{"id":923,"date":"2020-10-24T23:25:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T03:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/?p=923"},"modified":"2022-07-17T17:07:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T21:07:49","slug":"dance-dance-revolution-extreme-2-4q2020-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/index.php\/2020\/10\/24\/dance-dance-revolution-extreme-2-4q2020-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 \u2014 4Q2020<\/span> issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

DDR<\/span> Extreme bet\u00adter sec\u00adond time around<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a DanceDanceRev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion fan from way back when, in that time and space before the U.S. real\u00adly dis\u00adcov\u00adered the series and when we dealt with hasti\u00adly put-togeth\u00ader mix\u00ades that didn\u2019t real\u00adly cap\u00adture the feel of DDR<\/span>. Ah, those were the heady days of 2002. Alas, DDR<\/span> final\u00adly blew up in the U.S., and we final\u00adly start\u00aded receiv\u00ading mix\u00ades much like Japan. The prob\u00adlem was, we were get\u00adting them years after the fact, and when we did get them, they were most\u00adly lack\u00ading \u2014 bro\u00adken, incom\u00adplete mess\u00ades that you were bet\u00adter off pre\u00adtend\u00ading didn\u2019t exist. That, my friends, is where we join our sto\u00adry already in progress with Dance Dance Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion Extreme 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nev\u00ader mind that there is no DDR<\/span> Extreme 2 in Japan. We\u2019re going to set that aside for a minute to focus on the fact of why it exists in the U.S. DDR<\/span> Extreme 2 is borne of the fail\u00adure of Kon\u00ada\u00admi to do right by its fans out\u00adside of Japan. We received DDR<\/span> Extreme in 2004, a full two years after the orig\u00adi\u00adnal was released in arcades and for PlaySta\u00adtion 2 in Japan. That game is absolute garbage: It\u2019s noth\u00ading like what Japan received, which is a game that\u2019s much clos\u00ader to the arcade ver\u00adsion of Extreme. We received a bro\u00adken and changed-for-the-worse song inter\u00adface, miss\u00ading and weird songlist and grad\u00ading mechan\u00adics that were excised as of DDR<\/span> 5th Mix. Now that you\u2019re all caught up, you should see the rea\u00adson why we need\u00aded a do-over game of sorts. That\u2019s where Extreme 2 comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Extreme 2 is a decent addi\u00adtion to the U.S. con\u00adsole DDR<\/span> library of games. It fea\u00adtures the song wheel inter\u00adface and restores the 5th Mix grad\u00ading mechan\u00adics. The song list is great, too, final\u00adly fea\u00adtur\u00ading at least some of the songs found in the Japan\u00adese ver\u00adsion such as Car\u00adtoon Heroes (Speedy Mix), Irre\u00adsistible\u00adment, Speed Over Beethoven and Para\u00adnoia Survivor\/Survivor Max, which were all new to Japan\u00adese Extreme when it was released. It close\u00adly mir\u00adrors the home release of Japan\u00adese Extreme, which meant Kon\u00ada\u00admi was final\u00adly tak\u00ading the U.S. mar\u00adket seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Because it\u2019s so close to the Japan\u00adese ver\u00adsion of Extreme (editor\u2019s note: We reviewed this title in the 2Q2013<\/span> issue<\/em>), we\u2019re going to skip the focus on how it plays oth\u00ader than to tell you that the tim\u00ading win\u00addows remain loose as they always are in the U.S. ver\u00adsions, if you care about that sort of thing. From expe\u00adri\u00adence, it\u2019s much eas\u00adi\u00ader for me to get an A grade on Para\u00adnoia Sur\u00advivor in the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan ver\u00adsion than in the Japan\u00adese ver\u00adsion. The Amer\u00adi\u00adcan ver\u00adsions always have had more loose tim\u00ading win\u00addows, and it makes play\u00ading a lot eas\u00adi\u00ader. The options are pret\u00adty much the same, though you will have to spend time unlock\u00ading songs because, as with pre\u00advi\u00adous U.S. releas\u00ades, it\u2019s miss\u00ading the Sys\u00adtem Data Sup\u00adport fea\u00adture found in the Japan\u00adese ver\u00adsions. That fea\u00adture unlocks a pre\u00advi\u00adous game\u2019s data using the cur\u00adrent game. While this would have been help\u00adful in Extreme 2, it\u2019s not so bad to have to play through the Event mode or Dance Mas\u00adter mode, though you will be tired of cer\u00adtain songs after the fifth time through.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Dance Mas\u00adter mode is where you may spend a decent amount of time try\u00ading to unlock cer\u00adtain things. Dance Mas\u00adter is not a ter\u00adri\u00adble mode but some of the con\u00addi\u00adtions are not easy and require an inti\u00admate knowl\u00adedge of DDR<\/span>. If you\u2019ve bought this ver\u00adsion, chances are you are expe\u00adri\u00adenced enough with DDR<\/span> for this not to be a prob\u00adlem, but for the unex\u00adpe\u00adri\u00adenced this might be a tedious exer\u00adcise in, well, exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, because many of the servers are now down, we can\u2019t real\u00adly com\u00adment on the online modes. While active they were inter\u00adest\u00ading and fun to play against oth\u00aders using the ear\u00adly pre\u00adcur\u00adsor to PlaySta\u00adtion Net\u00adwork, but alas, 15 years lat\u00ader there are no servers for Extreme 2, so that\u2019s a loss. You aren\u2019t real\u00adly miss\u00ading any\u00adthing there because there is always the lat\u00adest ver\u00adsion of DDR<\/span> and Step\u00adma\u00adnia, which are imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly supe\u00adri\u00ador to a 15-year-old game.<\/span><\/p>\n

DDR<\/span> Extreme 2, an anom\u00adaly itself, is an OK<\/span> addi\u00adtion to the U.S. library. Though I fault Kon\u00ada\u00admi and its U.S. branch heav\u00adi\u00adly for screw\u00ading up DDR<\/span> Extreme enough to have to do a sec\u00adond go-round, the well-round\u00aded redone songlist kind of makes up for the extreme\u00adly bor\u00ading mess that pre\u00adced\u00aded Extreme 2.<\/span><\/p>\n