Rank your US DDR Games

Hey! Been a bit since I posted. I've been kinda bored, so I figured, "hey, why not list my ranking of American DDR games that I've played and start friendly discourse?" and then I realized, why leave everyone else out of the fun? So here it is; the (probably not the first but it's a new) US DDR game ranking thread!

RULES:
1. Stick only to the games you have played. If you want to rank ones you haven't off of song lists, set them aside.
2. While your criteria is ultimately up to you, I'll be ranking mine off of songlists, starting songlist (first impressions are important), additional features and nice-to-haves, and overall presentation.
3. If you can, explain your reasoning for at least some of your ratings.
4. You can be in disbelief at some rankings, but don't bully people for their own rankings.
5. If your opinions change or if you play new games, make a new list instead of editing the old one.
With that said, I'll start!
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20. SuperNOVA 2

I've not seen a lot of love for NA SN2, so I'm comfortable putting this last.
The initial songlist (again, VERY important since 1st impressions are crucial) just.. needed some reorganizing.
I'll admit, I never got far in it because HYPER MASTER MODE never really clicked and didn't make sense, but to this day I'm not really interested in picking it up and would rather get the JP version since it seems to have a much stronger songlist.

19. Dance Dance Revolution (PS1)

This one might turn some heads, but the main reason I'm putting it down here is because of how much it lacked at the time it was released.
While 4th Mix CS wouldn't be out for another week or so, the arcade version + 3rd Mix CS had been out for a year at that point, so the fact the debut US DDR game was a stripped down BEST HITS/2nd ReMIX baffles me. While the songlist is fine, it's lacking in size... the absence of EDIT mode despite having been in JP console games since day one doesn't help, either.

18. Disney Grooves

I don't actually remember too much of this game, but I found myself going back to Hottest Party, so I guess it just wasn't captivating enough. Maybe I'll play it again at some point and re-do this list.

17. Universe

Universe isn't terrible, but it's song banners are atrocious and I remember not being too interested in the unlock mode. Arguably it's worst feature is it's lag, which is fixable but requires disabling a lot of the visual flair that the OG Xbox was able to handle with ease.

16. Universe 2

Same general issues as it's predecessor, but I liked the songlist a little more.

15. X

X felt like a major course correction from SN2, and it had a solid initial songlist, especially with KONAMI originals. The story mode was also neat, but unfortunately my copy stopped working before I could find out just how good the game was. I am definitely interested in trying to play it again and unlock more. Also... the announcers. Whoever decided it would be good to let them sing loudly over a song ought to be fired.

14. Ultramix

Ultramix is a neat title from what I have played, but the fact it was a rush job is quite apparent, with less-than-amazing visual presentation (stretched and extra compressed RandomMovies, anyone?) and a significantly smaller songlist than it's successors. If it spent a little more time in the oven, it would've placed much higher.

13. Ultramix 2

Ultramix 2 was a significant improvement over it's predecessor IMO, thanks to a bigger songlist and IIRC more unique crossovers and originals than UM1, letting it stand more on it's own, compared to the prequel which seemed to have a lot of songs that, given the timeframe, were about to be in the "main" PS2 games anyways.

12. Mario Mix

I wanted this game so bad as a kid that when I did get it one evening, my poor little self passed out from excitement before I could play it, and had to play it the next morning.
Now, the initial songlist being one singular song is absolutely wild, but the accessibility of story mode made up for it. Every song I feel was pretty solid, though some extra songs from Mario's spin-off franchises like Warioland/Ware and DKC would've been nice, but I feel what we got, even if it was small, was pretty good.

11. DDR S+

I was actually really conflicted on where to put this because while conceptually, it's an amazing game (222 songs? Yes please.), but it's abysmally small initial songlist and framerate issues come into conflict with that sheer potential... But, I enjoyed it enough as a kid to get some packs and play it a lot until my iPad broke, so I feel it's only right to place it somewhat high.

10. Hottest Party

While the inability to set speed mods (as far as I remember) is a big no-no for any DDR game released since 2001, the covers were pretty good, and the mechanics were a neat way to spruce up DDR's gameplay for the less-purist, casual gamers that the Wii was targeted at. The covers for KONAMI originals however, are... not great.

As for visual presentation, I personally feel it looks more up-to-date than the X-style visuals we've been getting for 15 years now; better, on-beat dance routines, stages that still feel fresh and hold up better than what we've got now, and the UI... something about the aesthetic just feels like a good time.

9. SuperNOVA

How KONAMI followed this up with SN2 is beyond me. SuperNOVA has a really good balance of both copying the arcade game's stuff and doing it's own thing, and it's initial songlist is way stronger than it's sequel. The unlock mode, while a little tough, is way more interesting than SN2's, and I got way farther in it than it's sequel.

Oh, and it's unlockable songs are really well chosen IMO, with a good selection of EXTREME catch-up songs, CS crossovers, and arcade tracks.

8. Ultramix 3

The songlist is pretty good from what I recall, but what really stuck out to me is that freestyle mode. Forget workout mode; if you wanna get fit, do Literally some of the most fun I've had, and I wish they put it into other games.

7. Max 2

Max 2 saw the return of dancing characters which I personally appreciate, and whoever handled song licensing for that game really understood the assignment, with pretty much every new license fitting in so well I'm surprised some of them weren't crossed over into the arcade titles.

6. KONAMIX

While DDR's first American title was a bit of a mess, KONAMIX more than makes up for it's prequel's sins with a much larger songlist of all KONAMI originals, something I'm not sure any other title has done. Although I never played SOLO mode, it's presence is definitely appreciated, as is EDIT mode's. Personally, this is the title I would've started with when releasing DDR games in America, but that's just me.

5. Dance Dance Revolution II

DDR II was something of a swan song for console releases everywhere, and it did not disappoint. The songlist was jam-packed with some good licenses and even better originals, and the best visuals in a DDR game to date. The fact that the arcade games ignored what II brought to the table and continues to use X's visual style baffles me. I get that the dancing characters and dance stages aren't the most important thing technically, but it's still a little disappointing how they made something so unique for the Wii and then just... never did anything like that again.

4. Universe 3

After two less-than-stellar Xbox 360 entries, KONAMI and Hudson got their shit together with U3, with a great songlist and good selection of licenses, and insanely better visual presentation. The only thing really keeping it from placing higher is the lag. If it wasn't for that, this could honestly be a top 3, I think.

3. Max

A rare case where the US version is better than the JP one, Max had an absolutely bonkers song list bigger than it's Japanese counterpart, with a bunch of revivals, and step ratings.

2. Extreme

This one won an MTV award for it's songlist if memory serves me right, and while this might not be popular opinion, it absolutely earned that award. I might be biased since it was my first DDR ever, but this one is just amazing to me. I can even look past the odd songwheel (it's actually nostalgic to me, so I might be one of the few who likes it in any capacity).

While more songs from JP Extreme would've been great, the songs that are there seem so carefully picked; this is one of the two games I would argue doesn't have a single bad or ill-fitting song in it's roster. If you were a kid or teen and you wanted an introduction to DDR, this is what I think you should've gone for.

1. Extreme 2

Okay, this might really turn some heads, and this might also be nostalgia bias, but Extreme 2, the title I come back to the most... It's my personal favorite, and I believe it to not just be the best American DDR title, but one of the best DDR Console games in any region period.

Like Extreme, I don't think it has a single bad song, but Extreme 2's song list just feels even more perfect. Every original, every license, they all just fit IMO. I can see why the SuperNOVA games took a degree of visual and audio inspiration from this one, this game is (again, just my opinion) peak DDR.

Literally, my one complaint with this title is a few more arcade Extreme crossovers would've been nice, but honestly that's about it; everything else about this game is just perfect.

Ok, cool. I have a bunch of time on my hands to chime in with my opinions. These are all ranked solely by how much I enjoy the music, but I’ll comment on other aspects for each.


14.) Hottest Party

A.K.A. Bad Covers: The Game. The originals are also mostly not good. This is the DDR I’ve spent the least amount of time playing, only a few hours total.

13.) DDR 2010 (XBOX 360)

Very close to being the absolute bottom for changing the gameplay / scoring. It features a way-too-small songlist consisting of awful licenses (except for Love Shack, which I had been wanting in DDR for a while), and Konami originals trying to mimic bland pop songs with pretty bad charts to boot. However, I still think I probably had more fun with this than Hottest Party.

12.) Hottest Party 2

Slightly better licenses than Hottest Party 1. Way better Konami originals. The charts suck, though.

11.) Konamix

I didn’t play this for the first time until 2010 and found out that most of its songs appear on other games. If I had played this when it was brand new, it would be very high on this list.

10.) X2

I thought I’d put this a lot higher, but after thinking more, it really is the worst of the PS2 games. I loved this when it came out. Decent licenses. Good new songs. Good inclusions of songs that were missing from previous games, but they should’ve swapped out some of the baffling choices for revivals to include even more songs that hadn't appeared yet on a US PS2 mix.

9.) X

This one’s a grower. This came out when I was a freshman in college and playing through the story mode with roommates watching was fucking embarrassing. It has Pluto on it, which is my favorite song in all of DDR.

8.) MAX

It’s good. I have nothing interesting to say about it.

7.) SuperNOVA 2

This was the first DDR I ever owned and I loved it. I then proceeded to play the other PS2 games in mostly reverse order and realized most of them were better (and then after that discovered how vastly different the Japanese version was) but this still has a place in my heart. I’d knock this down a few pegs if I was determining the order of these games by the overall package. The difficulty in this game is so poorly thought out for many reasons. For how certain songs are obviously misrated. For how there’s barely any 9 footers, but a whole lot of 7s and 8s and then just a huge gap to a bunch of the hardest 10s in the series at that point. For how only 4 songs have challenge charts and one of them is a repeat from SuperNOVA 1. It’s a mess and feels lazy.

6.) Extreme

This one’s just there. Music’s good. Graphics are ugly.

5.) MAX 2

Absolutely love this game. There’s a few too many revivals on it and that’s my only complaint.

4.) DDR II

There’s some trash licenses in this but the rest of the songlist makes up for it. I loved X2 AC and was so happy to have those songs on a console version. Having the small sized music videos always seemed silly. If it was to conserve storage space then they really should’ve just excluded the long versions.

3.) Extreme 2

I had trouble picking my top 3 as they’re pretty much all tied. I look back and find it weird how younger me didn’t like a lot of Extreme 2’s songlist at first. What a fool I was, this game is amazing.

2.) SuperNOVA

This is probably my favorite console version overall. I really love this game’s Stellar Master mode, I’ve played it the most out of all the various mission modes. So many of my favorite DDR songs are in this game.

1.) Universe 3

Judging only based on the songlist, this is my pick for the best DDR. So many great songs in this game. It has a distinctly different sound from the arcade versions, while still feeling like DDR. The charts in this game are also incredible. A few things in this game piss me off and would knock it a bit down the list. The process of unlocking the songs is tedious: The quest mode is mandatory to unlock everything, rather than having the option to put more time into playing the regular game mode as a backup unlock method. The forced bonus stages and extra stages make me keep backing out to the menu whenever I play. The groove radar is borderline illegible. Some of the song jackets look lazy as hell. The inability to resize the arrows, the long load times and frame rate drops are nonsense. But, God, I love this soundtrack. Most of the songs in this game should’ve crossed over to the arcade a long time ago, with the charts intact, but that will never happen now, sadly.

10. DDR S+
It's honestly so bare bones, it's not worth it. Not a SINGLE unlockable song. Everything, aside from a few random outfits and an endless mode, no unlocks. Just 3 songs by default? That's not enough.

9. DDR II
I know there's a lot of X2 / X3 content, but the licensed songs aren't so great.

8. DDR Hottest Party 3
The Konami Originals were just so fun. They really stood out. Plus, the UI and whole aesthetic just fit perfectly for the Wii.

7. DDR Extreme
The UI isn't the best, the mission mode is too brutal, but I will give it HUGE credit for having more challenge remixes, and the character select finally being in the main menu was a solid improvement.

6. DDR SuperNOVA 2
My first ever DDR game. The licenses have grown on me, Hyper Master Mode is straight forward, but it gets too crazy for my liking. The songlist is on the weaker side, but for what is has, it does well.

5. DDR X
SN2 Grand Gross, Street Master Mode, solid timing window. It's all there.

4. DDR Dance Wars
Packed with content, even for a mobile game. The social networking was fun, and the missions were manageable. The sticker system was flawed, but overall I'm very lucky to have played it. I still miss it 10 years later.

3. DDR Max
So many classics! And the songs are just so awesome. Especially Take it to the Morning Light. It's like one last gasp of OG era DDR.

2. DDR Max 2
It's the closest we got to Extreme JP in the US. Solid song list, and a more fleshed out nonstop / course mode for it's time. (In the US at least). Plus the unlock system was easy to follow.

1. DDR Extreme 2.
Vibrant UI, killer good songlist, Mission mode was fun, and challenging in the right way. TONS of character costumes, nice courses, and the pick up and play (no stage) method works well for a home version.

Yeah no by itself it would be the absolute worst, only reason I rated it on sheer potential was to give it a fighting chance I gotta say, there's something mildly vindicating about Extreme 2 placing so high in two replies now, because I wasn't actually sure what the general consensus on it was.. granted, this is from 2 other lists, but still.


I always heard it had something to do with memory usage (I guess a lot of stuff is always going to make loading.. a little faster? Who knows)... If it was a storage issue, they could've gotten it made w/ dual-layer DVDs like Brawl...

Then again, this is KONAMI we're talking about, so maybe they decided that wasn't necessary... Oh well, at least we got videos in some form. Smooooch without the video would've just been plain wrong.

I only ever had 7 games from the series on console. I have a few Japanese titles but I won’t throw them here to cause confusion.

7. DDRMAX
It hurts putting this low because the songlist is good for what it is. Good Eurobeat licenses, Konami Originals, and very strange revivals from CLUB MIX and beyond. What holds it back is its age. Game feels stuck in early 2000’s and has a weird looking Ui that on a big TV can be very dated to view and play. I only ever went back to this game for the obscurity of some of the revivals and the licenses but the good stuff was saved for the game afterwords.

6. SUPERNOVA 2
This was the beginning where most folks started to jump ship from DDR US and into DDR JP. A lot of great songs were cut eventually being out onto X with some never appearing at all. Ontop of an unlock mechanic that is mediocre to playthrough as well as some passable to ok revivals. What is carrying the style above is its modernization compared to other titles as well as having my personal favorite looking UI of all the DDR Series. If it wasn’t for that, it would be at 7

5. DDRMAX2
Slightly annoying unlock mechanics to an overall updated and better version of what DDRMAX should have been. Better licenses, especially the ones missed on DDRMAX US, great originals revived, and great/exclusives KOs. Stepcharts also are starting to head to the moderation of its era ending in EXTREME which makes replaying it more enjoyable if you enjoy this era of DDR.

4. EXTREME
This should not be as high as it is after stating the praise for DDRMAX2 as for the songlist, it is a butchered port of the original with a Festival UI. Immense bias is put here as this was the first DDR Game I played and I greatly enjoyed both the songlist and its many mods. From the Mission Mode having very infamous Missions to the fun mini games and costume changes. These would be vastly improved in the later title following it but I cannot deny how much personal enjoyment the game has given me over the years.

3. SUPERNOVA
Same thing as EXTREME, except add in a more legitimate songlist to backup my overwhelming bias for my first few DDR Games. Stellar Mission Mode is to this day my favorite unlock system. Some songs have very dated charts which were later updated in Arcade Versions but the overall quality of the game is a step up from EXTREME.

2. X
The best songlist in the entire DDR PS2 US Catalogue with great originals / licenses revived and added to the game’s favor. The only thing holding this back from #1 is the announcer as well as the less stellar but still enjoyable Story Mode. The game was heading into a newer direction and I greatly enjoyed the surplus of great Supernova 2 content missed incase X’s original content was overbearing. It was a good blend with the songlist in mind that made the game feel the most balanced in the series history.

1. EXTREME 2
The Michael Jordan of DDR CS US. It’s hard to say much about a game where many players fiercely defend it from it’s great License choices and revivals, overly abundant costumes and characters, super expansive mission mode, as well as a great UI later used in STRiKE. Personal picks put other games ahead of this game but speaking subjectively from the opinions of many others it is widely regarded as one of the best if not the best game in the DDR CS catalogue. It isn’t the best in any of the fields that it’s in for me to rate, but it is one of the best in all the categories I would define the game at which makes it the most consistently pleasant experience while playing.

BONUS: 2.5 Mario Mix
A very entertaining and unique approach to DDR. Amazing songlist, story mode, and support from Nintendo Developers. The issues lie in it’s charting where it occasionally feels like a DDR Title and more like a DDR Minigame added ontop the real game it is based on. That aside, it is a very unique and cool approach to the series

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I'm listing here 8 USA PS2 mixes. IMO, how I rank them.

8. DDR X2 - My least favorite in the list. Most of the licenses are painfully easy. This is also the only USA PS2 mix with numerous revivals within the USA PS2 games but these are not too great for my tastes (La Senorita Virtual is outclassed by the original; they could've picked a better revival than Tierra Buena). Not a whole lot of the new Konami Originals are any better. I will say that Closer, Sacred Oath and Kimono Princess are awesome, though.

7. DDR SuperNOVA2 - Most of the licenses aren't too appealing for me, save for Eternus, Take on Me and Angelus. Something about this mix doesn't seem to stick with me for a long time, including most of the Konami Originals. Honey Punch and Flowers are awesome though SN2 could have been better.

6. DDR MAX - Has few licenses but at least the Dancemania ones are good (Rhythm and Police (KOG G3 Mix) and Stomp to my beat FTW) but I don't like the idea that some of the Double charts are copy pasted among difficulties (club version songs and Cutie Chaser (Morning Mix) come to mind) and the unreasonable length of the oni courses. 21 songs in an oni course? That is too much.

5. DDR EXTREME - The interface is a turn off but I regret not touching this mix for a long time just because of that. They picked a good selection of Dancemania licenses such as Wonderland and Kick the Can. The Konami Originals are also good such as Pink Rose and Can't Stop Fallin' in Love (Speed Mix). Good mix.

4. DDR X - This may be polarizing for some. This mix was the one where they caught up with the Japan SN2 Konami Originals and those songs are what made me like this such as Poseidon, Sunkiss Drop, Saturn, Bloody Tears and Trust. Licenses are okay for me and are better than what X2 had. Good mix.

3. DDR SuperNOVA - For this mix, it's usually the Konami Originals are the ones that make this awesome. DDR SuperNOVA by itself in the arcades is already great with songs like DoLL and Xepher so the USA PS2 version is no different. Licenses are okay, with Freckles (KCP Re-Edit) arguably being the best. Great mix.

2. DDR MAX2 - This is my first USA PS2 DDR and it's a great mix. Good selection of songs such as Afronova, In the Navy'99 (XXL Disaster Remix), Heaven and So Deep (Perfect Sphere Remix). That's all there is to it.

Fun fact: When we newly had the PS2 way back 2002, I was supposed to buy Max but the store clerk suggested for Max2 since it's newer. Why the idea of buying both didn't cross my mind is beyond me but I can tell that Max2 is better at least.

1. DDR EXTREME2 - I barely touched this mix but I think this deserved to be top spot thanks to the Dancemania songs alone. If you've been playing a lot on the PS1, then I consider this a great mix to replay some of them, along with DDR Party Collection. The Konami Originals picked are also great such as Dynamite Rave, Sweet Sweet Love Magic and Sakura. A great mix all in all.

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