Video games - DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX

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	Video games - DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX

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DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX is the seventh game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was released in the arcades by Konami on April 17, 2002. Although only officially released in Japan, units exist worldwide. DDRMAX2 contains a total of 116 songs that are playable in normal gameplay, 34 of which are new to Dance Dance Revolution. 20 of these songs are hidden and unlockable.

For a complete list of songs, please refer to the DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX song list.

The interface used is a recoloring and smoothing of the song wheel interface first introduced in DDR 5thMIX. The names of the difficulty modes are "Light," Standard," and "Heavy," just as they were in DDRMAX. The difficulties also still have their Japanese names: 楽 (raku), 踊 (gyou), and 激 (geki), respectively. By pressing the two arrow buttons on the machine simultaneously, you can change the sorting method from the default (New songs first, then returning songs, then unlocked songs) to an alphabetical sort, a sort by song speed in BPM, and a sort by popularity.

Gameplay

The general premise of DDRMAX2 is the same as the previous Dance Dance Revolution games. One player can play using one dance pad (Single Play style), two players can play using one dance pad each (Versus Play style), or one player can play using both dance pads (Double Play style).

A player must step to the beat, matching the beat to the arrows presented to them on screen by stepping on arrows on a metal-and-plexiglass dance stage. Depending on the timing of each step, the step is scored "PERFECT," "GREAT," "GOOD," "BOO" or "MISS." A health bar is on the screen, and starts half-way at the beginning of the routine. PERFECT and GREAT steps increase the health bar until it is full. BOO and MISS steps diminish it. GOOD steps have no effect either way. If a player accumulates too many BOOs or MISSes in rapid succession, and the health bar fully diminishes, then they fail the song and the game ends.

Freeze Arrows, introduced in DDRMAX, have returned. Instead of just stepping on the arrow, you have to hold it for as long as the green arrow line remains on the screen. If you hit the arrow and keep it held, you score an "OK," which scores six dance points. If you do not succeed, it scores an "NG," which is worth nothing when your dance points and grade are calculated. OKs help build up the health bar, and NGs diminish it. You get extra base score points for successfully holding a freeze arrow.

A player may play anywhere from three to seven songs (not including extra stages), depending on how many the arcade owner sets the machine to play each game. At the end of each song, the player sees their accumulated points and how many of each kind of step they stepped. They also get a letter grade, ranging from E (only seen in two player modes when one player fails but the other passes) to AAA (all steps PERFECT), solely determined by the kind of steps they make. At the end of the game, they get a cumulative score based on the last three songs they played plus Extra Stages, if obtained (read on about the Extra Stages).

There are two scoring systems: the long-score system used to determine rankings, and an independent dance point system used to determine the grade.

The long-score system has been completely revamped from the last game. Bonus points have been eliminated, and the maximum score for a song is the foot-rating for that routine multiplied by 10 million. The highest number of points possible for a single song is 100 million points for a 10-foot song.

The dance-point system uses raw step values to determine the grade. It goes by the following formula: 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 'OK' freeze adds six points, and an 'NG' freeze is worth nothing. The dance points are also tied to the life bar. As always, if a player take 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 of the game 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 you accumulate: 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 you manage to get a net dance-point total of zero without depleting the life bar and, thus, failing, you get an 'E'. 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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

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