Dance Dance Revolution X
Dance Dance Revolution X is a music video game developed by Konami. A part of the Dance Dance Revolution series, it was announced in 2008 for Japan and on May 15, 2008, for the North American PlayStation 2. The arcade version was announced on July 7, 2008, July 9, 2008 in Europe, and July 10, 2008, for North America. Released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Dance Dance Revolution, DDR X sports an improved interface, new music, and new modes of play. The arcade release featured an overhauled cabinet design with a widescreen display, e-Amusement and USB access, and an improved sound system. Despite such new design of its arcade cabinet, upgrade kit to change the edition of DDR on its first generation arcade cabinet from SuperNOVA2 to X is also available. The PlayStation 2 release has link ability with the arcade machine, multi-player support over LAN, and other improved and returning features such as EyeToy support. DDR X was called a "truly global version", with a multi-regional release by all three major Konami houses.
Development
PlayStation 2
Konami announced the development of Dance Dance Revolution X on May 15, 2008, alongside Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 and Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2. DDR X is intended to be released as part of the 10th anniversary of Dance Dance Revolution. Konami promised that at least 70 songs would be featured in this release and that DDR X would bring with it enhanced graphics and new modes of play. Also promised was LAN multi-player support for up to 8 players, an upgraded Workout Mode that will allow players to build their own regimen, new dancing characters and the return of existing features such as EyeToy support.On the same day, Konami released gameplay preview images and video that showcased new graphical content. Three songs, two that had previously premiered on SuperNOVA 2 and its Japanese PS2 version and one that was new to the Dance Dance Revolution series, "Taj He Spitz", were also displayed in this media.
During the E3 gaming convention on July 15, 2008, additional information was revealed about the North American PlayStation 2 game, announcing that Dance Dance Revolution X would feature classic gameplay as well as new gameplay. The difficulty rating scale was extended resulting in existing songs in the series being re-rated to compensate. The Shock Arrow feature was also playable. Previously licensed music from earlier DDR series has returned including Me & My's "Dub-I-Dub" and Smile.dk's "Butterfly". GameSpot's reporters announced that the game was expected to be released sometime during Fall 2008. Additionally, new gameplay screenshots were revealed at the same time showcasing new features like new and returning dancing characters, a new Workout Mode, LAN network gameplay and returning modes such as Battle, Edit, Training and Street Master Mode. A successor to the previous Master Modes, Street Master Mode is akin to Quest Mode from Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3. Moving across a map, players guide themselves from one dance challenge to the next, meeting new characters and visiting different locales along the way.
The game was released on September 16, 2008. In addition to the aforementioned features, the PS2 version also contains "Xmixes", several nonstop mixes containing several songs each.
Arcade
On July 7, 2008, following a redesign of the Dance Dance Revolution Global Gateway, Konami of Japan announced that Dance Dance Revolution X would be released as an arcade and PlayStation 2 title in Japan as well. Shortly thereafter, on July 9, 2008, Konami sent out a press release to DDRUK that said DDR X would be a "truly global version", mentioning that the Dancing Stage name would be dropped in favor of Dance Dance Revolution, confirming the game's pending release in Europe as an arcade title. The press release went on to say that the arcade cabinet and hardware would get a fresh, new look and feel. Naoki Maeda, one of the sound producers for the Bemani series, pointed out on his TËЯRA blog that repeated requests from the fans of DDR were partially responsible for the decision to redesign the game's hardware.Konami held a private party on July 10, 2008, to showcase the arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution X in Japan, revealing additional information on the upcoming game. Improvements included a widescreen LCD display, better sound system, new modes of gameplay, a link system between the arcade and PlayStation 2 version of the game, the ability to publish step edits across all arcade machines via e-Amusement using a standard USB drive and a new type of arrow called a Shock Arrow, one that is to be avoided instead of stepped on. Konami promised that there would be at least 60 new songs featured in DDR X, in addition to having the "strongest" songs of the Dance Dance Revolution series returning from previous DDR games. Konami also announced the North American DDR X arcade through their DDR Online Community website.
Location tests also revealed enhancements to the interface, such as a new "screen filter" option, a full combo "splash" effect animation, and colored combo numbers which indicate the status of a combo colored the same way.
An issue of Arcadia Magazine confirmed other details, such as the presence of some of the "x-edits" and licenses from the US PS2 version, Koko Soko by Smile.dk and announced that there would be a collaboration song with Naoki and Smile.dk present.
A post on Konami's development blog website announced that the arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution X would be released in Japan on December 24, 2008. A December 20 posting confirmed that songs from the home version DDR Hottest Party would appear on DDR X, demonstrated by a screenshot showing new doubles steps for a song inferred to be from one of the Hottest Party games and a dance stage backdrop from the game. The December 22nd post confirmed that "will" by Naoki would appear on DDR X, also showing a dance stage from the game branded with the logo of a recently released DDR game.
The North American release was prepared at the 2009 ASI Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, in March, which revealed that the game would be released in North America by May, and that e-Amusement service would be available for a monthly subscription on launch. Minor adjustments also revealed included a return to use of the left and right buttons rather than up and down for song selection on the new cabinet, and that changes would be made to the cabinet as well to reduce costs including the removal of some of the lighting. Additional design changes were made for the final cabinet, significantly altered from the designs that had been previously exhibited and released outside of the country.
Japanese PlayStation 2
A PlayStation 2 version of Dance Dance Revolution X was released in Japan on January 29, 2009. It was the final Dance Dance Revolution game released in Japan for the PlayStation 2. The game features the ability to transfer data between the arcade and PS2 versions such as edits. The Japanese PS2 version will also feature the UI enhancements seen on the arcade version. Pre-order included the game, the combined soundtrack for X and Full Full Party, a DDR X branded 2GB USB flash drive, and other items.Gameplay
The gameplay of Dance Dance Revolution X continues the gameplay introduced at the beginning of the series. DDR X contains returning Konami Originals and classic licensed tracks as well as new songs by Konami and label artists. Despite the new overhauled cabinet design available, the dance stage layout remains almost completely unaltered to the original, except in North America, where aesthetic changes were made to cut costs in production.The scoring system from Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 is nearly retained in this game. Since the step rating for shock arrow is similar to freeze arrow, their values are the same. The value of each step, jump, freeze, or shock arrow is equal to 1,000,000 divided by.
Shock Arrows
Shock Arrows are different from normal arrows. They represent white arrows with lightning effects that span across all the arrows, and must be avoided instead of stepped on. Stepping or even holding player's foot on a Shock Arrow results in players losing their combo, part of their life bar and all other arrows disappear momentarily. Avoiding them results in an OK judgment and hitting one results in an N.G., similar to how Freeze Arrows are judged. Only specific songs feature stepcharts containing Shock Arrows, which are marked with an icon on the song select screen and will take up the "Challenge" difficulty slot. Shock Arrow charts typically are a copy of the main difficulty stepcharts with some of its steps replaced by Shock Arrows, though recent versions have made its use less traditional. These are similar to the mines from In the Groove.Difficulty scale changes
The difficulty scale for Dance Dance Revolution X has been changed from previous versions. This is the first full-scale overhaul of the Dance Dance Revolution difficulty rating system since the introduction of the Groove Radar in DDRMAX in 2001.Difficulty ratings ranging from 1 to 10 are shown with yellow blocks, and 11 to 20, overlapping the first ten, in red. Existing songs in the DDR series included in DDR X are re-rated to reflect the new range, usually by 1.4x or 1.5x from original rating to new. No songs, new or otherwise, in X had songs rated higher than 18, though this trend is broken in recent versions, with the officially-rated 19 song "Valkyrie Dimension" appearing in DDR X2.