New Features, Cabinet Revealed for DDR X AC
Posted by Reenee - Fri 07/11 2008 - 12:14 PM - 3424 Views
A translation from am-net.jp has revealed a slew of new features that are bound to satisfy everyone's expectations of DDR X. In other words, it's finally being done right:
NEW CABINET DESIGN:
New "satellite" light system, upgraded speakers and a widescreen monitor.
IMPROVED LINK FEATURES: Use USB memory to handle Edit Data. Freaking FINALLY. And from the sounds of it, it seems that good edit data will be posted worldwide using e-Amusement.
NEW GAMEPLAY FEATURES:
Brace for impact: new Shock Arrows are introduced. And...you can't step on them. Make what you will of that. They say it's gonna be used in an effort to make more stepchart variations.
Beginner Mode is now Starter Mode.
Advanced Mode is now Course Mode.
Course Mode has a "Dance Drill Mode" with rankings. (Think 段位認定/Dan Mode from IIDX.)
SONGLIST:
The most commonly played stuff will be back. (The translation mentions OLDER songs being revived)
60+ new songs, including famous licenses and incredible original tunes.
The developers are actually committed to adding 1.5 times the amount of new content in future mixes.
OTHER:
"Welcome System" for new players.
It appears players will be able to register others as friends with e-Amuse.
Now, let's see what Konami can dole out next week at E3 for us.
But what about all the DDR machines out there now? Will they make some kind of software upgrade that will work with their standard aspect ratio screens?? As much as I want it, I doubt my arcade op will want to buy a new DDR machine... :(
Mm, this is the one thing that is making me worry about this game. I REALLY hope they are just some stupid gimmick for a certain mode, or an optional modifier and not in the stepcharts themselves.
I'm actually excited for a new mix of DDR. God damn that machine is sexy. Can't say that I'm excited for mines, but I'm so glad Konami is finally listening to us! :D Now... If only we had a better logo... And old DanceMania tracks :P
EDIT: Wait... Reviving the most played songs? This isn't going to end up being like MAX is it?
I hate to be pessimistic, but after issues of SuperNOVA's syncing and chart quality, SuperNOVA 2's near-lack-of-existence, funky grading, and the fact there is only ONE e-Amuse enabled machine in the entire country, I have to say that part of me is just waiting to see how they manage to screw up these features.
Basically, I'm not getting my hopes up about this until the community get's a nice long look at it.
Mm, this is the one thing that is making me worry about this game. I REALLY hope they are just some stupid gimmick for a certain mode, or an optional modifier and not in the stepcharts themselves.
They're probably going to be as easy to turn off as freezes and jumps, if they appear in the normal game.
Quote:
The developers are actually committed to adding 1.5 times the amount of new content in future mixes.
I really want to know what they mean by this. Does that mean we'll get 1.5x more content in this game, or is it referring to releases after this one? Also, are they specifically referring to songs? I know there isn't much else that they could be referring to, but still.
So basically, they're referring to DDR games that will come out after DDR X.
It's really odd that they'd say something like that without referring to this game.
I"m happy about the songlist news. 1.5x times the content and fan favorites returning. I"m hoping they dug into the Dancemania vault and at least brought back the fan fav license that either appeared in EXTREME AC or Party Collection CS.
There isn't a whole lot of "NEW" Dancemania speed stuff to pull from. They could get some stuff from Saifam though, like the new Speed Racer cover, heh.
I'm starting to think that the whole Supernova stage of DDR was just Konami delaying until they could get this sexy beast out. It actually looks like they put a LOT of time into this, much more than just a year since SN2 was released. The logo I'm not caring for, but it won't be visible behind all those AMAZING lights anyways. I've gotta say I'm pretty pumped, and if they can get this sucka released at a price arcades will actually pay I will be stoked (yes, stoked).
Here's to hoping no upgrades are available--after 10 years its time they start forcing arcades to buy machines that WORK.
DDR has been horrible since SN1, but SN1 was honestly kinda expected to be a flop. Like, think back to when we heard it was called Supernova. It was immediately a downer and has been since. Our hopes were only up because it was the first DDR mix released in years.
Brace for impact: new Shock Arrows are introduced. And...you can't step on them. Make what you will of that. They say it's gonna be used in an effort to make more stepchart variations.
This sentence was added in sometime after the article was posted. I'd like to note that the source makes no connection between the shock arrows and the "increasing step variations."
OMGAWD! THE CABINET IS UBER SEXAYYYYYYYYY!
Tooooooo bad i live in a poor country :S
Quote:
In future DDRs, there will be 1.5 times more new songs in volume..
That means , we are getting more exclusive NEW song from bemani originals/licenced songs?.
Shock arrows???? Maybe they will make special stepcharts whit them (maybe its the new face of challenge steps or even better a 4th difficult setting... because i still want my normal stepcharts whit expert and challenge)
Arrrrgghhh i hope they add some befou III songs this time (i know im dreaming...)
Sounds interesting. I was sure as hell looking forward to ITG3, but if the panel hardware doesn't suck as much as it does now and the song selection is good enough, Konami might be aiming to win back over the ITG fans, seeing as RoXoR was getting big enough that they decided to shut them down.
Mines in stepcharts would be great. But then, soon they'll have "EARTHQUAKE ARROWS" or something, that translate into rolls.
I just hope one day, Konami decides to do what RoXoR did and release something a la R21, because then custom players will come flocking back to them, seeing as ITG2 cabinets are worn, no longer being made, etc.
R21 was the last ditch effort of a dying company. Konami will never have R21 on their cabinets because of all of the problems it could cause with copyright and such (at least, as long as the RIAA is still alive and kicking).
Also, I really think that SN1 and SN2 may have sucked because they were just placeholders until they could release this. They couldn't release X 2 years ago, but if they had released it now people would be done with DDR completely--the only reason any cares about this announcement is because SN1 and 2 brought DDR back into the public eye. We've seen massive improvements from the teams working on HP and Universe, and I think this was just another team that's been working behind the scenes for a few years while a couple of people threw together the Supernova series to catch people's attention.
Posted by Alonso - Fri 07/11 2008 - 07:13 PM [ quote ]
but i'm gonna have to see about this "60+ new songs," other than that, i ain't touching this with a ten foot clown pole because of the whole suing rock band thing
R21 was the last ditch effort of a dying company. Konami will never have R21 on their cabinets because of all of the problems it could cause with copyright and such (at least, as long as the RIAA is still alive and kicking).
Also, I really think that SN1 and SN2 may have sucked because they were just placeholders until they could release this. They couldn't release X 2 years ago, but if they had released it now people would be done with DDR completely--the only reason any cares about this announcement is because SN1 and 2 brought DDR back into the public eye. We've seen massive improvements from the teams working on HP and Universe, and I think this was just another team that's been working behind the scenes for a few years while a couple of people threw together the Supernova series to catch people's attention.
Hottest Party is only good cause 2MB works on it IIRC.
But this is just ITG to me, unless Konami comes up with quality stepcharts this mix means nothing. A fancy cabinet means nothing, good songs mean nothing, if the stepcharts suck, its worthless. SN 1 and 2 had good songs, but terrible stepcharts.
If konami can fix them then we are good, if not, fuck it. They can try and replicate ITG as much as possible, but it wont work if they cant make a good (dancing) game imo.
Considering the fact that Konami has been hiring stepchart creators from the community since SN2 was released, I have high hopes that the stepcharts will be of good quality.
Posted by eddie - Fri 07/11 2008 - 08:34 PM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by goemon4
Quote:
Originally Posted by braintrust (joel stud?)
R21 was the last ditch effort of a dying company. Konami will never have R21 on their cabinets because of all of the problems it could cause with copyright and such (at least, as long as the RIAA is still alive and kicking).
Also, I really think that SN1 and SN2 may have sucked because they were just placeholders until they could release this. They couldn't release X 2 years ago, but if they had released it now people would be done with DDR completely--the only reason any cares about this announcement is because SN1 and 2 brought DDR back into the public eye. We've seen massive improvements from the teams working on HP and Universe, and I think this was just another team that's been working behind the scenes for a few years while a couple of people threw together the Supernova series to catch people's attention.
Hottest Party is only good cause 2MB works on it IIRC.
But this is just ITG to me, unless Konami comes up with quality stepcharts this mix means nothing. A fancy cabinet means nothing, good songs mean nothing, if the stepcharts suck, its worthless. SN 1 and 2 had good songs, but terrible stepcharts.
If konami can fix them then we are good, if not, fuck it. They can try and replicate ITG as much as possible, but it wont work if they cant make a good (dancing) game imo.
ITG wasn't a good dancing game though. It was a challenge based game with over the top stepcharts for most of it's songs. There are only a small handful of charts in ITG (on any difficulty) that I would consider fun. To top it off there was little to nothing there for beginners or intermediate players. The doubles charts weren't very good either. It was not well a rounded game.
I'm not saying it's a bad game by any means, and sure it was what the hardcore community wanted, but that doesn't make for an instantly great game. Challenge only goes so far. I think SuperNOVA 1 and 2 had more genuinely fun charts than either ITG or even Pump Pro has. The team at RoXoR (while great guys) are too focused on the hardcore market and as a result they're alienating players that love the genre but play solely for fun and don't care at all about their scores like myself.
I'd have to disagree, R21 was made because they KNEW they were going down, but wanted ITG to "live", and in it's own respects, it is because of the custom songs.
I don't know abou tyou guys, but I always prefer a lot of the Konami music games for their art assets. I also apprieciate the art in PiU. ITG was very lacking in its UI design, art assets, and never really went anywhere with its in-game characters and such. Sure it has a lot of options, and the menus were laid out well to fit those options, but nothing ever really jumps out at you. ITG, was a good game, but it wasn't very polished. I think things like announcers, dancing characters, and all that jazz, while they don't do much for gameplay, they help give the game more polish and help give the game something unique. There would really be no beneficial reason for Konami to make something like R21 for many reasons, but that stuff shouldn't be discussed here.
I'm pretty excited about "The most commonly played stuff will be back. (The translation mentions OLDER songs being revived)".
This looks VERY much like an ITG cabinet. I'm happy.
This looks very much like a BRAND NEW cabinet. ITG just gave the DDR cabinet a few spec upgrades (better monitor, speakers, etc.). For once, Konami is actually being creative--this cabinet is all them. The fact that it happens to share a few traits (mainly the widescreen) is just a consequence of all media being made in widescreen nowadays.
This looks very much like a BRAND NEW cabinet. ITG just gave the DDR cabinet a few spec upgrades (better monitor, speakers, etc.). For once, Konami is actually being creative--this cabinet is all them. The fact that it happens to share a few traits (mainly the widescreen) is just a consequence of all media being made in widescreen nowadays.
All I meant was I like the new design. Damn. Way to blow that out of proportion.
I would expect a new arrow type to be introduced like Freeze Arrows (with its "Freezes Off" mod), but the first pic still looks like it shows the old 5-point groove radar. Ah well, either way it can change before release.
And again, if they don't use Shocks well then there's still Edit Mode.
Posted by ceraf - Sat 07/12 2008 - 01:10 AM [ quote ]
a widescreen was needed long long ago. i'm glad they finally have it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by retard_gamer
please have good stepcharts please have good stepcharts
seconded.
Posted by votum - Sat 07/12 2008 - 01:55 AM [ quote ]
Those tower speakers are going to get fucked up by kids climbing them.
NEW! DDR X! 60 NEW SONGS! THATS OVER 9000 SONGS TO CHOOSE FROM! DDR IS THE BEST! YAY!
Fuck them until they can shorten the song list and make the series better.
Cabinet is sexy though.
Posted by dahrkdaiz - Sat 07/12 2008 - 07:20 AM [ quote ]
guys, they said old songs would be revived for Supernova 2 and we just get the entire SN1 songlist. Im thinking when they mean "revive", they mean they're bringing back stuff from SN2, not old licenses we miss.
Posted by goemon4 - Sat 07/12 2008 - 08:59 AM [ quote ]
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Originally Posted by NeoIvAn
SN1 and SN2 whit bad charts?
LoL i really enjoyed most of those except Dead end groove radar and some steps in NGO,Pluto rel., Pluto ONI
Quote:
Originally Posted by VenomEX
i ain't touching this with a ten foot clown pole because of the whole suing rock band thing
Don't bring that s*** here. Theres another post for that, please we don't want to start a flame war everywhere
See Unreal, Faxx, Felm Oni, Trim, shit, there tons of horrid stepcharts, i can list more if you want.
@ eddie - Oh, im not saying that they compare step wise, im saying ddr x is incorporating features that ITG had. Like edit songs and mines, that is all.
@ TimeSpaceMage - Yeah, that is a redeming feature, but i would like to see konami putting forth an effort in making good stepcharts.
Posted by Lightning - Sat 07/12 2008 - 09:20 AM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimeSpaceMage
I would expect a new arrow type to be introduced like Freeze Arrows (with its "Freezes Off" mod).
Quote:
NEW GAMEPLAY FEATURES:
RUMBLE ARROW: Now there's an added twist to RED colored holds! Hit the same direction multiple times during the length of the hold to score points! Stop hitting it and you'll get a N.G.
I'm guessing you need to hit it once every so often? Like, a 1/3 of a second?
Posted by sherl0k - Sat 07/12 2008 - 09:24 AM [ quote ]
LOL edit songs? Someone's never played on a machine with edit steps and memory cards.
Man, I miss 3rd Mix's PF-BITCH edit steps.
Posted by mkelehan - Sat 07/12 2008 - 10:03 AM [ quote ]
DDR doesn't need widescreen. Just take a 4:3 screen and orient it vertically.
