Devilish dancing demon
There’s blood on the dance floor with Konamix
As a devout Dance Dance Revolution fan, I’ve made it clear that quality DDR is non-negotiable. And what I mean by that is, a mix has to be good. It has to have DDR originals, maybe a few quality licenses and the interface has to be workable. DDR Konamix, a North American port of DDR 4th Mix, is a semi-decent solution to a real problem.
Konamix plays like every other early pre-SuperNova version of DDR. Stepping on arrows in time to a song is refined by this point, so it’s nothing new, and scoring also remains the same as DDR 1st Mix through 3rd Mix. So, really the most important aspect of this mix is the songlist, and there are some gems here. Some of our favorites appeared here for the first time in a North American release, such as PARANOiA Rebirth and SUPER STAR. The 52 songs in the tracklist are all Konami originals, hence the name, and that’s a boon because that immediately makes the list worth playing and makes up for a few weird issues.
But how does it play? In terms of DDR mix playability, it’s not user friendly like later mixes. The timing is highly suspect, and adjusting that feature in the options is stilluseless. Because of the differences in frame rates and modern televisions, trying to play this is a fool’s errand because it’s almost so off that you’re never going to do well. The weird timing issues mean a lot of Goods, Greats and Boos. Also, the interface is obnoxious until you choose to use All Music. With everything unlocked, the All Music option makes the game tolerable.
With a lot of flawed options and playability issues, DDR Konamix isn’t exactly a must-have. However, only because of the Konami originals should you buy this; some of these beauties are rare enough that you’d need to import Japanese mixes to see them again. While I have a nostalgic fondness for Konamix because it was my first exposure to modern DDR, I would only consider this mix if you want to be called a DDR master.