+-------------------------------+ |DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION UNIVERSE| +-------------------------------+ FAQ/Guide by JesseTehSkox (Jesse Haun) crazyperson90@gmail.com Version 1.0 (Sorry... no sexy ASCII art here!) +-----------------+ |TABLE OF CONTENTS| +-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------ |1. INTRODUCTION |2. DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION: THE BASICS | 2A. Learning the Basics with Game Mode | 2B. Jesse's Assorted Dancing Tips |3. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |4. LICENSED SONGS, PART ONE | 4A. Don't Play Nice | 4B. Everytime We Touch (Radio Edit) | 4C. Feels Just Like It Should | 4D. Guilt is a Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Mix) | 4E. Love Is On Our Side | 4F. Magic Carpet Ride (Steir's Mix) | 4G. Precious (Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix) | 4H. Rapper's Delight | 4I. Run It! | 4J. Saturday Night | 4K. September '99 | 4L. Slam | 4M. Slow (Chemical Brothers remix) | 4N. Somebody To Love | 4O. Twist |5. LICENSED SONGS, PART TWO | 5A. 8-bit | 5B. All Up in My Face | 5C. Beyond Here And Now (Intensified) | 5D. Close Your Eyes (Activated Mix) | 5E. Dancefloor Killer | 5F. GO! (Mahalo Mix) | 5G. Grandolin | 5H. Heart With A View (Echo Image Remix) | 5I. Horsemen of the Invisible | 5J. HOT LIMIT | 5K. Indian Summer | 5L. Less 'Yap Yap' | 5M. Nightshade (Diskowarp Easily Amused Mix) | 5N. Race Against Time | 5O. SKY HIGH | 5P. Summer Fantasy | 5Q. Test Room | 5R. The Hop | 5S. There's A Rhythm | 5T. We Are Connected (Overdrive Mix) | 5U. Wraith | 5V. WWW.BLONDE GIRL (MOMO MIX) | 5W. Youngmen Blues |6. NEW KONAMI ORIGINALS | 6A. Bongo! | 6B. Castlevania (Freestylin' Mix) | 6C. Cosmic Hammer | 6D. Healing Vision (GRIDLOK Mix) | 6E. Hydrosound | 6F. Ignition | 6G. Koibito | 6H. Loops | 6I. Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix) | 6J. PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME (Steve Porter Mix) | 6K. Return of the Toe Jam | 6L. roughneck | 6M. Treble, Bass, and Attitude | 6N. Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix) | 6O. What Have Her |7. OLD KONAMI ORIGINALS | 7A. B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX) | 7B. BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS | 7C. Cachaca | 7D. DIAMOND JEALOUSY | 7E. Drivin' | 7F. Gyruss (Full Tilt Mix) | 7G. INFINITE PRAYER | 7H. INSERTiON | 7I. KAGEROW (Dragonfly) | 7J. MAXIMIZER | 7K. My Only Shining Star | 7L. PARANOiA EVOLUTION | 7M. rain of sorrow | 7N. Senses | 7O. SOMETHING WONDERFUL | 7P. Stop Violence! (B.L.T. Re Production) | 7Q. think ya better D | 7R. Tir na n'Og | 7S. Vanity Angel | 7T. Xenon |8. DOWNLOADABLE SONGS | 8A. BROKEN MY HEART (Cusimo & Co. Starlite Mix) | 8B. Me and My Friends | 8C. Audiophilosophy | 8D. AM-3P | 8E. ECSTACY | 8F. ON THE JAZZ (Smooth House Mix) | 8G. Beside You | 8H. White Hot | 8I. CANDY* | 8J. KISS ME ALL NIGHT LONG |9. COMPLETE LIST OF STEPCHARTS BY STEP RATING |10. POWER COURSES | 10A. Power 1 (acid-tech mix) | 10B. Power 2 (Shuffle Mix) | 10C. Power 3 (south beach mix) | 10D. Power 4 (subTranced mix) | 10E. Power 5 (On the Floor Mix) |11. QUEST MODE... BLECCH! | 11A. Five Basic Types of Challenges | 11B. Backup Dancers, Song and Movie Clips, and Other Ways to Suck Less | 11C. Session Offers | 11D. Championships |12. CHALLENGE MODE | 12A. SIMPLE | 12B. MODERATE | 12C. ORDINARY | 12D. SUPERIOR | 12E. MARVELOUS | 12F. GENUINE | 12G. PARAMOUNT | 12H. EXORBITANT | 12I. CATASTROPHIC | 12J. APOCALYPTIC |13. OTHER MODES | 13A. Party Mode | 13B. Workout Mode | 13C. Xbox Live | 13D. Training Mode | 13E. Edit Mode | 13F. Jukebox | 13G. Records | 13H. Options |14. GLITCHINESS |15. VERSION HISTORY |16. LEGAL CRAP |17. IN CONCLUSION... +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +---------------+ |1. INTRODUCTION| +---------------+ Welcome, one and all, to my exciting FAQing debut! Exciting, eh? Not really? Damn... oh well. The only reason I'm really doing this is that DDR FAQ superstar CyricZ doesn't have an Xbox 360 and I thought we needed SOMETHING here. Perhaps a horrible pastiche of what he usually does? Yay! What's there to say about me? I'm a 17-year-old furry (yeah, I know, "damn pervert, scourge of the universe," I've heard it a thousand times before, don't email me as if I haven't) from the horrific hellhole of Absarokee, Montana. I like DDR. Obviously. And most Bemani games, really. And I suck at introductions. Obviously. +-------------------------------------+ |2. DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION: THE BASICS| +-------------------------------------+ "How do I play DDR," you ask? Firstly, I'd like to welcome you back; what was it like living under a rock for nine years? Now, you've got a dance pad with four directions: left, down, up, and right. First, you pick a song, then its time to dance! See that line of arrows at the top of the screen? That's the "Step Zone." As the song plays, arrows will scroll up to the Step Zone in time with the music. When an arrow reaches the Step Zone, "step" on the direction that matches the arrow! When two arrows come up at once, you must press both at once, by jumping. Those long green arrows are Freeze Arrows – you have to step on these at the beginning and hold that direction down until the freeze arrow ends. It's just that simple. But with these simple controls, things can still get quite hairy. There's no way in hell a DDR beginner will survive any songs on Expert or probably even Difficult. Stick with the Beginner and Basic difficulties until you've got the hang of things. If this is your first DDR game ever, it's probably wise to start with the "Basic Edition." This teaches you the basics of how to play, has a "Lesson Mode" for additional enlightenment, and "Game Mode Light" which features only the Beginner difficulty and a shortened songlist. When you're comfortable with the game, move onto the "Master Edition!" That's where the real learning happens! Start in the regular Game Mode here. -------------------------------------- 2A. LEARNING THE BASICS WITH GAME MODE -------------------------------------- It's the standard DDR mode, and something you should definitely get acquainted with if you're a DDR newbie, before you even think about tackling anything else! Especially not that nasty nasty Quest Mode... First, you're asked to select a style: 4 PANELS: Standard DDR gameplay with one dance pad per player. 8 PANELS: Each player dances on two pads at once. This is exclusively a one- player mode in the PS2 editions, but I'm fairly certain you can do this with two here. Either way, be aware that every song has different steps for this mode than "4 Panels." (Also, given my limited living space, I can't cover this mode in this FAQ currently. I apologize...) Next, we reach the "Setup Players" screen. Any additional players should hit the A button now to join in. You can use X and Y to choose your characters (there's some sexy ladies in this game, if I do say myself...) and up and down to change your difficulty level. The five fundamental difficulty levels of DDR are as follows: BEGINNER: Really easy stuff for beginners, obviously. DDR Universe doesn't give these songs step ratings, but surely they'd almost all be one-footers. If you can do this, move on to Basic posthaste; Beginner won't do much to improve you DDR skills. BASIC: The easiest "normal" difficulty, with ratings usually ranging from 2 to 5 feet. Pretty simple stuff, mostly. Steps are mostly just on the beat. DIFFICULT: Songs here generally range from 4 to 7 feet in difficulty. Steps here tend to follow the music more closely. EXPERT: Most Expert charts here range from 6 to 9 feet. This is where things get tough, as steps will either follow the song exactly, or just generally kick up the difficulty for extreme pain... or possibly both. Whee. ONI: Sort of an "alternate Expert" chart that only a few songs have. These are generally harder than the normal Expert steps, in fact all the true 10-footers in this game are Oni charts. However, they can also be easier than the original, as is the case with "B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX)" Oni. Now we've made it to the "Select Music" screen! Use left and right to switch songs. You can still use up and down to change difficulty here; no need to go back a screen. While picking songs, in addition to simple step ratings, you can also view a graphical representation of the song's difficulty, the "Groove Radar." This rates songs on five separate attributes: STREAM: Pretty much just the overall number of steps. VOLTAGE: The overall density of steps; how many steps are squashed into how much time. AIR: The overall number of double steps, or jumps. FREEZE: The overall number (and possibly length) of Freeze Arrows. CHAOS: The number of "chaotic" steps, either steps that aren't quarters or eighths, or steps that force you to turn as you step. Use A to confirm when you've picked the desired song and difficulty. Select "Random" if you're not sure what to pick, and what to leave that choice up to the game. Also, if you go to "ABC Order," you can change to other ways to order the songs than by the logical default order. The panel always displays what the next ordering scheme is; the game uses the Default Order by default. "ABC Order" puts the songs into different folders in alphabetical order, regardless of song type. "BPM Order" puts all the songs in order according to their maximum BPM, from fastest to slowest. And the seemingly useless "Artist Order" works similarly to ABC Order, except it goes by the artist's name instead of song title. If you hold down A when you select a song, you'll be taken to the "Arrow Options" screen first. You can tweak various aspects of gameplay, including: SPEED: The speed that the arrows scroll up the screen. Note that this only affects the speed of the arrows, not of the song itself; in essence, it just spaces arrows out more (or less) so make them easier to read. Options range from 0.5x to 8x; the default speed is, of course, 1x. BOOST: If this is on, the arrows will gradually speed up as they move toward the step zone. APPEARANCE: "Visible" is the default setting. With "Hidden" on, the arrows will vanish about halfway up the screen. "Sudden" is the opposite; arrows start out invisible and appear halfway up. "Phantom" makes the arrows only appear very briefly halfway up. "Stealth" makes the arrows completely invisible. TURN: "Off" is default. "Mirror" rotates all arrows 180 degrees. "Left" rotates them 90 degrees to the left; "Right" does the same, but in the other direction. "Shuffle" picks two random sets of arrows and reverses their position, giving a new arrangement that generally doesn't fall under any of the other options. OTHER: Again, "Off" is default. "Flat" makes all the arrows the same color, making it that much harder to tell different kinds of notes apart. "Solo" gives you different colors for the different kinds of notes. "Dark" removes the step zone from the screen. "Help" makes certain arrows glow yellow; stepping on them restores more of your dance gauge than usual. MODIFY: "Off" is default once again. "Cut" removes all non-quarter notes from the song (but really cripples your chances of a good score on higher difficulties). "LR-only" converts all steps to either left or right arrows; no steps are actually eliminated, so I don't think this affects your score. "All jump" seemingly converts every pair of steps in the song into a jump, which makes it exhausting, but also pretty dumbed-down. "All freeze" makes every step a freeze arrow. On the other end of the spectrum, "No jump" and "No freeze" completely remove those respective step types from the song, leaving only regular steps in their wake. REVERSE: Turn this on, and the arrows will scroll in "reverse," that is, from top to bottom. Think you're ready to play a song? I already explained how to play; just step on the arrows! As you step, you'll get a "step rating" for your accuracy on each arrow: PERFECT: You stepped precisely on the arrow, more or less, and got the best possible rating, in this game at least. Combo continues, dance gauge goes up, and you're awarded the maximum possible amount of points for the step. GREAT: You nearly stepped on the arrow... close enough, right? Combo still continues, the dance gauge still goes up, but you only get half the points for that step. GOOD: You missed the step by a bit. Your combo stops, and your dance gauge and score are left completely unaffected. ALMOST: You missed the step by quite a lot. Your combo stops, the dance gauge drops, and you get no points. BOO: You managed to completely miss the step somehow. Combo stops, dance gauge falls, and you're awarded no points whatsoever. Two additional ratings exist that apply exclusively to freeze arrows: OK!: You held down the freeze arrow for its entire duration, so the dance gauge goes up and you're awarded points... the normal maximum score for a normal step, apparently. NG: You stepped off the freeze arrow before it ended. This doesn't effect your combo negatively, but the dance gauge takes a hit and you don't get any points for it. The game also shows you your combo, or how many Perfects and Greats you've got in a row. Note that jumps add two to your combo in this game. If you let your dance gauge empty out, you fail the song, obviously! So try to keep it as full as you can, by getting lots of Perfects and Greats! After the song, you'll reach the evaluation screen, where you're awarded a letter grade based on your performance. I'm not currently 100% sure how DDR Universe calculates this exactly (possibly that archaic dance point system?), so if anyone knows for sure, email me! The letter grades range from AAA (only awarded for a Full Perfect Combo) clear down to E (You failed!). There's a lot of different kinds of steps that you'll come to know and love. Beginners will mostly see quarter notes, notes that are strictly on the beat, and intermediate players will get used to eighth notes, those off-colored ones right between quarters. But when you enter the dreary waters of Expert charts, you'll face some fairly unusual stuff... DOUBLE-TAPS, TRIPLE-TAPS, ETC.: A series of eighth notes on the same arrow, so named because you'll be using the same foot to tap that arrow repeatedly. They can be annoying, but there's no super-secret trick to making these easier, so you'll just have to train up your foot for extended tapping. CROSSOVERS: Steps that force you to turn your body and, quite literally, cross your legs over. A basic example is the pattern of left-down-right, where you hit the left arrow with your left foot, the down with your right, and then cross your left foot over to hit the right arrow. It can be weird at first, but it's vital to your success in the harder songs, which often feature series of crossovers that force you to turn your body 180, 270, or even a full 360 degrees. These take practice; start small, and gradually learn to make bigger turns. The hardest part is getting used to not facing the TV at all times... CHAOS: As these notes are called on the Groove Radar, any arrows that aren't pure quarters and eighths. Perhaps most basically, but not easy by any means, are sixteenth notes, which you step twice as fast as pure eighths. You'll also encounter twelfth notes (commonly referred to as "triplets"), and even such horrors as twenty-fourth and thirty-second notes! Fortunately, chaos is almost always controlled chaos; that is, they match up with something in the song, so make sure to listen, and know your songs! GALLOPS: A name given to a sequence of steps consisting of two sixteenth notes in a row, two sixteenths of nothing, two more sixteenth notes, and so on. Step these sort of like a horse galloping (hence the name!). A few songs in this game feature assorted types of pseudo-gallops, either with only a one-note break between each pair of steps, or even in triplets instead of sixteenths. --------------------------------- 2B. JESSE'S ASSORTED DANCING TIPS --------------------------------- Now you know how to play. Time to consider other important stuff. Like, uh... pads! Unfortunately, there aren't exactly a lot of choices for the 360 yet. Your best choice is the one that comes bundled with the game; do NOT get any Mad Catz crap or anything like that. Trust me. If you'd like something sturdier, sorry, you're out of luck for now unless you're up to the task of building yourself a pad... and considering my lacking technical knowledge, I can't really help you there. Sorry again. Pay attention to the beat, especially in early stages where steps tend to follow the beat exclusively. Try to step with the balls of your feet. Not your heels. It's a good habit to get into. Stepping with your heels can make your ankles hurt, something just about anyone who's played DDR has experienced. That was really my biggest problem getting into the game, but don't give up, you'll get used to it and learn to step in a more ankle-friendly way soon enough. Stay hydrated! DDR is exercise, and like any other kind of exercise, that's important. Water is good. So is fruit juice. Really, any cool beverage will do... so, like, don't go drinking a pot of hot coffee on the dancefloor. That's just stupid. Try to return your feet to the center as rarely as possible. It may seem perfectly acceptable in early songs, but as you get into the harder stuff, you'll face long streams and other rapid-fire steps that don't really give you the opportunity to return to the center. Best to get used to staying away from there now then, eh? +----------------------------+ |3. FRQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS| +----------------------------+ Q: What is Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE? A: Why, it's the first installment of Konami's popular Dance Dance Revolution series to come to the Xbox 360! Q: How many songs are there in this mix? A: 58 by default, and 15 more unlockable. Add 10 more if you're gonna download the "Megapack" from Xbox Live. Q: Can you rip your own songs and play them on this game? A: Everyone always asks that when a new DDR comes out. The answer is no, and I doubt they'll ever add that feature. And if they do, believe me, you'll hear all about it... so please, for the love of all that is holy, STOP ASKING! Q: Why aren't there more "classic" DDR tunes in here? Why all this new crap? A: I personally prefer getting a whole bunch of new tunes. Konami of Hawaii is trying to differentiate the Ultramix/Universe series from traditional DDR, so there's more new material and less traditional DDR stuff here. But they did finally revive HOT LIMIT for its first US appearance ever, so you can at least take comfort in that... Q: Are there any ten-footers in the game? A: Only one stepchart has been given an official ten-footer rating: Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix) Expert Doubles. However, the Oni charts aren't given ratings in this game for some reason, and four of those – Grandolin, Return of the Toe Jam, Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix), and MAXIMIZER – would surely be rated a 10 if Oni charts were actually rated. Q: Quest Mode sucks! Is there any other way to unlock songs? A: Sadly, no. At least not that we know of. There might be a special unlock code, like some of the Ultramixes had, but if there is it hasn't been discovered yet. Q: What the hell? I cleared all the Paramount challenges but PARANOIA EVOLUTION isn't unlocked! A: Huge mistake in the achievements, my friend. That song is unlocked through the dreaded Quest Mode, just like all the rest. Q: What's the deal with beatmania/pop'n music/GuitarFreaks/drummania? A: These are some other popular Bemani series, and quite a few songs from those games have made the leap over to DDR. beatmania is another popular rhythm game series (popular in Japan, at least), classified as a "DJ simulator," in which you have a set of keys and a turntable to "scratch." Using those, you actually "play" a variety of songs... so if you're crap at the game, the songs sound like crap too. It's cool. pop'n music is sort of like a more cartoony version of beatmania, with big colored buttons instead of a keypad, that mainly features happy songs and tunes from popular anime. GuitarFreaks and drummania are games in which you play songs with a guitar and a set of drums, respectively. Several songs into the series, Konami got the bright idea to combine the two games, giving them identical songlists and allowing the machines to link up. And you thought Rock Band was such a totally original idea... Q: (Insert song here) was in (insert game here) first, you moron! A: That's not a question. Anyway, while I consider my knowledge of Bemani to be relatively thorough, and I checked and double-checked this stuff, I'm not perfect by any means. Correct me if you see something wrong... but please, be a little nicer than that! :D Q: What's with those genres you have listed? My gerbil knows more about music than you! A: Uh... good for him? I'll be honest, as much as I love music, I'm totally inept when it comes to categorizing it. I tried to narrow these down through research as much as I could, but there's no doubt in my mind that I screwed some of these up. Again, correct me if you know more than me, preferably without any unfavorable comparisons to your pet rodents... If you've got a question for me concerning this game, go ahead and email me at crazyperson90@gmail.com! Just, you know, make sure I haven't already answered it somewhere in this guide, please. Don't be lazy. I hate laziness. +---------------------------+ |4. LICENSED SONGS, PART ONE| +---------------------------+ The first bunch of licensed songs seem to be Universe's big-name licenses, featuring artists that might actually be known to the general public. Of course the general public is mostly idiots, sooo... yeah. One notable trend is that most of these songs are pretty damn slow; "Slam" is the only song that reaches a fairly brisk pace. ---------------------------------- 4A. Don't Play Nice - Verbalicious ---------------------------------- BPM: 105 Genre: Hip-Hop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 78 1 0 BASIC 3 118 18 1 DIFFICULT 5 209 43 18 EXPERT 9 318 82 68 EXPERT NOTES: Possibly the toughest hip-hop song on any DDR mix out there. Lots of streamage, plenty of small sixteenth clusters that tend to follow the lyrics, plus 82 FRIKKIN' JUMPS. Yeah... this song don't play nice. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's actually a pretty fun chart. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Verbalicious is Natalia Keery-Fisher, a British musician, actress, and MC. Her acting resume includes roles on the "Britcom" All About Me and long-running BBC radio drama "The Archers." In the world of music, she's generally considered to be a one-hit wonder, this being her only real hit, released in 2005. -------------------------------------------- 4B. Everytime We Touch (Radio Mix) - Cascada -------------------------------------------- BPM: 142 Genre: Dance Pop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 120 2 2 BASIC 3 131 4 40 DIFFICULT 5 227 18 19 EXPERT 7 301 27 32 EXPERT NOTES: Be alert, the steps start in pretty quick on this one. Now, the song itself is mostly simple medium-length streams, with a crossover or two thrown in for good measure. The one trick that might trip you up is the placement of a few three-note sixteenth clusters, thrown in right after jumps. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Cascada is a German Eurodance act consisting of Natalie Horler, DJ Manian, and Yann Pfeiffer, though Natalie is clearly the most well-known of the group, Cascada sometimes being used colloquially to refer to just her. This song, released in 2005, is generally considered to be her biggest hit. Miscellany: This song has a special music video, which nullifies the dancing characters. Fun fact – this song's chorus is borrowed from another song of the same name, released by Maggie Reilly in 1992. ------------------------------------------ 4C. Feels Just Like It Should - Jamiroquai ------------------------------------------ BPM: 87 Genre: Funk Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 53 2 6 BASIC 3 94 9 6 DIFFICULT 5 168 0 12 EXPERT 7 273 30 18 EXPERT NOTES: Slow songs tend to really follow the rhythm, and this is no exception. Paying attention to the song is a must. This rather tricky seven in particular loves its offbeat jump streams, gallops, and later on, sixteenth clusters, all following the song's bizarre rhythms. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Dancing Stage Unleashed 3 (UK XBOX) About The Artist: Jamiroquai (a portmanteau of Jam and Iroquois) is a Grammy- winning UK funk/soul/disco band headed by the wonderfully eccentric Jay Kay. This is the first single off the band's 2005 album, "Dynamite." Miscellany: This song has a special music video, which nullifies the dancing characters. In addition to its appearances here and on DSU3, a cover version of the song by LH MUSIC CREATION appeared on the arcade version of SuperNOVA. ----------------------------------------------------------- 4D. Guilt Is a Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Mix) - New Order ----------------------------------------------------------- BPM: 133 Genre: Electro-Rock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 86 4 4 BASIC 4 160 0 11 DIFFICULT 6 237 3 9 EXPERT 9 339 24 11 EXPERT NOTES: Things quickly get harder than this one initially lets on, with crossoveriffic streams and lots of three-note sixteenth clusters in quick succession. Right on the ending you'll be stepping gradually more spaced-out triplet notes. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: New Order is an English rock group currently consisting of Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, and Phil Cunningham. Peter Hook was also part of the lineup up through mid-2007. "Guilt Is a Useless Emotion" appeared on their 2005 album, "Waiting for the Sirens' Call," and this remix by renowned remix artist Mac Quayle was featured as a bonus track on the album's US release. --------------------------------------------- 4E. Love Is On Our Side - Frank Popp Ensemble --------------------------------------------- BPM: 143 Genre: Soul Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 87 8 0 BASIC 3 115 1 2 DIFFICULT 5 241 29 21 EXPERT 9 369 45 14 EXPERT NOTES: This song is mostly in pretty long streams with double-taps and some pretty hellacious crossovers, often ending in a jump. There's a couple gallops toward the middle, but otherwise, it's all about the streams, baby! ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Made up of Frank Popp (obviously), Sam Leigh-Brown, Stephan Mohr, Lele Lugosi, Freddy Rococo, and Tino Turner, The Frank Popp Ensemble is known for combining modern music production and pop appeal with music styles from between 1960 to 1972, according to their website. This song comes from the German band's self-titled 2005 album. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4F. Magic Carpet Ride (Steir's Mix) - Philip Steir feat. Steppenwolf -------------------------------------------------------------------- BPM: 112 Genre: Psychedelic Rock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 68 0 2 BASIC 3 100 6 16 DIFFICULT 5 170 22 30 EXPERT 7 235 17 7 EXPERT NOTES: The hardest it gets here is with a few short streams with crossovers, and a couple instances of three eighth note jumps (all the same) in a row. Nothing too terribly harrowing, especially at this speed. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Originally consisting of John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Michael Monarch, Goldy McJohn, Rushton Moreve, and Matt Landry (on spoons!), Steppenwolf is a Canadian rock band most successful during the 60's. "Magic Carpet Ride" was one of their biggest hits from that time period, released as a single in 1968. Philip Steir is a renowned remix artist who released this remixed version in, as far as I can tell, 1999. ---------------------------------------------------------- 4G. Precious (Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix) - Depeche Mode ---------------------------------------------------------- BPM: 127 Genre: Synthpop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 115 2 0 BASIC 3 134 0 3 DIFFICULT 6 252 30 16 EXPERT 8 272 80 24 EXPERT NOTES: Quite a bit harder than you'd probably think. This one throws a lot of different stuff at you: crossovers, double taps, streams chock full of jumps, and even some seven-note-long sixteenth clusters. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand Mew! About The Artist: Depeche Mode are an influential British electronic band, formed in 1980, and currently consisting of the trio of Martin Gore, Dave Gahan, and Andy Fletcher. "Precious" was released in 2005 as the first single off the album "Playing the Angel." Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer who was a central figure in the popularization of electronic music in the late 1980s. -------------------------------------- 4H. Rapper's Delight - Sugar Hill Gang -------------------------------------- BPM: 108 Genre: Classic Hip-Hop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 68 9 0 BASIC 2 93 10 10 DIFFICULT 5 200 24 14 EXPERT 8 325 15 2 EXPERT NOTES: Sort of a quirky chart here, with lots of sixteenths, either in clusters which can get surprisingly long, or in gallops. Of course, pretty much everyone knows this song (like it or not), so it should be easy enough to figure out – the steps are always following either the vocals or the bassline. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: The Sugarhill Gang is a pioneering US hip hop group, known mostly for this song, released in 1979, which was notably the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 Hit. ------------------------- 4I. Run It! - Chris Brown ------------------------- BPM: 100 Genre: R&B Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 48 2 5 BASIC 2 70 7 21 DIFFICULT 5 166 16 13 EXPERT 8 288 32 34 EXPERT NOTES: This song totally never deserved to be an eight-footer... and yet, here it is. Pretty long streams with jumps thrown in, and sixteenth clusters aplenty (typically following Brown's vocals), all at a fortunately slow BPM. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Christopher Maurice Brown, better known as simply Chris Brown, is a American R&B singer who burst onto the music scene with this song, released as his debut single in 2005. It's become a huge international hit, peaking at #1 in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and at #2 in the UK. Miscellany: Konami is apparently on a big Chris Brown kick right now. "Say Goodbye" appears on the US console version of SuperNOVA 2, and Hottest Party gets a cover version of "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)". Lucky us... ----------------------------- 4J. Saturday Night - Ozomatli ----------------------------- BPM: 101 Genre: Latin Hip-Hop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 51 0 1 BASIC 2 77 2 0 DIFFICULT 4 125 2 2 EXPERT 5 187 25 9 EXPERT NOTES: Harder than the average five-footer, with jumps thrown into the short streams, and after the music cuts out briefly, a rather sizable cluster of sixteenths on the "Get ready for a Saturday night" part, which fortunately just has you alternating between the left and right arrows. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Ozomatli (whose name apparently comes from the Nahuatl word for the Aztec astrological symbol of the monkey – thanks, Wikipedia) is a multi-ethnic nine piece band known just as much for their activism as their wide array of musical styles. This song is off their 2004 album "Street Signs." ------------------------------------------------------- 4K. September '99 - Earth Wind & Fire vs. Phats & Small ------------------------------------------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: "Mutant Disco" Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 76 1 5 BASIC 2 142 4 26 DIFFICULT 5 214 7 24 EXPERT 8 312 8 50 EXPERT NOTES: A relatively simple eight-footer, consisting mostly of short-to-medium-length streams with some crossovers. Toward the end, there's short streams with freezes thrown in. Pretty typical stuff. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Earth, Wind & Fire is a well-known American band formed in 1969, known for fusing different genres of music, including R&B, soul, disco, and funk. British house duo Phats & Small, whose sound is self-described as "mutant disco," released this remix of EWF's September in, obviously, 1999. ------------------- 4L. Slam - Pendulum ------------------- BPM: 87-174 Genre: Drum and Bass (The song starts out at 87 BPM but quickly jumps to 174 about 17 seconds in.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 75 2 7 BASIC 4 164 2 10 DIFFICULT 6 290 12 31 EXPERT 9 404 37 46 EXPERT NOTES: This is a toughie, folks. It starts off easy enough, but after the speed-up, you'll quickly see why this earned its nine-foot rating. There's some long-ass streams here, with plenty of crossovers, all moving at a decent clip. There's also a decent amount of jumps thrown in. Exhausting. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Pendulum is an electronic group hailing from Perth, Australia though they relocated to the UK in 2003. Its members are Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Herding. "Slam," released in 2005, is their biggest hit to date, having peaked at #34 on the UK Singles Chart. -------------------------------------------------- 4M. Slow (Chemical Brothers remix) - Kylie Minogue -------------------------------------------------- BPM: 115 Genre: Dance Pop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 73 1 2 BASIC 3 121 1 15 DIFFICULT 5 194 24 16 EXPERT 8 314 13 6 EXPERT NOTES: Actually gets pretty damn tricky. There's some truly massive streamage here – the one toward the end is 115 notes long – crossovers and all, but perhaps the nastiest surprise are the also rather largish sixteenth clusters, 17 notes long, that both finish off an "off-beat stream." Oh, and did I mention that the first one leads right into a jump? It's a damn good thing that this one is, as the title says... slow. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue, widely regarded as one of Europe and Australia's most recognizable sex symbols, is perhaps most notable for having been able to revive her failing career after a 15-year absence with the 2000 hit, "Can't Get You Out Of My Head." The Chemical Brothers are an electronica duo from London, known as one of the pioneers of the big beat genre, and renowned for their high-quality live sets. ----------------------------------- 4N. Somebody To Love - Boogie Pimps ----------------------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: Psychedelic Rock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 66 6 1 BASIC 3 103 7 2 DIFFICULT 5 149 32 2 EXPERT 7 196 47 15 EXPERT NOTES: A fairly uncomplicated seven. The streams are all rather simple (a few double-taps aside), and the parts where it goes off-beat aren't really jarring enough to throw you off. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: The Boogie Pimps are an electronic duo from Erfurt, Germany, formed by Mark J. Klak and Mirko Jacob. This song, a cover version of the original by Jefferson Airplane, was released as their debut single in 2003. --------------------- 4O. Twist - Goldfrapp --------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: Electronic-Dance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 102 2 6 BASIC 3 119 0 24 DIFFICULT 5 215 16 13 EXPERT 7 248 81 52 EXPERT NOTES: Pretty interesting chart, really. There's two main things here that you'll be seeing a lot: goofy sequences of freeze notes, some of which will indeed have you twisting around, and lengthy sequences of jumps. It mostly alternates between those two, halting occasionally for some streamage as is obligatory for any Expert chart. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Goldfrapp is yet another British electronica group. Consisting of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, they are well-known for their visual theatrics. This song was released as a part of their 2003 album "Black Cherry." Miscellany: Like Chris Brown, Goldfrapp is one of those artists Konami seems to have recently developed an inexplicable boner for. The home version of SuperNOVA 2 includes not one, but two tracks from them on its songlist: "Number 1 (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Main Remix)" and "Strict Machine." Oh well, at least I actually like Goldfrapp! Er... no offense, Chris Brown. Oh, and just listen to all that moaning! Remember when Konami were uber-prudish with the DDR series over here? Not anymore! +---------------------------+ |5. LICENSED SONGS, PART TWO| +---------------------------+ The second group of licensed tunes seems to contain the more obscure licenses in the game. Several of these return from past DDRs, with four of them ("GO! (Mahalo Mix)," "Grandolin," "Race Against Time," and "There's a Rhythm") having appeared as recently as Ultramix 4. Also, it's notable that "HOT LIMIT" finally makes its return to the DDR scene, though in a shortened form. ------------------------- 5A. 8-bit - Drew Campbell ------------------------- BPM: 209 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 75 8 4 BASIC 4 122 9 17 DIFFICULT 6 260 21 35 EXPERT 8 339 49 23 EXPERT NOTES: It's pretty calm to start, but things quickly kick into high gear with a whole bunch of short streams coming at you fast, some of them ending in jumps, which is pretty tough at this speed. Oh, and double taps, which are also hard at this speed. Ouch. Toward the end of this one, you'll face some even longer streams, with lots o' crossovers. Yikes. I'm sure if Universe had Information Mode they'd draw some parallel between the difficulty here and the difficulty of classic 8-bit games... ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Drew Campbell is, as near as I can tell, the producer and engineer for Adeline Studios, a music production firm located in Oakland, California... I don't know if that's THIS Drew Campbell, but it's the best I can do. I'm no CyricZ, folks! If any of you know more than me, please, email me! Please! Miscellany: Another of Drew's songs, "Big Up (Binghi Ghost Remix)", appears on DDR ULTRAMIX 4. ------------------------------------- 5B. All Up in My Face - DJ? Accucrack ------------------------------------- BPM: 144 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 85 5 8 BASIC 3 173 0 8 DIFFICULT 6 242 4 1 EXPERT 7 312 53 10 EXPERT NOTES: I <3 this song! Pretty cool steps, too. A bit harder than your average seven-footer, with some fairly long and tricky streams and a penchant for offbeat series of jumps to follow the offbeat vocals. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: DJ?Acucrack (it's misspelled in the game) is an electronica side project from Jason Novak and Jamie Duffy, frontman and guitarist respectively for the industrial rock group Acumen Nation. This song comes from their fifth full-length album, "Killing Mobius," released in 2005. ----------------------------------------------- 5C. Beyond Here and Now (Intensified) - Neuropa ----------------------------------------------- BPM: 136 Genre: Synthpop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 81 14 4 BASIC 3 118 8 13 DIFFICULT 5 221 13 24 EXPERT 7 282 37 31 EXPERT NOTES: Nothing too hard here. Lots of short- to mid-length streams with minimal crossovers. They try a few tricky things with the freeze arrows, including steps following the lyrics for one foot while holding a freeze with the other toward the beginning. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Neuropa is a Sydney, Australia based synthpop duo consisting of Jason Last and Albert Martinez, signed with Ultramix-favorite label A Different Drum. According to their Myspace page, they sound like "Steve Strange in a spa with Gary Numan"... yeah. Miscellany: Neuropa have made previous contributions to the Ultramix series, their other songs including "Standing Still In Time" in Ultramix 2, and "In My Eyes (Neuromix)" in Song Pack 8 for that game. ------------------------------------------------- 5D. Close Your Eyes (Activated Mix) - Daybehavior ------------------------------------------------- BPM: 138 Genre: Synthpop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 100 3 2 BASIC 3 139 8 3 DIFFICULT 5 244 17 19 EXPERT 8 340 19 20 EXPERT NOTES: Sort of an easy eight, methinks. The hardest parts are the somewhat longish streams with crossovers. Other than the oddly timed steps that follow the synthesizer hits in certain spots, that's about all it has to offer. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Daybehavior, also from the "A Different Drum Label," was created by Carl Hammar and Tommy Arell, and the group took off with the addition of Paulinda Crescentini as vocalist in 1993. This song is off their 2003 album, Have You Ever Touched A Dream? Miscellany: The original version of "Close Your Eyes" is featured in DDR Ultramix 2, with much simpler steps than these. Another Daybehavior song has made its way into DDR, "Superstar (Nevarakka Mix)," also from Ultramix 2. -------------------------------------- 5E. Dancefloor Killer - Richard Kayvan -------------------------------------- BPM: 138 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 71 11 2 BASIC 3 119 4 1 DIFFICULT 5 190 30 18 EXPERT 8 296 22 34 EXPERT NOTES: After a few short streams with jumps, this song settles into its signature awkward freezes-in-short-streams tricks. Then we meet its other trick, a gallop into a double tap, and following a lengthy stream with double-taps thrown in liberally, the gallop-taps and freezes combine for a rather tricky finale. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Richard Kayvan is yet another artist from the world of British electronica. His current projects include a collaboration with Simon Patterson as one half of the duo, Dogzilla. And... I can't find anything about this song. -------------------------------- 5F. GO! (Mahalo Mix) - DM Ashura -------------------------------- BPM: 154 Genre: Oedo Techno (I dunno...) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 71 6 0 BASIC 4 179 4 18 DIFFICULT 7 268 14 2 EXPERT 9 465 28 9 DIFFICULT NOTES: Similar to TSUGARU in many ways, not only in style, but also in difficulty, as you'll soon see on Expert. Here, it's not that hard; I'd say it could've probably passed as a hard six, but I guess the unusually high crossover count is what makes it a seven. EXPERT NOTES: The similarities to Tsugaru continue, as there's even some gallops thrown in here! But even more prevalent are three-note sixteenth clusters – this song's packed with the damn things, especially toward the end where things really start to get INTENSE! Then again, did we expect anything nice and easy from DM Ashura? :P ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 About The Artist: DM Ashura is William James Robert Shillito... quite a mouthful. It's obvious why he doesn't go by that. He's created a crapload of fan remixes of DDR songs (including a truly excessive amount of MAX mixes), and now he's finally broken into the official DDR scene with this song, which was one of the four winners of a music competition on www.broadjam.com to find new material for the Ultramix series. The other three contest winners also appear in this game, as well as Ultramix 4. Miscellany: This is an unusual case here... a song appearing in DDR that's a remix of a song from other dancing games. "GO!" can be found in O2Jam as well as Flash Flash Revolution. Another DM Ashura remix, this time of a classic DDR song, can be found in Ultramix 4: "Celebrate Nite (Like It's '99 Mix)" ------------------------- 5G. Grandolin - Zerofuser ------------------------- BPM: 160 Genre: House Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 126 5 3 BASIC 3 155 4 24 DIFFICULT 5 246 38 17 EXPERT 8 337 11 13 ONI -- 420 30 32 EXPERT NOTES: Easy eight. There's two pretty tough streams toward the end with crossovers and double-taps but the majority of the song is short three-note streams and offbeat quarters. ONI NOTES: And suddenly we go from an easy eight to what's probably a hard nine, possibly even a ten! We start out only a little harder than before, with longer streams and freezes during the offbeat part, but the true difficulty comes when the violin kicks in. (Or maybe it's the titular grandolin?) Suddenly, you're bombarded with fast and furious sixteenth clusters which follow the complicated grandolin melody. What's worse, they don't even merely alternate arrows like most sixteenth clusters but, in fact, throw you all around the pad. Same deal when we switch to piano, except I'd say the patterns are probably even harder! ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 About The Artist: ZeroFuser (whose real name I can't seem to find) is an electronica musician, also known as Zerin Clave or DJZ. Among his biggest influences are Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda of Squaresoft fame. He's the second lucky winner of that BroadJam contest. ------------------------------------------------------------ 5H. Heart With a View (Echo Image Remix) - The Echoing Green ------------------------------------------------------------ BPM: 135 Genre: Synthpop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 77 6 0 BASIC 2 99 3 14 DIFFICULT 6 220 12 5 EXPERT 8 289 50 21 EXPERT NOTES: There's some odd patterns here, usually following the vocals or synthesizer, which repeat over and over again. (Particularly the "three jumps in a row" on the synth hits.) The song hints at gallops a few times with pairs of sixteenths thrown in a few places but they don't come out in full force until the end, where it's gallops galore! Particularly notable is the rare gallop sequence where the second note of one pair isn't the first note of the next... more like a weird gallop-stream hybrid. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: The Echoing Green is a synthpop duo currently consisting of Joey Belville and Chrissy Jeter, formed in 1992, centered in lovely Albuquerque, New Mexico. Echo Image is a Norwegian synthpop group whose current members include Pal Magnus Rybom, Trine Bilet, and Lars Kristian Holt. ----------------------------------------------- 5I. Horsemen of the Invisible - Secret Chiefs 3 ----------------------------------------------- BPM: 00-172 Genre: Arabic (There's one complete stop in this song about 38 seconds in.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 109 2 6 BASIC 3 145 10 4 DIFFICULT 6 239 28 32 EXPERT 8 407 14 45 EXPERT NOTES: As if you couldn't guess by the title, there's gallops here... less than you'd think, though, and of the same nontraditional variety that I mentioned in the write-up for Heart With A View. Nah, it's mostly about the tricky streams here, though one particularly tricky sequence worth pointing out involves lots of double-taps and freezes. One of the harder eights in the game, IMO. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Secret Chiefs 3 is pretty confusing... seems like less a band and more a group of musicians lead by Trey Spruance... but as it turns out, Secret Chiefs 3 is actually a general name for seven different bands, each representing a different aspect of that nutty Spruance's musical and philosophical interests: The Electromagnetic Azoth, UR, Ishraqiyun, Traditionalists, Holy Vehm, FORMS, and... an unnamed seventh band which may not even exist. Yeah. Confusing! (Credit goes to Wikipedia for clarifying this enough for me to confuse you with it...) --------------------------- 5J. HOT LIMIT - JOHN DESIRE --------------------------- BPM: 156 Genre: J-Pop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 96 2 0 BASIC 5 201 5 11 DIFFICULT 6 280 6 7 EXPERT 8 372 30 9 ONI -- 411 53 6 EXPERT NOTES: There's quite a few steps here, but they're mostly in simple streams, occasional crossovers and double-taps aside. A lot of these streams here end with a pair of sixteenths, following the melody, so keep an eye out for that. ONI NOTES: I'd put this at about a nine. The streams are only mildly harder, but it earns its difficulty with the addition of sixteenth clusters following the music here, plus quite a few more jumps. As a whole, this chart flows with the music a lot better, so if you've watched "We Drink Ritalin" enough, you'll likely know the song well enough to get through it. ----- Song Type: Dancemania License Bemani Debut: DDR 5thMIX (as a Long Version) About The Artist: John Desire is an Italian group who apparently works mostly for Toshiba EMI's Dancemania album series. This is his most well-known song, an English-language cover of the original Japanese version by TM Revolution. Miscellany: This song was a "Long Version" in 5thMIX, running twice as long as a standard DDR song. Here, it's edited down to a more standard length. ...and yeah, this is the song featured in the classic "fanimutation," "We Drink Ritalin." -------------------------- 5K. Indian Summer - Canton -------------------------- BPM: 173 Genre: Drum and Bass Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 70 1 2 BASIC 3 128 6 9 DIFFICULT 6 235 43 20 EXPERT 8 342 40 26 EXPERT NOTES: A lot of short, but nonetheless tough, streams in the beginning, leading into longer streams with freezes and double-taps. Later on they throw in gallops for some inconceivable reason, plus a tiny sixteenth cluster, just for fun. Note that you'll be stepping all the way through the fadeout, which is sort of unusual but not all that tricky. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Canton is Canton Becker, who works in the sound design field and specializes in instrumental club-rave stuff. This tune was apparently released in 2001. Miscellany: Another Canton song, "Tooryanse (tekno children mix)," can be found in Ultramix 4. ------------------------------------- 5L. Less 'Yap Yap' - Temporary Lovers ------------------------------------- BPM: 120 Genre: Rock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 83 5 5 BASIC 3 104 9 18 DIFFICULT 5 168 20 10 EXPERT 8 345 13 12 EXPERT NOTES: Crossovers aplenty here, though not too troublesome at this speed, though they do tend to end with a sixteenth. This includes the freeze arrows at the end; don't get to thinking they're eighths. They're not. Gallop into them. There's also some small sixteenth clusters scattered about. You'll quickly find that the steps, like the song, follow a predictable pattern, though not exactly simple. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: I can't find a damn thing on these guys. Any help from someone who's not as idiotic as me would be much appreciated! --------------------------------------------------------------- 5M. Nightshade (Diskowarp Easily Amused Mix) - Melody and Mezzo --------------------------------------------------------------- BPM: 160 Genre: Speed Synth Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 129 4 0 BASIC 3 185 6 8 DIFFICULT 6 292 39 13 EXPERT 9 369 62 17 EXPERT NOTES: Universe sure seems to like its tough licenses, doesn't it? This one features several long, crossover-packed streams and, even worse, some medium-length streams where pretty much every other step is a jump. Ouch. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Melody & Mezzo are a speedy synth/dance pop duo who released Nightshade, their best-known song so far, in 2006. Disko Warp is apparently a tiny record label, centered in Beaverton, Oregon. Miscellany: This song is based on Johannes Brahms's "Hungarian Dance No. 5," likely his most well-known composition. (Thanks to Starrodkirby86!) ------------------------------------- 5N. Race Against Time - Jeff Steinman ------------------------------------- BPM: 160 Genre: Big Band Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 85 5 2 BASIC 3 153 3 10 DIFFICULT 6 248 15 14 EXPERT 8 382 28 19 EXPERT NOTES: A chart that doesn't seem energetic enough for the song in most places, with mostly simple streams ranging from quite small to pretty large. Things do get tricky when the sixteenth clusters come into play, especially the one that closes out the song with a crossover. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 About The Artist: Jeff Steinman entered UCLA as a serious trumpeter and drummer with a music major, before he switched over to the infinitely more exciting world of physics. Graduating with a PhD in high energy physics, he returned to his first love of music in 1990. An accomplished composer/arranger with a habit of applying his brass and percussion backgrounds to big band music, he's the third lucky winner of the aforementioned BroadJam contest. ---------------------- 5O. SKY HIGH - DJ MIKO ---------------------- BPM: 136 Genre: Dance Pop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 57 1 0 BASIC 2 113 10 0 DIFFICULT 4 128 6 0 EXPERT 6 244 1 0 EXPERT NOTES: This was rated a 7 on JP EXTREME and I'm not so sure it deserved the downgrade, simply because of the gallops. The gallops make this harder than the average 6. Other than that, it's standard six-footer stuff. ----- Song Type: Dancemania License Bemani Debut: DDR Solo 2000 (JP Arcade) About The Artist: DJ Miko is an Italian DJ, seemingly mostly known for doing cover versions of well-known songs, some of which have made it over to the Dancemania series and, subsequently, DDR. Miscellany: This is a cover of the original Sky High, released in 1974 by the British pop group Jigsaw. ------------------------------ 5P. Summer Fantasy - Alien Six ------------------------------ BPM: 132 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 87 5 4 BASIC 2 90 2 16 DIFFICULT 5 237 14 6 EXPERT 7 298 21 42 EXPERT NOTES: Mostly short streams with simple crossovers, the main difficulty comes from a brief section involving gallops and a five-note sixteenth cluster and some later streams involving double-taps ending in jumps. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Alien Six is an electronic music writing and production firm consisting of Geoff Pinckney, Pete Steer, and Laura Cyganik. ------------------------------------- 5Q. Test Room - Plus-Tech Squeeze Box ------------------------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: Picopop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 74 5 1 BASIC 3 110 5 5 DIFFICULT 5 224 23 14 EXPERT 7 316 28 14 EXPERT NOTES: A mostly simple chart, with mostly simple streams, that occasionally shows hints of the song's quirkiness with the addition of some sixteenth clusters and offbeat streams. They could've done so much more with this one, though... ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: The oddly named Plus-Tech Squeeze Box are a Japanese electronica group, specifically working in the subgenre of "picopop," characterized by the prominent use of electronic instuments and effects in a fun, frantic, pop-ish style. ---------------------- 5R. The Hop - OR-IF-IS ---------------------- BPM: 132 Genre: Ambient Techno Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 73 5 6 BASIC 3 127 19 6 DIFFICULT 5 197 23 12 EXPERT 7 270 32 12 EXPERT NOTES: The streams here are surprisingly simplistic, with the main difficulty coming from a few weird tricks with sixteenths generally following the music, but nothing all that challenging, honestly. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Or-If-Is is Dave L, a sound producer originally from Los Angeles. In the world of video games, he's worked on some past LucasArts projects as the sound supervisor, as well as contributing quite a few songs to the Ultramix series. ------------------------------- 5S. There's A Rhythm - Dig Bear ------------------------------- BPM: 115 Genre: R&B Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 78 0 0 BASIC 3 120 1 14 DIFFICULT 4 135 2 13 EXPERT 6 235 17 6 EXPERT NOTES: The hardest that it gets here is during somewhat lengthy streams with lots of double-taps, but the song is slow enough that even those don't pose much of a challenge! ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 About The Artist: Dig Bear is Urs Lotze, whose unique guitar-driven R&B/funk/ hip-hop/dance pop style is, well... unique. He's the fourth and final lucky winner of that aforementioned BroadJam contest. Looking at this stepchart compared to the great charts the other winners got... I'd say Dig Bear totally got shafted here! ---------------------------------------------------- 5T. We Are Connected (Overdrive Mix) - Jondi & Spesh ---------------------------------------------------- BPM: 140 Genre: Techno Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 92 1 4 BASIC 2 109 1 4 DIFFICULT 5 274 11 2 EXPERT 8 380 2 11 EXPERT NOTES: One heck of a hard eight, with chaos aplenty! Sixteenths abound, whether just a pair thrown into a stream to follow the techno beats, tricky gallops, or even a confusing mix of the two. There's also a few clusters ending in freezes, but compared to the rest of the song they're hardly worth mentioning. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Jondi & Spesh are a San Francisco-based DJ duo consisting of J.D. Moyer (Jondi) and Stephen Kay (Spesh). They are the founders of their own record label, Looq Records, and have become rather prolific contributors to the Ultramix series. ----------------------- 5U. Wraith - Monolithic ----------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: Synth-Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 79 6 0 BASIC 3 117 1 4 DIFFICULT 6 211 13 10 EXPERT 7 300 29 30 EXPERT NOTES: Harder than the average seven-footer. For one thing, it likes to try tricks with freeze arrows from time to time, leading into them with a crossover to leave you stuck in an awkward position. The rest of the song is mostly either longish streams full of double-taps or short streams with jumps in the middle. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Monolithic is a band founded by Midihead, who has himself made quite a few contributions to the Ultramix series including remixes of "Colors" and "Jelly Kiss." Monolithic, being on the "A Different Drum" label, is generally categorized as a synthpop group, but is unique with the infusion of other genres such as breakbeat, industrial, techno, etc. ------------------------------------------ 5V. WWW.BLONDE GIRL (MOMO MIX) - JENNY ROM ------------------------------------------ BPM: 170 Genre: Europop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 87 16 0 BASIC 1 89 1 1 DIFFICULT 4 148 23 8 EXPERT 7 238 46 10 EXPERT NOTES: The majority of the streams here are simple enough, even the ones that start offbeat. What makes this a seven-footer are a couple tricky crossovers, a few double- and triple- taps thrown into streams, and some streams that end with jumps. All that combines with the fairly brisk pace to make this one trickier than it seems at first... though it's not too bad. ----- Song Type: Dancemania License Bemani Debut: DDRMAX: DDR 6th MIX (JP Arcade) About The Artist: Jenny Rom is the most well-known alias of Giovanna, an Italian bubblegum Europop singer who has been featured heavily in the Dancemania series. Momo is apparently Akira Kanazawa. -------------------------------- 5W. Youngmen Blues - Round Table -------------------------------- BPM: 113 Genre: Blues Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 51 8 0 BASIC 2 58 8 1 DIFFICULT 5 171 28 6 EXPERT 7 252 33 25 EXPERT NOTES: Sort of a weird chart, following the song's bluesy rhythms. It's a rather hard seven, with all the offbeat steps and some decent-sized sixteenth clusters. Things get particularly chaotic when you're stepping the organ hits, which have the occasional triplet thrown in, in addition to the sixteenths. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Round Table is a J-Pop band well-known for their anime soundtracks, formed in 1997 by Katsutoshi Kitagawa and Rieko Ito. This song seems to come from their 2003 album, "Big Wave Sunset"... if I'm interpreting the Japanese version of Wikipedia correctly, anyway. +-----------------------+ |6. NEW KONAMI ORIGINALS| +-----------------------+ Of course, as much as the big-name licenses help to sell DDR, the Konami Originals are really the heart of the game... I know, it's cheesy, but it's true. Technically, not everything here is new – "Cosmic Hammer," for example, already appeared in Ultramix 4. Six of these songs ("Bongo!," "Healing Vision (GRIDLOK Mix)," "Koibito," "Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix)," "Return of the Toe Jam," and "Treble, Bass, and Attitude") are hidden by default and must be unlocked in the horrific Quest Mode... ------------------------------------- 6A. Bongo! - WaveGroup feat. Scott D. ------------------------------------- UNLOCK: Beat the Western Regional Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 00-118 Genre: Big Beat (?) (There's a pause about 50 seconds in, as Scott muses, "Well, everybody's TRYING to do it...") Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 83 4 2 BASIC 3 92 9 6 DIFFICULT 5 219 14 10 EXPERT 7 298 39 5 EXPERT NOTES: The streams are mostly simple, though there are a few somewhat tricky crossovers thrown in later. There's some sixteenth clusterage and many streams start with a pair of sixteenths, but it's really not that hard... and, for that matter, really not weird enough to match up with this crazy song. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: The WaveGroup sound crew, which previously did the sound for Konami's Karaoke Revolution series, is now apparently contributing original material to DDR. Scott D. is Scott Dolph, who has worked on the translations of multiple Konami games into English, occasionally venturing into the Bemani world to provide vocals, as he's a decent (if a little too lispy) rapper. ------------------------------------------------------------ 6B. Castlevania (Freestylin' Mix) - WaveGroup feat. Nicky G. ------------------------------------------------------------ BPM: 127 Genre: Jazz Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 83 4 7 BASIC 4 146 8 30 DIFFICULT 6 243 23 24 EXPERT 9 348 16 24 EXPERT NOTES: A pretty easy nine-footer, possibly even a hard eight. You're following the rhythm here with sixteenth clusters and gallops, and there's even a triplet run thrown in for the hell of it. You do get a chance to rest for a few measures about two-thirds of the way through. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Scroll on up to "Bongo" for my write-up on WaveGroup. Nicky G is... to be honest, I have no idea. Miscellany: Yeah, they went and jazzed up some Castlevania tunage. I don't know nearly enough about that series to be of any use... so, to directly quote an email I recieved from Starrodkirby86: "Secondly, the song "Castlevania (Freestylin' Mix)" is based off the Castlevania secondary main theme "Vampire Killer", which is Simon Belmont's main theme. The beginning of it sounds like the Battle Arena of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but I haven't played that game in a while, so you can't assure me of that. However, if it is based off that song, then that means it based off the Aria of Sorrow version of "Heart of Fire" by a little, which is "J's" theme in that same game." ...thanks. I figured I'd screw that up if I tried to summarize it, so there it is in its entirety! --------------------------------- 6C. Cosmic Hammer - Jondi & Spesh --------------------------------- BPM: 145 Genre: Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 86 0 8 BASIC 3 126 27 33 DIFFICULT 5 242 8 11 EXPERT 7 299 44 0 EXPERT NOTES: A trippy song populated mostly by simple streams, some with jumps, and a few offbeat steps. It could honestly pass for a six if not for one or two tricky streams in the middle with crossovers. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 About The Artist: Check out "We Are Connected" for info on Jondi & Spesh. ------------------------------------------ 6D. Healing Vision (GRIDLOK Mix) - DE-SIRE ------------------------------------------ UNLOCK: Special invitation in Ontario in Quest Mode BPM: 196 Genre: Drum and Bass Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 85 3 0 BASIC 3 142 3 11 DIFFICULT 6 229 24 28 EXPERT 8 367 40 15 EXPERT NOTES: The Healing Vision is one known for its difficulty, but this is likely the easiest version thus far. Sure, it's not exactly easy with some truly tough streams and some wacky jumping rhythms later on, but it doesn't quite match the original, and it doesn't nearly approach the intensity of "Angelic Mix." ----- Song Type: Konami Original Remix Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: DE-SIRE is an alias of Naoki Maeda, used exclusively for the Healing Vision and Trip Machine series. Gridlok is Ryan Powell, an American drum and bass producer and DJ, originally trained as a classical violinist but tantalized by the seemingly limitless posibilities of electronic music. Miscellany: The original "Healing Vision" can be found on DDR Konamix, DDRMAX, and DDR Ultramix over here in the States. Those looking for a little more can also find the "Angelic Mix" in the latter two games I mentioned. And I'm not sure if it's related to this series or not, but "Healing-D-Vision" is in DDR SuperNOVA, both at home and in arcades. -------------------------- 6E. Hydrasound - GEOMANCER -------------------------- BPM: 144 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 82 2 5 BASIC 3 112 3 8 DIFFICULT 6 246 11 3 EXPERT 8 306 20 5 EXPERT NOTES: Another song closely following the music, with sixteenth clusters and gallops and whatnot. (I'm starting to realize how similar these Universe charts really are.) Also, some crossovers and jumps in streams, blah blah blah. Watch out, it ends with a nine-note sixteenth cluster that makes you step all over the pad! ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: No clue. I can't find ANYTHING on these guys. ------------------------------ 6F. Ignition - Audio Magnetics ------------------------------ BPM: 145 Genre: House Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 72 4 3 BASIC 3 105 8 5 DIFFICULT 4 188 2 2 EXPERT 7 259 14 17 EXPERT NOTES: A pretty standard seven-footer. The only really noteworthy things here are the freeze-happy opening and the abundance of double-taps (and the occasional "quad-tap") through most of the song. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Audio Magnetics is a House/Breakbeats duo consisting of Barry Jamieson and Bill Hamel. That's all I can really find on them. ------------------------------------- 6G. Koibito - Togo Project feat. Sana ------------------------------------- UNLOCK: Special invitation in Texas in Quest Mode BPM: 00-150 (This song pauses twice, at about 1:20 and 1:29) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 75 1 2 BASIC 3 122 6 6 DIFFICULT 5 186 11 10 EXPERT 6 258 21 22 ONI -- 320 33 42 EXPERT NOTES: More crossovers than you'd expect from a six-footer, at a decent pace, in short-to-medium-length streams. Double-taps, too. Nothing terribly hard, though, once you memorize where exactly the stops are. ONI NOTES: I'd say this is about an eight footer. The song retains its love of crossovers while throwing in lots of sixteenths. The steps follow the song, so it's almost like stepping an easy IIDX notechart... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Togo Project is Hiroyuki Togo, a guitarist and composer who seems to mostly work in beatmania/IIDX, but apparently produced this song especially for Universe. Cool. Sana is Sanae Shintani, the vocalist here and a frequent Togo collaborator. Miscellany: AWWWWWW LOOKIT THE CUTE LI'L KITTY CAT!!!!! -------------------------------------- 6H. Loops - Jondi & Spesh feat. J-Bone -------------------------------------- BPM: 200 Genre: Techno Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 82 6 3 BASIC 3 125 5 3 DIFFICULT 6 253 31 24 EXPERT 8 390 17 0 EXPERT NOTES: Like most fast non-boss songs, it starts out mostly in quarters and simple streams, though streams become more prevalent as the song goes on. And surprisingly long for such a fast song, too. But the step patterns themselves are easy enough that it's not too taxing. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: See "We Are Connected" for info on Jondi & Spesh. I'm not sure who J-Bone is. Sounds very rapper-ish. -------------------------------------------------- 6I. Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix) - Akira Yamaoka -------------------------------------------------- UNLOCK: Special invitation in New York in Quest Mode BPM: 167 Genre: New Wave Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 88 2 0 BASIC 4 161 11 12 DIFFICULT 6 248 42 26 EXPERT 9 438 50 14 EXPERT NOTES: One helluva nine-footer. I think it goes without saying that there's crossovers here, so instead I'll just note this song's two major tricks: jumps directly into streams, and gallop-type things with only ONE sixteenth note of dead space between each pair of sixteenths as opposed to the usual two, both of which are pretty tough at these speeds. Especially the latter. There's also a nine-step sixteenth cluster right before the end... which is also painful at these speeds. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Remix Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 3 (Song Pack 26) About The Artist: Akira Yamaoka is perhaps best known as the producer and sound director for the Silent Hill series, but he's also made ample contributions to the DDR and IIDX series. I assume The Acolyte is Aussie happy hardcore producer Sam Gonzalez. Miscellany: This song was the only song in UM3's SP26, which was available for free download during the 2005 holiday season. Nope, you can't download it now. Good thing they put it on another game then, huh? Interestingly, the original "Love Me Do" has yet to appear on any DDR game. This song's Doubles Expert steps are the only chart in the game to be officially rated a ten-footer. ----------------------------------------------------- 6J. PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME (Steve Porter Mix) - UZI-LAY ----------------------------------------------------- BPM: 128 Genre: Jazz Funk Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 74 4 0 BASIC 3 132 1 4 DIFFICULT 5 194 11 12 EXPERT 7 269 8 0 EXPERT NOTES: The toughest PYFIM yet (at least until Naoki gets around to doing "PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME survivor MAX"...), not that that's saying much. It's standard seven-footer stuff, with slow short-to-medium length streams with crossovers and a rouge sixteenth cluster thrown in for some reason. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Remix Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: UZI-LAY is another Naoki pseudonym, exclusively used for the PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME series. Steve Porter is a DJ and producer whose website claims: "The next generation of electronic music producers is gaining hold and leading the charge is DJ/production phenom STEVE PORTER." Um... good for him? Miscellany: The original mix of this song can be found on the original US release of DDR, as well as DDRMAX2. The "JAZZY GROOVE" mix is currently an exclusive to the original PS DDR. The "Saturday Night Mix" is in DDR Ultramix and the home version of SuperNOVA. ------------------------------------ 6K. Return of the Toe Jam - Big Idea ------------------------------------ UNLOCK: Beat the Southern Regional Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 110-160 Genre: Country Techno (This one opens at 160 BPM before slowing down to 110 about twenty seconds in. Thirty seconds later, we're back up to 160.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 78 8 0 BASIC 3 99 16 10 DIFFICULT 6 232 20 5 EXPERT 8 330 14 7 ONI -- 552 30 37 EXPERT NOTES: This one starts out pretty simplistic, with short streams. There's a sixteenth cluster during the slowdown, when we're at 110 BPM and sixteenths aren't all that tricky. But when we speed up, this song kicks into high gear, hitting you with medium-to-long-streams with crossovers and, since it's a country song, gallops. ONI NOTES: Ten-footer, for sure. From the start things are tough, with jumps in streams and gallops out in full force. During the slowdown it's an awful mess of eighths and triplets following the banjo. But, when we speed back up, things get REALLY intense. Truly insane sixteenth clusters throwing you all over the pad, even with crossovers, following the fiddle. It's a bloody mess. Also, note that unlike every other stapchart for this song, you'll be stepping the cute fiddle finale with this. It's a lot simpler than anything else here but it's noteworthy anyway. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Big Idea is a Utah-based production studio founded by Chuck E. Meyers. They've worked on many different gaming projects in years past, and have contributed quite a few songs in a diverse variety of styles to the Xbox DDR scene. Miscellany: This is the "sequel" to the original "TOE JAM," which was an unlockable tune on DDR Ultramix 2. -------------------------- 6L. roughneck - skylab2000 -------------------------- BPM: 143 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 99 4 0 BASIC 3 146 7 3 DIFFICULT 6 243 32 7 EXPERT 8 357 36 9 EXPERT NOTES: The song starts out on par with most of Universe's sevens, with short-to-medium length streamage and a few sixteenth clusters, but things intensify as this repetitive tune wears on, with streams lengthening and the addition of gallops. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: skylab2000 is Dennis Barton, electronic music producer born in Queens, New York but currently based in Los Angeles. ------------------------------------------- 6M. Treble, Bass and Attitude - The Acolyte ------------------------------------------- UNLOCK: Special invitation in Illinois in Quest Mode BPM: 172 Genre: Happy Hardcore Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 60 7 5 BASIC 3 128 6 18 DIFFICULT 6 235 15 9 EXPERT 8 324 39 3 ONI -- 410 24 7 EXPERT NOTES: Streams that tend to end in jumps are the order of the day here, with a few crossovers and sixteenths as lovely garnish. They don't to anything too tricky with these elements, but bear in mind that it's a somewhat fast song... ONI NOTES: A solid nine-footer, I'd say. It's harder than the Expert steps in every way, with longer, more technical streams, much more plentiful sixteenth clusters which are thrown at you on right after the other, and even some gallops. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: See "Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix)" for my theory on who The Acolyte is. ----------------------------------- 6N. Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix) - RevenG ----------------------------------- BPM: 170 Genre: Oedo Techno Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 80 10 1 BASIC 4 162 8 0 DIFFICULT 6 248 39 21 EXPERT 9 434 33 4 ONI -- 490 92 22 EXPERT NOTES: If you've played either of the other Tsugarus you should do just fine here. There's some tough streams with jumps thrown in (especially the last one which plays like something out of MAKE IT BETTER but a lot faster), and of course the Tsugaru tsignature, gallops... except they're not real sixteenth gallops. Instead you get to experience "triplet gallops," which play pretty much like normal gallops anyway... ONI NOTES: Possibly a ten-footer. The opening stream is longer and has some sixteenth clusters thrown in for good measure. Gallops are completely eliminated, and in their place is a crapload of air. Yeah, over 90 jumps in this song, many of them thrown into streams. Ouch. (That final stream that had a lot of jumps on Expert is ALL JUMPS now, by the way). And there's plenty of sixteenth clusters in here, too. And they've got no trouble throwing sixteenths and jumps side-by-side, alternating, for true pain! ----- Song Type: Konami Original Remix Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: RevenG (originally RE-VENGE) is another Naoki pseudonym, used on his "ethnic" songs featuring styles from around the world. See "The Hop" for info on OR-IF-IS. Miscellany: The original "TSUGARU" can be found on DDRMAX2, DDR Extreme, and DDR Ultramix, and the "Apple Mix" is on Extreme. Those two songs were actually by "RevenG vs. DE-SIRE," which is nonsensical because they're both Naoki. I dunno why they only credit one of those pseudonyms here. --------------------------------- 6O. What Have Her - Chris Fortier --------------------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: House Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 72 5 0 BASIC 2 81 5 10 DIFFICULT 5 190 9 15 EXPERT 9 339 16 0 EXPERT NOTES: Easy nine. Sure, you've got streams with crossovers leading into jumps and some weird sixteenth tricks... but it's slow enough that it's not as hard as you'd think. Almost a hard eight, but not quite. ----- Song Type: Conscripted Song Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Chris Fortier is a central figure in the development of electronic dance music in the United States as both an accomplished DJ and founder of the Balance Record Pool. He originally hails from Melbourne, Florida, which is interesting because I wasn't aware there WAS a Melbourne, Florida. +-----------------------+ |7. OLD KONAMI ORIGINALS| +-----------------------+ This group consists entirely of returning KO's making their triumphant... returns. Nine of these songs ("Cachaca," "Drivin'," "MAXIMIZER," "My Only Shining Star," "PARANOIA EVOLUTION," "Stop Violence! (B.L.T. Re Production)," "think ya better D," "Tir na n'Og," and "Xenon") are hidden by default and must be unlocked... again, through the absolutely atrocious Quest Mode... -------------------------------- 7A. B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX) - NAOKI -------------------------------- BPM: 170 Genre: Speed Rave Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 65 3 3 BASIC 4 162 20 10 DIFFICULT 6 226 2 4 EXPERT 8 331 19 13 ONI -- 243 12 8 EXPERT NOTES: The original "B4U" was an easy eight-footer. This isn't. There's some fairly long streamage, some of which is offbeat in the last half of the song, and sixteenths, sometimes in clusters but often scattered in pairs in the middle of streams to match the speedy melody. ONI NOTES: Easier than the Expert chart; officially, this is a seven-footer. Simple streams and offbeat quarters make up the majority here. The only challenging part here, which honestly doesn't even fit in with the tone of the rest of this chart, is four sixteenths in a CROSSOVER. Yeah... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Dancing Stage EuroMIX 2 (EU Arcade) American Appearances: DDR Extreme About The Artist: Naoki Maeda is the sound director for the DDR series, having made literal metric tons of songs for the series, often under a pseudonym. He used to be known for working in many different styles, but most of his new stuff is Eurobeat. B4 ZA BEAT is Shusaku Ichikawa and Muhehira Ohtomo. Miscellany: In EuroMIX 2 this song had the full standard set of difficulties, but was turned into one of those "Challenge Remixes" in DDRMAX2. Here, we get the best of worlds, with the original normal charts as well as the challenge chart. The original "B4U" can be found in DDR Konamix, DDR Extreme US, and DDR Ultramix 2. A new "The Acolyte Mix" recently popped up in DDR Hottest Party. --------------------------------- 7B. BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS - SPARKER --------------------------------- BPM: 00-150 Genre: Rococo Tek (This song features two stops around the 1:35 mark.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 94 0 0 BASIC 3 145 0 13 DIFFICULT 6 254 23 59 EXPERT 9 432 59 39 EXPERT NOTES: Awesome song, awesome stepchart. You've got your long streams filled with crossovers, your shorter streams filled with jumps, "triplet gallops," sixteenth clusters, and even some sixteenth double-taps! All in all, a good mid-range nine. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania IIDX 9th Style DDR Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: SPARKER is Takehiko Fujii, more commonly known by the pseudonym SLAKE, who works mostly in the beatmania series. -------------------------------- 7C. Cachaca - Mokky de Yah Yah's -------------------------------- UNLOCK: Special invitation in Washington in Quest Mode BPM: 128 Genre: Latin Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 53 1 11 BASIC 2 87 2 10 DIFFICULT 5 171 31 4 EXPERT 7 249 33 22 EXPERT NOTES: One helluva tricky seven. There's plenty of crossovers to keep you on your toes, plus offbeat steps, freeze notes, and quite a few triplets from the middle on. Everything follows the song, but sometimes it's the background melody instead of the more obvious guitar in the foreground, so pay attention. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Guitar Freaks 8th Mix/DrumMania 7th Mix DDR Debut: DDR SuperNOVA (Arcade) American Appearances: DDR SuperNOVA 2 (PS2) About The Artist: This one was composed by Yoshihiko Koezuka, a longtime contributor to the GF/DM series. ------------------------------------ 7D. DIAMOND JEALOUSY - AKIRA YAMAOKA ------------------------------------ BPM: 190 Genre: Cyber Rock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 80 2 0 BASIC 4 236 49 29 DIFFICULT 5 245 77 41 EXPERT 8 327 62 59 EXPERT NOTES: Exhausting. This one just doesn't let up. Crossovers, some fairly lengthy streams, tons of jumps and freezes, all at a rather brisk pace. Be careful not to get NGs by lifting your foot from freezes too early to hit other notes – this song likes to tempt you into that, so be sure to keep your wits about you! ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania IIDX 4th Style DDR Debut: DDR Ultramix 2 (Song Pack 11) About The Artist: See "Love Me Do" for info on Akira Yamaoka. ------------------------------------- 7E. Drivin' - NAOKI feat. Paula Terry ------------------------------------- UNLOCK: Special invitation in Florida in Quest Mode BPM: 155 Genre: Hyper Eurobeat Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 68 2 7 BASIC 4 126 5 11 DIFFICULT 5 223 15 32 EXPERT 8 394 55 16 EXPERT NOTES: This was rated a nine in SuperNOVA... there's no way in hell this could pass as an eight! Not with these long streams, some of which have jumps liberally sprinkled in, as well as some gallops and tiny sixteenth clusters. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania IIDX 8th Style DDR Debut: DDR SuperNOVA (Arcade) About The Artist: See "B4U" for info on Naoki Maeda. Paula Terry is an Aussie singer currently residing in Japan, frequently used for female vocals on Naoki's songs. ----------------------------------- 7F. Gyruss (Full Tilt Mix) - JT.1UP ----------------------------------- BPM: 130-170 Genre: Arcade Remix (The song starts out at 130. By around 20 seconds in, we start gradually speeding up to 170... and when we reach there, we slow right back down to 130 for a second before jumping to 150 for the rest of the song.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 81 2 2 BASIC 3 141 4 11 DIFFICULT 6 163 32 31 EXPERT 8 217 42 24 EXPERT NOTES: This chart likes to follow the song, which does lead to some odd rhythms (and more than a couple sixteenth clusters). The hardest part is the fairly massive stream, with crossovers aplenty, right after it speeds up to 150. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 2 About The Artist: JT.1UP apparently works for Konami of Hawaii. That's all I've got. Miscellany: This is a remix of the Gyruss (classic Konami arcade shooter) theme song which was, in turn, based on Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue in D minor." --------------------------------------------- 7G. INFINITE PRAYER - L.E.D. LIGHT feat. GORO --------------------------------------------- BPM: 137 Genre: Oceanian Tribal Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 96 2 0 BASIC 3 146 3 5 DIFFICULT 6 201 15 36 EXPERT 7 450 29 18 EXPERT NOTES: THIS IS NOT A SEVEN-FOOTER! These are nine-footer steps! With that out of the way, there's two enormous streams here, one at the beginning, and one a little halfway with freezes thrown in. When you're not stepping those, you'll be faced with a mixture of short streams and gallops. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania Append GOTTAMIX 2 (JP PS1) DDR Debut: DDR Ultramix American Appearances: DDR Extreme 2 About The Artist: L.E.D. is Toshiyuki Kakuta, a prolific contributor to the Bemani series, particularly beatmania. Goro is... uh... no idea. Miscellany: These Expert steps are actually from Japan's DDR STRIKE, but they're given the same rating as the much simpler Ultramix steps >_< --------------------------------- 7H. INSERTiON - NAOKI underground --------------------------------- BPM: 00-225 Genre: Euro Trance (The song starts at 139.5 BPM, Starrodkirby86 tells me, and I have no reason to doubt that. Half a minute or so in, there's a stop, and after things start up again, we're moving at only 110. You'll be back up to normal soon enough, but be aware, as the end holds another tempo change, this time gradually speeding up to a blistering 225 BPM!) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 104 7 0 BASIC 4 187 7 0 DIFFICULT 6 263 14 0 EXPERT 9 374 1 0 EXPERT NOTES: Right from the beginning, you're faced with sixteenth clusters and gallops, and they'll be sticking around through most of this song. You do get a couple breaks from this madness – first, the stop and the slowed down part after that (though it's sort of hard to find your rhythm there... no real beat to speak in the slowness), after which it's back to even harder gallops, until the speedup, your second "break." I know, it seems weird, but when things start speeding up, it's ridiculously simple compared to the rest of the song! ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR 5th Mix (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX About The Artist: NAOKI underground is, obviously, a Naoki alias, used primarily for some of his harder trance songs. -------------------------------------------------- 7I. KAGEROW (Dragonfly) - Des-ROW UNITED special+r -------------------------------------------------- BPM: 164 Genre: Rinsei Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 118 2 0 BASIC 4 157 3 4 DIFFICULT 5 233 30 4 EXPERT 7 290 12 5 EXPERT NOTES: This song desperately needs a Challenge chart. With all the complex rhythms here, it's sort of disappointing to see it stuck with this, a really easy chart, with really short streams, that should've probably been a six-footer. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: pop'n music 11 DDR Debut: DDR SuperNOVA (Arcade) American Appearances: DDR SuperNOVA (PS2) About The Artist: Des-ROW is Osamu Migitera, a contributor to multiple Bemani series but mainly pop'n music. His style tends to focus on rock/metal. -------------------------- 7J. MAXIMIZER - CLI-MAX S. -------------------------- UNLOCK: Beat the first National Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 00-198 Genre: Happy Hardcore (There's three stops here: at around 6, 27, and 47 seconds.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 148 13 0 BASIC 5 201 9 31 DIFFICULT 7 264 15 18 EXPERT 8 360 24 12 ONI -- 528 62 20 DIFFICULT NOTES: A pretty standard boss song Difficult chart, mostly in quarters with a few short streams. There's a few parts where it goes offbeat, around the middle then again toward the end. EXPERT NOTES: Not exactly an easy stepchart, with some tricky streams with crossovers including a pretty long one right at the end, as well as some sixteenth clusterage, and a few parts that go offbeat. On the other hand, it's not nearly enough to justify its appearance as a "red song" in DDR EXTREME US... ONI NOTES: Finally, MAXIMIZER earns true boss song status! Say hello to the hardest stepchart in DDR Universe! Things start off on a sour note when the song stops IN THE MIDDLE OF A SIXTEENTH CLUSTER. Very hard to get back on track after that. There's lots of stuff to trip you up here, including tons of tricky crossovers, a crapload of sixteenth clusters, some "offbeat triplets," and even some streams loaded up with air. Ouchie... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR Extreme US About The Artist: CLI-MAX S. is a goofy pseudonym for Sota Fujimori, who has contributed many popular tunes to DDR, including "Look To The Sky" and "Electrified," among others. Miscellany: MAXIMIXER had a special pseudo-Oni stepchart hidden away in Extreme's Mission Mode, but these Oni steps are completely different, completely new, and quite a bit harder too. ---------------------------------------------------- 7K. My Only Shining Star - NAOKI feat. Becky Lucinda ---------------------------------------------------- UNLOCK: Beat the Eastern Regional Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 155 Genre: Euro Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 75 7 0 BASIC 3 83 8 0 DIFFICULT 5 150 11 4 EXPERT 6 261 8 0 EXPERT NOTES: For as overly pimped-out as this song is, you'd think they could at least give it interesting steps... but apparently not! We open with some triple-taps before going into short steams with simple crossovers. Lots of off-beat quarters in the middle. Just keep an eye out for the four sixteenth notes thrown in toward the end! That can be a pretty nasty surprise... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR SuperNOVA (Arcade) American Appearances: DDR SuperNOVA (PS2) About The Artist: See "B4U" for info on Naoki. Becky Lucinda is the female vocalist here, and Scott Dolph is the announcer dude who apparently can't spell "dance" right... ---------------------------- 7L. PARANOIA EVOLUTION - 200 ---------------------------- UNLOCK: Beat the second National Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 200 Genre: Jungle Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 144 2 0 BASIC 6 278 31 0 DIFFICULT 7 287 59 0 EXPERT 8 375 44 0 DIFFICULT NOTES: A fairly standard PARANOiA difficult chart. Mostly quarters, some offbeat steps, short streams that are mostly simple. The one hard thing about it is all the jumps... it's almost as if Konami of Hawaii made this chart! :P EXPERT NOTES: Fairly typical of the early PARANOiAs, lots of streams and turns plus some air just to make it more tiring. Most of the streams are short, except the last one, which is 29 notes long, lengthy given the speed here. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR Solo Bass Mix (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX About The Artist: 200 is a Naoki pseudonym, in reference to the song's BPM, like he always does with PARANOiAs. Miscellany: No, I haven't the foggiest idea why they left out the signature lowercase I in the song title. --------------------------------------- 7M. rain of sorrow - NM feat. EBONY FAY --------------------------------------- BPM: 140 Genre: Euro Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 72 6 0 BASIC 2 77 6 18 DIFFICULT 5 210 4 63 EXPERT 9 315 28 5 EXPERT NOTES: Hmmmm, this seems easier than I remember. Maybe it's just because I've memorized the rhythms that this one likes to follow. This one likes to go along with all sorts of goofy rhythms, changing things up whenever you might actually think you've found the pattern to this crazy thing. You get a rest in the middle where you're stepping the piano, but the hardest part is toward the end, with lots of sixteenths starting with the "Got to keep the love a lot" part. Just play this thing over and over until you figure it out, it's actually relatively easy once you've grasped its rhythmic trickery. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDRMAX2: DDR 7th Mix (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX2 About The Artist: NM is, of course, short for Naoki Maeda. Ebony Fay is singer who performs on several DDR tunes, including this and "Do It Right." ------------------- 7N. Senses - JT.1UP ------------------- BPM: 120 Genre: Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 65 1 2 BASIC 3 125 1 0 DIFFICULT 4 151 13 20 EXPERT 6 200 25 14 EXPERT NOTES: Easy, even for a six footer. Lots of little three-note mini- streams throughout, all of them extremely easy. The only parts that are even remotely tough are the string of six consecutive quarter jumps about two- thirds of the way through, and the nine-note stream that closes out the chart, and even those are nice and simple. Definitely should've been a five, IMO. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR Universe 4 About The Artist: See "Gyruss (Full Tilt Mix)" for what little info I have on this guy. -------------------------------- 7O. SOMETHING WONDERFUL - L.E.D. -------------------------------- BPM: 150 Genre: Epic Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 117 8 0 BASIC 3 195 14 91 DIFFICULT 5 276 6 103 EXPERT 7 422 5 49 EXPERT NOTES: Something gives me a feeling these aren't really seven-footer steps. If they are, they're damn hard seven footer steps! There's some pretty long streams in this one, quite a few oddly placed freezes, sixteenths leading into freezes which is always a pain in the ass, and of course the fact that it almost follows the melody without following it EXACTLY. Annoying as hell. Too bad, it's a great song... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania IIDX 5th Style (JP PS2) DDR Debut: DDR Ultramix (Song Pack 2) About The Artist: See "INFINITE PRAYER" for what I've got on L.E.D. ------------------------------------------------ 7P. Stop Violence! (B.L.T. Re Production) - Togo ------------------------------------------------ UNLOCK: Special invitation in Missouri in Quest Mode BPM: 141 Genre: Mondo Jazz Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 71 5 0 BASIC 3 123 8 20 DIFFICULT 5 177 36 26 EXPERT 7 299 38 16 EXPERT NOTES: Another tricky seven, with steps following the chaotic jazz rhythms. That means, of course, lots of offbeat steps. There's also some long streamage here, some sixteenth clusters, and the song's signature step pattern: following the trumpet in the intro and outro, a jump, two sixteenths, another jump, two more sixteenths, and a final jump. Wash, rinse, repeat for each instance of that trumpet pattern. I would've given this an eight, myself. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania 6th MIX + CORE REMIX (JP PS1) DDR Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: See "Koibito" for info on Togo. Miscellany: The original "Stop Violence!" by Herbie Hammock & His Band (no idea who that is) hasn't appeared in DDR yet, but you can still check it out on the US PS2 version of beatmania. ---------------------------- 7Q. think ya better D - sAmi ---------------------------- UNLOCK: Special invitation in California in Quest Mode BPM: 136 Genre: House Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 82 15 0 BASIC 3 147 1 0 DIFFICULT 4 162 15 0 EXPERT 5 215 22 0 EXPERT NOTES: What is there to say? It's an average five-footer with nothing to make it stand out from the pack. There's some short- to mid-length streams, none of which do anything particularly tricky. And that's about all this chart has to offer! ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR 2nd MIX (JP PS1) American Appearances: DDR Konamix, DDRMAX2 Artist Notes: sAmi is Yuuichi Asami, better known as U1-ASAMI, perhaps best known as the sound director for the PS versions of DDR, producing background tunes for menus and stuff, which aren't found in the arcade versions. -------------------------------- 7R. Tir na n'Og - WORLD SEQUENCE -------------------------------- UNLOCK: Beat the Northern Regional Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 54-112 Genre: Jig (The song scrolls at 112 for the majority, with a 54 BPM section starting around 54 seconds in and lasting exactly 10 seconds.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 72 0 2 BASIC 3 110 5 0 DIFFICULT 6 275 57 26 EXPERT 9 434 33 27 EXPERT NOTES: It's a good thing the slowdown is only a small part of this one, else this would be like an Irish version of "bag". Hell, I'm even pretty sure there's those damn twenty-fourth notes in there, just like "bag"! Blecch. The rest of the song has you stepping lots of sixteenth clusters, which is tricky but nothing like the ten-second hell of the slowdown section... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: pop'n music 8 (JP Arcade) DDR Debut: Brand New! Artist Notes: WORLD SEQUENCE is Seiya Murai, a Konami Original artist who contributes mostly to the pop'n music series. ----------------------- 7S. Vanity Angel - Fixx ----------------------- BPM: 140 Genre: Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 79 4 0 BASIC 3 144 1 0 DIFFICULT 6 236 1 0 EXPERT 8 325 1 18 EXPERT NOTES: Ugh. What a mess. When you're following the piano, things are nice and sensible, but then you have to follow the synthesizer and, well, it's a rhythmic nightmare. Lots of sixteenthage... syncopated, clustered, and just generally clusterf***ed. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Dancing Stage EuroMIX 2 (EU Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX2 Artist Notes: Fixx is a collaboration between Naoki and Taku Sakakibara, better known as TaQ, a prolific contributor to IIDX. ---------------- 7T. Xenon - Mr.T ---------------- UNLOCK: Beat the Canadian Regional Championship in Quest Mode BPM: 158 Genre: Electroshock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 121 6 0 BASIC 4 160 21 12 DIFFICULT 6 271 23 12 EXPERT 9 375 1 11 EXPERT NOTES: Mr.T stuff tends to be quite hard when it makes its way over to DDR, and this was no exception. Things start out with a long stream at the beginning before the steps start to follow the synthesizer and all hell breaks loose. Lots of offbeat steps and sixteenth clusters in rhythms I couldn't even start to describe... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: beatmania IIDX 8th Style (JP Arcade) DDR Debut: DDR Extreme (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX2 About The Artist: No, not the A-Team star. This is Tomoyuki Uchida, who has made quite a few songs for IIDX and pop'n music. +---------------------+ |8. DOWNLOADABLE SONGS| +---------------------+ Technically, these songs are on the disc; you're just paying money to unlock them. I'll pause and let you get your "Konami is evil and money-hungry" rant out of the way... ...done? Good. Moving on... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8A. BROKEN MY HEART (Cusimo & Co. Starlite Remix) - NAOKI feat. Paula Terry ----[DL01]----------------------------------------------------------------- BPM: 140 Genre: Hyper Eurobeat Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 104 1 3 BASIC 3 195 9 4 DIFFICULT 5 218 4 10 EXPERT 9 377 79 12 EXPERT NOTES: A lot of notes here, and a lot of air. At first the jumps are completely separate from the streams, but the gradually merge together, including one of those annoying streams where every other note is a jump. Ouch. Other than that, there's longish streams with turns thrown in, and some three-note sixteenth clusters. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Remix Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 (Song Pack 16) About The Artist: See "B4U" for Naoki and "Drivin'" for Paula Terry. Cusimo & Co. are a happy hardcore group from Quebec consisting of Dave Phaneuf, Jamie Thompson, Alessandro Iacovaccio, and Thomas Howard Lichtenstein. Thomas should be recognizable to Bemani fans for his vocals in DDR tunes including "La Senorita" and "Ballad For You." However, since there's no male vocals in this tune, he probably didn't have much to do with this particular song... ----------------------------------------- 8B. Me and My Friends - THE DANDY WARHOLS ----[DL02]------------------------------- BPM: 156 Genre: Rock Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 89 0 5 BASIC 2 130 1 8 DIFFICULT 5 211 1 3 EXPERT 8 306 104 5 EXPERT NOTES: One of the jumpiest songs in DDR history. And yet, it's shockingly easy. The streams are simple, and there's never any air in the streams. So, to summarize, lots of air, but they don't actually do anything tricky with it. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 (Song Pack 16) About The Artist: The Dandy Warhols are a rock band based in Portland, Oregon. Their current lineup consists of Courtney Taylor-Taylor on vocals and guitar, Zia McCabe on keyboard, Peter Holmstrom on guitar, and Brent De Boer on drums. The band's name, of course, is a pun on the name of artist Andy Warhol. This is their latest single, released in 2006. Miscellany: The song's actual title is "Have A Kick Ass Summer (Me and My Friends)." They omitted the main title, presumably because the phrase kick ass would cause mass outrage in overprotective parents or something, I dunno. That's all fine and dandy (LOL pun) but the phrase "Have a kick ass summer" is still clearly visible in the song's background still... ------------------------------- 8C. Audiophilosophy - Neverakka ----[DL03]--------------------- BPM: 130 Genre: Trance Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 71 4 4 BASIC 2 106 8 4 DIFFICULT 5 216 1 6 EXPERT 8 327 35 30 EXPERT NOTES: Oooooh, tricky. This one lulls you into thinking the worst it can do is throw air into streams, but then it suddenly forces you to follow a very complicated synthesizer melody full of sixteenth notes stepped at a pretty odd rhythm. Sort of like gallops, but with less space between each pair of steps. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: DDR Ultramix 4 (Song Pack 16) About The Artist: Nevarakka, as it's properly spelled, is part of the Ultramix favorite "A Different Drum" label. It's mostly the work of a fellow named Philip Jidbrant. --------------- 8D. AM-3P - KTz ----[DL04]----- BPM: 130 Genre: House Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 87 0 1 BASIC 5 164 25 0 DIFFICULT 6 195 25 0 EXPERT 8 244 29 0 ONI -- 264 59 2 EXPERT NOTES: Ah, here's a classic. Things open up with a very long stream before the song settles into generally following this song's odd rhythms. Aside from a few streams with jumps thrown in, it's actually a fairly easy eight, about on par with some of Universe's harder seven-footers. ONI NOTES: Solid nine-footer steps. There's not too many more steps than on Expert, but they're arranged much more deviously, with lots of sixteenth clusters. There's also a lot more jumps here, most annoyingly in an air- packed stream right at the end. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR 2nd Mix (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDR (US PS2), DDRMAX, DDRMAX2, DDR Ultramix 4 (SP16) About The Artist: KTz is a Naoki alias used exclusively for AM-3P and its remixes. Miscellany: This song has been around forever, but these Oni steps were only recently added for its appearance in Song Pack 16. Other mixes of this song include a "303 BASS MIX" on DDR Konamix and Ultramix Song Pack 4, and the "AM East Mix" Challenge Mix on DDRMAX2. ----------------------- 8E. ECSTASY - d-complex ----[DL05]------------- BPM: 00-145 (Two full stops here, the first lasting about two measures and the second lasting four. There's also a slight BPM change somewhere in here but it's so slight that it's hardly worth mentioning.) Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 77 3 0 BASIC 4 169 11 0 DIFFICULT 6 235 14 0 EXPERT 7 266 32 0 ONI -- 328 21 23 EXPERT NOTES: Pretty basic seven-footer, though the stops might throw you off ever so slightly. Memorize where those stops are, and this is a piece of cake. Nice delicious crumb cake, with mostly basic streams, a few of which get fairly long, plus a few crossovers. ONI NOTES: The most interesting change is all the freezes, since this song originally comes from a time before their introduction. Other than that, the streams are longer, with more crossovers, and later on they've added some fairly tricky sixteenth clusters. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDR 5th Mix (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX, DDR Extreme, DDR Ultramix 4 (SP16) About The Artist: d-complex is yet another Naoki pseudonym, used only for this song and its remixes as far as I can tell. Miscellany: Just like AM-3P, this song has been around for quite some time, but the Oni steps only popped up as of SP16. The "midnight blue mix" Challenge version of this song is in DDR Extreme US. ---------------------------------------------------- 8F. ON THE JAZZ (Smooth House Mix) - Jonny Dynamite! ----[DL06]------------------------------------------ BPM: 130 Genre: Smooth Jazz Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 91 1 0 BASIC 3 120 5 13 DIFFICULT 5 178 9 12 EXPERT 8 326 41 12 EXPERT NOTES: Far more subtle than most remixes; you can sort of think of it as "ON THE JAZZ" Oni. It's harder than the original, typically following the jazz rhythms or the vocals, but what really seperates this from the non-Smooth House version are the many sixteenths that pop up here. Pay attention to the song, everything follows it closely... ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Jonny Dynamite is the vocalist, most likely, because the composer for this tine (well, the original, anyway) is U1-ASAMI. See "think ya better D" for a little more info on him. I have no idea if he was responsible for this remix as well, or if someone else did it. Miscellany: The original "ON THE JAZZ" can be found on DDR Konamix, DDR Ultramix, and DDR Extreme US. -------------------------- 8G. Beside You - Intuition ----[DL07]---------------- BPM: 131 Genre: Synthpop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 81 0 0 BASIC 3 112 2 2 DIFFICULT 5 171 9 6 EXPERT 6 191 32 13 EXPERT NOTES: Jumps straight into eighths are always tricky, and this is no exception. Still, it's an easy chart. Aside from those jumps, you're really only faced with short streams with simple crossovers. The jumps are the hardest part. Make sure you can go from jumps straight into an eighth note! If you can, you'll get through this one, no problem. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: Yet another group from the "A Different Drum" label. This tune comes from their 2006 album, "Overworked and Underplayed." ----------------------- 8H. White Hot - R.A.S.T ----[DL08]------------- BPM: 129 Genre: Electronica Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 106 0 0 BASIC 3 170 5 0 DIFFICULT 6 226 6 2 EXPERT 9 404 29 12 EXPERT NOTES: Harder than you'd probably expect. The steps love to follow the vocals, which at this speed leads to lots of sixteenth clusters! Some of them can get pretty damn long, so brace yourself. ----- Song Type: License Bemani Debut: Brand New! About The Artist: I know nothing about these guys. Not. A. Thing. -------------------------- 8I. CANDY* - Luv UNLIMITED ----[DL09]---------------- BPM: 192 Genre: Candy Pop Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 89 10 0 BASIC 4 170 12 0 DIFFICULT 5 236 15 16 EXPERT 8 329 28 29 ONI -- 351 89 60 EXPERT NOTES: The hardest thing about this song is its speed. The steps themselves don't get very complicated, aside from a few turns and freezes, with all the streams being very short, but it's still a decent challenge when you factor in the brisk 192 BPM pace. ONI NOTES: I'd rate this a nine-footer. It's fairly similar to the Expert chart, but with longer, harder streams and a lot more jumps and freezes, both of which are thrown into streams quite often now. ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: DDRMAX: DDR 6th Mix (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDRMAX, DDR Ultramix 3 About The Artist: Luv UNLIMITED is yet another Naoki pseudonym, only ever used for this song. Miscellany: Once again, a classic song revived here with brand-new Oni steps! A vocal mix of this tune, "CANDY<3" is on DDR Ultramix and DDR Extreme 2. In Ultramix, however, the steps were identical to CANDY*'s. A remix of that remix, "CANDY (UFO MIX)," makes its debut in Hottest Party. ---------------------------------------------------- 8J. KISS ME ALL NIGHT LONG - NAOKI J-STYLE feat. MIU ----[DL10]------------------------------------------ BPM: 155 Genre: J-Pop ~4 PANELS~ Diff ~ Steps ~ Jumps ~ Freezes BEGINNER -- 106 5 0 BASIC 3 116 4 6 DIFFICULT 5 193 13 13 EXPERT 8 316 29 10 ONI -- 444 46 29 EXPERT NOTES: Quite a few pseudo-triplets in the intro and outro, with a few long streams and some offbeat steps. It's a pretty easy eight-footer though. ONI NOTES: Sadistic nine-footer steps. Wow. The streams are much longer, it's a lot jumpier (with the obligatory "air-filled stream," too), and there's a whole bunch of sixteenths thrown in! ----- Song Type: Konami Original Bemani Debut: Dance ManiaX 2nd Mix DDR Debut: DDR Extreme (JP Arcade) American Appearances: DDR Ultramix 3 About The Artist: See "B4U" for info on Naoki. MIU is Miyuki Kunitake, the vocalist here, who has also worked on a few other Bemani tunes. Miscellany: This Oni chart is brand new. +---------------------------------------------+ |9. COMPLETE LIST OF STEPCHARTS BY STEP RATING| +---------------------------------------------+ For those of you who want to see just exactly how many stepcharts there are of each foot rating... look no further! I haven't rated Beginner charts, since they're pretty much all ones... everything else is here though! My Oni ratings are just guesses, but they should be fairly accurate! ONE-FOOTERS ----------- [1 total, all Basic] ----------- WWW.BLONDE GIRL (MOMO MIX) [BASIC] TWO-FOOTERS ----------- [14 total, all Basic] ----------- Audiophilosophy [BASIC] Cachaca [BASIC] Heart With A View (Echo Image Remix) [BASIC] Me And My Friends [BASIC] rain of sorrow [BASIC] Rapper's Delight [BASIC] Run It! [BASIC] Saturday Night [BASIC] September '99 [BASIC] SKY HIGH [BASIC] Summer Fantasy [BASIC] We Are Connected (Overdrive Mix) [BASIC] What Have Her [BASIC] Youngmen Blues [BASIC] THREE-FOOTERS ------------- [50 total, all Basic] ------------- All Up in My Face [BASIC] Beside You [BASIC] Beyond Here And Now (Intensified) [BASIC] Bongo! [BASIC] BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS [BASIC] BROKEN MY HEART (Cusimo & Co. Starlite Remix) [BASIC] Close Your Eyes (Activated Mix) [BASIC] Cosmic Hammer [BASIC] Dancefloor Killer [BASIC] Don't Play Nice [BASIC] Everytime We Touch (Radio Mix) [BASIC] Feels Just Like It Should [BASIC] Grandolin [BASIC] Gyruss (Full Tilt Mix) [BASIC] Healing Vision (GRIDLOK Mix) [BASIC] Horsemen of the Invisible [BASIC] Hydrasound [BASIC] Ignition [BASIC] Indian Summer [BASIC] INFINITE PRAYER [BASIC] KISS ME ALL NIGHT LONG [BASIC] Koibito [BASIC] Less 'Yap Yap' [BASIC] Loops [BASIC] Love Is On Our Side [BASIC] Magic Carpet Ride (Steir's Mix) [BASIC] My Only Shining Star [BASIC] Nightshade (Diskowarp Easily Amused Mix) [BASIC] ON THE JAZZ (Smooth House Mix) [BASIC] Precious (Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix) [BASIC] PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME (Steve Porter Mix) [BASIC] Race Against Time [BASIC] Return of the Toe Jam [BASIC] roughneck [BASIC] Senses [BASIC] SOMETHING WONDERFUL [BASIC] Slow (Chemical Brothers remix) [BASIC] Somebody To Love [BASIC] Stop Violence! (B.L.T. Re Production) [BASIC] Test Room [BASIC] The Hop [BASIC] There's A Rhythm [BASIC] think ya better D [BASIC] Tir na n'Og [BASIC] Treble, Bass, and Attitude [BASIC] Twist [BASIC] Vanity Angel [BASIC] White Hot [BASIC] Wraith [BASIC] FOUR-FOOTERS ------------ [22 total: 15 Basic, 7 Difficult] ------------ 8-bit [BASIC] B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX) [BASIC] CANDY* [BASIC] Castlevania (Freestylin' Mix) [BASIC] DIAMOND JEALOUSY [BASIC] Drivin' [BASIC] ECSTACY [BASIC] GO! (Mahalo Mix) [BASIC] Guilt Is a Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Mix) [BASIC] Ignition [DIFFICULT] INSERTiON [BASIC] KAGEROW (Dragonfly) [BASIC] Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix) [BASIC] Saturday Night [DIFFICULT] Senses [DIFFICULT] SKY HIGH [DIFFICULT] Slam [BASIC] There's A Rhythm [DIFFICULT] think ya better D [DIFFICULT] Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix) [BASIC] WWW.BLONDE GIRL (MOMO MIX) [DIFFICULT] Xenon [BASIC] FIVE-FOOTERS ------------ [46 total: 3 Basic, 41 Difficult, 2 Expert) ------------ AM-3P [BASIC] Audiophilosophy [DIFFICULT] Beside You [DIFFICULT] Beyond Here And Now (Intensified) [DIFFICULT] Bongo! [DIFFICULT] BROKEN MY HEART (Cusimo & Co. Starlite Remix) [DIFFICULT] Cachaca [DIFFICULT] CANDY* [DIFFICULT] Close Your Eyes (Activated Mix) [DIFFICULT] Cosmic Hammer [DIFFICULT] Dancefloor Killer [DIFFICULT] DIAMOND JEALOUSY [DIFFICULT] Don't Play Nice [DIFFICULT] Drivin' [DIFFICULT] Everytime We Touch (Radio Mix) [DIFFICULT] Feels Just Like It Should [DIFFICULT] Grandolin [DIFFICULT] HOT LIMIT [BASIC] KAGEROW (Dragonfly) [DIFFICULT] KISS ME ALL NIGHT LONG [DIFFICULT] Koibito [DIFFICULT] Less 'Yap Yap' [DIFFICULT] Love Is On Our Side [DIFFICULT] Magic Carpet Ride (Steir's Mix) [DIFFICULT] MAXIMIZER [BASIC] Me And My Friends [DIFFICULT] My Only Shining Star [DIFFICULT] ON THE JAZZ (Smooth House Mix) [DIFFICULT] PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME (Steve Porter Mix) [DIFFICULT] rain of sorrow [DIFFICULT] Rapper's Delight [DIFFICULT] Run It! [DIFFICULT] Saturday Night [EXPERT] September '99 [DIFFICULT] Slow (Chemical Brothers remix) [DIFFICULT] Somebody To Love [DIFFICULT] SOMETHING WONDERFUL [DIFFICULT] Stop Violence! (B.L.T. Re Production) [DIFFICULT] Summer Fantasy [DIFFICULT] Test Room [DIFFICULT] The Hop [DIFFICULT] think ya better D [EXPERT] Twist [DIFFICULT] We Are Connected (Overdrive Mix) [DIFFICULT] What Have Her [DIFFICULT] Youngmen Blues [DIFFICULT] SIX-FOOTERS ----------- [39 total: 1 Basic, 31 Difficult, 7 Expert] ----------- 8-bit [DIFFICULT] All Up in My Face [DIFFICULT] AM-3P [DIFFICULT] B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX) [DIFFICULT] Beside You [EXPERT] BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS [DIFFICULT] Castlevania (Freestylin' Mix) [DIFFICULT] ECSTACY [DIFFICULT] Guilt Is A Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Mix) [DIFFICULT] Gyruss (Full Tilt Mix) [DIFFICULT] Healing Vision (GRIDLOK Mix) [DIFFICULT] Heart With a View (Echo Image Remix) [DIFFICULT] Horsemen of the Invisible [DIFFICULT] HOT LIMIT [DIFFICULT] Hydrasound [DIFFICULT] Indian Summer [DIFFICULT] INFINITE PRAYER [DIFFICULT] INSERTiON [DIFFICULT] Koibito [EXPERT] Loops [DIFFICULT] Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix) [DIFFICULT] My Only Shining Star [EXPERT] Nightshade (Diskowarp Easily Amused Mix) [DIFFICULT] PARANOIA EVOLUTION [BASIC] Precious (Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix) [DIFFICULT] Race Against Time [DIFFICULT] Return of the Toe Jam [DIFFICULT] roughneck [DIFFICULT] Senses [EXPERT] SKY HIGH [EXPERT] Slam [DIFFICULT] There's A Rhythm [EXPERT] Tir na n'Og [DIFFICULT] Treble, Bass, and Attitude [DIFFICULT] Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix) [DIFFICULT] Vanity Angel [DIFFICULT] White Hot [DIFFICULT] Wraith [DIFFICULT] Xenon [DIFFICULT] SEVEN-FOOTERS ------------- [26 total: 3 Difficult, 22 Expert, 1 Oni] ------------- All Up in My Face [EXPERT] B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX) [ONI] Beyond Here And Now (Intensified) [EXPERT] Bongo! [EXPERT] Cachaca [EXPERT] Cosmic Hammer [EXPERT] ECSTASY [EXPERT] Everytime We Touch (Radio Mix) [EXPERT] Feels Just Like It Should [EXPERT] GO! (Mahalo Mix) [DIFFICULT] Ignition [EXPERT] KAGEROW (Dragonfly) [EXPERT] Magic Carpet Ride (Steir's Mix) [EXPERT] MAXIMIZER [DIFFICULT] PARANOIA EVOLUTION [DIFFICULT] PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME (Steve Porter Mix) [EXPERT] Somebody To Love [EXPERT] SOMETHING WONDERFUL [EXPERT] Stop Violence! (B.L.T. Re Production) [EXPERT] Summer Fantasy [EXPERT] Test Room [EXPERT] The Hop [EXPERT] Twist [EXPERT] Wraith [EXPERT] WWW.BLONDE GIRL (MOMO MIX) [EXPERT] Youngmen Blues [EXPERT] EIGHT-FOOTERS ------------- [36 total: 35 Expert, 1 Oni] ------------- 8-bit [EXPERT] AM-3P [EXPERT] Audiophilosophy [EXPERT] B4U (B4 ZA BEAT MIX) [EXPERT] CANDY* [EXPERT] Close Your Eyes (Activated Mix) [EXPERT] Dancefloor Killer [EXPERT] DIAMOND JEALOUSY [EXPERT] Drivin' [EXPERT] Grandolin [EXPERT] Gyruss (Full Tilt Mix) [EXPERT] Healing Vision (GRIDLOK Mix) [EXPERT] Heart with a View (Echo Image Remix) [EXPERT] Horsemen of the Invisible [EXPERT] HOT LIMIT [EXPERT] Hydrasound [EXPERT] Indian Summer [EXPERT] KISS ME ALL NIGHT LONG [EXPERT] Koibito [ONI] Less 'Yap Yap' [EXPERT] Loops [EXPERT] MAXIMIZER [EXPERT] Me And My Friends [EXPERT] On the Jazz (Smooth House Mix) [EXPERT] PARANOIA EVOLUTION [EXPERT] Precious (Sasha's Gargantuan Vocal Mix) [EXPERT] Race Against Time [EXPERT] Rapper's Delight [EXPERT] Return of the Toe Jam [EXPERT] roughneck [EXPERT] Run It! [EXPERT] Slow (Chemical Brothers remix) [EXPERT] Treble, Bass, and Attitude [EXPERT] Vanity Angel [EXPERT] We Are Connected (Overdrive Mix) [EXPERT] NINE-FOOTERS ------------ [24 total: 20 Expert, 4 Oni] ------------ AM-3P [EXPERT] BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS [EXPERT] BROKEN MY HEART (Cusimo & Co. Starlite Mix) [EXPERT] CANDY* [ONI] Castlevania (Freestylin' Mix) [EXPERT] Don't Play Nice [EXPERT] ECSTASY [EXPERT] GO! (Mahalo Mix) [EXPERT] Guilt is a Useless Emotion (Mac Quayle Mix) [EXPERT] HOT LIMIT [ONI] INFINITE PRAYER [EXPERT] (It's rated a seven in-game, but it's really a nine!) INSERTiON [EXPERT] KISS ME ALL NIGHT LONG [ONI] Love Is On Our Side [EXPERT] Love Me Do (The Acolyte's Mix) [EXPERT] Nightshade (Diskowarp Easily Amused Mix) [EXPERT] rain of sorrow [EXPERT] Slam [EXPERT] Tir na n'Og [EXPERT] Treble, Bass, and Attitude [ONI] Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix) [EXPERT] What Have Her [EXPERT] White Hot [EXPERT] Xenon [EXPERT] TEN-FOOTERS ----------- [4 total, all Oni] ----------- Grandolin [ONI] MAXIMIZER [ONI] Return of the Toe Jam [ONI] Tsugaru (OR-IF-IS Mix) [ONI] +-----------------+ |10. POWER COURSES| +-----------------+ Power Courses are, basically, mini "nonstop megamixes" of several different songs. You can find them by entering Party Mode, then selecting Power. This apparently is Universe's version of the PS2/Arcade games' Nonstop/Oni Modes. It's a cool idea, though I hope Universe 2 takes the idea further: how cool would a boss song medley be, for example? -------------------------------------- 10A. Power 1 (acid-tech mix) - dj nagi -------------------------------------- BPM: 00-147 Contains: Ignition - Audio Magnetics roughneck - skylab2000 Hydrasound - GEOMANCER BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS - SPARKER D