Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA (
Dancing Stage SuperNOVA in
Europe) is the latest arcade game in the
Dance Dance Revolution series of
music video games. It was produced by
Konami and released through
Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Europe on
April 28,
2006, followed shortly by the North American release on
May 15. Unlike previous DDR arcade releases, the versions for
Japan,
North America and
Europe will have the same features and song list.
The Japanese version will be its ninth traditional arcade release, and the first since
Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME in
2002. The North American version will be its fourth arcade release, and the first since
Dance Dance Revolution USA in
2000. The European version will be its fifth arcade release, and the first since
Dancing Stage Fusion in
2004.
The release contains 301 songs. Of those, 63 are completely new to DDR (at least three of which will be hidden and unlockable; more may be hidden in the final release), and a total of 57 songs are from home versions of DDR and are appearing on an arcade machine for the first time. Of the songs that are new to DDR, 19 are licensed. For more information on songs, please see the
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA song list.
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The cabinet for Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA |
The game was initially released in an updated cabinet with a new CPU core and a 32-inch high-definition CRT. The new dedicated cabinets are considerably less deep than their predecessors. There is speculation that an upgrade to current
JAMMA DDR cabinets will be made available in the near future.
The game's user interface is inspired by
Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2 and its European counterpart, Dancing Stage MAX. The background of the selection screens rotate colors between red, blue and green, and has a wireframe motif. The three main difficulties of normal gameplayhave been renamed Basic, Difficult and Expert. Beginner and Challenge difficulties are the same.
Gameplay
The general premise of DDR SuperNOVA is the same as the previous Dance Dance Revolution games. There are four game modes in SuperNOVA: Single (one player, using one platform), Versus (two players, each using one platform), Double (one player, using two platforms), and Battle (two players, each using one platform). The Battle mode is similar to that which previously appeared in
Dancing Stage featuring Disney's Rave, as well as that of
In the Groove.
The player must step to the beat, matching the beat to the arrows presented to them on screen by stepping on arrows on a dance stage. Depending on the timing of each step, the step is scored "PERFECT," "GREAT," "GOOD," "ALMOST" or "BOO". A health bar is on the screen, and starts half-full at the beginning of the routine. PERFECT and GREAT steps increase the health bar until it is full. Almost and Boo steps diminish it. GOOD steps have no effect either way. If a player accumulates too many Almosts or Boos in rapid succession, and the health bar drops to zero, then the song is failed and the game ends. If one player depletes their life bar in a two-player game, they can continue playing if the other player passes.
Freeze Arrows appear on the screen as long green arrows, and require the player to hold the corresponding arrow on the dance stage as long as the arrow remains on the screen (instead of just stepping on the arrow). A player who hits the arrow and keeps it held until the arrow disappears from the screen scores an "OK", which increases the health bar. A player who hits the arrow but does not hold it long enough scores an "NG", which decreases the health bar.
A player may play anywhere from one to five songs in one game (not including extra stages); the maximum number of songs can be changed by the machine's owner/operator. The default setting is three songs. At the end of each song, the game displays a Results Screen, which shows the score, the total number of PERFECTs, GREATs, GOODs, ALMOSTs, BOOs and OKs, as well as a letter grade, for each player. The letter grade ranges from E (which means that the player failed due to a depleted life bar) to AAA (all steps PERFECT). At the end of the game, the game displays each player's score, step breakdown and letter grade based on all stages, including Extra Stage.
SuperNOVA's scoring system has been greatly simplified from prior DDR versions. All steps in the song are now valued equally; no longer will later steps in the song be worth more than earlier steps. All songs are worth a maximum of 10,000,000 points. Each Perfect step is worth 10M/n (where n is the number of steps in the song), and each Great is worth 10M/2n. Unlike DDRMAX through EXTREME, double steps ("jumps") only add 1 to the combo counter instead of 2. Songs are also scored invisibly to the player by "Dance Points," which determine which letter grade is given to the player; each Perfect step is worth 2 Dance Points, a Great step is worth 1 Dance Point, and an OK on a Freeze Arrow is worth 6 Dance Points. Goods, Almosts, Boos, and NGs are worth 0 dance points; unlike DDRMAX through EXTREME, they do not subtract from your Dance Point total. The maximum Dance Point score is therefore equal to double the number of steps in the song. Due to how SuperNOVA's score is calculated, it is possible to determine your Dance Point score by dividing your song score by 10,000.
FMV Backgrounds
The screen refreshes at a full speed of 60 frames per second. Unlike previous recent games, only previous songs from other mixes will have
full motion video backgrounds. New songs will, instead, have live-rendered backgrounds with dancing characters, but are disabled if a song features an exclusive video. They are featured in an arcade mix for the first time since
Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX;
Dancing Stage Fever (AC) in European countries. A selection of one out of eight different characters (six returning characters with two new dancers) can be selected by the player(s). A selection of crossover songs from the
Beatmania IIDX series feature their original movies from their originating Styles.
Groove Radar
The Groove Radar, originally debuting in
DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX as the new system for identifying a song's difficulty, is a graphical representation of how difficult a song is, based upon five different key aspects of a step pattern:
Stream represents the average step density of the step pattern.
Voltage represents the maximum combo of the song.
Chaos tells the player the number of notes in the song that don't happen on 4th or 8th notes.
Air represents the amount of jump-steps within the song. Jump-steps are when two arrows are present, requiring you to jump in order to hit them both successfully.
Freeze represents the number of freezes (requiring the player to hold a note after it has been pressed initially) in the song. It does NOT represent the length.
The Groove Radar displays up to two graphs, one for each player, depending on the difficulty they select.
Foot Rankings
Debuting in the original
Dance Dance Revolution, foot rankings have been the staple indicator for a songs difficulty. Originally on a scale of one to eight "feet," it has since then been expanded to a scale of one to ten, with
flashing ten footers being used to indicate songs that are more difficult than can be displayed on the one to ten scale. SuperNOVA uses a mixed Difficulty Display which combines the Groove Radar, with the Foot Ranking display of that from
Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix, which shows all available step chart and rankings, instead of displaying the rankings one at a time, ala the DDRMAX-generation of games. However, the Groove Radar only displays graphical representations of the currently selected difficulty for each player.
Modifiers
Modifiers are changes that can be made to modify the step routine. A menu is available to make these modifications easily, and is accessed by holding the start button when selecting your song. Some of the modifiers are: Speed mods, visibility mods, boost mods, and difficulty.
Extra Stage
If the player receives an AA or better grade (a score of 9,500,000 or higher, and thus 95% or more of the total Dance Points possible) on their final stage playing on Expert difficulty, an Extra Stage is earned. Any song may be chosen for the Extra Stage, although depending on the game mode chosen at the beginning of the game, an additional song which is not normally available is added to the song list. The Extra Stage may only be played on Expert difficulty. The song modifiers are pre-set and may not be changed. Finally, the Extra Stage's life meter follows different rules; instead of starting half-full and (re)filling as the player hits steps accurately, the life meter starts completely filled, but cannot recover.
If the starting game mode was Easy or Medium, the Extra Stage song is
Healing-D-Vision by
De-Strad, a 9-foot difficulty song with a BPM of 180 which speeds up to 360 near the end, and the forced modifiers are 1.5x, Reverse, and Rainbow. If the starting game mode was Hard or All Music, the Extra Stage song is
Fascination MaxX by
100-200-400, a 10-foot difficulty song with a BPM which shifts between 100, 200, and 400, and the forced modifiers are 1.5x, Rainbow, and Reverse.
One More Extra Stage
The 'One More Extra Stage', also known as the Encore Extra Stage, was introduced in DDRMAX and is always a fixed song to play, with a set of predetermined modifiers. One More Extra Stage uses a "Sudden Death" life bar; the player automatically fails if they get any Good, Almost, Boo, or NG steps. In SuperNOVA, it is obtained by passing
Healing-D-Vision or getting at least an A grade on
Fascination MaxX during the first Extra Stage.
In SuperNOVA, the designated song for the One More Extra Stage is
CHAOS by
DE-SIRE retunes, a mid-tempo to moderately fast song with an unusual rhythm and erratic stops in the beat, making it very difficult to follow. It is the first One More Extra Stage to have a foot rating of 10. The predetermined modifiers for
CHAOS are actually none at all - the song must be played at the default settings all around.
Other Modes
In addition to the four basic difficulty levels of Easy, Medium, Hard, and All Music, the following selections are available:
Tutorial Mode is the same as EXTREME's Beginner Mode. This time, songs selected in Beginner in normal gameplay do not show the background of a character on a DDR pad showing how to step. This is moved to, and exclusive to, Tutorial Mode in this game.
Nonstop Mode allows the player to play one of several set courses without stopping. It is selectable when you are selecting the difficulty for the song. Its scoring is the same as a normal game.
Challenge Mode, also referred to as
Oni Mode, requires you to complete a set course of songs, with difficulties set and, in some cases, different mods. You cannot mod any songs in Oni Mode, and must play them all at native scroll and whatever mod the machine deems is part of the course. Unlike
Nonstop Mode, you have to be perfect with your steps. The life bar is replaced with a battery. If you get a GOOD, BOO, MISS or NG up to four times in any one song, it fails you out and the game ends. Your score is derived from the dance point system, and is the number of possible dance points you earned. BOOs and MISSes do not take away from your dance points.
The home versions of
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA and
Dancing Stage SuperNOVA will be released worldwide on September 13, 2006. However, the exact songlist for each version is currently unknown. Just like most other home versions, it was advertised as having more than 65 songs. 18 songs have been confirmed for the US release, but it is one of the largest and newest songlist so far.
Prior to SuperNOVA's announcement, it was believed that due to Konami closing their Arcade division in
2001 and the loss over United States distribution rights to the arcade games as a result of the
Konami vs. Andamiro lawsuit, that the series was to be relegated to the home console market. New releases to arcades had been limited to
bootlegs of previous releases.
Dancing Stage Fusion, released in Europe in 2004, was little more than the
PS2 version of the game in an arcade cabinet. New arcade releases had become popular
April Fool's Day jokes on DDR fan websites;
Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2 started out as one, though it would later become an official North American home version game.
DDR SuperNOVA first became serious speculation when the
DDR Freak website revealed a
trademark application filed by Konami in the
United States Patent and Trademark Office on
December 12,
2005. Konami officials that work with the site confirmed the new version shortly thereafter. A preview machine for the European version, purported to be 75% complete, premiered at the
Amusement Trade Exhibition International (ATEI) in
London,
England, on
January 24,
2006. The next day,
January 25, Konami officially announced the North American version at their Gamers' Day in
San Francisco,
California. Its first location test occurred at the Boomers Arcade in
Irvine, California, on the weekend of
January 28,
2006.
Existence of DDR Supernova in Japan was finally confirmed when Konami announced that it would make an appearance at the
All Nippon Amusement Machine Operators Union Expo in
Tokyo on
February 18,
2006.
Recently, several beta versions of this game were released to select arcades throughout the world. A major complaint has arisen among players, in which many feel the machines have poor step detection and serious timing issues, as they are scoring lower on songs where they used to easily score a rank of
AA on other versions. This complaint has been expressed mostly by North American and Japanese players.
At the Beta Test Location in Irvine, and then later again at the
ASI game conference, experienced players noted sharply widened timing windows. Since this would dramatically decrease the overall difficulty of the game, this addition has drawn sharp criticism. Others simply argue that the majority of previous mixes were synced incorrectly (too early), and that SuperNOVA, with properly synced timing windows, only feels as if the windows are wider than before.
However, this might not be such a recent change, as the timing values have started to decrease shortly after the first Dance Dance Revolution game made specifically for the home market,
Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX, was released. This may also be a simple matter of perception, as the home versions have had wider timing windows than their corresponding arcade versions since 5th Mix and possibly earlier, and those whom have gotten accustomed to the home versions' timing windows will most likely notice a difference in the arcade.
Later versions of the game after the beta brought a new surge of complaints, this time that the timing windows were too narrow. Players also noted that some songs seemed to have inconsistent syncing, and would be synced one time they were played, but off the next, or even synced at the beginning of the song and progressively more off at the end; additionally, some songs were noted to be consistantly off. Ryan Cravens, a representative of Betson, who manufactured the DDR SuperNOVA cabinets for the American release, stated on the DDR Freak forums on
July 19,
2006, "Konami is aware of the [sync issues] as well as other bugs in the software. They are currently working on an update to take care of these."[
1] The update will also reportedly add a new song.[
2]
Dancing Stage SuperNOVA was officially released in the UK on the 28th of April 2006 as reported by
DDRUK and
Konami. The first machines appeared at The Trocadero - London, Hollywood Bowl - Stevenage, Megabowl - Feltham, The Forum - Bridlington, Cains Amusements - Leysdown and Cains Amusements - Herne Bay, Namco Station - Trafford Centre, Manchester.
The Dancing Stage version of the game was released before the American and Japanese counterparts. The American version was released on
May 15, with the first confirmed sighting at
Disneyland in
Anaheim, California at the Tomorrowland Starcade. The Japanese version is due at the end of June. (There is currently no officially known release date for the Japanese version).
The game recieved a widespread US release at the end of June 2006, as final SuperNOVA machines started popping up throughout the country.
By August 2006, Dancing Stage SuperNOVA arcade machines began appearing in most
SM Malls as well as Glorietta Ayala mall in the
Philippines.
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Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVADDR SuperNOVA Gateway in 3 Versions (Japanese,American and Europe)
*
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA section of the Konami America website
*
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA Introductory Press Release, from Konami America
*
A bogus website thought to be the official Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA website [
3]
