Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 is the ninth North American console version of the popular step-rhythm arcade game Dance Dance Revolution. Although the series has made a number of tweaks from one version to the next--from those as minor as updating the presentation of the menus, to those as major as adding brand-new modes--the DDR games are all pretty much cut from the same cloth, for better or for worse. Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 is not tremendously different from the previous game on the PlayStation 2, DDR Extreme, but dedicated DDR fans will likely appreciate the batch of new songs and the challenge of unlocking them all again. Less-serious fans might not have a reason to buy more than one version of DDR, except for the song list, which has a few gems in this iteration, though it's not particularly outstanding. The online mode is the most significant addition to this game. However, you might want to wait the inevitable one or two more entries in the series before the game is compelling enough to be worth buying. Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 is a good addition to the series, but it's not different enough to appeal to anyone other than the biggest of DDR fans.
Dance Dance Revolution is an arcade game that uses a floor controller consisting of four arrow buttons that players must step on in sequence with arrows scrolling on the screen. Ever since the PlayStation, Konami has been translating the arcade experience to home systems, adapting the gameplay and incorporating new modes. Although there's a wide variety of difficulty with any DDR game, their greatest collective achievement has been to cultivate a following of players that has perfected each of the games' songs at every difficulty. It's for these players that subsequent DDR games continue to be released, and it's because of them that the changes to each version are never very dramatic.
Despite the new additions here and there, each DDR game follows the same basic formula. There's a competitive mode through which you can unlock additional songs. In DDR Extreme 2, this mode is called dance master mode, which is where you'll spend the bulk of your time--at least initially. There's also free play mode, which lets you play any of the songs you've unlocked at your own whim. Thankfully, you can now play as many songs as you like without interruption. In previous games, the system would reset after three songs and force you to navigate through the menus again to continue playing. Workout mode counts your calories and keeps a running tally of your DDR playing on your memory card. Unfortunately, this would be much better as an option to turn on throughout any of the modes, since you can't do any unlocking and you can't progress in workout mode. The lesson mode is there for total beginners, and it's very useful in that it shows you which feet to use for certain step patterns. Training is also helpful, because it lets you break up any song at any difficulty, and it lets you simply play whichever bars of music you want to hear over and over again until you've perfected the steps for that sequence. You can also turn on a hand clap or metronome to help you keep time. Finally, there's advanced mode, which is for the DDR elite to show off their skills. Advanced mode incorporates the nonstop mode from previous DDR games, as well as the "Oni" style of DDR play under the name "challenge."
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