To date, I have purchased and played two DDR games which I have also reviewed here on epinions.

DDR UNIVERSE: 
http://www.epinions.com/content_400034598532

DDR UNIVERSE 2: 
http://www.epinions.com/content_410471140996

The first game was fantastic, plenty of fun, and made a great holiday gift at the time of its release.  The second game, cost slightly less than the first,  had a graphical user interface that wasn’t as neat as the first  and now I’ve come to the 3rd release of Dance Dance Revolution  for the Xbox 360, and now, I’m very, very annoyed with Konami to the point, that I don’t think I can trust this line of products anymore.

IF YOU ARE NEW TO DDR AND ARE CONTEMPLATING BUYING THIS GAME…
The GAMEPLAY of DDR:U2 goes basically unchanged from its predecessors. You get a screen with arrows that scroll towards their timing markers. When the arrow reaches the marker, you simply step on a corresponding arrow button on the dance mat (or press a controller button in correspondence).
Once again, we have varying difficulty modes: beginner, basic, difficult, etc which ramp up the speed and the intensity of said arrows. In extremely difficult modes, arrows may fain from sight and reappear with the rhythm. You may also be forced to master 3 ~ 4 steps per second and perform that way for the duration of a song – which also includes jumps, hold arrows (on one side) and other variations.
For an in depth explanation of the gameplay, please see my first review (link above)

CONTROLS

DDR: Universe comes packaged with a dance pad for $69.99.
The Dance Pad is the primary control of the game and features A,B,X,Y buttons as well as a large D-Pad that you’ll be using for your steps. For a game like this control (and music) is everything - so naturally, it is important to focus on the quality of the pad.

The Konami – Bemani dance pad that is packaged is actually very well designed. It doesn’t slip and slide much, but if you use it barefoot, sometimes it will get very wet as you sweat and the plastic will start to bunch up a little. The pad features a ring of light guide button that operates just like the one on the 360’s controller – updating you when friends come online and allowing you access to the system’s operating system.
If you are a player who has never purchased a DDR Game on Xbox 360, then you won’t have a problem with the content available here in DDR: Universe 3. In fact, if you’ve never spent on a DDR product before, you will definitely be happy with this version.



IF YOU HAVE OWNED PREVIOUS DDR: UNIVERSE GAMES…
The first version of DDR:Universe tried to offer a story mode of sorts where you’d travel around parts of North America dancing in order to raise money. It was poorly designed and many challenges were nearly impossible to win without cheating.   One of the signs that the game was poorly tested was a situation were you had to dance perfectly in order to fill a step meter in order to advance to the next stage. The problem was that many of the songs you were likely to be stepping too, lacked the amount of steps required to win the round. Therefore you received a FAILURE and still had to move on to the next stage to continue to fill the meter.   This situation went unfixed in DDR: Universe 2, and now…to my dismay, it has gone unfixed yet again in DDR: Universe 3.

Who the hell is working in Konami’s beta testing facilities?


#1  Can't access song packs

As always, when you purchase a 360 DDR game, you get a long song list to dance to. This game has about 70 tracks (just like the other two) which feature a wide variety of samples from Jpop, to Euro funk, electronic, Rock and techno/dancehall. Xbox Live always features a song pack that you can download for 800 gamerpoints (around $10)  which adds even more songs to your list.
I don’t have a problem with the songs…they are actually good to step to, but,  my biggest problem with DDR Universe 3, is that  I have  DDR Universe and DDR Universe 2  as well as the Xbox Live sound pack for each game.    Despite the fact Xbox 360 has a Hard Disk drive, you cannot access the songs of the previous two games – or their sound packs – with this game disk.  Therefore, if you want a song from the first game or the second, you must put that specific game into the system and play that specific disk. THIS SUCKS !
Why hasn’t Konami done something about this?  Imagine having three different MP3 players and each time you want another song, having to switch them !

 #2  The music choices…
Since, I always buy a DDR game for myself, and buy one as a gift for my sister (DDR: X on Playstation2 this time)  I’ve noticed that the Playstation versions have a better infusion of Hip Hop.
In fact, the Playstation versions have more music variety because many of their tracks are taken from America’s  seasonal top 40 lists on the radio.   I noticed similarly that the Wii Versions had pretty good song lists using well known songs, wherein the Xbox version is more world music/ Euro.
Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, I just wish Konami had more diversity without having to just keep on selling game disks.



#3   Can’t design your own steps or use your own music.

“DJ Mode makes its debut on the Xbox 360 – create your own tracks and song lists to dance to”

The box art would have you believe that you can create your own tracks and song lists. This is very vague and misleading. The truth is, you can take songs on the CD and edit the background videos,  camera movement and basically, what people who are watching you play will be seeing while you are stepping.

The “DJ Mode” requires you use the 360’s controller, and have a HDD attached to your system. You can add scratches  to your song list mixes. Its not as customizeable as other mixing software but it is something to do if your interested.
The sad truth is, Konami wouldn’t make it possible to use your own song from the HDD – for example – Solja Boy’s  “Crank dat Superman” and add your own steps, because they already know…if you could do that, you wouldn’t be dropping  $70 every single year for a new DDR game.   Nice…


#4  Singleplayer hasn’t been fixed.

Besides that aforementioned “song failure” problem, Konami hasn’t fixed this game’s singleplayer to update the one feature about it you’d actually want to buy it for: weight loss goals.
The game includes a fitness tracker that allows you to tabulate your calories burned in a graph to show exactly how much time and calories you’ve used playing it. This is the one function that should have been a no brainer, but Konami’s stupid beta testers got it all wrong.

The one main element that is an absolute must for weight loss, or for replayability is PERSISTENCE.
I believe that the easiest way to make the DDR games worth replaying for long periods of time, is to make unlockables accessible by HIGH SCORE rather than by simply forcing the user to meet challenges.   If the score required to unlock a new song is set ridiculously high, the player will continue playing to meet the challenge and gain the reward if its perceived value is high enough. That’s simple psychology.
The way this game is currently designed, there isn’t much to keep you coming back after you’ve played through the regular song lists and unlocked some of the unlockable songs.

Why is their no goal for calories burned?

What I can say is that DDR is ten times better for you health wise than Wii Fit. That  thing is pure gimmick and targets females who aren’t very familiar with gaming and just think the ability to do Yoga might be cool. DDR will get you burning calories quickly and because you can ratchet up the difficulty level easily, you will see real weight loss results in a shorter amount of time. I lost 6 pounds my first week of owning the original DDR: Universe.  I was sweating bullets.

This time around, you can customize a DDR avatar with all types of unlockable clothing and body types as you perform dance battles around the new DDR stage layout. Its not very different than the Quest mode of the original or the second, but, this time around, you can choose which challenges you wish to accept.



MULTIPLAYER

The true fun of the DDR games is in multiplayer. XBOX live does not have enough serious players playing this game (or the previous two) at any given time, but, if you have friends over and you all have Dance Pads, DDR Universe games provide a great party game.    The game offers two modes in particular that make for great multiplayer. BOMB mode allows you to outstep your opponent by triggering step attacks that they must match perfectly or else they will lose.  SYNC mode forces you and the other player to perfectly coordinate your steps in order to score points.  These two modes are great for small parties. There is also FREESTLYE mode which lets you step however you want to.




THE MUSIC LIST  {song list copied from Wikipedia} 
 
1.) A Fifth of Beethoven - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Murphy and the Big Apple Band.
2.) Dancing Machine - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_5.
3.) The Bomb (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bucketheads.
4.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conga_(song) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Sound_Machine.
5.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_Heat_(song) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamiroquai.
6.) Watch Us Work It - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo.
7.) Bad Taste - The Divys.
8.) parade - Witchery SKANK.
9.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_(Moby_song) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby.
10.) Gutterpunk - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noisia feat. Bex Riley.
11.) Over - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hill Presents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Marie.
12.) Man With The Hex - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Fireballs.
13.) If (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Audé Remix) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette.
14.) Return of the Machines (Radio Mix) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oforia feat. Bwicked.
15.) All Over Again - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_Mar_Ten.
16.) Dancin' My Way - DeeJayz Paradize feat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Howard.
17.) freshmagicgroove - IKAAN.fresh!.
18.) Less Than Three (Ricardo Autobahn Remix) - Becky.
19.) Caught In The Moment - Entona.
20.) Till The Lonely's Gone - Z-licious.
21.) Rave Until The Night Is Over (Universe Edit) - DM Ashura.
22.) 30 Lives (Up-Up-Down-Dance Mix) - The Motion Sick.
23.) MATSURI JAPAN - RE-VENGE.
24.) Kind Lady - OKUYATOS.
25.) Concertino In Blue - Hirofumi Sasaki.
26.) ONCE UPON A TIME (Jertz mix) - Mitsu-O! Summer2008.
27.) NRG Surge - oo39.com.
28.) Your Angel - DM Ashura feat. kors k.
29.) Lament Configuration - Rephaim.
30.) Senses (Kaiju Remix) - JT.1UP.
31.) Hey, What's Your Name - Big Idea.
32.) Feel The Beat - Master Source.
33.) Out of Decaf - NEKOJIRA.
34.) L.A. EVOLVED - NAOKI underground.
35.) KEEP ON MOVING (Orbit1 remix) - D'n'B STARS.
36.) ∆MAX (Delta MAX) - DM Ashura.
37.) 888 - DJ TECHNORCH.
38.) Doki Doki (Panik Mix) - SMiLE.dk.
39.) Burn Out - Beatdrop.
40.) Waiting For You - C-14.
41.) Don't Don't Go Away (Ricardo Autobahn Remix) - Foxxie.
42.) Time To Move - Fcdeejay.
43.) murmur twins - yu_tokiwa.djw.
44.) PARANOiA Rebirth - 190'.
45.) MOBO*MOGA - Orange Lounge.
46.) ABSOLUTE - dj TAKA.
47.) Midnight Blaze (SySF Mix) - System S.F.
48.) 777 - EeL.
49.) 100 sec. Kitchen Battle!! - Orange Lounge.
50.) sakura storm - Ryu*.
51.) Dummy - RAM.
52.) CONTROL (The Attic remix) - 90 GROOVERS.
53.) HOLD YOU IN MY ARMS (Danceforze dream mix) - NM feat. Asher.
54.) Less Is More - lim's Sculpture.
55.) dirty digital - kors k.
56.) aftershock!! - DM Ashura.
57.) Kimochi - NAOKI feat. Melody & Mezzo.
58.) EtoSharu - oo39.com.
59.) Consuela - Captain.T.
60.) Tesla Coil - Rephaim.
61.) Streamline - Kazuto.
62.) Big City Lights - Big Idea.
63.) Just Pretend - Big Idea.
64.) Inspiration - Togo Project feat. Mayumi.
65.) Come Back - Gein.
66.) Akibarrific - Ko Kimura.
67.) Siege Engine - Morgan's Corner.
68.) Angel - Master Source.
69.) My Hero - In Geer.


Its plenty to dance to, but again, why can’t I use the music I purchased on Xbox Live in addition to these tracks? 


OVERALL

If you are a newcomer to DDR, you will definitely like this game. Its got a much cleaner visual style than the second Universe game, while its music choices are almost as good as the original.
I really really wish Konami would change the singleplayer game to make it more replayable by people interested in meeting weight loss goals, or, who just like to play the game.

Do I recommend this game?

Well, I really have no choice but to. It’s a very good game and offers more than the previous DDR: Universes offered.  Its got deep editing tools and the usual long track listing.   It will definitely make the newcomer happy –but, for us veterans, its more of the same.

Recommended: Yes