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Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME is the eighth game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of Music Video Game s. It was released in arcades by Konami on December 25 , 2002 . Although only officially released in Japan , units exist worldwide. It featured 240 songs, 14 of which were hidden and unlockable. 59 were new to DDR, and 23 were never seen before in any other Bemani game. It was speculated to be the final arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution, but with the announcement of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA , that has proven not to be the case. For a comprehensive list of the songs available in this game, please refer to the Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME Song List . The interface used is a recoloring and smoothing of the song wheel interface first introduced in . A "Beginner" mode, color-coded light blue, is now available. First seen in Dance Dance Revolution USA as "Simple", it is easier than Light mode. "Challenge" [鬼 (''oni'') steps, color-coded dark blue and first seen in DDRMAX2, are also available for some songs, but it is not selectable before the game starts. 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. In this version, a sort by origin, the mix or Bemani game a song is originally from, is also available, and placed between the default and alphabetical sorts. GAMEPLAY The general premise of DDR EXTREME 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," with 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). Scoring for each song has changed as well. There are now two systems: the long-score system used to determine rankings, and an independent '''dance point''' system now used to determine the grade. The long-score system is the same as in DDRMAX2. 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 'O.K.' freeze adds six points, and an 'N.G.' 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. 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 Perfect and 5 points per Great, and automatically gives the failed player an 'E' for the song. If the first song is in Beginner or Light mode, then the game will allow a player to fail that song and continue, but will fail the player out if they fail a second song. In Beginner mode, it will fail only at the end of a song. In Light mode, it will fail as soon as the life bar is depleted. 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, then 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. FMV backgrounds The arrows scroll over clips of Full Motion Video . The screen refreshes at a full speed of 60 frames per second. Groove Radar The Groove Radar is a graphical representation based on a five-point difficulty system. The five skill areas are as follows:
The classic foot-rating system is also used as a simpler method of determining a song's difficulty. It is arbitrary. A new rating, referred to as flashing 10, is introduced, and represents an extraordinarily difficult song. Only three songs have stepsets rated flashing 10s:
Modifiers Modifiers are changes that can be made to modify the step routine. A menu is available to make these modifications easily. This menu can be accessed by holding the Green select button when you choose your song. Some of the available modifiers are as follows:
Extra Stages Once more, the extra stages have returned. If, on the final stage, you get a grade of AA or better on any Heavy step routine, the game gives the message "Try Extra Stage." Unlike previous versions, you can choose any song for your Extra Stage. You are forced to play Heavy steps in a Reverse Scroll modifier and a 1.5x Speed modifier. On top of all that, Extra Stage is played in "Pressure" mode, which means the health bar starts full and does not regenerate if it depletes with missed steps. Challenge-only songs may also be used for Extra Stage. If, by choice or chance, a dancer chooses The Legend Of MAX (a flashing-10 in Heavy difficulty) for their Extra Stage and scores a grade of AA or better, then they are forced to play "One More Extra Stage." This time, the Song Wheel is locked on '''Dance Dance Revolution'''. The player is forced to play its Oni steps in a Reverse Scroll modifier and a 3x Speed modifier. On One More Extra Stage, it is in sudden-death mode, which means just one step that is not scored "Perfect" or "Great" or one freeze that is scored "NG" ends the game. Nonstop Mode Nonstop Mode, which appeared in DDR 3rd Mix and DDR 4th Mix , has officially returned. You must choose a course of four songs and play through it to the end (or until you fail). The course '''Pop 4''' is used to determine rankings. Your base score is used to determine your rank. Base score is always a maximum of 100 million points. Since base score is always graduated, the first song is generally worth up to 10 million, the second song 20 million, the third song 30 million, and the fourth song 40 million. Each Nonstop course has two difficulty settings, Normal and Difficult. In Normal difficulty, songs are typically Light or Standard difficulty, and in Difficult they are one level above, so Light songs become Standard and Standard songs become Heavy. In addition to a number of courses with pre-set songs and difficulties, there are 10 courses where the songs vary. Six of these courses are named Player's Worst, '''Player's Best 1-4''', '''Player's Best 5-8''', and so forth to '''Player's Best 17-20''', and they contain the four least popular and twenty most popular songs respectively. The method for deciding a song's popularity is based on how often and how recently a song is played, and songs with equal popularity are chosen in alphabetical order (evident as the songs in Player's Worst typically include the least popular songs starting with numbers or the letter A). For the '''Player's Best/Worst''' courses, the Normal difficulty is Standard and Difficult is Heavy for all songs, except where the song only has Oni/Challenge difficulty. The remaining four courses with variable songlists are named Random Dancemania, '''Random Bemani''', '''Random All''' and '''Random Caprice'''.
With the exception of Random Caprice, the songs selected for the random Nonstop courses are not known to the player until play begins. Like the '''Player's Best/Worst''' courses, the songs are typically Standard in the Normal difficulty course and Heavy in the Difficult course, but under certain conditions (such as the song only having an Oni difficulty) the difficulty may be Oni/Challenge. Since the colour of the song title (or the question marks that replace it) reflects the difficulty - pink for Standard, green for Heavy and light blue for Oni - this is the only clue towards what songs are in each course, since not every song has Oni steps. Some songs have well-hidden secret Oni steps that can only be played through Nonstop mode, as a result of exploiting a bug. If a player has one course selected, then changes to an adjacent course and presses the start button the split second after the previous songlist collapses, but before the new songlist expands, the newly selected course will inherit the difficulties of the previous course. For example, if one of the song's difficulties of the previous course is Oni, the song in that slot of the new course will be played on Oni, regardless of what it actually should be. Performing this trick on ''Love <3 Shine'' gives the player access to its hidden challenge steps, which are considered to be quite challenging and fun. A few other songs have secret Oni stepcharts as well, though most of them seem unfinished, and some songs can crash the machine if the bug is used on them. The player must also not enter the mod screen before playing the course, otherwise the course's proper difficulties will load, rendering the exploit void. A new timing, "MARVELOUS," is used in Nonstop Mode. It is stricter than "PERFECT" timing, and a MARVELOUS step is worth three points in determining your letter grade. Challenge Mode a.k.a. Oni Mode The Nonstop Challenge feature from DDRMAX2, also referred to as '''Oni Mode''', returned and was officially renamed '''Challenge Mode''' to avoid confusion with Nonstop Mode. It can be selected when you select difficulty before choosing your first song. You have to complete a set course of anywhere from five to nine songs, with difficulties set and, in some cases, different mods. You cannot mod any songs in Oni Mode, and must play them all at native scroll and whatever mod the machine deems is part of the course. Unlike '''Nonstop Mode''', you have to be perfect with your steps. The health bar is replaced with a battery. If you get a GOOD, BOO, MISS or NG up to four times in any one song, it fails you out and the game ends. As before, you can regain 1-3 battery pieces after every song. Your score is based on the number of dance points accumulated in the song, unlike DDRMAX2, which shows the percentage of available dance points instead. BOOs and MISSes do not take away from your dance points. The courses Naoki Neo-Standard and '''Dancemania''' are used for rankings. Both the dance points and how long you last, if no one has passed the course on that machine yet, determine your rank on each. MARVELOUS timing is also used in Challenge Mode, and it is worth three points in this mode. The "difficulty bug" described in the Nonstop section is presumed to work in Oni mode as well. This can make most Oni courses considerably more or less difficult. The "Trick" Oni course is home to three unique mods that are not available in any other mode. The ''Ecstacy'' remix uses "Brake", which causes the arrows to ''decelerate'' as they reach the target; basically the exact opposite of "Boost". The ''AM-3P'' remix uses "Fuwa-Fuwa", which causes the arrows to expand and contract like an accordion. ''MAX 300'' is on 0.25x speed. Also, the "Neo-RevenG" course has Sakura on 0.5x speed. Some DDR Extreme machines have been hacked to make these mods available at all times. Link Data Some machines have the ports to insert Playstation memory cards. Such memory cards have to be Playstation 1 (not PS2) memory cards with Link Data from the home version of DDR 5th Mix or earlier (the home version of DDR EXTREME cannot create arcade-compatible Link Data, but can read it). It can exchange data with DDR EXTREME, as well as any earlier version that has songs that are in DDR EXTREME. It can also use Edit Data, custom steps made on the home version. BOOTLEGS As with other DDR versions, Bootleg s are fairly common. However, bootleggers of DDR EXTREME went beyond the standard practice of releasing the same game as Konami. Two modified versions were produced, DDR EXTREME PLUS and DDR MEGAMIX. Dance Dance Revolution MegaMix Dance Dance Revolution MegaMix was the first of the two bootlegs. It was advertised as an "), and the replacement of the Japanese warning screen with the words "'''DONT FALL OFF !!'''" {Link without Title} Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME Plus! Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME Plus! was the second of the two bootlegs. It also featured some graphical changes, but it had one gameplay addition - the ability to increase the song Tempo by 10% or 20% by increasing the clockspeed which in turn damages the machine's internal CPU. In addition, the tempo cannot be changed if one selects "Heavy" at the beginning, although this can be worked around by choosing any other difficulty, then switching to heavy. Also, the speed increase remains in effect even after the game ends -- a machine that is left on 20% speed for extended periods of time will be damaged very quickly. HOME VERSIONS The home version of Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME was released in Japan in September 2003 for the Sony PlayStation 2 Video Game Console . It featured 111 songs, and had all the features of the arcade version. The North American home version of ''. Additionally, the US edition of DDRExtreme has a completely re-worked User Interface which bears no resemblance to any arcade version, making it quite difficult to navigate for veterans of the arcade. MUSIC Notable songs from this version include:
Soundtrack The Original Soundtrack for DDR EXTREME was produced by Toshiba-EMI under their Dancemania dance music brand. It contained 30 of the new songs. TRIVIA
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