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DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMix

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This article is about the Japanese arcade and PlayStation 2 release. For the North American version, see DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution.

DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX is the 6th game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released in the arcades by Konami on October 19, 2001. Although only officially released in Japan, units exist worldwide. DDRMAX contains a total of 42 songs, 36 of which are new to Dance Dance Revolution.

The interface used is a recoloring and smoothing of the song wheel interface first introduced in DDR 5thMIX, with the addition of changeable sort settings and a longer time limit.

DDRMAX was intended to be the Next Generation of Dance Dance Revolution. As such, there are many changes. First, the difficulty levels were renamed. Basic' was renamed 'Light', 'Trick' was named 'Standard', and 'Maniac' was named 'Heavy'. They are also given Japanese difficulty names in conjunction: 楽 (raku), 踊 (you), and 激 (geki), respectively. Their color codes--orange, fuchsia and green, respectively--remain the same.

Gameplay

Core gameplay remained mostly the same on DDRMAX, with the addition of Freeze Arrows and a new scoring system:

Freeze Arrows appear as green arrows with a long extension. If they are held for the entire length successfully, a O.K." is scored. If it is not held down for the entire length, a N.G.'' (no good) is scored. Freezes affect the life bar. the new scoring two systems: the long-score system used to determine rankings, and an independent dance point system now used to determine the grade.

All songs have a long-score ceiling of 50 million points, and a bonus score is tacked onto it based on the difficulty of the song and other factors. Rankings are given for the highest long-score accumulations a round. If a player plays more than three songs, then it only counts the last three played. If a song is played repeatedly among the three songs used for ranking, then the repeated songs carry no bonus score.

The dance-point system uses raw step values to determine the grade. A 'perfect' step adds two points, a 'great' step adds one point, a 'good' step is worth nothing, a 'boo' step takes away four points, and a 'miss' step takes away eight points. An 'O.K.' freeze adds six points, and an 'N.G.' freeze is worth nothing. The dance points are also tied to the life bar. As always, if a player takes too many bad steps and depletes the life bar, they will fail, and the game will end immediately. If the first song is in Light mode, then the game will allow a player to fail that song and continue, but will fail the player out if they fail a second song. In two-player games, if one player fails, they can continue dancing, but it ceases to accumulate dance points for the failed player, accumulates score points at only 10 points per step, and automatically gives the failed player an 'E' for the song.

The grade is dependent on the number of dance points accumulated: 100% dance points is 'AAA', at least 93% is 'AA', at least 80% is 'A', at least 65% is 'B', at least 45% is 'C' and anything below 45% is a 'D'. If a net dance-point total of zero is obtained without depleting the life bar and, thus, failing, an 'E' ia awarded. The final grade for the entire game is an average of the grades from the last three songs and not derived from the actual dance points scored.

Interface & graphics

Dancing characters have been removed in DDRMAX. Instead, the arrows scroll over clips of full motion video, hence the game does not render any polygons. The screen refreshes at a full speed of 60 frames per second.

Groove Radar

The old foot-rating system was removed for DDRMAX, and replaced by the Groove Radar. The Groove Radar is a graphical representation of the difficulty of a song based in five different areas: Stream, Voltage, Air, Chaos, and Freeze. The Groove Radar was not very popular among seasoned DDR veterans. The foot-rating system would be restored to work with the Groove Radar in the North American PlayStation 2 version of the game and in the next arcade version, DDRMAX2. All of the DDRMAX songs on DDRMAX2 received foot-ratings, but due to the removal of Follow Me and Flash in the Night, these 2 songs have never received foot ratings.

Modifiers

A new options menu accessed by holding down the start button when selecting a song debuted on DDRMAX, and is retained on future mixes.

Some of the available modifiers include Speed mods, which change the arrow speed. Boost, which causes the arrows to accelerate as they near the step zone, Appearance, which changes the appearance of the arrows. Turn mods modify the stepchart itself, Other effects the difficulty of the steps, Scroll changes the scroll direction of the arrows, and Freeze Arrows can also be turned off.

Extra Stage

New to the Dance Dance Revolution series is "Extra Stage", where players are rewarded for meeting conditions set by the game. Scoring a "AA" or higher while playing on the highest difficulty on the player's last song, Extra Stage on DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX unlocks the "Boss Song" MAX 300. To pass the Boss Song players must beat the song while certain Modifiers are active, making it harder than it would normally be. For MAX 300 the Modifiers active are the speed Modifier 1.5x, the scroll Modifier Reverse, and an unaccessible Modifier known to fans as "No Recover". The Dance Gauge starts completely filled and the standard rules of the gauge apply. Any mistakes made cause the gauge to empty but no matter how well players dances the gauge will not refill. If players pass the Boss Song for the first time in is unlocked for normal play, displayed on the Song Wheel in red.

If players score a "AA" or higher on the Extra Stage the game again rewards them with "One More Extra Stage". The second Extra Stage, or "Special Stage" as announced by the game, on 6thMIX is CANDY ☆, an easier song but with more difficult Modifiers. The One More Extra Stage Modifiers are the speed Modifier 1.5x, the scroll Modifier Reverse, and another unaccessible Modifier known as "Sudden Death". Sudden Death also uses the Dance Gauge but this time only as a graphical front to the rule. If a single step is missed the game ends regardless to how well the player danced otherwise. When both Extra Stages are passed the game awards the player with a special game credits movie that features a "Thank you" to the players. If the second Boss Song was passed for the first time it too will be unlocked for normal play, also displayed on the Song Wheel in red.

Link data

Some machines have the ports to insert PlayStation memory cards. Such memory cards have to be PlayStation 1 (not PS2) memory cards with Link Data from the home version of DDR 5th Mix (the home version of DDRMAX cannot create arcade-compatible Link Data). 5th Mix can create two different kinds of arcade link data; the Link Data file for DDRMAX is known as "New Version" Link Data and is forward-compatible with DDRMAX2 arcade machines as well. Link Data serves two primary purposes: Score-saving and Internet Ranking. The user can save his or her scores from arcade performances, and whenever the game is played in the future, the arcade game will load the scores for each user and show them on the song-selection screen to show the player's best performances. These scores can also be viewed at home with DDR 5th Mix. DDRMAX also provides Internet Ranking codes based on the user's performance in a given set of songs. As with all of Konami's Internet Ranking events, the webpage for the game would allow users to enter in a generated password which contains their initials and scores for that session, and the webpage would display the rankings for those who have submitted codes. Link Data saves these passwords so that they may be entered much more conveniently.

The arcade game can exchange custom stepchart data with DDRMAX, as well as any earlier version that has songs that are in DDRMAX, though this requires special steps to be taken in DDRMAX to write a PlayStation 1-formatted save file, which must then be copied to the PlayStation 1 memory card by the user.

Home versions

The home version of DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX was released in Japan on May 16th, 2002, for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console. It featured all 42 songs from the arcade version as well as two additional songs "Kind Lady" and "So In Love". DDRMAX's hidden songs can be unlocked automatically, without additional play, by accessing its save data on home versions of DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX or Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME.

DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution, with the mix number omitted, is the home version released in North America for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console. The North American version is considerably different from the Japanese version. It displays song difficulties using the traditional foot-rating system and the Groove Radar in tandem.

Music

Unlike past DDR versions, songs from previous versions did not carry over to DDRMAX.

Notable songs from this version include:

  • MAX 300: As the title suggests, this song plays at 300 BPM, surpassing "DROP OUT". Usually considered to be the first 10-foot difficulty song (on Heavy), though it was not given that rating officially until DDRMAX2 was released. The Heavy step patterns are fairly simple to many people, but the incredible speed takes a toll on stamina and endurance. The steps briefly pause a minute into the song, offering a slight rest, but they quickly start up again with increased difficulty. The maximum combo of the Heavy steps on Single is 573, a number often used in Konami games for the fact that it is loosely based on a Japanese visual pun. (5 is "go" in Japanese, 7 is "nana" - think "na" - and the kanji symbol for 3 can be pronounced as "mi". Hence, "gonanami," or loosely "Konami.") Certain versions of DDR only count jumps as one step in the combo, rather than two. In these versions, the maximum combo will be 555 rather than 573. The Double stepset is much less dense than Single (only 497 combo), but still earns its foot rating with a six-measure 1/8th note run. The artist listed is Ω (Omega), a pseudonym of Naoki Maeda.

  • SO DEEP (PERFECT SPHERE REMIX): A trance song from Dancemania FantasiA. It is one of the fastest songs (140 BPM) to have a consistently high density of 1/16th notes. When DDRMAX was first released, many players thought the Heavy steps of the song deserved a 10-foot rating, but it only received a 9 when it was rated in DDRMAX2. On DDRMAX's Groove Radar, this song covers all of the chaos, voltage, and stream levels, with a full combo of 498 or 500 steps (depending on whether jumps are counted as one or two steps, which varies among different versions of DDR), which is higher than almost any other DDR stepchart. The combo for the Standard stepchart is also halved, making it 250 steps, as well as the Light stepchart which was halved, giving it 125 steps.

  • FLASH IN THE NIGHT, FOLLOW ME: These songs were never repeated in any home or console version, as they are exclusive to DDRMAX. As a result these songs have never been given official foot ratings.

  • BYE BYE BABY BALLOON, GHOSTS (Vincent De Moor Original Mix): These songs weren't repeated in any of the next three arcade versions, but they have appeared in home versions (Respectively, Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 3 for Xbox and DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution for Playstation2, released in North America).

  • true...(Radio Edit),true...(Trance Sunrise Mix): Riyu Kosaka's first solo songs, although as a member of BeForU, she had played a part in the production of DIVE from Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX. true...(trance sunrise mix) has a slightly faster tempo than true...(radio edit), and contains more jumps and complex step patterns on the Heavy difficulty.

The Original Soundtrack for DDRMAX was produced by Toshiba-EMI under their Dancemania dance music brand. It contained all 36 new tracks from the arcade version, an instrumental version of the song Firefly by BeForU, and the full version of the song true... sung solo by BeForU member Riyu Kosaka.

External links

References



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Last updated on Wednesday March 05, 2008 at 13:27:00 PST (GMT -0800)
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