Dance Factory

[jpoppyz]

it's finally out, and it suprisingly got good reviews on IGN. 8.5? Hmmm im quite interested actually. And yes, i do know about stepmania, but using the autogen step makers is overly complex and i cant find a lot of songs from artists i like. and sometimes me and my friends just wanna dance to random songs.

Also, if anyone happens to get the bundle, can you tell me how the pad is? i will probably rent this(if i can) and rip my DDR MAX 2 CD onto it and see if the steps are comparable to the official MAX 2 steps.
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[Marq(uistadorous)]

Are the up and down arrows still switched around in this game?
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[Sweet Potato]

I think they fixed the arrow switch. The IGN review is here http://ps2.ign.com/articles/727/727095p1.html but I still think they always mess up rhythm game reviews.

Does this game have edit mode or does it just make steps for songs right away? I could see this messing up songs that have slow downs and stuff. If someone tries it out please tell me about it. I'm mildly interested but I still think it could suck big time.

[Marq(uistadorous)]

Wait... I just looked on gamestop.com and it doesn't come out for a few more days.
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[WillTalbot]

[Jotz]

Ok, after participating in intense "debates" in the Gamefaqs forum, I present to you a crackdown on this game:

1. The up and down arrows are switched around

2. The steps that Dance Factory generates for songs are very random (not sure whether or not they are nicely on beat)

3. The hardest difficulty is slightly easier than Heavy in DDR

4. It can take up to 1 minute for the game to analyze a single track

5. Burned CD's might not work, MP3 CD's will NOT work

6. No speed modifications, etc

7. Rumor has it that there are no 1/16th notes in the game

8. The big one: YOU CAN -ONLY- CREATE YOUR OWN STEPS IN REAL TIME!

[jpoppyz]

no speed mods and easier than DDR heavy?

i changed my mind
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[Reenee]

So anyone want to take a whack at what the developers were doing all this time?

[Marq(uistadorous)]

[Sweet Potato]

Well at least it's not another good game I have to spend money on.

[DarkCore]

If I ever see it at a game store, I'll consider buying it. Not because it's good or anything, but because I'm trying to collect all of the rhythm games for PS2.
No speed mods...easier than Heavy...reminds me or DDR: Mario Mix.

[ColorOfSakura]

Whine Whine Whine

Bitch Bitch Bitch.

What did you guys expect from a company that's NEVER made a rhythm game before.

Also - it AUTOGENERATES dance steps to songs that aren't even in the game's code. It's going to be flawed. There's no way it can be perfect.

I'm sure they had to switch the up and down arrows so as not to get in trouble with Konami.
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[Jotz]

Ok by the reviews on gamefaqs, I can now say that my information is 100% correct. There are *no* 1/16th notes . More downsides:

-It has trippy backgrounds that blend with the colors of the arrows!

-The arrows don't flash at all!

-The crappy characters that you can use in the game barely move!

-Sometimes the step generator only detects every other beat in parts where there the song has a steady 4/4 beat!

-All this for $40!

-Oh yeah, and don't forget that you can only edit steps in real time!!! Yep, that's completely true. If you mess up a single arrow while making steps, YOU HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN.

[DarkCore]

[yunique]

Hi you all. yes this is my 1st time posting here although I've lurked for what seems like forever... with that said... I bought this game today I, me, the wife, hubby, and two kiddies. Yes we actually like this game. it suffices for us as a fun activity. now I cannot get all technical and tell you about beats per minute and all but I will tell you that we listen to House Music almost exclusively. so this is the type of music we loaded. the 10 songs that we loaded - which took about 10 minutes - are all close enough to the beat not to be a complete waste of $42+ change. there were 3 songs that were way off but we figured that it was the down beat instesd of the up beat and were able to dance to them on Normal.

So to give a little background on this ddr family... the pre-teen children can dance DDR Extreme Paranoia 190, Afro--- and some of those other really fast songs and get an A... same with A-ing hubby on those fast songs. That may not be fast to some of you; none the less we are not an inexperienced dance pad/mat family. We have the cheap-o toys r us metal intec pads that we've had since they came out earlier this year and we go to a local Mall in PA to dance SN a few times a WEEK. We have all PS2 games... Flow, DDR Extreme, ITG, ordered SN too.

Enough about us...

Anyhoo, wanted to give you all my two cents just in case other lurking mothers or fathers care to try Dance Factory for their family.

P.S. hate those darn psychedelic backgrounds... hate that its really hard to get back to the main menu without going through all sorts of changes... (ooppss just informed by hubby that can go to main menu after song ends simply by hitting x to confirm to skip past adding name or something in COOPERATIVE mode... the arrows weren't switched around for us either and I hope this doesn't happen to us either. Characters are indeed corny... the background sounds, when you get a RANK UP in addition to your music, is just loud and abnoxious when you are not actually dancing your self but maybe that's the darn surround sound in very high ceiling room.

P.S.S. it seems the songs are more out of whack on Pro than normal or easy...

peace

yunique

[dizzle1405]

How's the workout mode in this game? Does it allow you to do it by calories and time, or just calories?

[Tobias Preener]

Geez, I was comsidering buying this, but now, definitely not. I cant just find a lot of good real songs on stepmania, or make my own.
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Brawl FC (PM me): 0989-1391-5541

[Hlavco]

Man, I'm so mad right now. I moved up to college a week ago, and just now I got an email from my ex-local Gamestop saying they're having a Dance Factory competition, winner gets the game. I mean, I wasn't gonna buy the game, but now I'm just missing a chance to get it for free. Nobody plays dance games where I live.
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[Nightime]

Some things I picked up about the game, based on putting it through "the wringer". "The wringer" consisted of playing it using 6 discs:
-DDR Solo, DMX, and GF/dm medleys and extended DDR remixes (see V-Rares)
-The Rocky Horror Picture Show OST (LOL)
-totally dance
-80's New Wave -party mix-
-Metal to the Core
-100% Classic Rock

And here's the lowdown on the experience:

-Creation time is enormous.
-Up/Down are switched, and cannot be changed.
-"Nonstop" (Endurance) mode has evals between every stage. (!)
-Tempo is nearly *constant* (does not match temposhifting songs like "A" well), and determined by the first 10 seconds of recordable time. Crossfaded discs are -screwed-.
-Does NOT detect tempos over 145 bpm. (or about that) Speed pop fans, prepare to be bored. :o
-1P games have arrows S P R E A D _ W A Y _ O U T . 2P with Player 2 idle is better to view... but...
-2P "battle mode" has a *TERRIBLE* "battle system" that "rewards" players with simplified (like LITTLE x LITTLE) stepcharts for playing well, and "punishes" opponents with stupid things like "removing all of their arrows for a verse". Xo Ouch.
-No Solo/Double mode, either.
-Stepcharts are "spurty" at best. It will crank out a long stream or set of small streams, then go "boring" for a good verse or so.
-Stepcharts are *always* inconsistent in verses/choruses, even when the song is.
-Somehow, the game (on Pro) occasionally will crank out a "3-point turn stream" while holding the fourth as a freeze arrow. How smart is THAT?
-Patterns repeat in less than 1 hr of gameplay, even with different *GENRES* of music.
-Plenty of inconsistent "3-point turns".
-No autogen 1/16's, even on Pro. No note-accurate timing, no drum rolls, no skipping/galloping, anything like that.
-The engine does not do any stops.
-Last few measures are *VOID* of any activity; and often cut short.
-CCR'ers: Controls can be configured for the arrows OR the X/O/T/[] buttons, BUT NOT BOTH AT ONCE!
-"Record" mode must be made on the fly; no corrections/adjustments allowed. And if using a dancepad, any inadvertent "rests" of the feet result in freeze arrows, intended or not.
-"Saving" albums eats memory cards FAST.

In short, it's like "Dancing Monkeys 0.4", minus any consistency. I think there's a total of 5-8 preprogrammed (and TERRIBLY misdesigned) stepcharts (like they're from someone that doesn't even understand music at all), that it just tries terribly to pace with the music, and trims parts out, based on what the songs sound like. Engine also has a bad habit of calculating 66% of the actual tempo, BTW.

-Are the stepcharts fun?

Not particularly. They're never consistant, nor do they have any "fun moves" to associate with them.

-Are the stepcharts hard?

Not particularly. Only on occasion in total obscurity, the irreversible reversal of up/down, and the occasional freeze or jump or two thrown randomly in a stream.

I actually cut "the wringer" early, I was going to make a disc based on alternative time signatures, too. But if it can't even handle 4/4 music... I'm not gonna bother. In short, for anyone with any dancegame experience, it's total junkware. For people that just use it as a party game because they don't care, it's perfect. I'd actually be more lenient if it were a few songs that did this, but after 6 WIDELY different albums, at least 5 songs each, and -consistantly abysmal- performance... it's worth saying a hundred times over.

Sad thing is, if I knew crap about programming, I know HOW a good chart-maker could be designed, too.

-EDIT-
There's also no BG/brightness option, either.

Oh yes. Add a "King of Fighters" soundtrack (talk about "basic music" here); with no differing results. Didn't even track "Esaka (Acid Mix)", "Senritsu no Dora", or "KD-0079" accurately. Or with any variation of stepcharts from albums listed above.

[Mike Blitz]