DDR X3 VS 2ndMIX (AC) (Japan)

Well, 2ndMIX is already pretty much acknowledged in X/X2 with the series categories (in SN2 there was only EXTREME/SN/SN2, but after X they split it up to every game).

That's true, who knows, Konami's been full of surprises these past few weeks.

USA was released in 2000 I think. It was based on 3rd mix. Same with EM1.

DDRUSA runs on the EuroMIX engine, which is a standalone engine.

It already has a lot of the improvements from 4th Mix in place, but both games take most of their assets from 3rd Mix.

Remember that the original american AC release of DDR, and the first america CS game featured most (if not all) the popular songs from DDR 2nd MIX, so hearing the songs and seeing a the graphics will have the same nostalgic effect as it would on Japanese players.

With all of the Dancemania stuff returning, I'm worried if it'll jeopardize the Avex-licensed material in the game. Most (if not all) of the Different Drum licenses are already getting removed for X3.

I doubt it. They should last for, at least, 1 more game.

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License lifespans in DDR are not always equal. Many songs have failed to appear in more than one release.

Konami's previous deal with Toshiba included a stipulation of exclusivity - Every game using the Dance Dance Revolution title would only include songs featured on Dancemania CDs, and had to provide advertising for Dancemania on every non-gameplay menu screen.

I doubt they've re-inked that contract, though. The Avex deal is one of the the best things that's ever happened to Bemani, and both Toshiba and Konami know that nobody is going to go out in the year 2012, and buy a brand new copy of Dancemania Super Classics 2. It's probably more sensible to license all of the songs individually from their respective owners, and pay Toshiba for the use of Dancemania logos.

All the old Dancemania albums are so incredibly hard to find in Japan now, if they ever show up on eBay they usually sell for $30 a piece. I was lucky to find a used record store in Tokyo that had a handful of them for rent. If this is rekindling of the DDR x Dancemania deal and Toshiba EMI actually re-prints those albums they would fly off the shelves, guaranteed.

I would not be the only American DDR player vying for imports either.

Plus the whole thing about Dancemania being pretty much dead...Sparkle is pretty much the first real Dancemania album in years and its mostly just songs that have been in a billion Dancemania albums before...

The last Dancemania album before SPARKLE was TREASURES, the 10th anniversary release.

Well, they list the 夏物語 and the Japanese Euro Best albums under the "Dancemania" discography on their official site, but they really deviate way far from the traditional Dancemania formula (Although the 夏物語 albums contained BUTTERFLY, HERO, and other classic Dancemania tracks).

I'm pretty sure Hime Trance 4 was the most recent?

Nope, Hime Trance 4 is quite old. Early 2010 that was released on.

Then I guess we can look forward to lots of terrible Natsumonogatari and Anime Hits In 80s Disco Style songs :{

They consider Hime Trance/Trance Paradise its own series and they don't list it under the Dancemania discography. Anyways, we already have basically two popular J-Pop songs confirmed (Heavy Rotation and most likely Connect), so I would suggest the licenses will be closer to X2's.

Yep, I can vouch for how hard they are to find if you actually want to buy one.

A few used CD shops around (in the rural areas or the cities) may have the occasional old Dancemania CD (always a completely random one), but those are quite rare, but when I do find them they are always dirt cheap (I got Dancemania 7 and Bass #3 for 500 yen a piece. This was in 2009, though.

Places like Warehouse and even Tsutaya sometimes have a fair selection to rent from, though. Back when I was "collecting" FLAC, most of my collection was from Warehouse, but even then I only have a few dozen of the CDs. (And honestly after a while they all start sounding the same; just different recompilations of songs that appeared in other Dancemania CDs)

Waaaay too many CDs

http://www.emimusic.jp/dancemania/dancemania/

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I've found quite a few from the Book-Offs here in America. I have Dancemania 7, Summers, and SPEED 1 IIRC (They're all back in LA so I can't go check). They were all under $10.

I've also found a couple of the Konami artist CDs as well as the BEMANI OSTs. The artist CDs are cheap and I think I paid $30 for the DJ TROOPERS OST.

A thought just occurred to me. If 2ndMIX Mode has banners, and CDs, does that also mean backgrounds are back?

high resolution

widescreen

backgrounds?

:3

Oh god. Smiley faces and dancing teddy bears spinning around in HD, with terrible HD kaleidoscope effects :{