DDR X AC US Review

[DAVE101]

HoMan at Indyddr compares and contrasts the new cabinets Betson is putting out in arcades. As expected, a lot of corners were cut.


Read the full article at IndyDDR.com
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poop

[Clearsky]

How come they get to try that machine? Indiana is in the middle of nowhere.

And they didn't say anything about the songs.

[DAVE101]

[Clearsky]

Yes it is, even though it's one of the top 10 cities.

How is that ignorant? That doesn't make sense. You know I'm right.

[DAVE101]

Typical west coast response.
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poop

[__]

OK, now I know I am going to import from Japan instead of going through Betson.

[jtstott2419]

Is the JP cabinet really gonna be that much better?
Has anyone figured out how it differs from the US?

[thewheel]

The Japanese cabinet is better in every way. I guess the best example to show you would be this picture cross posted from an old Bemanistyle post.



As you can clearly see the Japanese (Konami-made) cabinets still retain the LED light sticks and LED cross-glow under the monitor. It's a small gripe but it does make the system look nice (in no way is it necessary though).

Look at this pic from IndyDDR and compare it to the pic above:



The toy-ish looking speakers that Brian mentioned are an abomination compared to the nice speakers encased behind some polycarbonate on the JP cabs. They even make matters worse by putting a crappy vinyl sticker around it to make it look "cool".

Even though it can be hard to tell by simply looking at it the marquee is vastly inferior on the American cabinet.

I don't know specifically what LCD they're using in the Japanese cabinets, but from the action/still shots I've seen of it, it outclasses whatever Vizio-like piece of garbage is thrown into the American units.

Without going into every little gripe, we should get to the real bread and butter of the argument: the pads. Just look at these:



Brian and June have both laid out point blank that the performance of these pads is garbage. But glance up to those beautiful 9 panel wonders above and compare it to this 24-screw per side, flat sheet metal monstrosity you see here.

Would you buy car that was advertised as an Audi but when you got to the dealership it was a Chevy Caprice? Yeah.....

I don't really care if the JP cabs cost the equivalent of $20,000 and the American ones cost $10,000. These remind me horribly of those PS2-equipped Namco crapcabs that popped up a few years ago.

If you can't do something right don't do it at all. If you can't make a decent cabinet, beta-test the ACTUAL cabinet you will be releasing (yes all of the cabinets that were location tested in America were Japanese cabinets; not Betson trash) and let the players decide.

Look at it this way. When our local Namco arcade was sold out to Tilt the machines were never serviced again. Therefore, we never played there again. Vote with your dollars folks, it's the only thing that truly matters in the end.
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Akanna raion suki raion suki hikigaeru
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[jtstott2419]

yeah I'm not a fan of the new stage, it does look like crap! With or w/o the led towers does not matter to me. I'd buy a Japanese Cab if the price was close to the US machine. Otherwise I will just keep it up w/ my extreme.

Who wants to start up a group of people to buy a bunch of Japanese cabs??

[Baka of the Orochi]

The Japanese cabinets also sounded far differently. The US cabs are just straight up flat sounding with no power behind them. If you played the Guitar Hero Arcade machine, it's the same poor quality.

Betson's already proved that they cut corners horribly when they first released Supernova machines. The response was so poor, they got help from Konami of Japan, hence why most Supernova cabs didn't end up being that bad (but some of the initial cabinets are still circulating).

If you can live with the crappy sound system, the pads are what make everything kill the entire experience. I've been watching people play since we got DDR X last Monday, and everyone hates it, from beginner players to the most advanced (save one, who doesn't mind). From dropping freezes to inconsistent judging on top of HD lag, it's just not worth it.

And we've had the Japanese cabinet in Chicago for location test, and it's way way better than this Betson piece of crap.
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[DahrkDaiz]

someone posted a petition, but we know they usually don't go anywhere, but it would be cool if people actually refused to play the machine.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopddrx/

[lildrchris25]

Where were all those things saying that Konami was making the cabinets, and Betson was just distributing them?
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[MeowMix]

Brought up in another forum by Ashura96

http://www.betson.com/cms/cmsProdShowcase2.php?tab=1&code=KONM-024290N

Despite the huge changes to the machine Betson still advertises the US release as the original design....
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[DahrkDaiz]

I sent this email to Betson:

Quote: email

I have been asked by arcade management to look into the latest release of Dance Dance Revolution X to see whether we should invest in getting the latest machine. After reading initial reviews, we've seen that there are many problems with the release including fault pads, the inclusion if USB ports when SD Card use is advertised (http://www.betson.com/cms/cmsProdShowcase2.php?tab=1&code=KONM-024290N), the machine does not appear to be e-Amusement ready as stated and the machine from release videos and pictures look considerably different. The visual changes we can ignore, but we want to make sure we get a product that does not require maintenance from the very first day it arrives.

Is Betson planning to address these issues? We would like to buy the next machine but do not want to make a bad investment and not receive a nice return, obviously. Any comments on the situation would be great appreciated. We gladly look forward to purcashing the latest DDR from Betson!

-Travis

I got this response

Quote: Betson

Dear Travis,
We will have the pads issue corrected this week. That is just a matter of sensor adjustments that were not done properly. Games will be e Amusement ready and in fact Konami is looking for test sites to introduce DDR-X. Please let us know how else we can help you and thank you.

-*name removed*

[Baka of the Orochi]

[Baka of the Orochi]

Stupid double-post
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[bilyjimbob]

hard to believe they are charging $10k for that ugly piece of junk. it's obvious those cheapo pads are also being made at betson.

[Baka of the Orochi]

It gets better.

Yeehaw McKickass, Monmotha, and I all looked under the pads.

The pads are made of wood.

You're basically playing on overglorified thicker versions of MyMyBox (BlueShark, whatever) home pads.

Talk about bait-and-switch! Betson's ripping people off!
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[jtstott2419]

[Vandel.M]

who made the cabinets for the beta test at irvine boomers and why could the people who make that just make the mass produced X versions and whats the point of sending out crap and losing your fan base i wonder if they will do a recall