by:	January 13, 2005

Konami’s surprise release of a Dance Dance Revolution game has since spawned into another title. The first title had a bit of it’s own different style from the PlayStation 2 versions as well as an Xbox Live mode, but it still felt pretty limiting to novices, and didn’t have nearly as many songs as the PlayStation 2 version. As you could probably tell from my DDR Ultramix review and my Live special on playing DDR (picture below), I am definitely fascinated with DDR, and the cult following around it, so I to have begun following a lot.

Ultramix 2 delivers an improvement on all fronts, starting with the gameplay. I would actually recommend that if you didn’t buy the first Ultramix and were curious about it to definitely give this one a shot. Just for sixty to seventy dollars you can buy the game and a pad (you have to have a pad to play this game right!), and although you can buy it for forty without the pad why not just go that extra step and sweep in the whole experience? Otherwise the game is pretty useless and uneventful if all you have to do is you the directional pad to match the steps up. For the uninitiated, DDR is a game that you must dance on a pad. You must step on one of the arrows on the pad when a arrow scrolling up meets up with the outline on the top of the screen. From there, you can link dance combos if you press the corresponding steps correctly, eventually giving you a rainbow meter if you are doing good. When you complete he song, you are given a letter score, AA being the best and E being the worst. The better you do the more songs you unlock. Many of the songs are Japanese techno, pop songs, and a lot of Japanese songs mixed with American vocals/songs. I know it might sound a bit stupid and flamboyant, and it is, but it is still definitely an addictive title after you get into it.

This game isn’t for everyone though, and I would definitely not recommend it for people that get embarrassed easily. It is a great title to play with a bunch of people in a party environment, to play if you want to get into shape (this game gets you drenched in sweat no matter the size, and really seems to help your heart out), or if you are practicing to play DDR out in the arcades, but if you are doing that you probably already own this title. Thankfully with Ultramix 2, there is a lot more variety in songs, and a lot of the songs actually either have a familiar tune to them, or are catchy. In the first Ultramix, you really got to many cutesy Japanese songs that you would get used to, but you wouldn’t actually like. Ultramix 2 actually has music I might catch myself listening to if I could figure out were to get the tunes. The game features some recognizable songs such as “La Cucaracha”, “Brick House” by the Commodores, “Rubbernecking” by Elvis and many more. The “Rubbernecking” song was an odd choice, and is done by the now infamous to DDR titles Paul Oakenfold as a remix, but it seems like they couldn’t afford “A Little Less Conversation” remixed by Fatboy Slim. One of my favorite songs on the title is simply “V” and it is a Japanese remix of a Beethoven piece. Other than that it seems like a lot of the songs are actually easier so that beginners can definitely get into. On the flip side though, there are plenty of songs with lots of beat to it, and in the more advanced modes you have some perfect steps for the expert DDR player. When you clear enough songs with high scores you can actually unlock more songs. Even cooler is that you can buy new song packs via Xbox Live for under five bucks but, that is probably more for the more hardcore DDR player.

There are many different modes in DDR as well, there is the main mode were you unlock the songs, workout mode which attempts to count the calories you burn, and there is also the return of the edit mode. The edit mode lets you edit steps to songs already on the game, but like with the original Ultramix, it would have been nice if you could make steps to songs on your Xbox hard disk. After those modes you have the multiplayer modes which allows you to have up to four people on a Xbox, you can be crazy and use two pads to play at a time (I tried and it becomes quite painful if you don’t watch out), and there is a party mode that gives you some rules. There are a lot of interesting modes that actually stretch beyond the same basic formula DDR has been following these past few years, and it actually becomes very competitive even if your not very good at the game. I like to think of it as an advanced game of “Twister”. The Xbox Live mode which is definitely for the more advanced DDR players lets you track scoreboards and even be in tournaments with up to sixteen people at a time. Besides that for some insane reason you can actually talk on the Xbox communicator while playing (via an extension cord that comes with the game and plugs into the dance pad) but it is more a nuisance than anything. When I was playing the title, every single time I signed onto Xbox Live there was no one to play, so sorry to say I can’t really help anyone on what the experience for it is, although I’m sure it is pretty insane.

Graphically, DDR Ultramix 2 is the best looking DDR game yet, with very cool looking menus that help personify the intensity of the title, and dancing backdrops with live captures, crazy psychedelic patterns and shapes interchanging, and nicely created cel-shaded dancers representing you. It is great for onlookers to admire, but as the actual dancer, looking at them is pretty pointless as you have to pay attention to the arrows in front of the backdrops. As mentioned before there are some interesting tracks in here and a lot less of the crappy Japanese music, although even the Japanese music has gotten a bit better, and the game also has a good sense of bass all the way through so you could actually imagine listening to this music in a dance club. While I don’t know for sure (as I couldn’t find exact figures), I believe there are at least over fifty songs on the title, and that sure will keep you dancing and sweating for a ways to come.

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Priced to please, I don’t think you can go wrong with Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2. While I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone’s parents, but if you are looking for something unique and different this is the title for you. If you are a collector that must have everything this title is definitely for you, and if you are a DDR fan I just don’t have to tell you at all do I?

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