Those of you who dropped the $49.99 for that Eye Toy will be glad to know that it’s finally getting some love. They’re not barnburners, but Konami has incorporated the Eye Toy into the mini-games that comprise the Party Mode. There are six games in total, four of which require the use of the Eye Toy to operate. One of the modes removes the backgrounds and allows you and your friends to watch you as you dance. It’s fun for parties and great for people who love to see themselves on television. Coconut Dance requires you to shake palm trees using the dance pads while you use your arms to pick up the coconuts before they fall to the ground. This was a great diversion for my girlfriend and I and it seemed to provide us with the most rigorous workout of all. Hands and Feet requires you to hit the arrows with your feet as you strike floating icons with your hands. It sounds like fun but most of the songs were dumbed down so much that they’re not really a challenge. Clean the screen combines DDR with Wishi-Washi, the mini-game from
Eye Toy: Play that required you to clean the screen with your hands. This is more of a challenge and will probably only be playable for advanced players. The last Eye Toy mini-game turns the screen into a giant version of Breakout in which you use your hands to keep the ball afloat.
If you don’t own an Eye Toy don’t fret, you’ll still be able to participate in Party Mode. Your options are significantly limited, however, and you’ll only have two games available to you. Feeding Time requires you to feed animals with the dance pad while Hyper Dash is a side-scrolling game where you control the run speed with the dance pad a la
Track and Field. You’ll probably give each of these games a quick glance but they won’t really hold your attention for any extended amounts of time.
For all of you who are looking to get into shape you’ll want to hear about the revamped Workout Mode. In previous games the WorkOut mode was its own isolated mode which you had to utilize in order to keep track of the calories that had been burned. Konami has decided to rid the mode and has integrated its elements into the core gameplay. It was kind of weird at first but it was nice to free myself from the ties of the workout mode. I was able to play the Arcade mode and continue to unlock more songs while I burned the calories away. Sure I miss some of the elements of the dedicated workout mode but this process is more streamlined than the old mechanism. You’ll still be able to see your progress and compare it to the workouts provided by other strenuous activities.
There’s not much I can say about the visuals that hasn’t been said before. Aside from the cel-shaded characters that Konami added to the series in the last entry, everything is pretty much the same as it was before. There are some new music videos that accompany some of the tracks along with the Super Happy Flashy Lights of Doom. Like before, you’ll get the real music videos for the featured artists that made contributions to the game. It should be noted that there’s an especially interesting CGI video feature the chick from Silent Hill 4 in a starring role. Otherwise DDR is… well, DDR. There’s not much else I can say about a bunch of flashy arrows interspersed with Super Happy Fun Flashy Lights of Doom.
If you’re looking for something new then I invite you to tune your ears into the audio portions of the game. DDR has always had some clean and clear musical tracks but this time around they’re encoded in lush Dolby Pro Logic II. This allows the sound engineers to surround you with the music and utilize all 5 channels of a traditional surround sound setup. The audio is still frontloaded for the most part, but the surround channels get a decent workout on most of the tracks. Other than that, the audio is pretty much the same as you remember it, right down to the annoying announcer and the loud menu sounds.
My problem with Extreme is the same problem that I’ve had with all of the DDR games; it feels too much like an expansion pack and not enough like a stand alone product. I remember when I first got Beatmania for the PSOne Konami would release additional mixes that could be purchased and used with the stand alone product. I sometimes wonder why Konami continues to release stand alone games when all they’re really doing is releasing additional songs. It would be wiser to require players to buy one stand alone product and then add on to those with additional expansion packs. I doubt that it’ll become a reality but it seems like it would be more efficient and time saving than the method that they’re currently employing.
Other than that, you already know what to expect from this DDR entry. If you’re a true fanatic then you shouldn’t think twice about purchasing this game. It contains everything you’ve loved about the previous entries, coupled with some new mini-games and a bevy of new tracks to dance to. Casual fans will want to give this one a try as well as those of you who are looking to get yourselves into better shape before the holiday season.
B-
It's the most feature-rich, song-laden and well-rounded DDR title to-date. The new Eye Toy implementation isn't ground-breaking, but it shows that the developers are starting to take advantage of the device. If you're remotely interested in the franchise you'd be wise to pick this title up.
Page 2 of 2