DDR has swept the nation with it’s groovy dance beats and blinking arrows. Most arcades have already invested in to a DDR machine, because it‘s popularity. Ever since it became so popular, people have always wanted to play this at home. DDR: Extreme 2 is the fourth installment for the PS2, ready to get your groove on?

Yo,Yo... What’s This Game All About, Dawg?!

DDR is a workout that doesn’t involve strength, but rhythm. This game is so simple, yet it’s so brilliant; It’s no wonder it became so popular. The object of this game is to hit arrows that appear on the screen according to the beat of a song. On a traditional pad there are 4 arrows (Up / Down / Left / Right). It may be easy for some people, but there are many who have trouble with this concept.

There are many different step patterns that appear on screen for the player to hit. On Beginner Mode (easiest difficulty), players will only be hitting one arrow at a time, and the time separated from each arrow may be 2-3 seconds. On much harder difficulties a player will be hitting 5 to 8 arrows within that same time frame. You’ll also be introduced to jumps which are 2 arrows that need to be hit at the same time. The arrows will also be much closer, making it harder to decide where you want to put your feet. There’s also ratings that you are given once you beat a song depending on how accurate you hit the arrows. For the most part, most people get the hang of this game if they just take it slow and try not to rush and become the best.

One thing that has never been in a home version of DDR was a Dance Master Mode. Don’t worry, it’s not another difficulty, it’s just a series of missions that need to be completed to unlock new songs and such. What stunk about this was that you needed to begin on beginner. It was just so boring for me because I’m already at the Standard difficulty (normal difficulty) and having to live those days again was not very fun. If you’re new, then you would actually have to do some work to unlock some songs. Some of these challenges include you playing songs in reverse. This is when the arrows come from the top of the screen to the bottom; It’s usually the other way around. Sometimes the challenge is to miss every 16th arrow or make sure you get a certain amount of “Perfects” (arrows that are hit perfectly on beat). As you beat songs either in DMM or just free-play, you receive points to buy new things. To buy these songs and challenge modes you first need to meet a criteria in DMM. Like I mentioned earlier, if you’re an advanced player this may bore you, but within a couple of days of nonstop playing and you should just about have everything unlocked.

The online multi-player is not going to be the reason you want this. I own the PS2 Slim and since it has a built in adapter, I’m all set for online play (broadband only). After you make a screen name, you have a choice of doing one of the following. You can face other people who want to just play, or try to get a high score on a course. These courses have anywhere from 3 - 6 songs and you have to do them all without a break in between the songs. Depending on how well you did on the course, you may actually get you name on the high score list. In some online games you are given a list of games that are going on and then you join them. But in Extreme 2 you have to wait until some one is available. If you ended up having a really good match with someone else and you wanted to continue playing with him/her, there’s a very good chance you’ll never play them again. You’ll also get an overall rating depending on how many times you’ve lost or won against the online competitors.

WOW!… Floating Hearts

As you can tell by now, DDR is a game that’s revolved around music. To Konami, graphics have always been a secondary thing, but that’s not bad at all. In the previous installments, the menus would be pretty basic and no flashy backgrounds or anything. In Extreme 2, they decided to go with the blue look. Menus are blue, pretty much everything is blue. The videos that play as you’re playing a song have been edited and look much nicer. In the previous installments, many scenes in the videos were used for multiple songs, this time around almost every video has original material. In the love-theme songs you’ll see hearts just floating around. Some videos have Japanese style robots just floating around and making movements going with the beat of the song. In one song the tempo was so fast and crazy, that the video was just flashing red and redder; it gave the illusion you were failing but you weren’t. You can even pick a dancer to float around, which is just pointless, and frankly, I find them annoying. They also aren’t even cel-shaded. Konami decided to make then more realistic instead.

I’m A Genie In A Bottle… Nooo… I Lied

There are many newly introduced songs in DDR Extreme 2. Some of the songs include “Get Busy” (Sean Paul), “Oops!…I Did It Again” (Britney Spears), “Genie In A Bottle” (Christina Aguilera), and others. One of my favorites is “Wonderful Night” (Fatboy Slim) because it was just so cool. It had drum and bass style beats, some electro sounds, and cool and quick rap lyrics. “Oops!…I Did It Again,” however, was just horrible and I don’t like Britney Spears in the first place. All the rest of the songs are just trance and unless you’re a fan, there’s a good chance you may like them. Some are real heavy and have metallic sounds to them and others are just bouncy-fun-happy kind of stuff. One thing that I assure is that everyone will have a certain favorite, I know I did. As you’re playing these songs you’ll also hear announcers commenting on how well you’re doing. They’ll say things like, “You move smoothly” or if you’re doing bad, “There’s always a tomorrrrroow!”

Random Information:

Only On PS2
Player(s): 1 - 2
Genre: Music
Release Date: Sep 27, 2005
Online-Play: Broadband Only
Developed By: Konami
Published By: Konami
Memory Card: 254 KB
Disc(s): 1
E for Teen (10yrs)

Sergio’s Numerical Rating: 8.7 / 10

Other Dancing Titles:

Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix (Xbox)
Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix 2 (Xbox)
Dance Dance Revolution: Extreme (PS2)
Dance Dance Revolution: Supernova (PS2)

Recommended: Yes