OH GOD DAMN IT ACTIVISION (Dance Hero)

Whether or not ITG is the better game has nothing to do with it. I'm saying that Roxor was in the wrong to make ITG in the first place and Activision would be in the wrong to make Dance Hero, if they were to actually make the game and aren't just copyrighting the name. "Calm rational thought" though, tells me that if they copyright the name, theres a good chance they plan to actually make it.

I remember when people only cared about fun songs and fun charts.

Good times.

In fact, I've noticed the bar set for good charts in Extreme and below is far lower than in the other games. I'm quite surprised that so many people find the charts for Do it All Night and Oh Nick Please Not So Quick from 3rd mix enjoyable. I would love to see how those charts would be reacted to if they were never released on 3rd mix and instead released on SN2 or X.

The truly sad/funny thing about this is that if Dance Hero does come into fruition it will be another embarassment for KONAMI when it comes to localized rhythm games. Guitar Hero and Rock Band embarass both Guitar Freaks and Session Mode. (And this was with KONAMI not even trying!) DJ Hero will tar, feather and string the Beatmania US failure up a flag pole by it's underwear. Dance Hero would most likely take the concepts KONAMI started with DDR, completely ignore ITG because there's nothing about it that equals dancing, and start by collecting music that is actually relevant to people who want to DANCE. (I defy anyone to tell me they really knew anything on DDRX that wasn't something like U Can't Touch This or Big Girls Don't Cry. Most people around places like this one and DDRFreak were like "Huh?") Activision will SOMEHOW get the licenses people want to dance to that aren't a bunch of clicks and bleeps with shitty vocals. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but I'm also not ignorant to what's happening in the video game world. If I were you guys, I would get down on my knees and pray to whatever dark god you need to for this game to never happen.

---

And Guitar Hero subsequently had it embarrassed by Rock Band .

Techno, rave, electronica, trance.

They are entire genres of songs that ultimately come down to a bunch of "clicks and bleeps with shitty vocals." It's a horrible description, I know but millions of people LOVE it. I love it. A good majority of the people on Z-i-V like it. Opinions rock.

If you think Dance Hero is going to be like a 4 panel dancing game with mainstream songs, I'm not the least bit concerned. You wanna dance? You go to a dance club and do what everyone else and their mother does: shake their ass, dry-hump random women, and get low. How much of that arm-flailing, leg flinging movement we call DDR actually is considered dancing? How much of PIU is actually dancing? How much of ITG is dancing? Ooh! Hands to the floor! That's very dancey.

You can be knowledgeable of the video game world but you also have to be knowledgeable of mainstream culture. Guitar Hero caught on for those who love to play Rock, Metal, and other American guitar-based music genres but have little to no experience with a guitar. It had a simple yet well-executed playing system and the controller made it feel like you were playing an actual guitar. The harder the chart, the more it seems like you're playing the actual song. It might not be the actual answer but it's logical.

With DDR/ITG, it's the opposite. Easier songs allow you to do random dance moves while you wait for the arrows (No one does). The harder the songs, the more it feels like a video game. When I show off my DDR skills in an arcade or among friends, people who notice don't comment about how great of a dancer I am, they comment on how well I can play the game. The same argument can be said for Guitar Hero but what's the better simulation? I think that DDR is a great dance simulator but many people I know feel otherwise.

If Dance Hero is going catch on or be better than DDR, it has to simulate actual dancing, something that DDR really doesn't do (unless we were back in the 70's/80's). That in my opinion, would involve equipment and sensors that no company would be able to make while still keeping the price down for people to purchase. 4 panels aren't going to cut it. 5 panels aren't going to cut it. Hands on the floor aren't going to cut it. If it's just going to be the DDR engine + mainstream songs, Stepmania would satisfy that craving and more for no cost.

If you want to dance to mainstream songs but you're embarrassed about your dancing, there's a cheap alternative called window blinds and an I-Pod.

All we can do is wait. Dance Hero might actually be something good and force Konami to step up their game or it could be something like Dance factory. Until then, I'm not praying to anything based on a hunch and mainstream music.

---

The way I see it, it means Konami will try harder to make the better game.

Does Extreme 2 ring a bell?

Personally, I'd like to see Activision pump out two or three releases of "Dance Hero" and then let Konami work its magic.

Nobody has yet announced exactly how much it will simulate the power of dance. For all we know, it could be a game that makes you dance to tango, cha-cha, rumba and samba.

In accordance to name, Activision wouldn't be the first since Konami has done it before.

DancemaniaX (under DDR) => Beatmania (as well as IIDX) => Drummania (from GF/DM).

Although i would react the same way, but taking the logical way, let's just wait until they announce how it will play.

And a question: does all the "insert name here" Hero games scroll the notes toward you (not in reverse)? Because I like the way the arrows on DDR/ITG scroll with an overhead perspective and they might just do it for Dance Hero.

---

In GH they scroll toward you, so pretty much the opposite of what DDR/ITG does.

Well, that was expected, seeing as they had pretty limited experience of making charts. That random stepjump in Dynamite Rave woldn't have happened if it came out now (oh wait, My Favourite Things has one...carry on). Though this is probably a by-product of those times when I play steps from Club mix or before and think "This has nothing on Spin the Disc."

---

Yeah, the steps were quite different if you compare the latest titles with those of the earlier ones.
Triplets were common and gallops didn't exist and started appearing in, perhaps Extra Mix (Dive had a few on Expert) or 5th Mix (My Generation).

---

5.1.1. Expert had them, but they were slow.

---

hero, 2nd mix
together and forever, solo 2000
in the navy, 3rd mix
saint goes marching, 4th mix
rhythm and police, 4th mix +

just not name a few from before 5th mix that have gallops.

as for the earlier step charts, if they were released today, a lot of them would still be good. dub-i-dub's original maniac chart wasnt anything special, but if they released a song like it today with the new maniac steps from 4th+ it would be a breath of fresh air for the series as charts like that are few and far between now. same for do it all night, the original chart was kind of bland, but the 4th+ steps were great. apply to xanadu, follow the sun, and boys as well.

so many of the old charts you can place to their song just seeing the steps(like when SN2 JP was announced and people figured out drop the bomb from the training mode picture), but when you see just the steps for a lot of newer charts(jump, jump, step-step-step, jump, step, jump, repeat) you cant do that as easily.

sadly, its not the music that makes the charts do that, its konami's lazyness. i can understand shades of grey's chart being so simple(good chart IMO, just over rated in difficulty), but when they ignore rhythms in the song like they did for golden sky there is a problem. it was understandable in 1st mix when they made butterfly, and thankfully they made it a more difficult challenge chart in extreme and didnt ignore all the rhythms in the 2008 x-remix(though i do think they should have charted the part in the middle and not had us hold freezes). on the flip side of that, the fact that they didnt base boys (2008 x-edit) on the new manic steps and instead used the lack luster 2nd mix chart as the base is just bad. i do like how they blended the charts for dub-i-dubs chart though. get up 'n move needed no modifications to the chart, its just awesome.

---

So I'm not alone in thinking that...

---

That's what we all thought about DJ Hero...

---

uh dj hero is almost done and now dance hero registered? if they won't make a game out of this than it's ok with me.

and well dj hero won't be anything good I guess either but if this continues....I don't want to see the future of music games in this world. (already look at what GH and RB have done)

and now added to that we have beat'n' groovy (WTF game?) and DDRX which seems to be more like supernova urbanized (with um really enthusiastic announcer) ...
-------------
releasing DS SN2 and DMv4 for Europe was a good step I think^_~, but I think it is already too late for this trying to do things right in Europe.

Where's my Tamborine Hero?

In other news

TADA!

---

you mean making rhythm games more popular then ever? what a terrible thing to do!

---

He probably means making music games with mainstream music and joke timing windows.
Okay, I've only played Rock Band once, but the timing windows on the drums seemed rather wide to me.

---

the timing windows arent any wider than a bemani game. the window for a hit is just about as big as the good window in IIDX. its not that the timing windows are huge, its that there arent separate note judgements. pretty big difference.

as for mainstream music, there is nothing wrong with that. you also have to stop and think that the bemani players are an insanely SMALL amount of all music fans. sure we all love our KOs, but the majority of people see rhythm games and they want to play songs they know. they're doing nothing but BOOST the music game community by putting in mainstream music, they're doing good, ignorant bemani fans going "wah, no original songs!" are the minority here, and need to realize it.

as much as i would love to play the guitar chart to something like dive 2006, harmonix and activision have the right idea to sell their game. on top of that, its fun. i love playing rockband 2, and singing some of my favorite songs, karaoke is one of my favorite drunken past times. my brother, also a bemani player, and actual drummer, loves playing some of his favorite songs in rockband 2 as well(and hates that he can actually play painkiller, but cant pass it). its great marketing, and a great idea. besides, eye of the tiger.

besides, if mainstream music was a sin, people wouldnt make simfiles like bat country, aerodynamic, the guitar hero megapack, etc.

---