Now get those pads working and we'll have a playable machine, eh?

It's nice to have a response, and X has yet to penetrate Toronto in any way so perhaps by the time I get to play on one it'll be all peachy and stuff. 

It doesn't. They were great for the time but haven't aged well. EXTREME was a disaster, I'm not sure why it's held in such high regard (well, I know why, I just disagree). Current-gen DDR has the finest game engine seen yet, and X has only improved it. The e-AMUSE features are great, the scoring is fair, the game just works. Now, songwise, that's a different issue. SuperNOVA was a continuation of the crossover disaster that was EXTREME, SuperNOVA2 is the exemplar of what a current generation DDR song list should be (licenses aside, they were mostly horrifying, but I think KONAMI's trying to figure out what to do without Dancemania, and they've tried different routes with X and SuperNOVA2 so at least they're experimenting), and X just went overboard on the commissions and weird licenses (though I suspect this is also a product of the song staff being spread thin by three separate DDR releases all containing songs from the same staff).

I support the evolution of DDR, and the old mixes were great for their time, but their time is gone and I'd be happy to see more SuperNOVA2 machines replace those aging EXTREMEs. 

Think ya better D has its addictive spin chart, as does Forever Sunshine. Keep on Liftin' and After the Game are great 'resting' songs for after a set of hard ones, and match the slow pace of their music.

I always though think ya better D should be a 6, it was like the Drop The Bomb of 5's. :P

I rarely play 5's, they're just not what I enjoy. I love Keep On Liftin' as a song, but I never play it. But at the very least, I do not believe any of the current known licenses for this DanceDanceRevolution game are the kind of songs to be only a 5. Especially not Disturbia (and the chart for it is anything but). 

Crosspost + extra:

Those ratings are messed. Also I'm going to just assume this isn't indicative of the final difficulty distribution since there's enough problems to work with right now.

 That being said, sexy song choices, KONAMI! I'm super excited about some of these, solid selections. Popular stuff by popular artists, and most of them excellent choices for DDR. 30 licenses? Just awesome! Now, just get those steps done! :P 

I was going over old soundtracks and found an act we desperate need back in DDR:

DIVAS! Where's Robbie Danzie these days? There were only two DIVAS songs (and a remix) but they were awesome. I was recently reminded of them after playing DDR S. Given the "urban" image of DDR X, there was a severe lack of good R&B. In fact, NAOKI should get back into the R&B/hip hop groove; Let the beat hit 'em and its remixes, SUPERSTAR, Calling for Destiny (this would be a nice crossover!), great stuff!

KONAMI: The steps to Heavens and the Earth are a measure late on all difficulties. Patch this, please.

All right, time to give some feedback.

Overall, very fun; DDR on a touch screen, what could go wrong? I'm pleased that SILVER DREAM's Expert steps were re-tweaked to make them flow better; it's bearable now, was unplayable before.

The difficulty display for songs rated 11 or higher is screwed up. 11 is represented as 2 bars, one red, one yellow. 12 is 3 bars, one red, two yellow, etc. Doesn't make sense.

Previews load faster than CS X, which I found funny. And good.

The song list is great; an awesome collection of new and old, representing DDR from all walks and eras. I think this is the kind of list that should be what a "revival" list in a CS game should be. Really enjoyable, good picks. A little disappointed that AFTER THE GAME OF LOVE still has no lyrics, but was I really expecting anything else?

Frame rate, syncing, responsiveness is good. I randomly miss things sometimes and my timing is awful but I feel this is definitely my fault and not a game issue. Dancers and backgrounds look great even on the tiny screen, though sometimes the dancers slow down for some reason? Not sure, not really paying attention to them.

I still wish there was an option to turn off the announcer. But, that being said, he is MUCH more bearable here. Aside from saying the same 2 things over and over at the same places in songs, he's much less frequent and much less annoying. Model future announcers after this, if you must have them.

I'm disappointed that Shake Mode only lets you play Lesson by DJ. I understand that shaking to SILVER DREAM Expert is impossible, but you could just enforce Freeze Off and Cut On at all times during Shake Mode.

The banner for SAY IT AGAIN is wrong; it should be NAOKI feat. DDT, like the song wheel and official site say, but the banner says DDT feat. NAOKI. Also, why isn't the NAOKI logo used?

Now onto the steps. Maybe I'm spoiled from X, but it wasn't a totally positive experience.

SAY IT AGAIN: This is mostly fine, until the end, when the step placement goes everywhere and induces major double stepping. This is not a problem for the touch screen game, but if this were ever ported to AC or CS, it needs to be fixed, since it's really awkward. Whoever wrote this needs to understand step placement better.

Rescue Me: Copy/paste of MEMORIES. Throwbacks are cute, but only when they fit. This makes no sense, the song clearly does not fit the original chart exactly as presented, and it was lazy to just leave it like that.

A Geisha's Dream (Ruffage Remix): Why doesn't this have a new banner? Anyway, the steps are mostly copy/paste of the original A Geisha's Dream Expert steps, and small additions are thrown in from the Ruffage Remix's Difficult steps. Overall, extremely lazy and unfitting. The steps to A Geisha's Dream fit that song so much better; here, they make no sense. This one hurts most, since I like the song, but the steps are not fun at all.

Overall, really fun game, but the exclusives should have been handled by the X graphics and step team. Hope the feedback can be used~ I may sound harsh, but I do it out of love for the game and the sincere desire to see improvements where they can be made. :)

These are really cute, I always love hearing artist comments.

(I meant to post this a lot earlier...)

I agree with everything Pie's said, I'll just reiterate my thoughts.

Licenses:

Now, licensing can be difficult, I understand, and I don't expect Rihanna's discography, but name recognition goes a long way. Madonna, Britney, Rihanna, no matter what I think of these artists they have North American appeal, and they often crank out songs that are suitable for DDR, if nothing else.

Can't get those hits? Cover them! SLOTH MUSIC PROJECT was totally awesome; My Favorite Things was one of the best licenses in SuperNOVA2. HELEN's cover of ME AGAINST THE MUSIC was way better than the original, even. I know covering can be dicey (lol PEGASUS), but take a chance! You guys found a pretty good cover studio last time (SLOTH MUSIC PROJECT), get them back and maybe try another! And don't count out some great dance remixes of mainstream hits.

Moving over to Europe, I'm a fan of hot trance acts like Armin van Buuren and Paul van Dyk; having those two together in CS SuperNOVA was totally awesome. Not sure how much the fans dig stuff like As The Rush Comes, but they're always winners in my book. Try out some Oceanlab next time! :) Whoever's in charge of Japanese licenses seems to be doing a pretty good job of it and I have no recommendations, not being an expert there.

KONAMI Originals:

I feel the majority of these songs should be from established BEMANI artists: NAOKI, jun, dj TAKA, DJ YOSHITAKA, TOMOSUKE, wac; these guys know the kind of songs that work really well in a rhythm game and it shows. It's difficult for mainstream producers to cram a good song into 2 minutes, but the BEMANI artists are masters at it, and they know that variety is the spice of life and tend to create unique songs that are perfect for DDR but you wouldn't hear anywhere else.

That's not to count out the commission artists; sometimes you get real winners there. Darwin is a great example, I think he's found a real home in DDR; his songs are always a pleasure. Of the KOs, I say no more than 40% of them should be commission; it gives you a chance to include classics everyone loves (Darwin), and try a few new ones who may turn out to be great at writing songs for DDR (Jena Rose), but even if the songs don't turn out for the best, there's still a majority of BEMANI originals to rely on.

Crossovers; I used to hate these because they were the crutch upon a dying DDR supported itself, but now we're at a point where DDR has enough musical support that crossovers can really add some extra power to a song list. The X crossovers were extremely well chosen, all very suited to DDR. SuperNOVA2 also did a great job in that department. The main thing is, don't let crossovers choke out the rest of the song list. I'd say a max of 10, like SuperNOVA2.

And don't forget the original songs from other KONAMI games! Those songs are often some of the most popular; Polovtsian Dances and Chorus is great! Castlevania and Silent Hill especially have loads of songs which would do well with a remix or even by themselves, and would surely be a hit with KONAMI fans. The Smile of You was one of my favourite songs from beatmaniaIIDX14 GOLD.

I mostly just wanted to discuss the songs.

Also, KEEP THE X STEP CHART WRITERS. They are the best we've seen in a long time, and the vast majority of the X charts are very well written. They really know what's fun to play, at least in my books. The charts they wrote for SuperNOVA2 also tend to be the best as well. :) Just ban them from using sloppy tempo stops, like in Trigger. And give them more 13-14 level songs to be doing; there's a severe drought of songs in that difficulty range, especially 14.

A ****ing sky? Oh... thats very original konami.  how about they have backgroundslike beatmania does

You mean like a... sky? Hey there, beatmaniaIIDX12 HAPPY SKY.

There's a huge language barrier issue as well... but that shouldn't be a problem.

You know, it seems for the most part KONAMI is listening; DDR X has made so many incredible improvements in every area... except the music. DDR X is, on paper, the best DDR game yet, in my books, the only issue with it is the music is a gigantic step back from the beauty of SuperNOVA2.

So, now that KONAMI has been lobbied to make the game engine excellent, so I'll remind them once again that the music matters too, and that X is not what I'm looking for.

So it turns out the X OST has been blown here and at other sites (as piepiepie75 discovered):

https://www.ebest.co.jp/shop/goods/goods_cd.asp?goods=0000000911281&shop=0H&disk=0H

All I have to say is, I gotta hand it to KONAMI. You guys sure know how to ruin a 10th anniversary. Last time I checked, DDR was a BEMANI game. So, where's the BEMANI artists? I've been trying to maintain a hopeful outlook, and perhaps there's still hope, but I'm pretty disappointed now that this list is looking more and more true. Why are you including crossovers on the OST? That's never been done before, are you honestly saying you couldn't hack up 5 more songs for the game? Seriously now.

Needs more jun as Sound Director. How does every spin-off (HP2, FFP, UNI3) get more BEMANI content than the actual "main" release? :<

I really, really hope I and those sites are completely wrong.

For now, I'm just waiting on the unlocks. The default list if *yawn* because we've seen these songs since September. I'm interested in the Japanese licenses but that's about it. Can't wait to get rolling on the unlocks; hope we'll finally get some BEMANI content. It's not until they're gone that you really miss them.

I like the current EXTRA STAGE system though; a default route, and a hidden route, and we've almost covered all the CS X US songs, so hopefully there are lots of unlocks we've never seen before.

Rave, Trance, Techno.

I also dig the styles of artists like Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and Rihanna; dance pop.

Hot. I've pretty much given up on US CS at this point, so I'm really looking forward to this.

Third, expand your horizons to overseas artists

This. Except, not just Japan; there's a lot of great K-Pop to be had, and I'd love more exposure to Chinese music as well. =P

For me, I just want my licenses to be danceable. For examples of bad choices, see most of the SuperNOVA2 licenses. Good choices include artists like Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond (and Oceanlab), Gabriel & Dresden, and the classic dance acts like E-ROTIC and SMiLE.dk. Speed remixes of these are pretty awesome too. That's what was so appealing about Dancemania; it was actual dance music for the most part (vocalist quality aside).

No one remembers MODERN GIRL; it's just not the kind of music that makes the game, and is pretty much a wasted slot for all the people I know aren't playing it.

Moment 40 Expert starts an entire measure early. That's pretty horrific quality control, given there's only five songs. =/

All right, here's where I'll do it. For KONAMI's benefit (sigh, I hope), I present DDR2008: An Overview. I'll just do a quick run-down of three things that make DDR for me.

INTERFACE

X wins, but then again, the arcade interfaces have always been the best. HOTTEST PARTY 2 is a rehash of the first game's interface (it doesn't even qualify as a palette swap) and Universe 3, while another ambitious attempt, is still too busy and not as clear and concise as the X interface. Not much to say, no changes here; KOJ interfaces are generally well done, HOTTEST PARTY has one interface, and Ultramix/Universe like to try new things but haven't hit the mark yet.

STEPS

I find X's overall steps on all difficulties to be the most fun. Universe is a close second, with a great selection of charts; there's just a few more garbage charts here than in X, so I gave X the edge. Also, it's nice that the charts tend to follow the songs, but they could stand to improvise a little here and there. Mostly great stuff all around though. A very, very distant third is HOTTEST PARTY 2. Seriously, this game is full of great music and garbage steps, a tragic reversal of HOTTEST PARTY. Way, way too much double stepping. Far too many 16th clusters placed awkwardly that don't follow anything. It's like they heard the song once, and threw together a chart without ever hearing it again. The ratings are so off on this game it's not even funny, and pretty much every song I play I get the overwhelming feeling of "I could do better" in the step department. Not fun at all.

SONGS

I'm going to ignore the licenses and focus on the KO music here, since it's what has really impressed me. The KO's in HP2 are incredible, as are the Uni3 ones. I'm so impressed by the diverse, professional sounds I've been hearing from the BEMANI artists lately. I just hope the Uni3 and HP2 KO's get ported to AC (and the HP2 ones get new steps). Who knew jun could not only do R&B, but do it so well? NAOKI has come back in force after a lack of his rave music in SuperNOVA2, and has brought back the NM alias in a thrilling revival. TOMOSUKE, U1, and D-crew are also dead-on here. As a fan of DDR, this is the kind of stuff I absolutely love to see; sorry, Harmony Machine! Though I have to say Hamel has totally won me over with Playa (Original Mix) and All Good Things (Come to an End). And I've already spoken at length about X's songs (summary: great stuff, needs more BEMANI artists).