| Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova | |
|---|---|
 Cover art for the Japanese PlayStation 2 port of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova. |
|
| Developer(s) | Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo & Konami Digital Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | KCET & KDE |
| Distributor(s) | KCET, KDE & Betson Enterprises (North America) |
| Designer(s) | KCET & KDE |
| License | Proprietary |
| Series | Dance Dance Revolution & Bemani |
| Engine | SuperNova & SuperNova PlayStation |
| Aspect ratio | NTSC-J, NTSC & PAL, horizontal |
| Platform(s) | Arcade & Sony PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) | Arcade: EU April 28, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Music & Exercise |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer & Online play |
| Rating(s) | CERO: A (PlayStation 2) |
| Media | DVD-ROM |
| Input methods | Pressure sensitive
panels & Buttons (arcade) Dance pad & PlayStation Controller (console) |
| Cabinet | Custom |
| Arcade system | Bemani Python 2 |
| CPU | 128 Bit Emotion Engine |
| Sound | SPU2 & CPU |
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova (Dancing Stage SuperNova in Europe) is an 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 have the same features and song list.
The Japanese version is its 9th traditional arcade release, and the first since Dance Dance Revolution Extreme in 2002. The North American version is its third arcade release, and the first since Dance Dance Revolution USA in 2000. The European version is its fifth arcade release, and the first since Dancing Stage Fusion in 2004.
The release contains 303 songs. Of those, 64 are completely new to DDR (including three Extra Stage songs and a One More Extra Stage), 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. There are two sets of unlockable songs revealed on the section of the DDR SuperNova website labeled "Secret". The first set is accessed by choosing Expert Mode, and passing the final stage with an AA or better. These songs are Healing-D-Vision by DE-STRAD, Fascination MAXX by 100-200-400, and Fascination ~eternal love mix~ by 2MB. The second set is unlocked by clearing any Secret Song (a song unlocked by the first method) in EXTRA STAGE. The song unlocked by this method is CHAOS by DE-SIRE retunes.[1]
Contents |
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. An upgrade to current JAMMA DDR cabinets was made available in October 2006.
The CPU core is actually a modified PlayStation 2 with a hard drive upgrade and modified graphics processor to permit the HD signal display on the flat-screen CRT monitor. One of the criticisms about the arcade port of Dancing Stage Fusion was that it was essentially the home version game with only very slight modification played in an actual PS2. DDR SuperNova, however, is a whole new game made specifically for the arcade powered on a modified PS2. It has, however, been ported to a home version, though the home version and arcade versions have slightly different songlists (the main difference being different licensed songs for the arcade and home versions).
The game's user interface is inspired by Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2, the Japanese counterpart Dance Dance Revolution Strike and its European counterpart, Dancing Stage MAX. The backgrounds of the selection screens rotate colors between red, blue, and green, and have a wireframe motif. The three main difficulties of normal gameplay, Light, Standard, and Heavy, were renamed to Basic, Difficult, and Expert.
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 was delayed slightly so that the game software could be updated to fix the reported timing issues, and was later released with an extra song (the aforementioned remix of Flow) in late July 2006.
The game received a widespread US release at the end of June 2006, as final SuperNova machines started popping up throughout the country.
SuperNova began appearing in Timezone Amusement in the Philippines in August 2006. The said Amusement center has 11 Machines and one Japanese version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA that is equipped with e-AMUSEMENT slots.
Core gameplay in SuperNova did not change much from previous versions, although the scoring system received a major overhaul:
SuperNova's scoring system has been greatly simplified from prior DDR versions. As in In the Groove and the Challenge or "Oni" Mode in DDRMAX2 and DDR Extreme, 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 plus three times of number of freezes 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 2 Dance Points. Goods, Almosts, Boos, and NGs are worth 0 dance points; unlike DDRMAX through Extreme, they do not subtract from the Dance Point total. The maximum Dance Point score is therefore equal to double the number of steps plus two times of number of freezes in the song. Each individual song has its own high score, which is briefly displayed when the song is selected, but before it loads.
The screen refreshes at a full speed of 60 frames per second. Unlike previous recent games, only previous songs from recent home versions or crossovers from Beatmania IIDX contain full motion video backgrounds. New songs instead, contain live-rendered backgrounds with dancing characters for the first time in an arcade mix since Dance Dance Revolution 5thMix.
Debuting in the original Dance Dance Revolution, foot rankings have been the staple indicator for a song's 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 5thMix, 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.
The options menu was redesigned on Supernova, and is still accessed by holding down the start button when picking a song. The "Solo" modifier was renamed to "Rainbow", and a new noteskin was added that resembles StepMania's "Note" skin; it is functionally similar to "Rainbow", but the colors are more distinctive. (This noteskin was actually available on most previous home DDR games, through a setting on the options menu; for example, in DDRMAX, it can be accessed through the Graphic Options menu by switching the arrow display to "TYPE2".) Jumps can also be converted to single steps or removed entirely.
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 or Challenge 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. Approximately five "Almost" and/or "Boo" steps will deplete the meter and fail the song.
If the starting game mode was Easy or Medium, the Extra Stage song is Healing-D-Vision by De-Strad, a 10-foot difficulty song with a BPM of 180 which speeds up to 360 near the end. Note that this song was originally rated a "9" before the patch released in mid-September. If the starting game mode was Hard or All Music, the Extra Stage song is Fascination MAXX by 100-200-400, a flashing-10-foot difficulty song with a BPM which shifts between 100, 200, and 400. The sync patch for DDR SuperNOVA, released in mid-September 2006 added another Extra Stage song, Fascination ~eternal love mix~ by 2MB. It is a remix of Fascination MAXX that also has a shifting BPM and stops.
Regardless of song, the forced modifiers are x1.5, Rainbow, and Reverse.
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 or Fascination ~eternal love mix~ 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 – at least 42 of them – making it very difficult to follow. It is the first One More Extra Stage to have a foot rating of 10. There are no modifiers on CHAOS; in fact, the song must be played at the default settings all around.
In addition to the four basic difficulty levels of Easy, Medium, Hard (Difficult), and All Music, the following selections are available:
Tutorial Mode is significantly different than Extreme's Beginner Mode. A three-to-four minute tutorial about how to play the game is shown, giving players the opportunity to follow the announcer's instructions. Afterwards, one song is chosen. This time, the song selected in Beginner in normal gameplay does not show the background of a character on a DDR pad showing how to step. It is instead played like a normal Beginner Song.
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, and is otherwise functionally identical to Extreme's Nonstop mode. The only difference is that in Extreme, the player was able to select a "Normal" or "Difficult" level for the course, whereas in Supernova, all courses have only one difficulty level. (resumes the difficulty selection at SuperNova 2.)
Challenge Mode, also referred to as Oni Mode, formerly known as Challenging Mode, requires you to complete a set course of songs, with difficulties set and, in some cases, different mods. Song play options are disabled in Oni Mode, and the player must play them all at normal scroll and whatever option(s) 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 4 Parts of the Whole Dance Gauge. If you get a GOOD, ALMOST, BOO 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. ALMOSTs and BOOs do not take away from your dance points. This mode also has changed in that the player's combo increases with Greats, rather than having them not affect the current combo. Also note that life recovery is much harder: only one life can be recovered every two songs.
Battle Mode is a competitive mode between two players. Each player must play on the same difficulty and is given a shuffled version of the stepchart. Creating combos can send one of many different attacks to the other player's side to make it more difficult for him to read his notes. Creating longer combos results in more damaging attacks. These attacks (especially the stronger ones) can include strange modifiers that cannot be selected under normal circumstances. The health bar is replaced by a balance meter on the top of the screen.
3 home versions based on SuperNova were released in Japan, the United States, and in Europe for the PlayStation 2:
The Japanese home version was released on January 25, 2007 alongside the official soundtrack. The game itself is a direct arcade port featuring nearly all the new songs which debuted, and also console exclusives such as Soul Crash, Baby's Tears (スカイガールズ・オプニングテーマ), "Moonster", and Silver Platform - I wanna get your heart -.
The American and European home versions of SuperNova contained new songs from the Arcade version, along with other localized licensed tracks, such as Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy and additional features carried over from previous home versions such as support for the EyeToy and online play.
The official soundtrack is available in the United States as an MP3 download on Amazon MP3, or as an AAC download on iTunes.
Notable songs from this version include:
In early builds of SuperNova, experienced players noticed poor step detection and serious timing issues, as they score 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 who 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 synched 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 consistently off. In mid-September 2006, Betson Enterprises sent out update discs to owners of the affected arcade games which fix most timing issues, as well as making two new songs available for play: Flow (True Style), briefly a Japanese exclusive song, and Fascination ~eternal love mix~. However, even with this update, the syncing on some songs was still incorrect.
Upgrade kits for owners of existing Dance Dance Revolution machines are available through Betson Enterprises. The upgrade kits use the updated version of SuperNova.
Also, one of SuperNova's stated features is "linking with home versions", a feature which has been present in the series for a long time (though few arcades in America own DDR machines which have the hardware necessary to do so.) Recently, Betson Enterprises has announced that SuperNova will not support the linking feature, due to supply issues concerning hardware components. It should be noted, however, that nearly all pre-SuperNOVA cabinets in existence outside of Japan were designed with domestic mixes in mind and were never intended to utilize the link feature.
An additional criticism stems from players outside of Japan not being able to play any of the so-called "boss" songs (Fascination MAXX, CHAOS, Healing-D-Vision, and Fascination ~eternal love mix~) outside of a Nonstop course, Challenge course, or Extra Stage. In Japan, following the conclusion of the global Internet ranking in mid-January 2007, these songs were unlocked for normal gameplay through the e-Amusement network. A representative of Betson Enterprises was asked whether he knew anything about whether the boss songs would be unlocked for normal gameplay in the United States. His response:
"The reason why they have 4 "boss songs" is because of the E-Amuse software. Since the machines in the US do not have that capability, we are without the other songs."
Considering how additional content was unlocked through the release of a software update, it was speculated that Konami of Japan did not plan for this phase of the software lifecycle on a global scale.
| Preceded by Dance Dance Revolution Extreme & Dance Dance Revolution Strike |
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2006 |
Succeeded by Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 |
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Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA
| Table of Contents | Walkthrough
| Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Release date(s) |
May, 2006
|
| Genre(s) | Music |
| System(s) | Arcade, PlayStation 2 |
| Rating(s) |
ESRB:
 EveryoneCERO:
 All ages |
| Followed by | Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 |
| Series | Dance Dance Revolution |
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA is a music game in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series. Marketed towards North America and Europe, this game attempts to bring the DDR arcade community back together by delivering new songs and modes for arcades.
Contents |
Fascination MaXX is the song most DDR fans have been waiting for the past 2 years. Since the last DDR arcade game, Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME delivered the hardest song on DDR by far, Paranoia Survivor MAX, to the community. Sadly, since that time, most of the good players have AAAed that song and all of the other songs on the game. Most have given up on DDR and decided to move on to In The Groove or other music games due to lack of challenge in the game.
This song is brand new and of course, has BPM jumps as the artist name suggests and over 600 steps, even if it is 2 minutes and 5 seconds. According to people on location, this Max song has over 600 steps.
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA/Table of Contents
| Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA | |
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Betson Enterprises (US) Konami (JAP) |
| Designer(s) | Konami |
| Release date | May 15 2006 (NA) July 12 2006 (JP) |
| Genre | Music game |
| Mode(s) | Single, Versus, Double, Battle |
| Age rating(s) | ESRB: E10+ |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation 2 |
| Input | Dance Pad Controller |
| Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough | |
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 have the same features and song list.
 |
This article is a stub. You can help by adding to it.
Stubs are articles that writers have begun work on, but are not yet complete enough to be considered finished articles. |
| Dance Dance Revolution series |
|---|
| Asia |
| 1stMIX - 2ndMIX - 3rdMIX - 4thMIX - 5thMIX - MAX (6thMIX) - MAX2 (7thMIX) - EXTREME - Best Hits - Extra Mix - Party Col. - FESTIVAL - Mario Mix - STR!KE - SuperNOVA - Universe |
| North America |
| DDR - DDR USA - Konamix - MAX - MAX2 - Ultramix - EXTREME - Ultramix 2 - Extreme 2 - Ultramix 3 - SuperNOVA - Ultramix 4 - My First Dance Dance - Universe |
| Europe |
| Dancing Stage EuroMIX - EuroMIX 2 - PARTY EDiTiON - Disney Mix - MegaMiX - Fever - Unleashed - Fusion - Unleashed 2 - Mario Mix - Max - Unleashed 3 |
| Others |
| Dance Dance Revolution Solo - DDR Solo BASS MIX - DDR Solo 2000 - Disney Dancing Museum - GB Disney Mix - GB - GB2 - GB3 - GB Oha Super Kids Station - Strawberry Shortcake |
| Misc |
| DDR pad - Karaoke Revolution series |
|
|
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