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Dance Dance Revolution A

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Dance Dance Revolution A is a music video game developed and published by Konami and released on arcade platforms in 2016. It is the 16th installment in the Dance Dance Revolution series.

General Information[]

  • Announced at the The 5th KONAMI Arcade Championship finals for Dance Dance Revolution (2014). [1]
  • First game in the A series. The "A" in the game title is pronounced "Ace", just like the letter A in the deck of playing cards.
  • The scoring system used since SuperNOVA2 has been revised:
    • GREATs now gives players 60% of score for MARVELOUS minus 10 (previously, 50% minus 10).
    • GOODs now gives players 20% of score for MARVELOUS minus 10 (previously, 0).
  • The grading system has also been changed (except AAA and E):
    • Each letter grade now includes a + and -, aside from D-.
    • Each letter grade now corresponds to the following ranges:
      • AA+ : 950,000 ~ 989,990
      • AA : 900,000 ~ 949,990
      • AA- : 890,000 ~ 899,990
      • A+ : 850,000 ~ 889,990
      • A : 800,000 ~ 849,990
      • A- : 790,000 ~ 799,990
      • B+ : 750,000 ~ 789,990
      • B : 700,000 ~ 749,990
      • B- : 690,000 ~ 699,990
      • C+ : 650,000 ~ 689,990
      • C : 600,000 ~ 649,990
      • C- : 590,000 ~ 599,990
      • D+ : 550,000 ~ 589,990
      • D : 0 ~ 549,990
  • The clear lamp system from Dance Dance Revolution (2014) returns, with modifications to colors:
    • gray/transparent: not played.
    • dark amber: failed.
    • purple: ASSIST clear (passed the song with ASSIST options enabled, such as CUT1, JUMP OFF or FREEZE ARROW OFF).
      • If any ASSIST option is used during a song, the assist clear lamp will always take priority.
    • yellow: clear.
    • bright red: EXTRA clear (passed the song under LIFE4 gauge conditions),
    • flashing blue: GOOD full combo clear.
    • flashing green: GREAT full combo clear.
    • flashing gold: PERFECT full combo clear.
    • flashing rainbow/white: MARVELOUS full combo clear.
  • Dance Dance Revolution (2014) clear lamps transfer over to Dance Dance Revolution A, but scores do not.
    • Full combo lamps carry over, though they appear as ASSIST clears due to DanceDanceRevolution A's scoring changes.
  • When using the Screen filter option, if a chart ends with Freeze Arrows, the filter now disappears at the end of the arrows instead of at the start.
  • Successfully clearing a Shock Arrow now has the O.K. judgement and the combo increase appear immediately.
  • Timing windows have been adjusted to remove the "magic BPMs" problem that existed in previous games.
  • The music select screen has been completely redesigned. It now strongly resembles the UI used in the SOUND VOLTEX series at the time.
    • Sorting by Difficulty now follows other BEMANI games, with each Level folder containing all difficulties rated with said Level.
    • A BPM gauge is present on the music select screen for the first time since Dance Dance Revolution X. However, it now animates based solely on the currently selected song's maximum BPM and disappears if the currently selected song has a random BPM (e.g. EXTRA EXCLUSIVE songs on EXTRA STAGE).
  • Song folders now sort songs in the following order: Japanese titles, then regular ABC order, and lastly song beginning with numbers.
    • Licenses are also no longer put first in the song folders.
    • Newly revived songs that were not timed-exclusive (Determination and MAKE A JAM!) are listed under Dance Dance Revolution A in Version sort, rather than their respective originating versions.
  • Options and characters can now be selected via the game's e-amusement website.
    • Options can now also be accessed by pressing [9] on the keypad while on the song/difficulty selection screen.
    • The Area Browser can also now be done via the e-amusement website.
  • For Japanese cabinets with PASELI enabled, this option is now divided with:
    • PASELI-PREMIUM MODE: the original PASELI option available up to DanceDanceRevolution (2014).
    • PASELI-STANDARD MODE: uses less points than PREMIUM MODE. This option counts as STANDARD MODE without inserting physical coins.
  • A total of eight songs released during Dance Dance Revolution (2014) were retrospectively moved to the Dance Dance Revolution A folder.
    • Included are the four licensed songs from the EDM～Exciting★Dance★Matsuri～ event, the three KONAMI original songs from the OSB～Winter★Special★Present～ event, and きゅん×きゅんばっきゅん☆LOVE.
  • Even for new songs, characters now use the old dance routines introduced back in Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX instead of the new ones introduced in X. This retroactively applies to every other song as well.
    • Songs with special choreography still keep them, though.
    • Dance Celebration's special choreography was revived as well.
    • Songs with special choreography now always force a random male character on Player 1 and a random female character on Player 2, overriding the players' respective character selections.
    • Background dancers and stage animations once again slow down during stops.
  • The song title and artist are now centered, rather than left-aligned within their box, during gameplay.
  • AFRO, YUNI, JENNY, and RAGE received new outfits, marking the first time characters received new outfits since X2.
    • Character cut-ins were removed, making this the first arcade Dance Dance Revolution game to omit them since their debut in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2.
    • "The Dark One" was removed as a playable character.
  • The Butterfly SPECIAL ARROW option has been removed.
  • The 0.75x Speed option has been added.
  • The HIDDEN and SUDDEN options were removed, making HIDDEN+ and SUDDEN+ usable on all cabinets.
  • The WAVE option is now affected by speed mods.
  • The CLUB background dance stage from Dance Dance Revolution X2, which was removed in Dance Dance Revolution X3 VS 2ndMIX, has been restored. This is the dance stage used by returning songs that previously randomized between either the CYBER or BOOM LIGHT dance stages in Dance Dance Revolution (2014).
  • The BOOM DARK dance stage, along with its five recolored variants introduced in Dance Dance Revolution (2014)'s Replicant D-ignition event, now features rising equalizer bar walls in the background, much like its Dance Dance Revolution X rendition, except that the rising equalizer bar walls do not flash.
  • All songs without fullscreen background videos will now always play on one dance stage instead of randomly selecting between multiple stages like in previous games.
  • All songs received upscaled jackets.
  • The jacket display and "READY" and "HERE WE GO" prompts during gameplay have been altered: the song's jacket is now shown at the beginning of the song, up to 12 beats before the first note, after which the "READY" prompt appears on screen for one full measure and then the "HERE WE GO" prompt appears for up to three beats afterwards. However, not all songs follow this rule.
    • At the same time the "HERE WE GO" message appears on screen, the player's Step Zone becomes active and the Screen filter (if turned on) also appears.
    • If the song being played has a background video or special choreography, the on-screen jacket display is skipped, and the "READY" message is immediately displayed for one full measure, with "HERE WE GO" appearing for three beats afterwards. This mimicks the behavior of "READY" and "HERE WE GO" from previous Dance Dance Revolution games up to Dance Dance Revolution (2014), albeit with the added effect of the screen filter also appearing along with "HERE WE GO".
    • If on Versus Play a song is selected with each player being on a different difficulty, the behavior of the on-screen jacket display, "READY", and "HERE WE GO" will match the chart whose notes start earlier than the other one. This is not applicable for songs with background videos.
  • The GROOVE RADAR will now change accordingly when selecting any options that remove steps from the chart.
  • When the LIFE GAUGE turns from green to red in NORMAL or LIFE4 modifiers, the player's lane now receives a Danger overlay.
  • On HD cabinets, the lights change colour depending on the current state of the life gauge.
    • When the life gauge is low, risky or has one life left, the lights turn red.
    • When the life gauge is not low or full, the lights turn blue.
    • When the life gauge is full or has higher than one life remaining, the lights turn rainbow.
  • EX Score is now always displayed in the results screen.
    • Due to this, the code to enable display EX Score has been removed, although the display can still be enabled by the arcade operators during EVENT MODE.
  • System background music is composed by U1-ASAMi.
  • The 私立BEMANI学園, jubeat・GITADORA・DDRのTriple Journey, and YuniverHills project (ユニバーヒルズproject) songs are now playable by default.
    • Songs from 熱闘！BEMANIスタジアム, 発見！よみがえったBEMANI遺跡, 怪盗BisCoの予告状！！ and BEMANI SUMMER DIARY 2015, as well as POSSESSION(EDP Live Mix), Poochie and この青空の下で, can be unlocked on EXTRA SAVIOR from June 13th, 2016 if they have not yet unlocked in 2014.
  • The song variants with Chinese lyrics used on some CHALLENGE charts, introduced in X2, have been removed. Those charts now play the original Japanese versions of the song instead.
  • First Dance Dance Revolution game to feature full-screen background images with lyrics that remove on-screen dancers for certain licenses.
  • First arcade Dance Dance Revolution game since 3rdMIX to display lyrics during gameplay, although only for one song.
  • First arcade Dance Dance Revolution game since 4thMIX PLUS in which the in-game display language can be switched between Japanese and English (for South East Asia only).
  • First arcade Dance Dance Revolution title officially released in North America and Europe since Dance Dance Revolution X2.
    • This is the first North American Dance Dance Revolution release to officially support e-amusement.
    • Unlike other regions, North America does not use the e-amusement Participation system in place since Dance Dance Revolution (2013). Cabinets are playable without an e-amusement connection, but switching to a new version of the game requires purchasing an upgrade kit.
    • European machines do not have e-amusement support.
      • They also lack full options, access to EXTRA/ENCORE EXTRA STAGE, and have a smaller overall songlist.
    • Last North American Dance Dance Revolution game to provide a new marquee. (The European version of Dance Dance Revolution A20 PLUS would later come with a new marquee.)
    • The North American/European version is the first release in those regions to not translate, transliterate, or romanize song titles or artists, instead leaving them in Japanese.
    • North American players can choose from United States (one of the 50 states must be selected), Canada (no individual provinces or territories), or Overseas (for all other countries) for their location place.
      • State names are now written in full instead of abbreviations, while Overseas replaces the Mexico and "etc." options.
      • These regions were first introduced for high scores in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2: the 50 states used an abbreviated form, Canada and Mexico were options, and Overseas was known as "etc."
    • First European Dance Dance Revolution release that only supports the English language.
  • Eight licensed western pop songs were added to coincide with the game's North American release.
  • First Dance Dance Revolution title to be location tested in Europe since Dance Dance Revolution X2.
    • The location test used the North American build, housed inside a Japanese X Cabinet.
    • The location test was the longest of any BEMANI game at the time, lasting three months. This record was beaten by Dance Dance Revolution A20's European location test four years later.
  • All remaining Dancemania licenses that are not remixes of KONAMI original songs were removed from the series on May 30th, 2016, making Dance Dance Revolution A the first core arcade Dance Dance Revolution title to have no traditional Dancemania licenses in it.
  • FLOOR INFECTION returned from October 6th-24th, 2016. No new songs were added.
  • From June 1st, 2017 onward, the level number of the chart being played is shown during gameplay.
    • This update also blocked CHALLENGE-only charts from being shown when players do not use an e-amusement pass.
    • On November 30th, 2017, the level numbers were moved to the difficulty frame, while the player ID is now displayed on the space originally for the level numbers, and is used in the evaluation screen as well.
  • First Dance Dance Revolution title to run on different operating systems, running on Windows XP Embedded or Windows Embedded Standard 7. Later cabinet models ran Embedded Standard 7.
  • Song labeling on the Music Select screen has changed once again:
    • white: default.
      • when unlocked, ENDYMION and ACE FOR ACES are shown in white, even though they are not default songs.
    • yellow: hidden songs, or songs that only have BEGINNER/BASIC charts unlocked by default.
    • red: songs only available as EXTRA EXCLUSIVE or FINAL STAGE.
      • EXTRA EXCLUSIVE LEVEL 1 songs are marked with a gray checkered background.
      • EXTRA EXCLUSIVE LEVEL 2 and 3 songs are marked with a multicolored checkered background.
    • green: EXTRA SAVIOR.
    • purple: special event EXTRA SAVIOR songs that need to have difficulty charts unlocked one at a time (NEW Generation 流星拡散フェスタ2016, BEMANI SUMMER GREETINGS, and Dance Dance Revolution 20th Anniversary songs).
  • A new category, DDR SELECTION, was added to the game on September 26th, 2018. When playing a song under this category, the interface will change to match that of one of the games released in that period.
  • eAMUSEMENT support for Dance Dance Revolution A ended on February 27th, 2020.
  • European cabinets sold in 2017 and 2018 came with the December 4th, 2017 build, machines shipped in 2019 came with the August 27th, 2018 build. The April 22nd, 2019 build was sent as a replacement for machines with failed PCBs, even for machines running newer builds.
  • On May 21st, 2021, the first and only USB update for European machines was released, build dated April 15th, 2021. It adds 26 songs, removes 3 songs, and it also includes the following changes:
    • The 7 EXTRA SAVIOR songs from the DDR 20th Anniversary Songs event are available for normal play.
    • 11 ときめきアイドル songs are available for normal play. (DREAMING-ING!! was added in a previous update.)
    • Another 4 songs, including both The 7th KAC Entry Songs and both Follow & RT campaign songs, are available for normal play.
    • 2 RINON'S ADVENTURE3 songs (Neutrino and Cosy Catastrophe) and 2 EXTRA EXCLUSIVE songs (IN BETWEEN and Love You More) are available for play on FINAL STAGE.
    • The 3 removed songs include only my railgun, 回レ！雪月花 and 放課後ストライド, subsequently after their removal in Dance Dance Revolution A20 PLUS.
    • Song difficulties updated to the levels detailed below. No difficulty changes from Dance Dance Revolution A20 PLUS were used, despite being the current version at the time of update.
    • The KONAMI and e-amusement logo were updated to the present design.
    • YUNI's outfit was updated, replacing the Dance Dance Revolution A logo on her T-shirt with the A20 logo.
    • All four KONAMI 50th Anniversary Memorial songs and the ひなビタ♪'s Sweet Smile Pajamas Party songs remain absent, despite being on the default song list in other regions.
      • Pursuer, Vanquish The Ghost, ENDYMION and ACE FOR ACES also remain unavailable.
    • Despite being released in May 2021, the build date is listed as .
  • New songs: 155 (Asia), 127 (North America), 67 (Europe)
  • Total songs: 820 (Asia), 784 (North America), 630 (Europe, 667 songs in Event Mode)

New Songlist[]

Main article: Dance Dance Revolution A/Songs

Trivia[]

  • KONAMI released a HANDS UP IN THE AIR / U1 preview in DDR 2014 for a week.
  • KONAMI also uploaded a headliners post on their website.[2]

References[]

  1. ↑ https://twitter.com/ryu_g_ddr/status/700931864853245954
  2. ↑ http://p.eagate.573.jp/game/ddr/ddra/p/index.html

Sources[]

Dance Dance Revolution Arcade Games
Main Arcade Series DDR (1998) • DDR 2ndMIX • DDR 2ndMIX CLUB VERSIONS • DDR 3rdMIX • DDR 4thMIX • DDR 5thMIX • DDRMAX • DDRMAX2 • DDR EXTREME • DDR SuperNOVA • DDR SuperNOVA2 • DDR X • DDR X2 • DDR X3 VS 2ndMIX • DDR (2013) • DDR (2014) • DDR A • DDR A20 • DDR A20 PLUS • DDR A3 • DDR WORLD
Spinoffs DS TKD • DDR Solo BASS MIX • DDR Karaoke MIX • DDR Solo 2000 • DS DCT • DDR Karaoke MIX 2nd • DDR KIDS • DS Disney's RAVE
Foreign Releases Dancing Stage • DS EuroMIX • DDR USA • DS EuroMIX2 • DS Fusion
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