Got Game?

by Wilma Jandoc

GAME REVIEW

MICHELLE RAMOS / MRAMOS@STARBULLETIN.COM Rina Joy Macapagal, left, a student at Hawaii Business College, and friend Lindsey Gragas show their dancing skills on an arcade version of the dance game at Dave & Buster's Thursday.

In step with
‘DDR Max’

DDR Max Platform: Playstation 2 Genre: Dance Manufacturer: Konami ESRB rating: Everyone

For the wanna-be dancers who've always dreamed of cutting up the rug but were too shy to get on the dance floor, you can kick up your heels with the long-awaited "DDR Max" for the Playstation 2.

This game is the latest in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series, which has spawned over 10 console games in Japan -- four of which came stateside -- and many, many more arcade versions. It can be played using the standard PS2 controller, but to get the true dance experience, you need a special dance pad, which can be found at video-game stores.

The premise of DDR is simple: Arrows appear onscreen to the beat of a song -- or at least what the programmers think is the beat of the song. Step on the arrows at the right time to fill up your "dance meter." The meter goes down with each missed step. Miss enough steps and the game is over.

(OK, so it's not dancing per se. But if you're good enough, you can put your own funky spin on your arrow-mashing moves and actually look like a pretty cool dancer.)

As with prior DDR games, DDR Max has three regular difficulty modes, here called Light (easy), Standard and Heavy (hard).

You choose one at the beginning of the game, but if you'd like to switch difficulty between songs, you can access an options menu by holding X or O on the controller while choosing a song. (On the dance pad, press the X and Start buttons at the same time.)

Included are the usual training mode, in which you can practice songs without the game's distractingly colorful backgrounds; lesson mode, which teaches step basics; and workout mode, which tracks how many calories you lose while playing.

Also returning from the prior game, DDR Konamix, is edit mode, in which you can create your own step patterns.

New to this game is an information menu with data on completed songs, although the information is often laughably sparse.

DDR Max also boasts an improved difficulty graph that rates each song on five characteristics: stream, chaos, freeze, air and voltage.

The game starts with 37 songs available, 25 of which have never appeared in a U.S. DDR game in any incarnation. Completing songs and certain other requirements unlocks more songs, up to a total of 72 songs.

COURTESY OF KONAMI Playstation 2 gamers can get their fingers or feet dancing with "DDR Max."

Aside from the songs are several new features to knock you off-balance. Gone is the six-arrow mode from Konamix in favor of freeze arrows: The arrow on the dance pad must be constantly pressed for the duration of the freeze arrow.

This throws out the window nearly all previous hard-learned lessons to keep your feet moving to be in the right position to hit the next series of arrows.

In more difficult songs, both standard and freeze arrows appear at the same time, and remembering to keep one foot still while flinging the other around the pad will be a most impressive, if potentially crippling, feat.

For the high-octane dancers who think "Max 300" -- widely held as one of the most ankle-twisting tunes -- is a piece of cake, DDR Max allows you to raise the speed of the arrows by up to eight times the normal speed. (And yes, "Max 300" is in the game, although it must be unlocked.)

And for a truly insane challenge, try Oni mode, one step up from Heavy. In this mode (whose name appropriately means "ogre" or "demon" in Japanese), you play a number of songs with no breaks between. The grading is much harsher and the dance meter much smaller.

While no one can complain about a lack of features, DDR Max falls short in its song selection.

Don't get the wrong idea; the Konami-made songs are great, with challenging steps that will have you twirling pirouettes on the dance pad if you're so inclined.

But someone who's been spoiled on the game series' import versions (such as yours truly) may miss the licensed songs from artists that have become synonymous with DDR: Smile.dk, Judy Crystal, E-Rotic, Captain Jack (well, OK, there's one Captain Jack song in DDR Max) and others.

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Wilma Jandoc covers the universe
of video games, anime, and manga for
the Star-Bulletin. She can be e-mailed at
wjandoc@starbulletin.com