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DDRMAX Info! @ 8/22/2001 6:14:05 AM
This info is exclusive to dancegames.com, so enjoy it! I can now give some info to all those who are asking...what the hell is DDRMAX?

The first thing to note is that this obviously isn't the last in the series, as some people have claimed. Whoever thought up this idea forgot Be For U were only formed for the current (5th) MIX, meaning Konami expect a lot of life in it yet. It seems that DDRMAX will indeed run on different hardware, and will update the series with lots of new features - which have long been in other Bemani games such as Drummania and Para Para Paradise. DDR is merely 'catching up'!

The song selection has returned to the style of 2nd MIX and the original Dancing Stage; how well you do in the game changes which songs you get. I expect this will work more like Guitar Freaks and Drummania's 'extra stage' and not DS 1.5/DDR 2nd MIX - that is, based on your overall rating as you progress, not on meeting a certain score requirement. This might sound bad, but if you've played 5th MIX you'll realise you don't have enough time to flick through songs AND think of what to do. You only got 20 seconds to pick in 5th MIX - although you could delay it for about 20 seconds on top of that, it didn't always work and it wasn't always enough!

Also, as I said, it borrows ideas from other Bemani games. You can now change the scroll speed of the arrows (like Drummania and the newest Guitar Freaks games) - although you only can speed it up to 3.0x compared to 7.0x in Drummania, keep in mind Drummania's note bars are more squashed up. The next major change is a new type of arrow - an arrow where you have to hold the button down. Quite how this will work on worn out stages is beyond me, as they're often very sensitive and the pressure pads flicker on/off, but it's something which adds an exciting new dimension to DDR - once again, this idea has been used in the ParaParaParadise series for a while now where it was obviously nessecary. The next big change in design is an old one - quite simply, you can set it to make the arrows scroll down instead of up the screen. Those who've played the DDR Solo games will remember how hard this is to do!

The song info is a little unclear so far, however all 4th MIX and Extra MIX PSX secret songs are now in the game, and 3 songs mentioned are interesting so far: Twilight Zone/2 Unlimited, Somewhere Over The Rainbow/(unknown artist but obviously a cover), and MAX 300 - which is an 'extra' stage, like Guitar Freaks and Drummania. This probably works the same way - ie, you'll need an A or something to get it. Extra stages were also present in the first DDR - if you did Trip Machine or Paranoia on Basic/Another/Basic Double, and you passed with a full energy bar, you would have to do that song on the next difficulty up! Obviously MAX 300 is a hard song. Remember Drop Out (DDR Solo2k/DDR4th-5th/Extra MIX)? That was 260bpm and MAX 300 is 300bpm (such is the clever name). I can already visualise people doing MAX 300 at 3.0x speed on sudden to show off...

More info will come soon! This info came entirely from H.Edward of Ranking Task Force who gathered the info at a location test, not me, so I cannot answer any questions or take credit for this...so enjoy!

Source: RTF Homepage

Posted by GurtyGurt