together, since the songs sound like they were vocalized by two people: one man and one woman. Obviously, this is (just barely) not the case, but Frances Maya and Alison Wade start to sound the same pretty quickly. Was there a second male vocalist past Thomas Sawada?

I've been typing for so long that I don't even think I'm stringing together a coherent argument. I'm pretty sure I started this post with the intention of saying that I think it's pointless to say that Top 40 music all sounds the same when that's exactly the point, and that I don't think the Konami originals are wholly innocent from straying from that homogeneous style of music. DDR needs some sort of pull in order to get casual players onto the machine. Familiar names and songs do that. Making a mix entirely out of niche music is a fast way to make revenue plummit.

Tl;dr: If you don't like the licenses, don't play them.

imma bout to make ur day

but also weren't you the one that brought up music genres

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Yea I guess your right ugh I'm such a hypocrite on all I just said, and holy smokes I have such unpopular opinions.

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bUt iTz NoT aLl ThE sOnGz!!!!!!!!111111

Meanwhile, I'm "low-key" wishing for most of the shortened BEMANI crossover songs to have their full version playable. For instance, Xepher has an introduction which is cut out for DDR (add some freeze notes there, too):

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I am extremely late but

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Exactly my thinking when I mentioned they should bring back the Dancemania licences; the best examples were some of the revivals for X2 when they got brand new charts to accommodate the songs being a tad longer.


Here's another hot take prediction (TM): You know how Konami stole mines from ITG, and missed the point of the concept by turning them into "shock arrows" in DDR X?

For A20, they'll steal rolls and/or lift arrows, and turn them into those "drum roll x number of times" notes from Taiko no Tatsujin, and call them "Rolling Arrows", complete with a Scratch Zone-esque red graphic that covers all 4 arrows for you to "freestyle" on.

That would be so dumb, but I could see Konami doing something like that as a new gimmick. XD

If that ever exist, does it include every character from the DDR series?



Even them?

never bring them up ever again please

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I wonder who thought the name Mr Spanky was a good one for a character that wears that kind of clothing (actually it might be intentional but I don't know...)

They could've done that back in 3rd Mix when freestyling was the hottest thing to do. I'd love to see a revival of the freestyling scene with a ""free scratch"" zone but I don't think people would be interested on freestyling again

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I mean let's be real Betty's outfit is not that far removed from SN1 Jenny



But Mr. Spanky... yeah, I guess that's a thing that existed

Basically freestyle mode from Ultramix? That was a pretty cute mode even though it was really easy to get a AAA by rhythmically mashing the controller.

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I really could care less if they add or revive gimmicks. As long as they aren’t mandatory it could bring some new light to the game. When I think of a new mix I think of new music, a new theme, new looks for the characters. If they add anything else on top of that it’s just a bonus to me.