The Future of "Dance Dance Revolution"

[dj-Luminus]

Anyone have any insights, thoughts, or ideas of what the future of DDR. Share em' .

Over the years I've played through 3rd-EXTREME. And obviously, I'm not as addicted to the game as I was when I was still playing DDR USA Mix.

Or when I used to look at the DDRFreak Songlist boards and look at the name of songs I didn't know and wonder what they were.

I notice I feel kind of sad that my friends that just started playing a little while ago that are doing catas now, have no idea what mixes under MAX2 and EXTREME were like. And have never played most of the songs on 1st-5th Mix except on Stepmania.

Obviously Konami is starting to run out of ideas for DDR, and there are fewer and fewer veteran players as most are "retiring".

My Thoughts on DDR Today:

- DDR for veterans is definetely slipping away.
- Newcomers are unfortunately joining the series when it seems to be at its last years.
- Less and less Konami originals are being churned out.
- Dancemania songs are also lowering and the phenominal impact of the songs is decreasing. (Shooting Star, Rhythm and Police, Boys Euro Mix, Cafe etc. were much more popular and talked about when they primiered then most Dancemania songs now.)

My Thoughts on the future of DDR:

- Konami is definetely going to need to revitalize DDR or it will be gone soon.

- If DDR isn't changed in some way to "renew" it. We can at least hope if it is cancelled a new music game very similar to it by Konami will be released.

- Hopefully the series won't die down just when the home releases are coming alive.
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[J.R.]

I thought that DDRE was the last one they were gonna make.
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J.R.'s Bemani page mainly IIDX.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/solidsnake2085/
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[sHadOwDAncErs]

Well... If a 'last' mix will be made... they would probably take all the old songs and remake them into a new machine or something... ie: a machine with mods so that the machines from back in the day (2nd mix, 3rd mix, etc...) would become newly revived again! if it still stays at it's popularity pace... then it would be no problem ending... (sooner)
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My Pretty Much Daily Issues A Shadow can never leave traces behind

[-Mystik-]

[J.R.]

well I geuss I was wrong
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J.R.'s Bemani page mainly IIDX.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/solidsnake2085/
Song of the week:Mr.Larpus/Banya
Rated #177 Vjarmy IIDX player!AWESOME!

[YmkFX]

I'm still waiting for DDR with 9 arrows, seperate screens for each player, and more bass!
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[Spike]

9 Arrows has been done. Technomotion. It was alright.
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[NJPete68]

[DJzen]

[ADHD Goten]

There is a 9 button DDR. It's the DDR style version of Pop N Music. It looks.. pretty gay.
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[TheKasshu]

[quote="DJzen"]

[Iman]

yea, most of the new music sucks buttocks.

[matt_unlimited]

New exterior design of the machine would be cool!

[Mysterio]

Well, around here it is still popular with most of us, but I can defentely understand that it's popularity would be waning. Most of us agree that they need to add something to the game, but as to how to do that is something that no one can seem to decide on...
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[quote:ed89271168="Frozen CaffMaj 4 Extreme"]just because i play ddr, does that mean i'm going to go randomly stomp someone to death?[/quote]

...but Rhythm and Police is no longer crazy!

[Technick]

A dark purple DDR machine would be pretty cool.
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[dj-Luminus]

For the final mix, or maybe just the next, I think they should include all of the elements that made up past DDRs.

Long Versions
3 Song Nonstop Remixes (In Pump It Up and DDR Solo 2000)
Real Konami Music Videos (True... both versions, Solo 2000 Music Videos (DDR Solo did have FMVs didn't it?)
6 Arrows
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[Cross Phoenix]

As far as ending DDR goes, Extreme definately wouldn't be the last since I over heard the motto for Extreme is "We're starting over..." or somewhere along those lines.

It's true what was mentioned earlier about 1st mix and all the other earlier ones, since they consisted of catchy tunes you'd probably find yourself dancing to in a club for some odd reason. These songs were more dance friendly rather than something like The Least 100 seconds, or Drop Out. I remember just simply having fun "dancing" do Let's Get Down as well as Strictly Business, as well as AM-3P which still happens to be one my top favorites because I always thought those songs were cool because of the vibe they gave off. Whether it be the bass line running along them or simply the various sounds merging together trapping one in a twilight zone of pumping sounds, it's things like that that attracted me to DDR. Over time, newer better songs came out and some of which were actually a step above all the others.

But what I did notice is how horrible some songs were becoming. I think this began happening with 4th mix joined the family, featuring songs that didn't cater to everyones tastes, but still didn't seem to please everyone. Songs like Love again Tonight, Pink Dinosaur and Let's Talk It Over were a nice addition to add variety to the game, but after a while began lacking as far as sounds went. More played songs such as Era, which for some reason continues to be a favorite as well as .59 paved way for the other genres of music that were soon to follow up. Music that you would probably find yourself singing at a Karaoke Club with friends slowly began to disappear as the newer mixed came. Some stayed true to the original form, like Bumble Bee and others seemed to add an extra punch to it them like Leading Cyber.

Evetually over time, DDR basically became a larger blend of things that not everyone was pleased about as far as song lists went. Max did a good job as far as bringing good music back, but it wasn't as strong as it was when 1st 2nd and 3rd Mix were around. Max2 did all right as well, bringing back some old favorites. What I believe is that Konami decided to give something to tide people over until they came up with something new, hence making Extreme and putting songs from other games in it, such as the Beatmania series, Pop n' Music and Drum Mania. Think of it as a small snack to keep you busy until the actual meal comes, which in fact could be a final mix for DDR.

As far as that goes, I believe a final mix for DDR would actually consist of all the songs previously featured in the past DDR mixes ranging from 1st mix till whenever, but that might never come to be since there are still plenty more songs for DDR to use coming from their Dancemania series as well as a bunch of other songs from other games. New mods, modes, playing styles, hell, maybe even a "make your own non-stop" selection would be a nice peice of lemon to the glass of water we've all been enjoying for so long.

Ofcourse all of this will have fall backs, but everyone will and should be willing to cope with them. This is just my opinion on everything as far as DDR goes.

You know what I really wish they would bring back in the next DDR Mix... the song lyrics at the bottom of the screen. I always enjoyed reading the lyrics while waiting for my turn to go up.
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[sHadOwDAncErs]

[Spike]

Maybe someone said this, but someone commented on the fact that Konami at E3 said they weren't planning on discontinuing DDR.

That doesn't mean we'll get another arcade game. KOA hasn't announced a new arcade game, and their arcade division closed awhile ago. If anything, they mean they'll bring out some more home versions. Hopefully some day it will become popular enough that they'll get a third party to help them make an arcade machine.

Of course, there will be tons of people playing the game so the machine would be swamped with 10 year old punks
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[bemaniboi]