DDR II & hottest party 5 (Wii) (International)

Y YOU NO WORK COLLEGE INTERNET! (I had a wall of text to reply, and it was wiped by an authentication screen gahh).

But anyways, it works like DDR points: The stars you get contributes to a gauge that unlocks different things. While the songs unlocked are probably either in-house or international, the best thing is the mashups, which stiches other routines from the three games. I must say, it's better than having new songs, since it's like another alternate chart/routines. This means you don't restrict the main game but also reward players for playing for a long time.

Off-topic, posted in the work thread that I had Mp3 conversions of the KOs from Sillybear's sims. This is what happened:

Although Mr. Music did ask me in chat, and I sent him a link in a PM.


It doesn't really help that the first unlocks are Summer Fairytale and Dance Partay, plus the fact that casuals won't be able to experience the RDA folder, since I do think you need to play Expert to get to it (although you only need to A like three songs to get to it.)

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Oh my goodness, Training Mode sounds like the DDRMAX ranking screen music slowed way way down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aWyE66gCOc#t=93s

I think that I describe the basic difference as such: DDR tells people what they want, Just Dance gives people what they want.

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True, as unfortunate as that sounds. I really think JD is starting to sell out, much like how GH was. By the time they went back to their roots, they only sold 86,000 units initially and kaput, gone. I'd rather have DDR sticking to its in-house guns and establishing its own artists rather than relying on licensed artists.

Also, 2,648 units last week, I must say the numbers are getting doubled every week, that's great.

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I dunno if I'd call it "selling out" so much. Also, Guitar Hero never really went back to its roots (what, no drums or vocals, 20-30 licences, mostly covers, and the rest bonus songs to fill the setlist?), they went back to the the most popular setlist style (III). The main issue with Guitar Hero's demise was 1) it's popularity peaked and people just weren't as interested anymore (this is true of many games, especially those in the music and rhythm genre) 2) Games released too close together and not always using the most recent improvements (although many were decent: Metallica and Greatest Hits) 3) not enough DLC (arguably, although I still think that DLC doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone and it's more about having songs people WANT rather than purely a larger number).

Granted that I feel that Guitar Hero progressed more in five years than DDR has in ten: Timely releases in the US and Europe on all consoles (something that MANY rhythm games sorely lack), decent Wii versions, imports, a fully-featured DLC system, usability, number of on-disc songs (93!), etc. The series is expected to return at some point, possibly next year, but nobody's sure what form it will take.

I'm actually not sure how long Just Dance's popularity will go on for. From what I've read, even though it went multi-platform this year, apparently the 360 and PS3 sales pale in comparison to the Wii; it would appear that the latter is the series true home in the eyes of consumers.

Many people may write JD off as too "casual" and "cheap" compared to the likes of DDR, but you cannot deny its sheer popularity which is something DDR sorely needs.

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A big part of Guitar Hero's problem was over-saturation. Releasing way too much shit while it was popular in order to make a quick buck rather than focusing on brand longevity.

Case in point: there were NINE Guitar Hero games in 2009.

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I already said that and nobody is denying it (or are you both responding to katamaris4ever?).

However at LEAST Activision could get stuff released in a timely manner in the US and Europe and their developers mostly treated both the HD consoles and the Wii relatively the same. A lot of games sorely lacked that.

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I wouldn't mind if GH didn't come back for a few years, it would diversify the competition.

Considering the PS3 version of Just Dance 3 hasn't gone on sale yet, yeah, they pale in comparison to Wii. But above that, Wii is superior to kinect's version, due to the fact that it is more user friendly. I have to admit this iteration is a bit more complicated than last year's (from a consumer's standpoint), and kinect's controls don't help it that much. Plus, from what I've heard, it's pretty wonky while dancing, because it sometimes registers another player if you move to another person's area. Plus, you have like dozens of millions of Wiis, and only a few million kinects, you'd expect the Wii version to sell more since there are already a lot of people in that market. Perhaps the Move version will translate somewhat well because it is more analogous to Wii's controls.

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I'd like it to stay around longer than that, but who knows. I'd like them to make a new game first and then see what happens.


Ah, right. I didn't know that. I assumed that they were all released together. Weird.


But with Kinetic "YOU ARE THE CONTROLLER!". How can it NOT be awesome compared to the Wii version? I thought that "THE WII SUX" and all that? D:

I actually wonder what would happen if for the next DDR (if there IS a next one) Konami decided to go half and half on the traditional controller and each systems specific control method like I alluded to before. Maybe that would help bring back some players?

Of course decent arcade versions outside Japan and some actual advertising might help...

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No, I think each file has it's own records. D: I guess I'll be making a "foot" folder now.

I'll also be uploading videos I recorded here: http://www.youtube.com/user/FayeScarlet64?feature=mhee
Not much there yet, but it'll fill up. It'll be various videos, and I'll note if I used feet or a controller.

Da-da-do-do-do-do-do-do-DO SUB-SCRIBED 8D

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So i just so happened to check out DDR Facebook's page and...something is different. TWO things are different.

1) Profile picture changed, looks WAY better and much more high-res than it's other picture. and it's longer.

2) There are 5 DDR mixes that are under "DDR Thumbnails", these mixes are: DDR II, DDR Extreme, DDR X, Dance Dance Revolution, and DDR SuperNOVA.

The profile picture change is no big deal, but the 2nd change strikes me as odd...why pick these 5 mixes and not add the other mixes in as well? On top of this, which of these 5 mixes has DDR PS3/360 NEVER had DLC from? Not trying to start rumors but i find it a tad odd they only put up 5 mixes and nothing else...

....unless they are updating it. In which i could be completely wrong and am totally taking this way too seriously in which i shall now go to bed. PEEZ.

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Maybe you should lay down and stop checking their facebook every other second, yeah.

Those thumbnails are just for the page's header, and are likely random titles with the most varied logos that are on sale in the US.

Nothing more.

Granted, I've never played one of the Just Dances (huzzah for being a cheap bastard!), but it always seemed very much the opposite to me - Just Dance started out as a lazy cash grab with nothing but the famousness of its licenses going for it, and they're only just now starting to effectively back that up with something resembling gameplay. (Then again, with the Kids versions and whatnot I guess I could see it going both ways.)

But, the fact is, DDR has always had licenses and it's always been something they've relied on. Hell, one could effectively argue that it's the licenses that made the series in the first place, since the earliest songlists were almost all Dancemania licenses, plus a few supplementary tracks from Naoki. So, licenses are important to DDR. That being said, I'm not a fan of what they're doing now, pretty much making it like listening to Top 40 radio, minus the songs that are explicitly about boning. It just doesn't make for a diverse songlist. Also, not only is it already being done more convincingly by other rhythm games, but looking at the sales figures, it doesn't even seem to be helping all that much when it comes to making people buy this game! So many terrific unlockables, but an almost wholly one-note default list.

Now, this is where I dive into bitchy opinion, but my favourite DDR license lists are the particularly eclectic ones, like we've seen on DDR X, Extreme 2 to a degree, and the best of the Xbox mixes, which managed an "anything goes" atmosphere that, honestly, seemed like the best match for all the weird oddball KO genres. Old Dancemania revivals, recent hits in appropriately dance-remixed form, some weird obscure choices that often turn out to be awesome....I dunno, songlists like that always seemed like the easiest way to give DDR a texture that's unique among the rhythm games we get over here.

But that's just me I guess. *shrug*

You should pick up JD 2 or 3 sometime, they're only 40 bucks each (Blockbuster has some to rent).
I do like dancing to top 40 licenses sometimes (which is why I can tolerate the default songlists), but I do agree the starting songlists are decidedly one note. If we had a boss song from the start, it would have been a bit better (and no, Haunted Rhapsody does not count.) Maybe next game jun will have a boss song that's playable from the start.
As for X's songlist, I'm not really sure about the "anything goes" thing there. The ultramixes, yes, but I still played a bit more in X to unlock Horatio.

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It's too bad the license lists are going down this road because only a few years back we had some fantastic license lists in Universe 3 and Hottest Party 3 (easy stepcharts aside). I would personally rather have the songlist consist of dance remixes of popular songs instead of Dancemania tracks, SuperNOVA 2 being the best example of when this formula was done right.

Well, I'm cheap. They're filed in the "things to look into eventually" category, though.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind if jun took a break from writing boss songs. It was nice when she was dabbling in "OMG this doesn't sound stereotypically <3-tastic" songs - PARANOiA Hades and SUPER SAMURAI were interesting - but now they're just....well, standard jun with a bunch of sixteenths following nothing with awkward patterns just to justify making it yet another jun boss song. UNBELIEVABLE benefited from being a remix so it doesn't sound quite so similar to her songs from the last three Wii mixes, but still, her happy hardcore just doesn't transfer past the 13-14 region very well at all. In my opinion.

And when I'm talking about X, I've sort of got my eye on the AC licenses, too. Things like Koko Soko and Suki Melo and, um, "Poririzumu". But there were also the 2008 X-Edit Dancemania revivals, some surprisingly danceable big-name licenses (U Can't Touch This and Here It Goes Again come to mind), and Bill Hamel proving that he's the guy Konami should go to for covers with that catchy electronic version of Swingin'. Plus, the awesome CS-exclusive Tommie Sunshine version of Wine Red. Now, I admit that X didn't go as all-out as the Ultramixes, but considering that it was Konami's experiment at adapting that aesthetic to the arcades, it was a solid foundation and I really wish we could've seen where Stillwind would've taken it from there. X2 AC sounds great and had a kickass set of KOs, but the licenses are frankly underwhelming in spite of a couple cool revivals and, um....Time After Time sounds cool, I guess?