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Tuesday 9 July 2013

Dance Dance Revolution - 5th Mix (Japan) ISO

Dance Dance Revolution - 5th Mix (Japan) ISO







Description :

Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix is a Rhythm / Dancing game, developed by KCET and published by Konami, which was released in Japan in 2001.

When I took a look at the original Dance Dance Revolution back in January at a friend's house, I vowed to master it but, unbeknownst to you, my constant reader base, really secretly figured that would be one of the last times I stepped on a dance pad ever. I mean, I was an average dancer, but I tapped out easily after fast songs due to my slightly below-average physical condition, and my (then) lack of concentration made it difficult for me to keep on songs given a rating of five feet or higher. Now I'm still really no better than a four- or five-foot dancer, but when a friend of yours imports a game, you sit up and take notice with relatively little attention to what the game is. And in this case, the game just so happened to be Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix (Konami, 2002). I may be out of the loop or something, but people, you just don't realize how small the tip of the DDR iceberg is. When I stepped onto a pad again to play this on a recent band trip, it was like not seeing someone since high school and then suddenly sighting them at the ten-year reunion. It sported a fresh new look, smoother beats, better songs. It exuded enough coolness to cover up the Exxon-Valdez spill, assuming coolness was a tangible thing. I trembled before it and, shirt off and man-breasts exposed, gathered up the chutzpah to tear it up on a five-footer.

I performed miserably, but so is the magic is Dance Dance Revolution and any of its subsequent mixes. I can dance with all the grace of an orangutan on heavy tranquilizers and yet still want to come back for as much punishment as my sweat glands and respiratory system will allow me to. And it will let me come back as many times as I want to dance to its memorable remixes of The Twist, Oops I Did It Again, and its famous Primeval and Afronova tunes. Of course, some people can just go totally off the hook with strings of perfectly matched beats reaching into the three hundreds. I am not one of those people, but nonetheless DDR 5th Mix is well worth having in your collection along with a disc that will allow you to play it on a PlayStation of American manufacture.

As per the usual, your groove-a-licious mission, should you choose to accept it, is to select a dancer and then bang out beats to the moving arrows when they appear in the frozen ones at the top of the screen. Either you dance very well, tap many perfect or great beats in succession, and rack up a score for the ages, or you fool around on the dance pad and watch your dance gauge (that bar at the top of the screen which keeps you in action and in traction) sink like an anvil in the Atlantic and hear the DJ berate you all the way until you receive your failing grade. As I have no doubt communicated clearly to you already, some people are good at this, and some are not. I've seen people step on a pad for the first time and reveal themselves as total naturals, while the band director tried to keep time and crank out the hits at the same time - a grievous mistake, as one who plays it shall see.

You see, you don't even have to think too terribly hard to enjoy the game. Anyone who's hummed a beat in their heads or knows all the predictable standbys of techno music (constant usage of upbeats, yawn-inducing drum sets, and a creativity-inhibiting tendency to never use any time signature other than 4/4) already has the key to DDR inside them. And once you start dancing, there's usually little or no stopping except to drown out the fine glaze of sweat in your hair in the shower or dab your face with a towel and get a quick sip out of a handy sport bottle. The ability to stay in time with a never-ending stream of arrows is inside you, but the discipline must be learned if you do not already have it. I could use this line to apply to any Dance Dance that has and ever will come out, but it's 100% true: the amount of concentration the game requires will make or break it in a gamer's eyes. If you don't have the patience to sit and learn what it takes to rip it up or the attention span to stare at someone leagues better than you with your mouth agape, then move far away from those who have decided to dance right now. More often than not, you'll either have a large audience or be crowding your way to the front of one to see the action, and the only way this game won't appeal to you is if you have a desire for neither of these spectacles.

The songs are noticeably better in this version, presumably from being remixed time after time. Hey, cut me some slack here, I skipped from the first one to the fifth with no stops in-between! While the only tune I can clearly recall from DDR1 is ''Mr. Ed Jumps the Gun'' (an excellent rock mix of Deep Purple's ''Smoke on the Water''), DDR 5th Mix has plenty to keep you busy. All of the tunes mentioned three paragraphs prior commit themselves to memory rapidly, but many are easy to dance to on the lower difficulties (good for newbies just getting their feet wet) despite their inability to grind a hole in your head. Of course, memorable music is a given with a game such as this, but then a sickening, unexpected thing starts to happen, something so disgusting that when it hits you like space debris that didn't burn up on re-entry and the tiles in the mall morph before your very eyes into directional arrows, you can only bow to its whims and dance - to every song you hear.

It can be country, it can be jazz, it can be Latin pop, it can be anything. No matter what song you are listening to, be it a Brahms symphony or Kid Rock or a hobo strumming on a ukulele for nickels, the arrows will inevitably begin moving vertically through your mind. And you will picture them and think you know how to dance to them, when really you're just really good at coming up with complex arrow schemes in your head. And only the Lord Almighty himself will be able to hold me back if the day ever comes when they release DDR machines based on the entire discographies of certain bands.

But I digress. DDR 5th Mix is, fortunately, very import-friendly for the gamer who is illiterate in the Japanese language. About the only things written in Japanese are a couple of J-pop song titles and the warning about not slipping and falling on your bum on the dance pad and waking up the neighbors with your foot vibrations. Since the Japanese are so kind so as to learn our language as well as theirs, it doesn't impair the experience any to not know theirs. From the most expert dancer to the first-time stumbler, if you can't figure out what to do, it's obvious you can't read. Control with the dance pad is responsive and tight, and with four big arrows in front of you, you'd better know which one is which. Usually when a direction isn't doing what you say, it's because you've misaligned yourself on the dance mat. Only your enjoyment is required, and as long as you keep your feet planted firmly in the center of the mat, there should be nothing standing between you and night clubbin' greatness.

The graphics have also evolved over the course of five sets of dance songs - arrows are now clearer and far smoother in their movement up the screen and the backgrounds, despite being brighter and more animated than ever before, are not as distracting. The focus is in keeping the beat and making sure the dancer of your choice (often clad in the latest cargo pants and tech vests if he or she is not a robot) doesn't get booted out due to your grooving ineptitude. Constantly changing backgrounds characterize the majority of the dances, and each one seems appropriate to its stage despite the trademark Japanese quirkiness involved. There aren't nearly as many jagged lines and slagging movements throughout; by now, the series has had time to expand and become the free-flowing stroke of genius that its creators surely had in mind from the outset, and best of all, the eerie calm of the backdrops amid the entropy of streaming arrows can comfortably ease anyone into the strange scene of dim neon clubs and thumping techno right in the comfort of the rumpus room. Mission accomplished, so to speak.

So then, while it's as far from realistic as the east is from the west to expect this game to turn you into the Lord of the Dance, DDR 5th Mix is sure to provide a good time for someone with access to the games of the Eastern world. The time to practice and polish is now if you want to hop in and join the thousands of others who have taken several hours of their lives to pound the arrow tiles of one of Konami's famous BEMANI machines. All those with a sense of rhythm, the need to hypnotize a mass gathering of people with a few speedy foot motions, and a desire to cut loose should locate this game immediately. There is in fact very little to fault it with. It has quite the impressive jukebox lineup and handles as seamlessly as a car fresh off the assembly line. And since I'm sure you're the type of person who enjoys the type of physical activity that cakes you so deep in sweat that you uncontrollably drink it in as it babbles like a salty brook down your brow, you ought to indulge. With so much to do, it's like a private gym at home! Without the pretentious muscle-bound trainer or the piercing stares from the skinny people sucking straws through sport bottles and taking disgustingly long strides!

Like this major success of a game, there's no way you can lose with all those pros on your side. Grab it up from across the Pacific today.


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