Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix (Xbox)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 8.2 (4.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 11/24/2003
• Released on: 11/20/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix (Xbox) Review

Ever since Konami got into the dance business with the 1999 arcade release of Dance Dance Revolution, the game has remained largely the same. More than 10 separate games have been released, and many of these have come home to the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. A pretty standard set of options has accompanied the games on Sony's consoles, so, though the song list changes from game to game, the end result is roughly the same. Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix is the first time the series has hit the Xbox, and it stands head-and-shoulders above other versions by offering four-player options, online play, and downloadable content. This Xbox installment would have benefited from a slightly easier set of songs to make it less difficult for new players to pick up, but, beyond this caveat, it's the most feature-rich version of Dance Dance Revolution ever.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Konami's long-running rhythm series, Dance Dance Revolution is a game that is played with a flat dance mat that sits on your floor. It has four arrows on it. These arrows correspond to the onscreen action, which consists of arrows that rise to the top of the screen in time with the music. When the rising arrows hit a mark near the top of the screen, that's your cue to step on the proper arrow. It'll take a few hours for most people to really wrap their minds around the concept and to start reading the arrows with enough warning to really play properly. The game's training mode is helpful for those new players who can't seem to pick it up. The game can be played without a dance mat, but that really defeats the purpose.

DDR Ultramix has three difficulty settings, and each of the game's 45-plus tracks--which span several different genres of electronic music--has a different step pattern. Of course, some of these are harder than others. So, even on the light setting, you may find a few tracks that are too tough for you at first. As you work your way toward the more challenging songs, the game ramps up to an almost insane level of play. It would have been nice to see Ultramix provide a few of the older Dance Dance Revolution songs, since even the easier songs in this game are more difficult than some of the normal difficulty tracks from the older games in the series. But for that stuff, there's always the downloadable content option. DDR Ultramix is among the first Xbox games to offer premium content downloads, which means there's a price attached to the additions. The going rate for the moment is $5 for a pack of five songs, and one pack is currently available via Xbox Live. Since new games in the series tend not to mess around with the gameplay, each new installment is basically a song disc. So it's great to see an alternate method for getting new songs, and the price seems reasonable.

The game's main play mode simply lets you select a difficulty, lets you select a song, and lets you get to stepping. Battle mode is the offline multiplayer mode, and it's playable by up to four people at the same time, provided you can find a room large enough to comfortably use four dance mats. Workout mode lets you enter your weight, and then it keeps track of how many calories you're burning by playing the game. Different options available in this mode, like the ability to set a calorie target for your workout, make this a viable way to keep track of the exercise you're getting while playing the game. Challenge mode gives you specific goals to complete, like getting a string of "perfects" in a certain section of a song or finishing a song with a completely full dance gauge. Rounding out the offline modes is edit mode, which lets you create your own step patterns for the game's songs. It would have been a fantastic addition to see edit mode support custom soundtracks--thus effectively allowing you to place your own music into the game--but, unfortunately, this isn't an option.

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