I recently purchase "Dance Dance Revolution II" for the Wii. I own all of the DDR (Hottest Party 1-3, DDR, DDR II). This one will get mixed reviews from me.
Music Quality (Royalty Songs): F
Rarely do I give an F to anything I grade. But the songs and artists are terrible. Two Justin Beiber songs. Selena Gomez. Mylie Cyrus. Does Disney have pictures of Naoki doing lines of strippers' breasts? Also, unlike other versions, there were no great classics songs. Also, the songs selected weren't great fits for DDR. Granted, I am sure there are no singers who are thinking "How will this work with DDR?" when they compose a song, but Konami could have done a better job of selecting songs that do work. Hottest Party 2 had the best selection in this regard.
Music Quality (DDR Originals): B (tentative)
I haven't freed up all of the songs yet, but so far it is pretty good. I haven't gotten to the hard songs yet. One area where they beat the previous version with is that there is more variety in II. Also, I am looking forward to freeing up the HP 1-3 and DDR Mixes.
Cost: A
At $29.99, definitely worth it.
New Features: Graded Separately
* Game Flow: C
My complaint with this is that it used to be on the front screen you selected the song and the difficulty. If you play all of your songs on one level (for me: Expert), you really shouldn't have to worry about it. Now there is a separate screen for the difficulty, which wastes time. I typically use this for cardio, so wasted time is a bigger issue.
* 20 Point Rating System: B
DDR used to have a 10 "footer" system. Now it is just more refined. Not a huge deal, but it doesn't hurt anything either.
* Short Song vs. Long Song option: A
Now you can select between a short song (typically 1:15 to 1:45 minutes long) and a longer song (about 3:15 to 4:15). Depending on what you are looking for, this is pretty cool, especially for fitness applications. Looking to alternate DDR with swings or a High Octane Cardio application - opt for the shorter songs. If you are looking for sustained cardio, maybe with a weight or snorkel, try the longer songs. It is kind of like the difference between the RKC snatch test and the Secret Service Snatch Test.
* Support for Double Dance Pad/Eight Arrow Mode: A +++++++++++++++++++++
This is humongous. Absolutely huge. When I first got into DDR about 3 years ago, I went to an arcade where someone was absolutely destroying it on Dual Pad mode. The guy was absolutely shredded (think of a 5'6" version of Michael Vick). Ever since then I wanted that for the Wii. Now we have it, and I have a chance to play it, and it is truly game changing.
With normal DDR, you work your body on rotating around your center of gravity while keeping your eyes on the screen. With just one pad, you are still getting sports agility training that is 1000x superior to agility ladders because:
- Your feet have to move fast,
- You are looking forward, not looking at the ground,
- You are encouraged to keep your feet and center of gravity lower to the ground,
- You work with rotation of the body and rotation of the hips,
- You work on stepping, hopping, galloping, jumping, and splitting strides,
- You have infinite patterns, not just one,
- If you have asymmetries, they are exposed immediately, and
- It is quantifiable.
Now we add another dance pad, you get the following benefits:
- You are not only rotating around your center, but now you also have full body rotations around each foot (i.e., crossovers). This is very different in terms of reflexive stability, muscle activation, and proprioception.
- You not only have rotation, but also you have translation of the body left and right. The use of the A and B buttons was OK in Hottest Party 3, but this is much better.
- In this mode, I noticed that you are more likely to be rotated with your back facing towards the screen. This works neck and upper back rotation in a whole different way.
- Be warned, because now that you have to move left and right, it is more similar to dancing. If you are playing DDR II in a dry county in this Carolina's, you may be breaking the law. Check with your authorities.
* Challenge Mode: Inc.
Also, I didn't check if they have a Non-stop mode, but for fitness this would be an enhancement.
Overall Grade: A-
For the cost and the addition of Dual Dance Pad Mode, it is definitely worth getting. Also. For the cost of a high-end jump rope you have something that burns calories, is scalable to your abilities, bumps you up against mobility issues, improves proprioception, and plays well with other fitness modalities. I know that Justin Beiber and Mylie Cyrus both suck and I gave them some royalty money with this purchase, but so be it.
(Pictures Pending)
