You know there are tons of threads that deal with this already, most of which boil down to "which is the best CS?"

The answer every single time that comes up, is EXJP, hands down. There is no CS in DDR's history that even comes close to that game.

Finally, @ SABER WING -Challenge-: STOPS AND SHOCKS DON'T MIX!!! Sure, you can pull this off at home... but think about it. In the arcade, there's a big machine directly in front of your pad, a safety bar behind you, and who knows who may be standing/passing by the side. You can't just "jump off" all the time

Jump....off....the pad?

Seriously?

Nobody playing competitively online would be using a pad anyway. Gets really boring really fast to count yourself out after getting a few perfects instead of a FMC.

So, neither, because smo exists already.

So..

You're on the internet taking the time to write a post asking questions that could've been answered on the internet via google or something?

^

This was my point, but yeah.

Piepie, as far as shock arrows becoming standard being stupid, that's your opinion. I'm sure traditionalists (keep in mind, I've been playing since 1st mix) and people who haven't played ITG enough would agree with you. People who have played a moderate amount of ITG would likely agree with the idea of shock arrows becoming commonplace. But I'm sure ALL of us expected shock arrows to basically be like mines in functionality when they were first announced.

Right now, shock arrows do jack all except create a hurdle for us to periodically jump over, which totally disrupts the flow of the chart and makes for some horrific patterns that make little rhythmical sense when arrows are being overwritten for their inclusion instead of the chart being designed around them from the ground up (see: Horatio Oni). Nevermind the fact that Konami seemingly saw fit to only place the lines of shock arrows on 4th or 8th, which just complicates things further as far as chart flow goes.

Shock arrows exist because of ITG. They won the rights, saw what was popular, and then tried to include the ideas while putting their own spin on it to make it their own. In doing so, they failed absolutely miserably. We're being given copies of charts to play that include as much as they take away, taking whatever possibility of a real, new challenge chart being made with it. In turn, the game's being cut short along with our experiences with it because whatever challenge charts we did get (which were not many), for the mostpart, were these copy charts instead of something new, like they should've been.

Mines don't exist in every ITG chart, nor do they have to exist in every DDR chart, I never said anything like that. However if the concept behind shock arrows doesn't get refined to what they shock be, they should be removed from the game outright.

You sure are easy to please.

Because you'd essentially just be playing another chart that is already playable.

I should've rephrased. My point was why would they make two identical charts and fill up the challenge chart slot instead of just making normal charts for all difficulties, giving them shock arrows, and an OFF option?

It all just boils down to absolute laziness, in the end.

Everyone loses at the start of any kind of aerobics regimen and then their progress slows as they plateau.

It's called working out......

Why wouldn't it....

That's the stupidest explanation for shock arrows I've ever heard. Whoever said that was pulling it out of his ***, I'm surprised you swallowed it.

If that was true, why wouldn't they just add an OFF option for shock arrows like ITG has for mines?

This is just poor planning and laziness on Konami's part, 100%

It's called a stepmania machine.

Or, failing that, an ITG2 cabinet with a usb drive and a keyboard.

Edited review with another gripe about shock arrows:

"Shock arrows reward an "OK" when they're avoided. This is a terrible idea because the colour for OK is a very deep orange and it literally flashes by on the screen for a split second. I don't know whether I get a miss or step wrong or anything because the "marvelous/perfect" string is broken intermittently by this random "OK" grade that totally throws me off my timing."

I know there are hard songs. What I was saying was that I was playing Street Master Mode with one hand, something easily doable, for almost the entire thing, because it kept making me play basic charts and low-rated expert charts. I wasn't even paying attention.

When you play a new game without looking at the screen, you know something's wrong.

Trigger's challenge chart is stupid, I'll say that much. Expert is more than manageable and not that bad on the whole. Challenge is retarded.

I really wasn't lobbying for harder charts, just a better mix, lol.

See my review of the CS in general for a few things you might want to work on.

This is quite possibly one of the most frustratingly bad DDR releases I’ve ever had the displeasure of playing. Let’s break it down in sections:

Announcer:

-Why the HELL would you have the announcer SING while I’m trying to keep time with and focus on a song?

-“You’re gonna break the meter, can’t wait to see it”. Neither can I, because it never happens. What the hell does this mean, anyway?

-People called each other “Homey” in the early 90s. The Japanese aren’t THAT far behind us, get with the times.

By far the worst announcer, ever.

My Street Master Experience:

Start with Zero’s “story”. Feminine-looking male characters seem to be all the rage at Konami these days. I would have never known he was a guy until the game referred to Zero as “he”. I’m given the option of playing one of two songs depending on whether I choose “normal” or “advanced”. I fail to see the significance because I’m given the choice between like, a 3 or a 4 block, both on basic. This continues until I finish his entire story (11 stages) without playing a single song on anything other than either beginner or basic. I unlock Bonnie and Ruby’s stories.

Bonnie’s story has standard steps up until stage 9 where the game decides to lock me out without telling me how to progress, so I go to Ruby’s story. Ruby is more basic/standard songs until she locks out at stage 10. 27 stages and I haven’t played a song on expert yet while choosing “advanced” the whole way.

Emi is the only story available at this point, and I’m greeted with more basic songs. The first stage gives me the option between a 1-block on beginner and a 3-block on basic. I’m not having fun yet. Episode 9 in Emi’s story unlocks episode 10 in Ruby’s. I’m still playing basic songs, last stage is a 4-block basic. Rage and Alice unlock. Ruby’s last stage is a 6-block on standard. I’ve gone through almost 4 full stories and haven’t played a single expert song yet. Unlocked Baby-Lon.

Start Alice’s story, greeted with a 7-block on standard….it should be noted that I’m playing with one hand while writing this review/talking to friends about how bad this game is with the other, because the difficulty is that low and it’s not fun to that kind of a degree. I’m very happy that I work at a game store so that I can return this if necessary, but I’ll be fair and try to finish it.

Played my first expert song on stage 9 of Alice’s story. That’s well into 50 songs before my first expert chart. It’s also at a part in the “story” where Alice apparently meets…..herself and…..gets challenged to dance by….herself because there’s….no room for…..the two of…ugh, who writes this crap?

Since there’s no set path to the stories, I found myself playing sets of expert songs and then being forced into sets of basic/standard songs. This persisted through most of Street Master Mode, and I was as bored at the end as I was at the beginning.

Shock Arrows:

You know when people were complaining that SuperNOVA challenge charts were just the expert charts with a few added arrows? Showing little thought? Well, brace yourself for shock arrows to show you what laziness really is.

I’m sure I, along with everyone else, were expecting mines in the shape of arrows. Same functionality, same use, different look to not give RoXoR the satisfaction in knowing that they’re using one of their revolutionary ideas. Instead, we get a full row of shock arrows (l,d,u,r) placed in what most cases seems to just be random places that make little sense. The kicker? Shock arrows are only used in challenge charts, and, brace yourselves, they copy+paste either the basic/standard/expert charts.

The lines of shock arrows replace existing arrows in the chart, adding no thought or continuity or sense in any of the charts they’re included in. For example, if the original chart had a pattern that was u,l,u,l,r, the shock arrow chart may have u,l,u,l,line of shock arrows. That’s right, when playing a chart with shock arrows in it, you’re either playing the expert chart with random lines of shock arrows replacing normal arrows from the chart, or even doing this using the BASIC OR STANDARD CHARTS.

Shock arrows reward an "OK" when they're avoided. This is a terrible idea because the colour for OK is a very deep orange and it literally flashes by on the screen for a split second. I don't know whether I get a miss or step wrong or anything because the "marvelous/perfect" string is broken intermittently by this random "OK" grade that totally throws me off my timing.

It should also be noted that, with the exception of maybe a total of 5 songs, there are no challenge charts that exist for any new songs unless they’re these rehashed shock arrow charts.

Boys (2008 X-edit) is 2/5/6/10/5. Why is the challenge chart a 5? Because it’s the BASIC CHART WITH ROWS OF SHOCK ARROWS. This is by far the laziest thing Konami’s ever done with this game. Either give us mines, or take this **** out of the game.

Difficulty Grading:

TRIGGER EXPERT IS NOT A 16 IF MAX300 IS A 15. This entire system needs reworking, everything is wrong. That’s all I have to say on this.

Song Choice:

Generic, horrible songs mixed in with some lazy “remixes” (as in adding 10secs of new content) of old classics and some songs we should’ve had on SuperNOVA2 CS. Bright spots are Saber Wing and Horatio.

Interface:

It’s clean enough. I don’t like the street theme. The paint splotches on the loading screen are tacky. Why is the game telling me how to use freeze arrows for like 6 full seconds before it lets me go into game mode every single time I play?

Background videos are more common in this mix which is a step in the right direction. I hope to see dancing stages completely abolished and having us brought back to the days of pre-SuperNOVA, when everything had a background video.

This is competing for worst CS of all time. It’s seriously giving a good fight to Extreme US CS. Everything about this mix is wrong or with good intention and done very, very poorly.

2/10.

Other than TGA, what comes to mind for arcades like you just described?

CHQ in Vancouver

Orbit in Toronto

8otB

There're a lot more.

On very rare occasions, game data has corrupted on SN1 cabinets. Don't know what causes it. I'd advise your technicians to perform a fresh install of the game.

If this doesn't fix it then just blame it on Betson, that works 95% of the time.

While you developed these thoughts and opinions, did you ever notice that the few arcades that seem to be doing well are the ones specializing in Bemani titles?

Hi, Konami.