DDR X2 (AC) (International)

I'm sure DDR X was great in countries that have legit working dedicabs/upgrade kits, but in the U.S/Canada it was an abomination upon humanity. The game itself isn't that bad, it's the poorly made cabinets that ruin the entire experience.

Fixed ^^'

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You're right. However the last time I pointed it out I was all but run out of town so I try to avoid speaking my mind about that anymore.

Japanese and Asian DDR X upgrade kits and machines running them are now seeping into the States (Anybody see eBay.co.uk offering them as well?) so the option is there, even if two years behind.

So even if no upgrade kits are released for X2 (Upgrades to those 'abominations' won't really count will they?) there's that.

Sure, the option might be there, but do you think many arcades would want to pay for $10,000 machines when they could just rent a DDR Extreme (or SN/SN2/whatever mix) from a local distributor?

Rent? Maybe places like movie theaters and theme parks but most of the arcades I played at in the US owned what they offered, and if their customers are telling them that owning an upgraded DDR X for 10,000 is better than owning a new DDR X for ??,000 with iffy construction then I think at least some of them would listen. Or they would keep what they've got/buy older mixes/go to ITG/what have you.

To answer your question in a simpler way; Probably more than the number of arcades that actually bought DDR X new.

If they wanted to make money, they would make upgrade kits for X2 not just for X machines but for SN/SN2 ones as well. They decided not only to release a $10,000 dedicated cabinet with no upgrade option in a country that has a notoriously weak arcade market (and in the middle of one of the worst financial crisis' in over 50 years), but they also had people in charge of modifying the high-quality Japanese cabinet in America that clearly had little to no understanding of the needs of a DDR machine. I kid you not, after the X cabinets were released, an online arcade gaming website contacted Betson to get a response to the lag and pads, to which they responded "only the expert players can tell". Not only was that a lie, but it clearly showed Betson's misunderstanding of the market of arcade DDR games, which are fueled largely by continuous play by hardcore players.

While the X US/EU machines have made very gradual improvements, I've not really seen anyone who would say that they met the standards of old machines, let alone surpass them (which should be their goal considering they're asking arcades to pay an extra $6000+ to get a brand new cabinet rather than an upgrade kit). And we've heard promises from Naoki Okada at KDE that X2 will feature higher quality pads (and to be fair, they actually have some people on the team now that...you know, KNOW what a DDR machine needs). Unfortunately, that serves as little comfort to any arcade that spent $10,000 on a brand new cabinet, only to realize that expert players could not even play on the original incarnation of the machine and even with the pad upgrades its only regarded as playable.

Konami's US Arcade Division has a unique opportunity with X2 now. DDR X2 is probably the most anticipated DDR game since SuperNOVA was first announced and even though SuperNOVA was considered a subpar game by the community, it was a pretty big success in the US in terms of sales. If the game turns out as good as it looks to be, it could be another DDR EXTREME for the hardcore DDR fans. Unfortunately, they have probably broken a lot of trust with US arcade owners after the DDR X flap and if fans aren't confident that the X2 machines will be at least as good (if not better) than older machines, they will not press their arcades to get the game.

/rant.

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So its in June?

maybe in June 17-24...

We are on a few weeks to go!

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Oh my god this. How did I not think of it. (Although 6/13 is a Sunday so I'm not sure if they want to do that, but we'll see.)

Also everything Pie-kun said in his last post is basically correct, I think. It's going to be very disappointing to come back to an X2-less America... or worse, a Betson-ruined X2. Here's hoping we don't get the shaft again...!

what does 613 mean?
isn't that the max combo for psmo?

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you just answered your own question.

To be fair, I had no idea what 613 meant as I don't think most of us have the hard songs' stepcounts hammered in our heads. I thought it had something to do with 573.

Honestly, I only remember them from people shouting them as inside jokes at tournaments and stuff. You've never seen Jboy's infamous PSMO AAA video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBphvNSlCLs (NSFW, and actually he might not say 613! 613! in this one but he should have hahaha)

Besides, the FCs on both LOM and Max300 (edit: and PSMO durrururru) are different now because jumps only count as 1 towards your combo.

I thought it was the time reference: 5:73am => 6:13am

Oh wow, someone else noticed that! I thought I was crazy for even thinking of it, hahaha.

But there's also a language pun associated that I forgot to mention-

573 is Konami.
5 = "go" usually, but read as "ko here"
7 = "nana" or "shichi" usually, but they took "nana" shortened to "na"
3 = "san" or "mi"

so

Ko(5)na(7)mi(3)



also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bemani_System_573_Analog

where 613 came from I can't remember.

Welcome to 1998

Or 2002

Or 1989

Or 2years ago...

:<

I'm looking forward to 2.14.13, though.

Welcome to me missing sarcasm on the internet I guess

I also thought I was the only one who subscribed to the belief that 573 translated into 613 for the reasons AceJay said.

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Is 613 basically the thinking man's 573?

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B6U was the best pun, and nobody got it :{