Why did DDR CS stop using Master Modes?

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I would have liked that.

"Lets dance. If I win, you don't tell anyone."

The problem with most Master modes is usually that you're forced to start on really easy stuff (excluding SN1) and by the end you have to be at least good enough to AA 9's and/or 10's with little problems. Either you're good enough that you hate the beginning, or it takes you forever to unlock everything because you have to resort to play count unlocking due to being stuck in the Master mode.
The closest I've been to full unlocking a DDR with a mission mode is Extreme (had TLoM, but apparently Memories is actually unlockable, haven't played recently though) and HP1 (had Super Samurai, but not tokyoEVOLVED). I didn't even try Dice Master Mode.

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... effing wow.
do that again with rage and zero and he's like "oh #$%! you're a dude"
If DDR wasn't an E-rated game, God knows what they would've tried to get away with.
It's almost not worth making another story game, given the mixed feedback to it... a manga, however, some could ignore and the others could buy would be lovely.
Taaaangent, going back...

Eh... yeah, at least 50-75% of the episodes were dance battles, but a handful of them were different. And Akira = YES. I thought they nailed the personalities rather well, just given the little history they had... Rage's lack of a temper was a bit disappointing, though, but Alice's sheer sweetness and shyness made up for it. x3 Even Jenny and other people I didn't like got kind of likable after SMM.

It did...? o_o
As far as unsaved unlocks go, it irked me that what you did in DMM didn't help at all with the Request Mode missions. Had it, I'd've had the PFC/AAA/200FC squares opened a long time ago, just trying to level the characters up... >_>

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I have been looking for that image for a really long time. Thanks, Chewi.

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I'm not the squisher of your dreams, but here are some testimonials. And not everyone seemed to be having the crash.

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you didn't need to quote the whole image.

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you didn't need to post

but I do support a little story here and there as long as it doesn't go predictable

Stellar Master was somewhat bland to me. You got a shortened songlist and some acheivments.
Extreme 2's mode was my favorite, mainly because of the map-like format.
Hyper Master wasn't bad either
Street Master was bullcrap
Dice Master was fun, but HEAVILY flawed.

Personally, I liked it much better when you just played the game and stuff got unlocked as you go. MAX, MAX2 and Extreme along with everything before it was great because things were unlocked through play and you'd eventually get everything they had to offer. Of the master modes, Extreme 2 had the only decent one, though it could get a bit stupid toward the end. The rest of them started throwing these ridiculous requirements at you, sometimes even in the beginning, where most people would just be completely incapable of doing them. Most people are going to look at some of the random mods you'll have to deal with on those modes and be like WTF is this? DDRX's street master mode's problem was that it dragged on forever.

This was one of the reasons why when given the choice of DDRHP3 vs. X2CS, I went straight for HP3. While most everyone else was fighting through dice master mode, I already had everything unlocked and was playing for the fun of it.

As a European, my favourite two games with unlock systems were probably Dancing Stage Party Edition and Dancing Stage Max.

Dancing Stage Party Edition was awesome because of how simple it was to unlock stuff; just play any five stages and you'll unlock a new song. Only downside is you'd need a total of about 90 stages to unlock everything. Still, not too bad considering.

Dancing Stage Max I still have some gripes about, but as the first Dancing Stage game to feature a mission-type mode (I think), it probably remains the best.

Since Europe never got an X or X2 CS release, I have no idea what their modes were like.

With all due respect, I find DDR's mission modes rather poor and confusing in general. After giving HP1 and 2 a go I haven't even bothered touching 3's yet. They are all too similar.

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HP3 and on can be unlocked by just playing. They all have DDR points.

What I think made Dance Master so much better than the others was that they did more than just a "Choose Your Own Adventure" path thingy:

There were hidden conditions with which to get stuff like X-stages, which basically let you unlock more songs early in the map, AND at discounted point rates. Many were straightforward like AAs, but then they had those tricky ones like BRILLIANT 2U's (6,500,000 < x < 6,900,000) one... and you could buy the hints to decipher the tricky ones instead of having to futz around with them forever.

ALSO: Unlike later Master Modes, you could actually progress through most of the game WITHOUT messing with those!! (You did need one to get through Section C, IIRC.)

Very few of the missions were unreasonably difficult (Section E), and the only song that area kept locked was PARANOiA Survivor MAX. Plus, the other prize for completing it was delightful.

They hid those 30 invisible arrows that could be practically ANYWHERE in the charts, and sold hints to those, too.

You could get to boss songs and clear entire sections without fully fleshing them out. And once you got the "switch screens" option, it wasn't hard to skip ahead to where the paths fork and find the other ways around. But eventually for the sake of completion, I'm sure we've all went back and cleared them all, right?

Strangely enough, it took me longer to find and unlock PARANOiA Survivor than it did PARANOiA Survivor MAX.

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I personally didn't like any of the master modes. I just found it as a tedious chore. The way DDR II works sounds like something I'd prefer. I get to unlock songs while playing the game for pure fun.
Extreme 2 dragged on forever and there were so many songs that kept on getting recycled over and over, it was just a snore-fest to me. There were a few interesting challenges, but I found the majority of it quite bland.
SuperNOVA 2 was so-so, but the difficulty was here there and everywhere. One mission would be really easy then the next would have me retrying it repeatedly to pass then the next one is easy again. I once failed a mission with a PFC. It was so pathetic I had to laugh. The one good thing I found good about SuperNOVA 2 was that songs would eventually unlock in the shop with just normal play. Which is how I pretty much unlocked the rest of the content by playing online (which was pretty fun).
DDR X SMM was also so-so. The speed it took me to unlock everything was definitely much faster for me, but once again, I found it as a chore. It also had the same problem where certain songs would constantly get recycled before finding something new. Then when you did come across a song that was new, there was some instances where it didn't unlock and waited for the next appearance.

Although if DDR II's unlocking could be improved further, I would say the addition of a shop would be pretty cool. The aspect of having to accumulate points so you can buy that song you really liked gives the game a good touch.

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Well, seeing as a friend of mine loaned me his 360 and I finally got around to actually playing the Universe titles, I'd have to say Uni 3 is my favorite unlocking system. Sure, about half the tracklist is locked to begin with, but here's the breakdown:

During stages 1 or 2, a AA score leads to a "BONUS STAGE" wherein one of the unlockable tracks is chosen at random, and you play it with an Oni/Battery lifebar and a few mods, usually 3x and Mirror plus something like Hidden or Dark. Beat the song and it's unlocked. Get a AA on your 3rd stage and it leads to "EXTRA STAGE" which is just the 3x/Mirror, without the extra mod; and it works the same way.

So a session can be 5 songs long, and 2 of them can be unlockable. Failing the BONUS STAGE may autofail the song, but not the game, as it simply returns you to the song select. EXTRA STAGE does count as a Game Over though, because it technically IS your final stage at that point. I just wish it gave you a choice between 2 or 3 of the songs to do, as trying to unlock 888 and deltaMAX is mostly marred by just waiting for them to pop up there, and still... deltaMAX + 3x speed is just "guuuh" by the end.

Quest Mode from Uni 1-2 isn't too bad (maybe a little broken in spots like song advantage degrees and Uni 1's infamous post-stage lock-up glitch), but they made the map sections way to broken up. It's usually 8-10 stages just to make a competition appear, and then 4 songs of THAT to get your unlockable. That's nearly 15 songs just to unlock one (or maybe two, one at random). It takes some time to pull off, that's for sure.
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Honestly, I'd rather just see a shop where you can buy from a selection of 15 from the get-go, and later unlocks become available by purchasing those out; and a totally-optional Mission Mode that's more like a game show way of quickly winning (or losing!) points; although you can earn them with standard gameplay anyhow.

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