OSC5 DDRB2
Again: heavy, first impressions. More keyboard testing this time, just because that's how things worked out. I did play up to Sakura Kaduki on pad though. Tilt once again = graphics + clever videos + song choice + you know whatever. And if you don't hear anything about something, then there was nothing particularly wrong about it.
All In The Way
Pros: Nice-sounding song. The steps weren't groundbreaking, but they weren't boring.
Cons: Felt like it ran a bit long. Graphics (especially background) were a bit bland.
Steps: 4.5/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 7/10
Bouncin!
Pros: Interesting graphics. The easy parts of the steps were okay.
Cons: The graphics don't really match the feeling of the song - it's too happy for random 3D renders. That wacky 16ths part came out of nowhere and I can't read that at normal speed.
Steps: 4/6
Tilt: 2/4
Total: 6/10
Dancin In My Dreams
Pros: Nice graphics, lol inishal dee
Cons: The Flash-style 16ths were meh. Also, those jumps in the broken streams during the chorus were kind of tiring.
Steps: 4/6
Tilt: 3/4
Total: 7/10
Do You Know
Pros: lol Children from TM4. The steps were pretty fun.
Cons: Is "I Go Crazy" part of the songtitle? Also, the background was lacking.
Step: 5/6
Tilt: 2/4
Total: 7/10
Fuku wa Uchi
Pros: The steps were pretty fun, and the graphics are solid.
Cons: The steps are a hard 8, if not a 9; the chorus is phrased oddly.
Gasolina (DelACTION mix, not de-lactation mix plz)
A+++++++ WOULD STEP AGAIN
High School Love
Pros: Nice banner. Most of the steps were fun, and I liked the step-step-freeze-step--step--step parts.
COns: Iffy background, very pixelated. The chorus is a lot to wrap my feet around. The middle part was hard, with its 16th triplets.
Steps: 5/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 7.5/10
Inspiration
Pros: Nice sounding song. Decent enough graphics. THe steps were fun, albeit hard.
Cons: The song title is a bit hard to read, especially in the banner. That damn step (either taken out where I expected it or put in where I didn't - I forget) in the middle of the intro-outro keeps screwing me up.
Steps: 5.5/6
Tilt: 3.5/4
Total: 9/10
Kickstart My Heart
Pros: Gutsy genre choice. Some of the steps were fun. Solid-enough graphics. (No, this isn't all a backhanded compliment.)
Cons: I think, personally, that you favored the jump coming in and out of a stream too much. Also, the title's too hard to read in the graphics.
Steps: 4.5/6
Tilt: 3/4
Total: 7.5/10
Little Little Princess
Pros: Nice graphics. Fun song.
Cons: To be honest, the background seems a bit... unless that's from the video, it seems out of place. The steps were way too hard for me. Every other 5-note cluster in the middle went to NOTHING. The first time I keyed this, I quit in disgust at that 2nd slowdown. The second time, I had to go through the BPM jack-up immediately following it, and I swear that ending felt like an Insertionny tempo waver. Also, no lead-in.
Steps: 2/6
Tilt: 1.5/4
Total: 3.5/10 (NOT thirtyfive)
Love Is Eternity
Pros: Interesting song, and it starts out with some interesting steps.
Cons: ...and then it tries to be the next So Deep. The 16ths are a bit much here. Also, the graphics (especially the BG) are very blah.
Steps: 2.5/6
Tilt: 2/6
Total: 4/10
Nagai Yume
Pros: WHOAH CUTE THING
Cons: Kind of meh plain graphics. Boo at not transliterating your title. Too many steps after what should have been the ending. THe song sounds only marginally less annoying than Motto from TM5.
Steps: 4/6
Tilt: 1.5/4
Total: 5.5/10
Paranoia Sky
Pros: Nice use of videos, ESPECIALLY the Max Period 3rd Mix screen. Pretty nice steps, given the whole Paranoia thing. I suppose this could pass for an easy paranoia.
Cons: Bad plain graphics. I kind of wish I heard more Paranoia in that. The string of rights at the end could have been replaced with just about ANYTHING better than that.
Steps: 3.5/6
Tilt: 3/4
Total: 6.5/10
Pump Up the Jam
Pros; Um, yay more Technotronic?
Cons: A lot. The graphics are very bland, and in the case of the banner hard to read. I can tell the steps were Ctrl+R-ed, and not very well. You were going for absolute karaoke steps here, and in that you succeeded, although I'd love to know why some of those jumps are offset like that. The song itself is, to be honest, a bit overplayed, so I'm not feeling it, ESPECIALLY with that samplestart.
Steps: 1/6
Tilt: .5/4
Total: 1.5/10
Right Now
Pros: A good 5thMIX song, and a good remix thereof. The graphics have a good start. The steps are fun, and my one AA on pad.
Cons: The text is way too small, because the banner's way too big. The samplestart's a bit long. The ending felt about a measure too long.
Steps: 4.5/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 7/10
Sakura Kaduki
Pros: The graphics are pretty. It feels like it should be a solid file, but...
Cons: It started and ended too karaoke, and was too hard for its 8 in the middle. I think one of the backgrounds didn't work. The samplestart's a bit off. I swear I heard some obvious cut points.
Steps: 3/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 5.5/10
Samba Brazil
Pros: C-JAH :'( A fun song (although, all love of the good Captain aside, we need to do a good upbeat, not so epic sounding CJ simfile sometime soon. I miss Another One Bites the Dust. I guess this is a step in that direction. The time for mourning the end is over, the time for celebrating the beginning is NOW but anyways back to the review) Fun song, nice graphics, nice steps. Like the RGCanada vids said, this is the Radio Star of the bracket - the one that most captures the DDR feeling.
Cons: The BG was too monotone. The oni steps should have probably been an edit.
Steps: 5.5/6
Tilt: 3/4
Total: 8.5/10
Seasons of Love
Pros: The graphics were okay, if not monotone. No pointless furriness.
Cons: Odd samplestart. Boring steps. There was an attempt at a 42684 with freezes that looked like it'd be hard on pad. I believe I saw a 16th-note-long freeze at the end that had no reason to be there. I was going to get you for attributing the song to a work of art rather than an artist (I"m not fully familiar with either this song or the musical Rent), but looking up ThriveMix '02, it appears to pan out.
Steps: 3/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 5.5/10
Sphere
Pros: Um. The banner was kinda nice.
Cons: That tempo-genre thing doesn't really work here, any better than it did in SpeedY Cat. Also, that typeface doesn't fit... anywhere, really. The steps were boring, and you did way too much step-step-jump. The BPM speedup at the end sucked; I don't care how it actually goes in IIDX, "We had to deal with it in this song now you do too" only works if the weird part is not that weird or the file is released for people who are familiar with it. (Meaning: yeah, I know I know BEMANIstyle so everyone else knows it well not me. Sorry.) Oh, and speaking of BPM changes, hiding it? Bad form, old bean.
Steps: 2/6
Tilt: 1.5/4
Total: 3.5
This is Love
Pros: Um.
Cons: Too many forced spins. Blah graphics, especially the background. Too much of the song had not enough beat in it to keep the song going that well.
Steps: 2.5/6
Tilt: 1.5/4
Total: 4/10
Together
Pros: Nice song. Interesting skippy bit at the end - easy enough to pick up and nail on the second try. Nice use of videos.
Cons: The CDtitle would have been better if it were just the title logo. The background is very plain compared with the banner. The samplestart is odd. The ending is abrupt, and the video fadeout is late.
Steps: 5/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 7.5/10
Tunak Tunak Tun
Pros: Oh. MY god.
Cons: Where to start?
A squished-framegrab banner.
A blurry-framegrab background.
WAY too short.
No lead in.
A chorus that feels like a fast Night in Motion.
A Night in Motion with no consistency, that doesn't know what the notes actually are that it's sticking to.
Steps that, if they aren't the wrong BPM, sure as hell feel like it.
A too-big cdtitle that doesn't show off the logo well enough.
A samplestart that is designed oddly and falls off before the actual chorus.
A creation subtitle. A freaking CREATED BY STEPFILER SUBTITLE! I know I should be civil about this, but I thought that went the way of Tournamix 1! If the only thing you did to the song was make it shorter, you did not create the song, so you do not belong on the songwheel!
This had better be a filler entry or a joke entry or something.
Steps: 1/6
Tilt: 0/4
Total: 1/10
Way of Life
Pros: Um, interesting sounding song, I suppose.
Cons: Too much, uh, karaoke-rap syndrome? You know, like Under the Sea. It wasn't as bad as the 3 rap files in OSC4, but sticking to rap freestyle isn't usually all that much fun on the pad. The video was... freaky. Weird rendering. The banner doesn't match the feeling of the video, and the background (for as long as it shows) doesn't match the banner and makes the title hard to make out.
Steps: 2/6
Tilt: 1/4
Total: 3/10
Wild Thing/Poor Boy
Pros: Interesting use of video. The steps were okay, and the plain graphics were good, although they didn't quite match. Fun song.
Cons: You see, ever since I looked up the album title for Tsunami back in OSC3 or something, I knew one thing - these cartoon bandmembers are freaky ugly. About as freaky as the animals in Way of Life. I think looking to see if that was still the case distracted me. At any rate... I think a few streams broke off and continued at odd times.
Steps: 4/6
Tilt: 2/4
Total: 6/10
Wowowee
Pros: Nice banner! I don't blame you for not going with the original show-related graphics. The steps were pretty fun.
Cons: The background isn't as easy to read, and not as... eyecatching, I suppose.
Steps: 4.5/6
Tilt: 2.5/4
Total: 7/10
You Give Love a Bad Name
Pros: Um... remix of classic Bon Jovi? Yay?
Cons: Odd samplestart. Iffy graphics, which don't match between background and banner. The verse had no beat to hold up the steps at the beginning. The steps in general were quite boring.
Steps: 3/6
Tilt: 1.5/4
Total: 4.5/10 |