Feel the Rhythm and DANCE
I have no idea if anyone on my list cares about DDR anymore (maybe someone on fb or twitter does?) but what they hey. Just picked up the new DDR bundle for PS3 so I'm gonna talk about it...
Played a bit last night, seems like an overall competent addition to the series though I have a few quibbles. And it's sure nice to have an actual PS3-compatible dance mat that I don't need to pipe through adapters with questionable timing behavior, even if it is USB, not wireless. Has a nice long cord anyway. Feels a little flimsy like all pack-in pads, but has a really nice grippy bottom surface and was registering all 8 buttons fine.
Licensed songs, as usual for recent releases, include tons of disposable current pop I've never heard of, but also a few fun things: Love Shack, Rio, Celebration, among others. Also a Gorillaz track and a Lady Gaga. Konami originals that are available initially don't include much I recognize though some look fun, and online I see some familiar faces in the unlocks: Afronova, Geisha's Dream, Flowers, Tsugaru, MAX 300. And of course since this is PS3 there'll be DLC. Which I hope is cheap, given they only put 50 songs on the disc. (But at $70 for a mat bundle, I'm not feeling *too* ripped off, seeing as this will be my exercise program all winter.)
Free Play mode is pretty much the same as always, with some tiny tweaks. Evidently you have to pass Expert on a given song to unlock Challenge (if it exists), which is the only mode to include the new diagonal arrows. Annoyingly, the diagonals show up in the same columns as the L/R arrows... I wish they got a couple new columns on the sides. There's also some new weird bonus score systems. It takes a cue from Guitar Hero / Rock Band and periodically highlights a short section that gets you a big bonus if you ace it. That's fine and all, expect that the highlight overrides timing colors on the arrows, which can up the difficulty a bit if you're not already familiar with the stepchart.
Finally, there's no detailed Mission or Adventure mode, but instead there's Club Mode, which I haven't tried yet. Looks like it throws a bunch of songs at you in a mix and has adapative difficulty, tossing modifiers at you if you're doing well, from comments I've seen online. And it keeps track of some global dance mastery score and is apparently the only way to get unlocks? Guess I'll have to play that way next time I hook it up.
Oh, and it has a mode that supports the PS Move wand/camera setup, and will take videos of you flailing around looking stupid, but that I'm pretty sure nobody cares about.
Played a bit last night, seems like an overall competent addition to the series though I have a few quibbles. And it's sure nice to have an actual PS3-compatible dance mat that I don't need to pipe through adapters with questionable timing behavior, even if it is USB, not wireless. Has a nice long cord anyway. Feels a little flimsy like all pack-in pads, but has a really nice grippy bottom surface and was registering all 8 buttons fine.
Licensed songs, as usual for recent releases, include tons of disposable current pop I've never heard of, but also a few fun things: Love Shack, Rio, Celebration, among others. Also a Gorillaz track and a Lady Gaga. Konami originals that are available initially don't include much I recognize though some look fun, and online I see some familiar faces in the unlocks: Afronova, Geisha's Dream, Flowers, Tsugaru, MAX 300. And of course since this is PS3 there'll be DLC. Which I hope is cheap, given they only put 50 songs on the disc. (But at $70 for a mat bundle, I'm not feeling *too* ripped off, seeing as this will be my exercise program all winter.)
Free Play mode is pretty much the same as always, with some tiny tweaks. Evidently you have to pass Expert on a given song to unlock Challenge (if it exists), which is the only mode to include the new diagonal arrows. Annoyingly, the diagonals show up in the same columns as the L/R arrows... I wish they got a couple new columns on the sides. There's also some new weird bonus score systems. It takes a cue from Guitar Hero / Rock Band and periodically highlights a short section that gets you a big bonus if you ace it. That's fine and all, expect that the highlight overrides timing colors on the arrows, which can up the difficulty a bit if you're not already familiar with the stepchart.
Finally, there's no detailed Mission or Adventure mode, but instead there's Club Mode, which I haven't tried yet. Looks like it throws a bunch of songs at you in a mix and has adapative difficulty, tossing modifiers at you if you're doing well, from comments I've seen online. And it keeps track of some global dance mastery score and is apparently the only way to get unlocks? Guess I'll have to play that way next time I hook it up.
Oh, and it has a mode that supports the PS Move wand/camera setup, and will take videos of you flailing around looking stupid, but that I'm pretty sure nobody cares about.