-WARNING LONG POST-

Let's take a little stroll through unlock systems in the DDR's that I have played.

MAX: Simple, but annoying.  Sometimes, I'd like to play some of the more interesting songs before I play 300 others.

MAX2: Better!  The dance point idea was genius, and let you know A) How many things you could unlock and B) how long until you unlocked it.

Extreme: More gameplay unlock.  Not working KONAMI (though mission mode was amazing)

Extreme2: Dance Master Mode was fun, it was just annoying to have to play two whole sections on beginner and light before things got difficult.  But, step in the right direction.

SuperNOVA: Well, some of the missions were a little annoying, but it wasn't terrible.  The trials were fun to complete.

SuperNOVA2: It was a little too straightforward, and I have yet to figure out how to get to the last Hidden Zone.  It was like hitting a brick wall.

Hottest Party: Why has no one brought this up yet?  There were only a few flaws in Groove Circuit Mode.  I don't remember difficulty limits being a problem and you could use any song you had unlocked to complete the request.  The Dance Battles were a little annoying until I realized that the hand/feet missiles could be turned off.  This was lots of fun to play and could have stuff unlocked quickly.  Also, since you could use any currently unlocked song for most of the requests (unless it specified songs for you) it was just like playing free play mode.  My personal favorite.  Oh, the only flaws I saw were NO SPEED MODS and that the only way to get tokyoEVOLVED appears to be a AAA.  On that pad?  I don't think so.

The ideal system would be one that had the dance point system of MAX2 with a mission mode like Hottest Party.  That way, it satisfies both crowds.

Didn't Konami lose a contract or something with the DanceMania series or something?  Making it much more expensive to get their songs in the game?  I remember reading that somewhere...

 Anyways, difficulty fluctuated heavily in SN2.  Arrabbiata is borderline 9/10, while previous games had much easier 9's.  However, the difficulty jumped from Mondo Street/Arrabbiata/konoko no nanatsu no oiwaini (there's no way I got that right) to Malacca/Faster Kill *****cat/Until Forever.  There's very little middle ground.  It's always nice to have songs so a player can progressively, and almost effortlessly, move up in difficulty, instead of having to jump.

 Also, challenge was neglected a little.  People enjoy challenge steps and the ever-popular challenge remix.

I hope this gets through somewhere and helps.  This is from my personal experience with other players.

Hey, I'm Adam, or better known as OMiY (One More Insanity on outphase) online.  I live near Pittsburgh and I'm a freshman at High School.  I've been playing for about four years and own every PS2 DDR Game, MAX-SuperNOVA2, with KONAMIX to boot.  I stay active with DDR through a club at school where its all DDR and IIDX for a couple hours straight.

Anything Ryu*.  Hands down.

As for a favorite, Mondo Street is probably one of the most fun to play, being probably the hardest 8 in existence.

Least Favorite: DDR can do without Sean Paul - Get Busy and Temperature.  I'm sorry, but...no.  Just no.