{"id":130,"date":"2014-04-05T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T00:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/stories\/?p=130"},"modified":"2022-07-17T18:34:42","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T22:34:42","slug":"ddr-max-2-2q2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/index.php\/2014\/04\/05\/ddr-max-2-2q2014\/","title":{"rendered":"DDR<\/span> Max 2 \u2014 2Q2014<\/span> issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Choos\u00ading a sev\u00adenth dance card<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There comes a time in every long-run\u00adning gam\u00ading fran\u00adchise when said fran\u00adchise has to grow up. That tran\u00adsi\u00adtion may come in the form of a new coat of paint or through a purg\u00ading of char\u00adac\u00adters, a reboot, if you will. But every fran\u00adchise goes through it, and Bemani and Dance Dance Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion, in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar, are no strangers to this. By the point of Max 2, the sev\u00adenth main mix in the series, DDR<\/span> had to do some\u00adthing at the risk of grow\u00ading stale. So, con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00ading the trends start\u00aded in Max it was.<\/span><\/p>\n

Max 2 presents itself as an inter\u00adest\u00ading beast, even if you\u2019re inti\u00admate\u00adly famil\u00adiar with the series. There\u2019s a new mode to play, Oni \u2014 which intro\u00adduces the con\u00adcept of a \u201cthree strikes and you\u2019re out pol\u00adi\u00adcy\u201d with cours\u00ades to play \u2014 and the over\u00adall look and feel has been upgrad\u00aded from the days of yore. Max 2 rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00aded the mid\u00addle of a new era for DDR<\/span>, begun with the whole\u00adsale do-over of Max. There\u2019s not much new in the way of con\u00adcepts for Max 2, and that\u2019s all fine and well. Since Max\u2019s changes were regard\u00aded as a fail\u00adure and an unnec\u00ades\u00adsary slash-and-burn of the fran\u00adchise, Max 2 works toward undo\u00ading the mess made previously.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game does well with updat\u00aded aes\u00adthet\u00adics. The song wheel (intro\u00adduced in 5th Mix), the foot rat\u00ading (dropped in Max), Groove Radar (intro\u00adduced in Max in favor of the foot rat\u00ading) and Freeze arrows return. The re-intro\u00adduc\u00adtion of the foot rat\u00ading sys\u00adtem is the best idea that could have come from clean\u00ading up Max\u2019s mess. The Groove Radar and foot rat\u00ading sys\u00adtem give you all of the per\u00adti\u00adnent song dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty infor\u00adma\u00adtion that you will ever need. The song wheel looks bet\u00adter than ever since it\u2019s now in its third iter\u00ada\u00adtion and Freeze arrows don\u2019t seem to be such an aber\u00adra\u00adtion as they once were in Max.<\/span><\/p>\n

The song list is inter\u00adest\u00ading mix of updates to old favorites as well as new entries aimed at adding some\u00adthing new to DDR<\/span>. Not that Max did\u00adn\u2019t do that very well, but Max 2 is about a greater vari\u00adety of songs and it shows in the fact that there\u2019s not a new Para\u00adnoia in sight \u2014 at least in the arcade ver\u00adsion. The home ver\u00adsion attempts to inject a new iter\u00ada\u00adtion of the famil\u00adiar song, but it\u2019s not near\u00adly as suc\u00adcess\u00adful as it thinks it is. Yes, Para\u00adnoia Sur\u00advivor, one of the boss songs of the sequel Extreme, is present and avail\u00adable for play in the Japan\u00adese con\u00adsole ver\u00adsion, but its inclu\u00adsion as a pre\u00adview song isn\u2019t real\u00adly nec\u00ades\u00adsary. And it does\u00adn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense. Why destroy the myth of Sur\u00advivor \u2014 the first 10-foot\u00ader Para\u00adnoia \u2014 by show\u00ading its hand ear\u00adly? My prob\u00adlem with Max 2 is illus\u00adtrat\u00aded by this point: The game some\u00adtimes feels like a re-tread of pre\u00advi\u00adous entries, and it should\u00adn\u2019t. I was under the impres\u00adsion that the rea\u00adson for the deba\u00adcle cre\u00adat\u00aded by blow\u00ading up DDR<\/span> with Max was to avoid just the sort of prob\u00adlems that you\u2019re going to run into with Max 2. Though, in its favor, Max 2 has Maxx Unlim\u00adit\u00aded, which is my favorite Maxx song out of the entire bunch.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to com\u00admend Kon\u00ada\u00admi for at least try\u00ading to right the wrongs com\u00admit\u00adted with Max\u2019s well- mean\u00ading phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy of start\u00ading over. It just feels a tri\u00adfle like Max 2 is slack\u00ading into old habits. Max 2 may not feel like it\u2019s cheat\u00ading on its diet start\u00aded by Max\u2019s slim\u00addown but by hav\u00ading a few extra songs, Max 2 isn\u2019t nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly push\u00ading the plate back like it should and it shows.<\/span><\/p>\n