Konami wants your feedback regarding the future of DDR!

[JJK]

Another official Konami survey has appeared through Arcade Future, this time asking where the Dance Dance Revolution series should go next. Specifically, this survey asks players what they want to see added to the series, what they want to see changed with the series, and whether or not they would be interested in seeing a DDR release on the Playstation 3. This is a prime opportunity to impact the future of the DDR franchise, so be sure to fill out the survey and tell Konami what you want!

[JJK]

My personal responses:

- I expressed interest in seeing Challenge mode step charts added to all songs.
- I am not interested in DDR for PS3, largely because I don't own a PS3. I did, however, express interest in more DDR releases for the Wii.
- I requested more speed modifiers, especially x2.5 and x4.
- I suggested that the background videos from the original eight main DDR releases return, as I am not a big fan of the generic background dancer footage. I also stated that the backgrounds should be dimmer, as they often cause the arrows to blend in with the background, especially when using the "Note" note skin.

[FFMMCLXIV]

^I don't have a PS3 either , but if they are indeed moving on, I pitched them the idea of a Grand Megamix of sorts that could read your PS2 gamesaves and unlock all of the songs that you acquired from the 6 PS2 mixes, plus another 100+ songs of new content. 520+ songs... Yes, almost double the number of songs of a typical arcade mix, but the Blu-Ray disc could handle it, right? And it would eliminate my need to hate having to switch discs every time I want to play a song that's not on SuperNOVA 2.

[zdemigoth]

[El Band Geek]

Here is me being brutally honest

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[FFMMCLXIV]

[El Band Geek]

[FFMMCLXIV]

[BustAGroovey]

I thought the original DDR games had BG animations/characters, not videos. I kinda prefer the characters/stages over BG videos though. It's much easier on my eyes, and I do have some old school favorites.

I don't own a ps3 either. I'm hoping that there will be another ps2 release first before the jump to ps3.

[deathcomesforu]

they took away ITG from RedOctance cause they were losing money and all that good jazz, least they can do is impliment some of the features for us ^-^
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[evilkoala]

Here are my responses (no secrets to keep )

Future of DDR

More songs per game (at least 90-150+)
Get licenses, DDR, and bemani songs that people WILL actually play (and make the stepcharts as hard as possible for each song, which leads to...)
Challenge difficulty on EVERY song!
I would like to see the songlist a couple months ahead of the game, so that people like me can comment on what could make the game better.
Progress bar or clock (like In The Groove) during the song.

If you want some more nifty ideas that the DDRFreak community has concocted (including a makeshift song list, which needs tweaking, by the way :-)), then head to:
http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=129564
We can use Konami's opinions on every aspect of the ideas presented in this thread.

Changes to DDR

Less annoying announcers (only have announcer in menus, before and end of the song, and only in certain points in combo).
When you slow down a song in Training mode, include the music at the speed required this time, instead of turning the music totally off.
Backgrounds that don't clash with the arrows (because it stinks to have a 300 combo and then blow it because the background is camouflaging the arrow!)

[DDRManiac150482]

Future of DDR
-More songs (150 to 200) in the console releases (They have the technology to pull this off!)
-Stepchart difficulties rated by players' opinions, NOT by Konami's ("Fascination ~eternal love mix~" Basic a 9-footer? Surely you jest!)
-Challenge stepcharts for every song and they must not be lower than 9-foot difficulty
-No Expert stepcharts lower than 7-foot difficulty
-Licenses with 10-foot Expert stepcharts
(These next two I might catch a lot of flak for, but I really don't care)
-"MAX. (period)"
-"PARANOiA ~Respect~"

Changes to DDR
-Bring back MAX/MAX2/EX AC combo counter for Game Mode
-Bring back MAX2 unlock system
-Bring back MAX/MAX2 method of selecting edit steps
-Rig the announcer voice so that it is NEVER heard while a song is being played!

DDR on PlayStation 3?
HELL NO!!!
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IN THE NAVY '99, THE RACE, CAPTAIN JACK (GRANDALE REMIX), TOGETHER & FOREVER, DRILL INSTRUCTOR (C-Jah Happy Mix), DREAM A DREAM (MIAMI BOOTY MIX), DREAM A DREAM, ONLY YOU, MY GENERATION (Fat Beat Mix), LITTLE BOY (BOY ON BOY MIX), CENTERFOLD (130 bpm move it remix)

Nunca nos olvidaremos de... (We shall never forget...)

Francisco Gutierrez, Sr. (a.k.a. Franky Gee, Captain Jack)
1962-2005
Que en paz descanse. (May he rest in peace.)

[Aoi-chan]

What would you like in future installments of DDR:

There's so much to list, I don't know where to begin. I wish I could just sit with Konami's developers and explain to them everything, but alas, this list may have to do.

1. A way to track your personal scores and unlocks on arcade and home consoles. Something like a USB drive, similar to ITG. Eamuse hopefully will be coming to most of the arcades in America and do just that.

2. More modes of play. Oni and Non-Stop modes are fun, but we need more innovation here. How bout those modes with random mods thrown in or better yet, allow mods in Oni mode! Have random Oni mode or "create your own" Oni charts to challenge the best players. This applies to both console and arcade.

3. Better interfaces in the arcade for newer players. Too often new players are confused beyond belief while doing the simpliest things, such as picking verses mode, or not putting in enough credits for 2 players, or how to change difficulty, or not understanding how to select "All Music" or picking mods. Console versions, who cares really. But the arcade, too many dumb people play the game and just don't understand the DDR interface.

4. Harder step charts for all songs. Give the hardcore something to play with each song. But don't forget about the expert players that don't enjoy 10 footers. I'm seeing too many of the same types of step charts for newer songs, similar step patterns, way too many jumps at times or songs that are way too easy, but are good and fun songs to play. Is adding a 6th difficulty out of the question? Go beyond 10 feet perhaps?

5. Better licenced songs and more Konami originals. Please stop putting so many bad American songs on mixes and stop putting so many terrible slow songs. Few people enjoy 100-130bpm songs that have crappy step charts and are impossible to read at 1x speed. Great licenced songs were back in 3rd-6th mix. They were good songs with good beats, good step charts and weren't afraid to try something new or add some difficulty to them.

6. Sorta off topic, but make a better effort to bring over great Bemani games like Drummania, Guitarfreaks, Pop'n Music, etc over to the states both on console and in the arcade. Please don't let ripoffs like Guitar Hero and Rock Band steal the show in America!

7. In the arcade, have more high score lists and high scores per song in normal game mode. It's fun to compete for bragging rights in your arcade. ITG had it right with 10 top scores per song and not allowing the same nickname to control the entire board.

8. LCD monitors instead of CRT's in arcade cabinets

9. More songs per mix, especially in the arcade. With people hacking ITG cabinets to load songs up like Step Mania, load up newer mixes with tons of older songs from years ago. Few people are going to buy older mixes for consoles, especially imported ones from Japan.

10. Never ever come out with anything so horrible as USA Extreme (PS2 console) ever again! And never do that horrible unlock stunt with Memories being revealed like it was...

11. If you need a play tester, please contact me. I'm not some random fanboy and can and will give honest feedback, both as a fan of the game and as an arcade operator. Thanks for reading all this.


Would you like DDR for PS3:If so, what would you like to see in it? If not, why?

1. DDR on PS3, absolutely! I'm all in favor of more DDR mixes for every console. If Konami can turn a profit from multi-console releases, then please do. Even if the same exact mix is a port for each console verses the different mixes per console that we see today with PS2, XBox/360 and Wii.

2. If there is a PS3 release of DDR, then please continue to follow the Playstation model for future releases and if at all possible, the Japanese Playstation model. The more songs the better and downloadable songs, especially older songs no longer available in the arcade (before Extreme & SuperNova), most notably some older licenses (Erotic, 3rd, 4th and 5th mix).

3. Full 1080P HD would be great, along with full surround sound. A solid online play experience that allows for individual score tracking and a more beefed up verses play and tournament modes. A way to filter controller players from pad players during competition, or at the very least a way to show who's on which via icons or menu selection. Online play with SuperNova wasn't that great and SuperNova 2 wasn't any better. I'll be honest, the online play was just terrible. And for the love of god, allow mods with online play!

4. Having a score link and edit feature that connects from your PS3 to the arcade would be awesome. Similar to how the PS1 memory card system worked for the arcade in early mixes, but have it much more robust similar to the USB system used on In the Groove.

5. Make the unlock system actually fun with the consoles and the arcades. US releases of Max and Max 2 were not bad. SuperNova 1 was a lot of fun for me with SMM, but the SuperNova2 HMM just sucked, I'm sorry. Having boring and linear challenges are not exciting and it was a real let down after the joys of SN1. And always have a timed unlock system for newer players, similar to DDR Max. Don't penalize players from unlocking all the songs, just make it a slower unlock process for them and a quicker and fun process for experts. Adding more depth to the unlock and challenge modes is highly encouraged! Be creative and stick to things that work for unlocks, everything else is fair game for variety.


What changes would you make in the DDR Games, Background Transparencies, Different Note Skins, ect:

1. Have more selectable mods, similar to In the Groove. Allow more speed mods such as 2.5. Have a random mod effect for normal game play, with mods randomly changing like Battle Mode. And allow players to only select or remove certain mods from being selected (think Smash Bros. with item selection before a battle, you could allow all items, no items or only the selected items).

2. Backgrounds are way too bright! I have to use the "Rainbow" note skin just to see the arrows in the arcade. At least there's the option to lower the background brightness in the home version. In the arcade, I'm not about to adjust the flyback and contrast/brightness on the monitor board, making the entire screen look like crap overall for the sake of seeing the arrows a little bit clearer (yes, I work in the arcade industry ).

3. I liked the improved descriptions in the arcade for picking game modes and such in Super Nova 2. But the menu selection and descriptions are still confusing to "newbies" in the arcade. Too often they pick "doubles" instead of "verses", or "battle mode" thinking that's verses. Also, label the "tutorial" mode better with big flashing warning that this mode is for new players only and how long it takes to finish the mode and then get to select your 1 song.

4. Allow song uploads from a memory stick, similar to ITG's R21 patch. And allow arcade operators to purchase more songs, usually older songs from prior mixes, to load up onto the newest installment of DDR. Do you know how many arcades don't have SuperNova because their customers like Extreme better for that single reason? Give us the best of both. Or even allow arcade operators with older mixes a way to load the old mixes onto the new hardware used by SN. If they have a legit security cart or some other form of verifing the content, I'm okay with that too.

5. Scoring in the arcade and home versions should be the same. Make jumps worth 2 on the combo. Have AAA's mean something again, being all Perfects or higher. Leaving Marv timing in the game is fine, but make a AAAA the highest score then. None of this BS SuperNova 2 scoring...

6. More characters to select as background dancers! Thanks for bringing them back.
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[musicsdarkangel]

I am fairly new to the game, so some may disagree with this, but here are some of my suggestions -

1. I would love to see a training mode which includes training for heavy/extreme players (for instance, showing convenient ways of organizing/executing passages).

2. I am a classical pianist, and I believe that rather than just speed, the game can become more advanced in rhythm (for instance, septuplets, 7s, odd groupings, etc). This would make the steps more interesting. Of course, advancement in rhythm is something that music lacks in general, but there are ways to do this quite tastefully.

One way to do this is to have a few different DDR games for different genres - Rock is somewhat done in the Supernova games which is good, but how about R and B? Classical? A DDR classical game may spark a lot of interest - it wouldn't have to be classical, but could be techno/electronica revisions of classical music, and this would be extremely interesting because there are many difficult and crazy passages in classical music; adding drums/bass etc behind this would combine song and dance to make a unique and fun mix! This could incorporate popular and nonpopular classical (Imagine Turkish March or Fantasy Impromptu sped up with drums, bass, etc and crazy footwork).

3. It would be more appreciated if the workout mode was more accurate on calories burnt; this would make me work harder and feel confident in how much I burned... It always seems like the calories burned in workout mode is farfetched.

4. I would also like more bizarre/trippy backrounds (similar to screen savers on computers), or some sort of mode where the Arrows can be black and the backround can be illuminating.

I know this may be difficult to do without being distracting, but part of the fun of DDR is the visual experience and if this was pulled off successfully, people would adore the game much moreso than currently.

5. I would like to hear more instrumental techno music, which can be at least as fun to dance to. Music is subjective, and I feel that electronica/techno without lyrics is hard to dislike (often it's the voice in music that bothers people on soundtracks/albums).

6. This may be over the top, but a mode where DDR players can create their own steps to a song. I feel like it shouldn't be too difficult, and would be a blast.

With new features, I think that DDR can make a huge revival (not that it was ever gone). Through visual improvements, skill improvement, and rhythmic variation, I believe that this is quite possible.
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Apple.

[FFMMCLXIV]

In response to the post above:

1. Great idea, especially with some of the more recent stepcharts.
2. Yes.
3. Eh, probably a good idea. lol
4. All for it. The black arrow idea is particularly interesting. (I really hate it when my partner picks Solo )
5. OMG YES.
6. Er, Edit Mode? I'm assuming you mean importing your own song and creating steps to it, but I think there's copyright issues and such with that. They could do what GHIV is doing and make create-a-song, that might be a good idea.

You are a winner.

[musicsdarkangel]

thanks FFMM

I was unsure if my post was naive or somewhere along those lines.



Do you think they will take everyone's comments and look at them seriously?
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Apple.

[FFMMCLXIV]