I completely and totally agree with Kalek.  It seems like, with each iteration of the series, DDR is turning more and more into In The Groove.  With SuperNOVA, they introduced some pretty ridiculous charts for Boss songs.  with SuperNOVA 2, they added Marvelous timing into regular gameplay.  With DDR X, they're adding "Shock Arrows" and "Intensified steps".  Please don't do this to us.  I have been playing DDR since the Fall or Winter of 2002.  DDR Extreme (Arcade) IS my favorite game and has been for a long time.  A friend and I even pooled our money together recently to purchase our own DDR Arcade machine just so that we could play whenever we want.  Don't get me wrong, I won't refuse to play SuperNOVA 1 or 2... Extreme is just so much better.

Think of it like this.  In the United States, DDR started becoming popular around 2000 or 2001.  Extreme came out in 2002.  From 2002 until 2006 there were NO new mixes at all.  In that 4 year span, DDR Extreme had been played to death.  People were just dying for something new.  In The Groove came out and people started flocking to it.  Was In The Groove a good game necessarily?  Not really, as far as I'm concerned.  It was just something new and more difficult.  If DDR mixes had still been coming out regularly, through that 4 year period, do you think Roxor would have had a prayer of harvesting such a fan base? Not at all.

I've been looking forward to 2008 ever since SuperNOVA came out because I had this feeling that Konami would make a special 10th anniversary mix.  Instead of ruining the game on it's 10th anniversary, why not take the game back to it's roots?  Take the game back to what made it so amazing and fun originally?  I'm not saying "Remove hard charts, make them all easy, get rid of freezes, never release a new feature" blah blah blah.  I'm saying, come out with your own new features.  Don't come out with a feature just because In The Groove had it.  You guys are, obviously, incredibly creative to have given us the great plethora of Mixes we've seen since 1998.  Why not use that creativity to keep DDR alive rather than push every loyal fan away.

I agree with Drano and Ranatalus completely.  It's not a terrible idea to add more hard songs.  Just try to keep them fun and balance the game with songs that build you up in difficulty.  I really hate the way that DDR keeps being compared to ITG.  While they're both 4 panel games, they were very different.  Now that SN2 has Marvelous timing *and some pretty stupid hard charts* it almost looks like Konami's trying to mimic ITG *which is a terrible idea if you ask me*.

I hate and love the fact that iTG came into existance.  This maybe an incorrect speculation on my part, but I feel like Konami would have completely dropped DDR if Roxor has not given them a kick in the pants to start making new DDR Arcade mixes.  I love Roxor for giving them that kick.  I also hate Roxor because of what's happened to the DDR community.  Now that ITG has introduced some really hard songs, everyone expects DDR to do the exact same thing.  They have this need to play harder and harder songs.