DDR EXTREME will actually be turning 20 years old tomorrow. What do you have to say?

I never understood this. "We're starting over", "Generation next".....yet Extreme was originally going to be the final DDR game. wat

I think DDR Extreme is probably the most important Bemani game. I mean, it introduced so many players with how common it was, and introduced all sorts of people to different genres of music Bemani is known for. I got into DDR in the late 2000s, but I still was able to experience it being in arcades. DDR Extreme has aged so nicely, along with a lot of other DDR games. In the end, the 20th anniversary goes to show how fast time can move.

DDR EXTREME is my favorite bemani/rhythm game

me too

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From what I understood, DDR was "starting over" by ending the numbered mixes, making it the last DDR game in the arcades (at least for a long while), and to continue the series to home consoles onwards, marking it as "Generation next". I guess people would think it's the final final DDR game because beatmania THE FINAL was also released within the same year.

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There can't be too many of those left, especially in public arcades.


Thank you very much for the work on your Extreme simulator for SM! Playing it at home is a great way for to prepare for going to the arcade to play the actual thing, and I've enjoyed adding back the removed songs/adding post-Ex ones and putting them in their respective folders. Through this build, I've been able to introduce friends into playing DDR as well.

DS Euromix 2 is also 20 as well! Meaning the original Euromix is 22 years old! Perhaps sooner or later, we won't be seeing these in the euro arcades, and they'll all be scrapped! And what will replace them then?

Come to think of DDR Extreme, there was one in Elephant & Castle Superbowl before it was all demolished. That is why not many DDR Extreme machines in the UK are left.

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It was because the plan was to have the "next generation" of DDR be on consoles instead. Then ITG happened and was like "well I guess we'll fill the void" and Konami went "NAH GET TO FUCKING STEPPING SON" and dropped SuperNOVA.

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Is there a source for either of these statements? Asking genuinely. I've seen this repeated a lot online by fans, but I don't think I've ever seen a source on it. It seems like conjecture to me, but I supposed I could be wrong.

It's just the most believable theory we've ever gotten. Keep in mind ITG wasn't just sold as a dedicab but as an upgrade kit for DDR machines. Releasing an upgrade kit for an arcade game by a different company is legal but it definitely pisses off the company whose cab is now playing a game that isn't theirs. Konami years prior to that actually pissed off a company when they released some game (I think called Crime Fighters?) as an upgrade kit for Gauntlet.

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Not directly, its kinda pieced together. Extreme was December 2002, SuperNOVA was April 2006. So not quite 3.5 years in between. Konami sued Roxor in 2005 over ITG being sold as a DDR upgrade (IIRC the real complaint in the lawsuit was that ITG branding wasn't on the cabinets, and that since ITG was "inferior" it would lead fans to thinking Konami started making bad games, which is crap for like 17 different reasons), and they probably had to have something to show that they were actively using their patent and that it wasn't abandoned, so they were like "yeah we're actively making a new one, we don't want their game sold as an upgrade we want arcades to upgrade to ours". Like, just looking at the timeline, it adds up. And then SuperNOVA was a success and we started getting new games again.

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I'm pretty sure it is mostly just piecing together circumstantial evidence, yeah. From 1st -> Extreme, there was a new AC DDR every 3-5 months, and in total, from 1998-2002, there were like 20 different arcade versions of the game (spinoffs included), but then after Extreme....nothing for a year. And then 2 years. And then 3 years. It was almost 4 years before Supernova came out. Plus Extreme had, by a very large margin, the highest song count of any 573 mix, perfect for a "send-off" final game in the series.

And then there's the whole thing with MAX.(PERIOD) and how it was allegedly the "final song" of Extreme, and was allegedly left out of the AC version because they thought it would be too difficult and didn't want people hurting themselves or something like that. All of this is hearsay, but it makes enough sense for me to believe it lmao

It is assumed that the advent of ITG showed that there was still interest in the series, and after suing the fuck out of them, Konami decided to keep making AC DDR.

Or maybe they were just taking a long break after making like 20 versions of the game in 4 years, who knows.

That makes sense, because around this time the CS DDR games were selling well, the US Max 2 and Extreme went on to be "Greatest Hits" PS2 games.

When people have a cash cow, they will almost always over-print and milk the hell out of it until it diminishes the meaning/value. DDR had so many console releases and really most of them were crap releases of songs especially in earlier consoles.

Additionally, I know in my group we never favored the console releases because while the songs were official, they weren't something that was on the arcade machines which were definitive so we were of the opinion that all console releases inferior.

It was only until after ITG/Stepmania made it possible to play the console songs on arcade that made them desirable to play. I mean, what's the point in playing a game comprised of a literal stage if you can't show off?

Personally, I think the coolest thing about this community in 2023 is how few people in it think like this compared to 2005. There are several different things about this game that make it fun and they're all valid.

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Because the music is still good.

If you only played arcade DDR mixes in the 2000s, it's a shame you missed out on most of the content this series had to offer at the time. There were many great console exclusive songs that shouldn't be dismissed just because you couldn't show off in public.

If you missed out on Ultramix you missed like 90% of the licenses DDR got that were actually good, not gonna lie. More Prodigy and Paul Oakenfold, less "chart hit from five years ago" like we got in A.

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Strong agree the licenses were some of the most wide ranged, just a shame the charts were pretty awful, especially on the earlier xbox games!


Also all the discussion RE Extreme/ITG/Supernova and so on, I've tried finding it but can't remember where this was told to me but I believe I'd heard that Konami weren't that bothered about ITG being in their cabinets. They were completely dedicated to the home market as people picked up on, and it was the investors that RoXoR had on board that pushed them to release a PS2 release because they saw "All the competitors games on store shelves". It was something to do with them releasing a home version game that caused them to push the lawsuit out. Not sure if they had a specific trademark or copyright that was exclusive to home console games that allowed them to do it, but that was absolutely the thing that triggered it. But I know part of it was the whole, target arrows at the top of the screen being a patent of theirs was a big point of contention. Even though it must be near expiring/expired by now this is why SMX has the game on forced Dark basically.

Supernova came as a direct response to how popular ITG was being shown to be, when it was first shown to the public at ATEI 2006 (I think?) ITG 2 was already out on their own dedicated cabinet and had been for a while. There were posters everywhere being sent to distributors and arcades pointing out it was the most profitable arcade game of the time. Even Konami would have had to take notice to that and realise they were missing out at that point!


Extreme really was the best game for what it was though, there really was something for everyone on that game even if most of the game was hidden behind the different sort methods (Which really confused me as a kid when not being able to find all the DDRMax Licenses). I don't think we've ever had a game come out since that was as popular with just about everyone who played it?

I couldn't agree more. For one, the home technology was attrocious back then. I remember having to cycle through about 50 different PS2 to PC adapters back then just because the lag time was so awful with stepmania. It was only when cobalt flux came out and had better PC control boxes when things kind of evened out.

There's a lot of limitations that people completely forgot about as to why the player mentality was so strict. Even today, while I do enjoy playing at home nothing for me beats the arcade experience albeit on a custom ITG cab with 10k songs

Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME marks the debut appearance of Kind Lady in an arcade version, which is one of my buddy's favorite song in DDR. I believe he's also said that DDR EXTREME is his favorite version/mix in the entire series, but I'd have to ask again to reconfirm. He sent me a YouTube link of the full version of Kind Lady on April 5th of this year at 9:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, and I was mind-blown. I did not know it had a full version! The song is quite disco-heavy.

You know, I do have a vague memory of playing DDR EXTREME with my awesome maternal cousins at an arcade a long time ago. Off the top of my memory...
=> The oldest one really likes to play Pink Rose, and actually, she'll still pick this song when we play DDR at the arcade even today, since the song remains playable in the current arcade version. This is her go-to song to warm up, as it's easy to follow for her. She'll get the freeze arrows down someday, I know it.
=> The next oldest one—the only brother of the siblings—likes SAINT GOES MARCHING (REMIX); the stream section towards the end is the most fun for him. Unfortunately, this song only makes a brief revival in this game before disappearing from the series. It's a great song too, it's sad that it has this distinction!
=> Their younger sister is a fan of Midnite Blaze, which I share that in common with her. The song has a catchy tune with a fun chorus to sing along to, although I remember the Double chart being notoriously difficult, so much that we failed it together haha! We've both improved on the game since then.
=> Their youngest sister enjoys listening to and playing BROKEN MY HEART. She believes the Single chart is solidly challenging, and for someone who isn't a fan of jumps, she doesn't mind the way it was implemented on this song. I do believe she could still pass this song, even if she hasn't played in some time.

My brief, overall viewpoint of Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME is that it has a fairly good soundtrack, even if a lot of the songs are crossovers from other BEMANI games. But that's okay! I think the songs that they selected for this game were approachable and pleasant enough for the casual audience to enjoy. On the flip side, there were a decent amount of difficult songs for the hardcore players to tackle at the time. I can see why this game is iconic to the dedicated players while also being positively memorable enough for the casual gamers. Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME is a great game all-around!