Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA
Developer	Konami
Publisher	Konami
Release Date	Arcade (EU) April 28, 2006 (NA) May 15, 2006 (JP) July 12, 2006 PlayStation 2 (NA) September 26, 2006 (JP) January 25, 2007 (EU) April 27, 2007
Genre	Music & Exercise
Series	Dance Dance Revolution
Platforms	Arcade PlayStation 2
Modes	Single player, Multiplayer

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA (Dancing Stage SuperNOVA in Europe) is an arcade game in the Dance Dance Revolution series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Europe on April 28, 2006, followed shortly by the United States release on May 15. Unlike previous DDR arcade releases, the versions for Europe, United States, and Japan have the same features and song list. The European version is its 5th arcade release, and the first since Dancing Stage Fusion in 2004. The North American version is its 3rd arcade release, and the first since Dance Dance Revolution USA in 2000. The Japanese version is its 9th traditional arcade release, and the first since Dance Dance Revolution Extreme in 2002.

The release contains 303 songs. Of those, 64 are completely new to DDR (including three Extra Stage songs and a One More Extra Stage), and a total of 57 songs are from home versions of DDR and are appearing on an arcade machine for the first time. Of the songs that are new to DDR, 19 are licensed. There are two sets of unlockable songs revealed on the section of the DDR SuperNova website labeled "Secret". The first set is accessed by choosing Expert Mode, and passing the final stage with an AA or better. These songs are Healing-D-Vision by DE-STRAD, Fascination MAXX by 100-200-400, and Fascination ~eternal love mix~ by 2MB. The second set is unlocked by clearing any Secret Song (a song unlocked by the first method) in EXTRA STAGE. The song unlocked by this method is CHAOS by DE-SIRE retunes.

General Information / Changes

• First Dance Dance Revolution arcade game to receive a worldwide release.
• First Dance Dance Revolution arcade game on KONAMI's BEMANI Python 2 hardware. This results in a far crisper picture quality and superior sound quality.
  • However, the transition to the new hardware resulted in various timing issues, which were later rectified with an update disc.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to support e-AMUSEMENT. Only Japanese cabinets were supported.
  • Cabinets in other regions were updated through discs mailed to arcade operators.
• First Japanese mainline arcade Dance Dance Revolution game to use the 2003-2013 KONAMI logo.
• STANDARD and HEAVY difficulties have been renamed to DIFFICULT and EXPERT respectively. In addition, LIGHT has been reverted back to BASIC, which was previously used from Dance Dance Revolution to Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX. These names have been intact since in the arcade series.
  • DIFFICULT and EXPERT were previously used in Dance Dance Revolution CS (America) and Dance Dance Revolution USA.
• The difficulty panel has been changed, displaying all five difficulties on rows.
  • The rows corresponding to charts that a song does not have are present, but dimmed.
    • BEGINNER difficulty is always dimmed in Double mode, as no songs have BEGINNER charts in Double.
  • The panel was previously used in Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX, but without BEGINNER and CHALLENGE levels.
• In the BEGINNER difficulty, background movies are now allowed and it no longer uses dancers as assists.
• First Dance Dance Revolution arcade game with animated backgrounds on the menu screens.
• Subtitles for every song are now merged with song titles at the right side.
• First Japanese mainline arcade Dance Dance Revolution game with videos for certain songs that remove on-screen dancers.
• Main game mode has been split into four, each with a different song list: Easy, Medium, Difficult, and All Music.
• Dancer names for high scores were extended from 4 to 8 characters.
• Introduces Tutorial Mode, which shows lessons for beginning players. A player must step a correct pattern to continue to the next lesson.
• First main arcade Dance Dance Revolution game to feature BATTLE as a game mode, based on the Dance Magic mode previously seen in Dancing Stage featuring Disney's RAVE.
• Jumps count as a single note for combo purposes once again, and has been the standard since in the arcade series.
• Some modifiers have been renamed:
  • LITTLE, which removes notes not on a quarter beat, was renamed to CUT.
  • SOLO, which replicates the arrow coloring scheme used in the Dance Dance Revolution Solo sub-series, was renamed to RAINBOW.
• The JUMP modifier has been added, and is turned on by default. Turning it off will remove jumps.
• The NOTE modifier has been added, along with choices of modifiers VIVID, FLAT, and RAINBOW.
  • Unlike in earlier releases, selecting RAINBOW does not force both players to use RAINBOW-colored notes. As such, it is no longer possible to use RAINBOW and FLAT together.
• Backgrounds and generic background movies for songs have been removed. Instead, songs that don't have their own videos instead have dancers dance in several different backdrops.
  • Most of the unique videos from Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME2 were carried over to Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA.
• Songs don't have labels next to them on the banners anymore.
• Playable characters return to the series in a mainline arcade release for the first time since Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX.
  • The dance routines introduced in Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX replace the old motion capture moves.
  • Only one dancer is allowed in VERSUS play.
• All previous Dancemania licenses (except for KONAMI original remixes) have been removed.
• Final Japanese Dance Dance Revolution game to advertise the Dancemania label on the game cabinet and website, as KONAMI would cut off of its deal with TOSHIBA-EMI shortly after this game's release.
  • However, unlike previous Dance Dance Revolution titles containing promotion for the label, these ads were not seen in-game (the i-dance label is still mentioned in the credits).
  • As such, Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA's soundtrack is the first full game soundtrack to be released by KONAMI themselves.
• The LIFE4 gauge which can be played on CHALLENGE mode is now displayed as four sections of a fully filled gauge.
  • The LIFE4 recovery mechanic has also changed, with only one life added after clearing an odd-numbered stage. Previously, lives were added based on the difficulty level played.
• Several lines from announcer Londell "Taz" Hicks were re-recorded for SuperNOVA and its sequel.
  • This includes some of the combo counts and the "Yes!" cue.
  • These new lines would later be used in the DDR SELECTION mode of Dance Dance Revolution A, in both the DDR EXTREME and DDR SuperNOVA2 modes.
• First Dance Dance Revolution arcade game to feature songs from the ULTRAMIX Xbox game series.
• First mainline Dance Dance Revolution arcade game to feature a licensed song originally debuting on a European CS Dancing Stage game.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game where the first song under the current highlighted folder will be automatically selected if countdown timer's time is up. The player is not given the chance to press down Start button for options.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to introduce the RISKY modifier, whereas a single combo break or N.G. will cause an instant stage failure. The modifier when used, will display a gauge with only one life left as seen in Challenge mode.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to allow sorting by difficulty.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to show the stage result screen after a FAILED stage.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to show the arrows decreasing in opacity upon reaching the stepping zone when using HIDDEN, and the reverse when using SUDDEN.
• First Dance Dance Revolution arcade game to show the selected song's banner during the stage display screen.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to show a DANGER message on the life gauge.
• Last Dance Dance Revolution game until Dance Dance Revolution A3 to use fully filled up, non-refilling life gauge on EXTRA STAGE.
• Only Dance Dance Revolution game that shows top 50 selected songs by the players. DDRMAX, DDRMAX2, EXTREME, and SuperNOVA2 onwards show only the top 30.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game since Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX where NONSTOP courses had only one difficulty selectable. This was reverted in the sequel.
• First Dance Dance Revolution game to have doors for gameplay transitions since Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX.
• Last arcade Dance Dance Revolution release to use the name Dancing Stage in European territory due to SuperNOVA 2 not getting a European arcade release, as Dance Dance Revolution X would later ditch the Dancing Stage name in Europe.
• The DDR EXTREME folder is absent in Dancing Stage SuperNOVA.
• The system background music was composed by NAOKI.
• The color labeling on the Music Select screen has been modified from EXTREME:
  • Yellow for new Dancemania/EMI licenses and licensed song covers.
  • Purple for new Konami original songs.
  • Green for new BEMANI crossover songs.
  • Blue for console Dance Dance Revolution songs making their arcade debut.
  • White for old songs.
  • Red for EXTRA STAGE songs.
• New songs: 120
• Total songs: 304 (including the timed license Beautiful Life)

Specifications

The game was initially released in an updated cabinet with a new CPU core and a 32-inch high-definition CRT. The new dedicated cabinets are considerably less deep than their predecessors. An upgrade to current JAMMA DDR cabinets was made available in October 2006.

The CPU core is actually a modified PlayStation 2 with a hard drive upgrade and modified graphics processor to permit the HD signal display on the flat-screen CRT monitor. One of the criticisms about the arcade port of Dancing Stage Fusion was that it was essentially the home version game with only very slight modification played in an actual PS2. DDR SuperNova, however, is a whole new game made specifically for the arcade powered on a modified PS2. It has, however, been ported to a home version, though the home version and arcade versions have slightly different songlists (the main difference being different licensed songs for the arcade and home versions).

The game's user interface is inspired by Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2, the Japanese counterpart Dance Dance Revolution Strike and its European counterpart, Dancing Stage MAX. The backgrounds of the selection screens rotate colors between red, blue, and green, and have a wireframe motif. The three main difficulties of normal gameplay, Light, Standard, and Heavy, were renamed to Basic, Difficult, and Expert.

Release

The American version was released on May 15, with the first confirmed sighting at Disneyland in Anaheim, California at the Tomorrowland Starcade. The Japanese version was delayed slightly so that the game software could be updated to fix the reported timing issues, and was later released with an extra song (the aforementioned remix of Flow) in late July 2006.

Gameplay

Core gameplay in SuperNova did not change much from previous versions, although the scoring system received a major overhaul:

SuperNova's scoring system has been greatly simplified from prior DDR versions. As in In the Groove and the Challenge or "Oni" Mode in DDRMAX2 and DDR Extreme, all steps in the song are now valued equally; no longer will later steps in the song be worth more than earlier steps. All songs are worth a maximum of 10,000,000 points. Each Perfect step is worth 10M/n (where n is the number of steps plus three times of number of freezes in the song), and each Great is worth 10M/2n. Unlike DDRMAX through Extreme, double steps ("jumps") only add 1 to the combo counter instead of 2. Songs are also scored invisibly to the player by "Dance Points," which determine which letter grade is given to the player; each Perfect step is worth 2 Dance Points, a Great step is worth 1 Dance Point, and an OK on a Freeze Arrow is worth 2 Dance Points. Goods, Almosts, Boos, and NGs are worth 0 dance points; unlike DDRMAX through Extreme, they do not subtract from the Dance Point total. The maximum Dance Point score is therefore equal to double the number of steps plus two times of number of freezes in the song. Each individual song has its own high score, which is briefly displayed when the song is selected, but before it loads.

Interface & graphics

The screen refreshes at a full speed of 60 frames per second. Unlike previous recent games, only previous songs from recent home versions or crossovers from Beatmania IIDX contain full motion video backgrounds. New songs instead, contain live-rendered backgrounds with dancing characters for the first time in an arcade mix since Dance Dance Revolution 5thMix.

Foot ranking

Debuting in the original Dance Dance Revolution, foot rankings have been the staple indicator for a song's difficulty. Originally on a scale of one to eight "feet," it has since then been expanded to a scale of one to ten, with flashing ten footers being used to indicate songs that are more difficult than can be displayed on the one to ten scale. SuperNOVA uses a mixed Difficulty Display which combines the Groove Radar, with the Foot Ranking display of that from Dance Dance Revolution 5thMix, which shows all available step chart and rankings, instead of displaying the rankings one at a time, ala the DDRMAX-generation of games. However, the Groove Radar only displays graphical representations of the currently selected difficulty for each player.

Modifiers

The options menu was redesigned on Supernova, and is still accessed by holding down the start button when picking a song. The "Solo" modifier was renamed to "Rainbow", and a new noteskin was added that resembles StepMania's "Note" skin; it is functionally similar to "Rainbow", but the colors are more distinctive. (This noteskin was actually available on most previous home DDR games, through a setting on the options menu; for example, in DDRMAX, it can be accessed through the Graphic Options menu by switching the arrow display to "TYPE2".) Jumps can also be converted to single steps or removed entirely.

Extra Stage

If the player receives an AA or better grade (a score of 9,500,000 or higher, and thus 95% or more of the total Dance Points possible) on their final stage playing on Expert or Challenge difficulty, an Extra Stage is earned. Any song may be chosen for the Extra Stage, although depending on the game mode chosen at the beginning of the game, an additional song which is not normally available is added to the song list. The Extra Stage may only be played on Expert difficulty. The song modifiers are pre-set and may not be changed. Finally, the Extra Stage's life meter follows different rules; instead of starting half-full and (re)filling as the player hits steps accurately, the life meter starts completely filled, but cannot recover. Approximately five "Almost" and/or "Boo" steps will deplete the meter and fail the song.

If the starting game mode was Easy or Medium, the Extra Stage song is Healing-D-Vision by De-Strad, a 10-foot difficulty song with a BPM of 180 which speeds up to 360 near the end. Note that this song was originally rated a "9" before the patch released in mid-September. If the starting game mode was Hard or All Music, the Extra Stage song is Fascination MAXX by 100-200-400, a flashing-10-foot difficulty song with a BPM which shifts between 100, 200, and 400. The sync patch for DDR SuperNOVA, released in mid-September 2006 added another Extra Stage song, Fascination ~eternal love mix~ by 2MB. It is a remix of Fascination MAXX that also has a shifting BPM and contains pauses.

Regardless of song, the forced modifiers are x1.5, Rainbow, and Reverse.

One More Extra Stage (Encore Extra Stage)

The 'One More Extra Stage', also known as the Encore Extra Stage, was introduced in DDRMAX and is always a fixed song to play, with a set of predetermined modifiers. One More Extra Stage uses a "Sudden Death" life bar; the player automatically fails if they get any Good, Almost, Boo, or NG steps. In SuperNova, it is obtained by passing Healing-D-Vision or getting at least an A grade on Fascination MAXX or Fascination ~eternal love mix~ during the first Extra Stage.

In SuperNOVA, the designated song for the One More Extra Stage is CHAOS by DE-SIRE retunes, a mid-tempo to moderately fast song with an unusual rhythm and erratic stops in the beat – at least 42 of them – making it very difficult to follow. It is the first One More Extra Stage to have a foot rating of 10. There are no modifiers on CHAOS; in fact, the song must be played at the default settings all around.

Game modes

In addition to the four basic difficulty levels of Easy, Medium, Hard (Difficult), and All Music, the following selections are available:

Freeplay Mode is a mode where you can pick songs, styles, characters, diffuculties, and planets.

Nonstop Mode allows the player to play one of several set courses without stopping. It is selecable when you are selecting the difficulty for the song. Its scoring is the same as a normal game, and is otherwise functionally identical to Extreme's Nonstop mode. The only difference is that in Extreme, the player was able to select a "Normal" or "Difficult" level for the course, whereas in Supernova, all courses have only one difficulty level. (resumes the difficulty selection at SuperNova 2.)

Challenge Mode, also referred to as Oni Mode, formerly known as Challenging Mode, requires you to complete a set course of songs, with difficulties set and, in some cases, different mods. Song play options are disabled in Oni Mode, and the player must play them all at normal scroll and whatever option(s) the machine deems is part of the course. Unlike Nonstop Mode, you have to be perfect with your steps. The life bar is replaced with 4 Parts of the Whole Dance Gauge. If you get a GOOD, ALMOST, BOO or NG up to four times in any one song, it fails you out and the game ends. Your score is derived from the dance point system, and is the number of possible dance points you earned. ALMOSTs and BOOs do not take away from your dance points. This mode also has changed in that the player's combo increases with Greats, rather than having them not affect the current combo. Also note that life recovery is much harder: only one life can be recovered every two songs.

Options Mode is a mode where you can fix something

Stellar Master Mode is a mode where you do 10 different planets and each planet has 3 feats do 3, 4, or, 5 songs on Extremely Easy, Very Easy, Very Hard, or Extremely Hard. Unlock 1, 2, or 3 songs. Defeat the master stellar dancer by getting B or 100 or 30 or 1,000 or 50, or AAA or no Boos. Completing these feats will unlock songs, arrows, back up dancers and more. There are 10 planets: Pop Corn, GLOW, UGUISU, Red Dolphin, Velocity, TWIN HEARTS, PiERiA, PHANTOM, NITRO, THE LAST, and a bonus one, called PIZZA BOX. You can only get PIZZA BOX by clearing all of the planets.

Characters

There are 8 characters available in this game including 3 new characters. One additional new character was CS exclusive.

Returning:

• Disco (Afro)
• Emi
• Rage
• Jenny
• Baby-Lon

New:

• Robo-Zukin
• Gus
• Ruby
• PiX (CS Exclusive)

Home Versions

3 home versions based on SuperNova were released in Japan, the United States, and in Europe for the PlayStation 2:

The Japanese home version was released on January 25, 2007 alongside the official soundtrack. The game itself is a direct arcade port featuring nearly all the new songs which debuted, and also console exclusives such as Soul Crash, Baby's Tears (スカイガールズ・オプニングテーマ), "Moonster", and Silver Platform - I wanna get your heart -.

Main article: Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova (North America) Main article: Dancing Stage SuperNova (Europe) The American and European home versions of SuperNova contained new songs from the Arcade version, along with other localized licensed tracks, such as Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy and additional features carried over from previous home versions such as support for the EyeToy and online play.

General Information / Changes

NA version

• Five songs are only playable online.
  • Due to the shutdown of the Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA CS servers, they are no longer available for play. However, these songs were later made available in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2 CS (North America) as regular unlockable songs.
• Only three licenses are retained from the arcade version: CENTERFOLD(130BPM move it remix), JERK IT OUT, and MR.DABADA (Groove Wonder Remix). The rest are replaced with a brand-new set of licenses and some Dancing Stage crossovers.
• First North American PlayStation 2 Dance Dance Revolution game to not include Information Mode.
• First North American PlayStation 2 Dance Dance Revolution game to have an official website.
• Total songs: 74 (79, if including the online exclusive songs)

JP version

• Beautiful Life and DOESN'T REALLY MATTER are missing from the song list.
• Unlike the North America CS version of SuperNOVA, there is no online mode.
  • As such the five online exclusive songs (Feelings Won't Fade(Extend Trance Mix), HONEY♂PUNCH, NIJIIRO, Silver Platform - I wanna get your heart -, and Trim), are fully playable offline.
• First Japanese PlayStation 2 Dance Dance Revolution release to support 480p, which is done by holding X and Δ together when starting the game.
• Can unlock everything in Dance Dance Revolution STR!KE through System Data Support.
• Total songs: 84

EU version

• Based on the North American CS port of SuperNOVA, with all of the KONAMI originals retained, but the original licenses were replaced with 10 new ones.
• Much like the Japanese CS version of SuperNOVA, the five online-exclusive songs from the North American CS version (Feelings Won't Fade(Extend Trance Mix), HONEY♂PUNCH, NIJIIRO, Silver Platform - I wanna get your heart -, and Trim) are available for play offline.
• Language settings available for English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
• Total songs: 69

Song List

Main article: Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA/Songs

The official soundtrack is available in the United States as an MP3 download on Amazon MP3, or as an AAC download on iTunes.

Gallery

External links

• Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA DDR SuperNOVA Gateway (Japan, America & Europe)
• Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA Konami US product page

Sources

• https://remywiki.com/AC_DDR_SuperNOVA
• https://remywiki.com/CS_DDR_SuperNOVA_JP
• https://remywiki.com/CS_DDR_SuperNOVA_NA
• https://remywiki.com/CS_DS_SuperNOVA