Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix for Microsoft Xbox FAQ v.1.4 by Michael Kelehan mkfaqs2 at hotmail dot com Mike Kelehan on Xbox Live February 26, 2004 _________________ Table of Contents ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ I. Introduction II. Game Modes a. Game Mode b. Battle Mode i. Score Battle ii. Point Battle c. Workout Mode d. Challenge Mode e. Training Mode f. Edit Mode g. Records h. Options III. Xbox Live a. How to Play b. Live Features i. Friends List ii. Players List iii. Voice Options iv. Player Options v. Player Rankings vi. Download New Content c. Etiquette IV. Songs a. Initial Songs b. Hidden Songs c. Download Songs i. Song Pack 1 ii. Song Pack 2 iii. Song Pack 3 V. DDR Strategy a. Health Tips b. Feel the Beat c. Stay Off the Center! d. Tricky Step Patterns i. Triples ii. Crossovers iii. Gallops iv. Streams VI. Dance Pads a. Mat Options i. Xbox Mats ii. PlayStation Soft Mats iii. PlayStation Hard Platforms b. Mat Modification VII. FAQ VIII. DDR Terminology IX. Version History X. Closing _______________ I. Introduction ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Welcome to the Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix FAQ. Every mix of DDR except for this one has a FAQ, so it's high time one gets made, I say. First, I'll talk to the audience new to the game. Dance Dance Revolution is a very simple game: arrows scroll to the top of the screen, and when one hits the top, you press the corresponding button on your dance pad. If the arrow is longer than usual, you hold it down until it's off the screen. If you miss, you lose life; if you hit it at the right time, you gain life. Run out of life, you're done, but make it to the end of the song and you pass. That's it. It's easy to learn, but as you might imagine, it can get crazy later on... and horribly fun. DDR is a member of Konami's Bemani series, which consists of rhythm games that use special controllers. You CAN play the game with a normal Xbox controller, but that's just nowhere near as fun as moving your body to play. This FAQ will assume that you're using a dance pad. What makes this mix different from the numerous mixes on the PS1 and PS2? New to DDR are Battle Mode, for 1-4 players, and Xbox Live internet play. New to the US is Challenge Mode. All of these modes will be explained in the next section. What do other mixes have that this doesn't? Beginner and Lesson mode for the new players, Oni and Nonstop modes for the experts. Also, this has only two background dancers... but then, DDRMAX had zero. ______________ II. Game Modes ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ This is the meat of the game, for one or two players. First you pick the type of game: Single, for one player; Versus, for two players; or Double, for one player on two dance pads. If you have the means for Double, I highly recommend trying it. Next, you pick your difficulty, either Light, Standard, or Heavy. Every song has three different sets of steps, one for each of these settings. Light steps are easier than Standard steps for the same song, which are in turn easier than Heavy steps. However, all difficulties have a wide range; Max 300 on Light is harder than After the Game of Love on Heavy. Okay, now we get to the song selection. Use left and right to pick your song. If you want to change difficulties, press up twice to go easier and down twice to go harder. To resort the songs, press Start. Doing so switches between normal song order, sort by speed, sort alphabetically, and sort by how often it's been played. Under the song's banner on the left of the screen is a number of feet, from one to ten. The more feet, the harder the song. There's also the Groove Radar, which requires a Ph.D. to read. Air is how many jumps are in the song, Freeze is how many freeze arrows you'll see, and the other three just tell you how tired you'll be afterwards. To be more specific, it's widely believed that Stream is the overall density of the steps, Voltage is the peak density of the steps, and Chaos is the irregularity of the steps, but Konami hasn't ever (to my knowledge) gone on the record with exactly what they mean, so I wouldn't worry about them. Generally, the higher the area of the radar, the harder the song... but it's easier to just go by feet. Press A to select your song, or B to go back a screen. If you hold A, you can change options, like the speed of the arrows (turning this up can make slower songs easier to read), the time you get to see the arrows (make them disappear halfway or just appear halfway), or change the difficulty if you forgot to earlier. New to the Xbox version are Help Arrows, which flash yellow. If you turn this option on, successfully hitting a Help Arrow will give you back a good deal of life. Now, we're playing. Step accurately to get a high score. Don't fail. The less on your mind now, the better. When an arrow reaches the top, it gives you one of these five words telling you how well you hit it: Perfect: Timing was spot-on. You get life back, a good amount of points, and your combo counter increases by one. Combos mean nothing aside from personal glory, being able to tell your friends, "I got a 200 combo!" Great: You hit it pretty well. You'll get a little life back, a few points, and your combo goes up one. Good: Timing was so-so. Your life won't be affected, but you won't get any points. This or any worse ranking will reset your combo to zero. Almost: Timing could be a lot better. You'll lose life. Boo: You were way off, or didn't hit it at all. You'll lose a good amount of life. Once you're done, you'll get a grade based on how well you did, ranging from E (failed) to AAA (got all Perfects). Ready to play again? Here, you can compete against friends to see who's the best dancer. If you want, you can even play against computer players... although why you'd want to escapes me. i. Score Battle For two to four players. Pick a song and a difficulty setting, and play until the song is over. Whoever gets the most points wins. It's like the regular Game Mode, except all players must be on the same difficulty level. ii. Point Battle This one's more interesting. It's only for two players. Each player gets 16 points, and every time a player makes a step worse than the other, they lose a point. For instance, if player 1 gets a Great while player 2 gets a Perfect, player 1 loses a point. The game ends when one player reaches zero. If that never happens, whoever has the most points at the end of a song wins. It's a great way to determine who's better at a hard song without playing through the whole thing and killing yourself. Are you fat? Do you want to stop being fat? Play this mode to track how many calories you burn while playing the game. Back in the day, the Japanese DDR 4th Mix and Extra Mix had this mode, where you have to meet strange challenges to pass stages. These might be to get all Goods on a song, or dance to one song while another plays... crazy stuff. Now, this mode hits the US, and maybe you'll like it. I don't play this mode ever, since I'm on Live all the time, but all the challenges are self-explanatory. If a song is bothering you with its difficulty, try it here. You can play without worrying about failure, or slow the song down to learn complex step patterns. You can even turn on Assist, which is a metronome that helps you keep the beat. Make your own steps to songs, save them to the hard drive, and play them. Can you make better steps than Konami? Consult your instruction manual to learn the specifics of how to work the editor. View how often you've played each song and the best score you've gotten on it. You can also delete records, which you might do if someone else set them or you set them with a controller. Adjust all sorts of options, like difficulty, announcer voices (I say turn them off), dancers (same), and even turn the arrows into turtles. Why not, I say. ______________ III. Xbox Live ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ This... this is where the fun is. Play against total strangers or best friends. Find out if you're better than the rest of the world, and even if you're not, you'll have a great time doing it. You can play in either of the two battle modes with people across the country. While you're on Live, instructions for navigating the menus rotate on the bottom right of the screen. Look down there if said menus confuse and/or infuriate you. There are two ways you can join an existing game. Select Quickmatch to be randomly thrown in an open game. If you pick Optimatch, you can narrow down your search for specific songs, difficulties, and modes, and then select from a list of open games that match your criteria. To see a list of all open games, select Optimatch and leave all fields on "Any." A quick note: there are a few bugs on Optimatch. If you get an empty list of games, press up to see the games. If you get a short list of games, but none are yellow (indicating that you don't have one selected), press up to see more. But let's say there aren't any games open that you want to play. Make your own by selecting Create Game. You pick a song, pick a difficulty, pick a mode, and choose how many players can play. You choose how many slots to have open, each of which can be filled by another player. This doesn't include you, so if you wanted a game for up to 4 players, you'd leave 3 slots. Public slots can be joined by anyone, but private slots can only be joined by your Friends. When you create the game, you're the "host," and so you're responsible for starting the game, which we'll talk about in a bit. When you're in the game, you'll have a list of the players on the left, along with what type of controller they're using. If there's a plus-shaped icon, they're using an Xbox dance pad, while a Controller S indicates that the player is using either an Xbox controller or a PSX dance pad. On the right is a menu where you can access your Friends list, player list, and voice options, which will be covered in the next session. You can hit Quit to exit the game and go back to the Live menu. If you joined the game, the top button is Ready, which you have to click on before the game can start. The host can click Start when everyone else is ready. Unready players appear dimmed out to the host. During the game, you can see everyone's playfield. Everyone has the same arrows, so it's not necessary to look at anyone else's field. You know which one belongs to you because it has a number on the bottom. A green circle indicates a player that's connected to you, while a red one means that you lost your connection to that player, but they're still playing and you'll still get points if you beat them. At the end of the game, you see a results screen. You can see how everyone did, and talk to them about it. For everyone you beat, you get a point for the game rankings, so the more you play, the higher you'll rank. Once you press A, you're thrown back to the Live menu, so if you want to play again, you'll have to get into another game. i. Friends List You can maintain a list of Friends across the Live service, sort of like an instant messenger buddy list. It'll tell you who's online and in what game. You can invite some of them to join your game, even if they're playing something else. If you want to add someone to your Friends List, there are three ways. One, you can click on them from the Players List (which will come next) and send a Friend Invite. The next time they're on their Friends List, they'll see your invite, and can accept or decline it. You can also send an invite by manually entering the player's name in the Xbox Live Dashboard, which you get to by clicking Xbox Live on the main Dashboard when you boot up the system with no game in the drive. Finally, you can accept someone else's invite to add them to your list. Friends are mutual; if you're on someone's list, they're on yours. When you get a Friend Request while you're on Live, a blue icon that looks like a triangular man appears on the bottom right of your screen. When someone invites you to join their game, you'll get a blue icon with an envelope. Little-known fact: you can view the online status of your friends without being on Live at all. If you go to the Xbox Live section of Xbox.com and then go to My Live, you can sign in with your .Net Passport (Hotmail account) and link it to your Gamertag. You can then view what your friends are playing from any PC. ii. Players List If you click Players in a game, or go to Players List from Player Options, you can pull up a list of the last few people you've seen on Live. You can see their voice options as well, which we'll discuss in the next section. If you want to, you can invite any of them to your Friends List, or mute them if they're really getting on your nerves. iii. Voice Options Here, you can choose if you want other players' voices to go in your earpiece (default), through the TV (good if you want to hear players talking while you play, since it's a pain to dance with the headset on), or off, if you're tired of hearing people altogether. You can also turn on voice masking, but please don't. iv. Player Options Not too much fun stuff here. You can change your online status to make yourself appear offline, in case you want to play but are dodging your friends, you antisocial hermit. You can also go to the Players List and change your Voice Options. v. Player Rankings Are you in it for the fun, or the glory? Ultramix gives you both, with these rankings. Score and Point Battle Rankings are the real draw here, where whoever beat the most players gets the highest ranking. It also lists how many rivals everyone has played, so you can get an idea of who's winning all the time and who's brute forcing their way to the top. There are also rankings for offline song play, which uses your best score from all three difficulties, individually, on both Single and Double. Now, since score is a function of the number of feet (a maximum of 50,000,000 points times the number of feet), the highest Light Single scores will be AAAs on Ready Steady Go and La Senorita Virtual. I would've preferred individual song rankings, but what can you do. While viewing rankings, you can press A to go to one of three places on the list: Yourself, Top 100, and Friends. The first two are pretty obvious; the third takes you to a list of your friends and lets you choose who you want to view. You can then see exactly where they're ranked. Perfect for rivalries. I'll get you, Kloaked Spirit, if it's the last thing I doooooooooooo... The Y button will refresh the rankings, if you stay on the list for a while. For offline score rankings, press X to upload your scores. If you have a better one than the last one you uploaded, it'll send the higher one and show you how you improved in the rankings. vi. Download New Content This is the shop, where you can buy new songs. $5 for 5 songs is the going rate right now, and it'll probably stay that way. Rumor has it that Microsoft won't allow anything to be sold for less than $5, which is ridiculous, but then, that wouldn't be the first ridiculous rule in the video game industry. Remember that Sony used to have an all-games-must-have-endings rule, so no puzzle games, and Nintendo wouldn't allow the word "death" in game titles. The best and worst thing about playing online is the other players. They can be great, they can be awful. You want to be one of the former, don't you? 1. Stay calm. If someone doesn't start up the game, give them some time, or calmly ask them if they're ready to start. Don't get crazy about steps you miss, or players who beat you. 2. Shut up during the song. It's usually best to take your mic off while you play, so people don't hear you panting in exhaustion. If you want to say "Aw!" when you miss a step, or "Nice!" when someone full combos a tough part, go ahead; that's why we have voice chat. Screaming into the mic or singing along really, really pisses people off, and will 100% always get you muted by everyone. Remember, it saves who mutes you, so there are no second chances. 3. Tolerance is important. Other players may have a controller icon next to their name, indicating that they're either using a regular Xbox controller or a PSX dance mat. That's how they want to play, and it's not hurting you. Let them enjoy their game any way they want to. You can still win. 4. Don't use voice masking. Every Xbox Live game has voice masking, for privacy reasons. In actuality, it just annoys people, and makes it harder to understand what you say. Just don't use it. 5. Enjoy the game. This is a game; enjoy it. Don't get hung up on anything, like controller users or your mat acting up or ANYTHING. Just have fun. _________ IV. Songs ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ This is what you came for, isn't it? Ultramix doesn't have the highest number of songs ever, but it's still not too shabby. The song list will follow this format: SONG TITLE Artist Beats per minute (bpm) Difficulty on Single Light/Standard/Heavy Double Light/Standard/Heavy Information, if any The information could be the song's history, tips on playing it, or whatever I want. It's my FAQ. For hidden songs, the Information will always contain the conditions you need to meet to unlock them. .59 dj TAKA 134bpm 4/6/7 4/6/7 What's that name mean? .59 in Japanese is pronounced "tengokyuu," while "tengoku" means "heaven." Get it? A fun song to start out the song list. You'll see this online a lot; everyone seems to like it. Once you've got a hang of reading streams of arrows, this becomes a joy to play on Heavy. ABSOLUTE (CUFF-N-STUFF IT MIX) Thuggie D. 146bpm 3/6/6 4/7/7 A cool new mix of the DDR classic Absolute, which was originally a Beatmania classic. The part in the end will screw you up every time, and remember that steps are worth more points later in the song, so it can be beneficial to practice just the last few seconds in Training Mode. AFTER THE GAME OF LOVE NPD3 105bpm 1/4/5 2/4/6 This originally appeared in the US without its lyrics in Konamix as After the Game, but now you can hear it in its full beasty glory. How the game's rated E with it in there, I'll never know. This may be the first song you AAA, and it's the only one foot song in the game. If you want to start Doubles play with a one foot song, tough luck. BALLAD FOR YOU NM featuring Thomas Howard 64bpm 2/5/7 2/5/7 Thomas Howard returns with a song that, believe it or not, is even sappier than Silent Hill. The song, not the game. Without pumping up the speed, you'll have trouble with this one even on Standard. It's not seen online very often, simply because it's not too much fun. But maybe you'll like it. CAN'T STOP FALLIN' IN LOVE (SPEED MIX) Naoki 170bpm 4/6/9 4/6/9 A favorite from 5th Mix, making its US debut. Playing on Light can give a first-timer an opportunity to practice crossovers, and playing on Heavy isn't complicated but it gets your blood pumping. If you've got the skill to beat 9-footers and you're full of energy, this one can be a lot of fun, and will blow the minds of your friends. CANDY(HEART) Riyu Kosaka 180bpm 3/5/7 3/5/7 The version of Candy mysteriously absent from MAX2 US. Oddly enough, the Heavy steps in this one are the same as Candy(star)'s, which explains why I remember having more fun playing them in MAX2 JP. The Standard steps are still plenty fun, though. CASTLES IN THE SKY Ian Van Dahl featuring Marsha 140bpm 3/6/8 3/7/9 Exclusive US licensed track. You might lose the timing on some of the arrows when they switch to the offbeats, so watch the color of the arrows carefully. Also, on Heavy, watch for gallops where you might think you're doing 8th beats. Try it with the arrows sped up a few times to get the hang of where they are, and watch them carefully after that. DIVE Be For U 155bpm 4/5/8 4/6/7 Every DDR game since 4th Mix had a version of Dive, I think. This is the one that started it all. Fun steps on Light and Standard, not on Heavy I think. DO THAT THANG (M*A*S*H RADIO EDIT) Masai 123bpm 4/7/8 4/7/8 Exclusive US licensed track. Many think this is the best of them. It's the only one with a real video playing in the background. Steps aren't too rough, nor are they too simple. DROP THE BOMB SY S F MIX Scotty D. 150bpm 3/5/7 3/5/8 This was the big unlock in MAX US, which required playing 500 songs to unlock. You get to play it right out of the box. An online favorite, thoroughly enjoyable and not too tricky on any difficulty. DXY! TaQ 148bpm 4/6/8 4/6/8 Eh. ELECTRO TUNED (THE SUBS MIX) TaQ 125bpm 5/6/9 4/6/8 EXOTIC ETHNIC RevenG 190bpm 4/5/9 4/6/9 RevenG's always good for a challenge. HEALING VISION De-sire 49-196bpm 3/6/8 3/6/9 A good, new-agey track that you need to beat to get its tougher brother. It starts really slow, then picks up to become quite fast, so messing with the speed will bite you in the tail at some point. Your best bet to learn this, if you can't do it the normal way, is to practice it in Training Mode. HYPNOTIC CRISIS Blue Destroyers 134bpm 5/6/9 5/7/9 HYSTERIA Naoki190 190bpm 4/6/8 3/5/7 INFINITE PRAYER L. E. D. Light featuring Goro 137bpm 2/6/7 2/6/7 INSERTION (MACHINE GUN KELLY MIX) Thuggie D. 69-139bpm 3/5/7 3/6/7 What does that name MEAN? KEEP ON MOVIN' (DMX MIX) N. M. R.-typeG 132bpm 3/5/7 4/5/7 KEEP YA BODY MOVIN' Thuggie D. 95bpm 2/4/5 2/4/6 This is pretty slow, but it can be fun. New players like to play this one, and veterans can join in. Freestyling with your upper body just sort of happens. KIND LADY Okuyatos 134bpm 4/6/7 4/5/8 I dare you to tell me you don't like Kind Lady. I dare you. Enjoyable song, enjoyable steps... it's on every mix for a reason. LA SENORITA VIRTUAL 2MB 180bpm 7/8/8 6/7/8 The only song with roughly the same difficulty on all three difficulties, although they all have different steps. I wonder why they didn't include the original La Senorita; it's much better. LET THE BEAT HIT EM! (CLASSIC R&B STYLE) Stone Bros. 102bpm 3/5/6 3/5/6 LET'S TALK IT OVER Shin Murayama featuring Argie Phine 100bpm 2/5/6 2/4/7 LOOK TO THE SKY: TRUE COLOR MIX Sy S. F. featuring Anna 140bpm 3/5/7 2/5/7 I hope you like this guy's work. I hear tell DJ Sota is going to replace Naoki as the music director for future DDR versions. I look forward to it. LUV TO ME (DISCO MIX) Tiger Yamato 154bpm 4/7/9 4/8/8 You might be surprised at how much you like this song. I was. Originally from the now-obscure Bemani game Para Para Paradise. ON THE JAZZ Johnny Dynamite! 130bpm 2/5/7 3/5/7 Another favorite for new players. This is just an SOB on Heavy, though. You have to KNOW the song to be able to do it, and even then, it's rough. Again, try it sped up a few times. OVERBLAST!! L. E. D. Light 147bpm 3/6/7 3/5/8 Also fun. Knowing the song ahead of time can really help with some of the steps, so try it on Light and Standard before jumping in Heavy. PARANOIA ETERNAL STM200 204bpm 5/6/9 5/6/9 Every mix of DDR has had at least one mix of Paranoia. Some people have their favorite version, but if you ask me, they all sort of blend together. They're always known for their challenge, so good luck with this one. QUICKENING dj TAKA 150bpm 3/5/6 3/5/7 READY STEADY GO Paul Oakenfold 64-256bpm 7/8/9 6/8/9 Exclusive US licensed track. Don't be fooled into thinking this is super- tough, because it's not. The arrows speed up at one point where the song doesn't really do so; you'll know that part is coming when you see the arrows spaced out twice as much as before. Keep the same beat, and you're fine. SANA MOLLETE NE ENTE Togo Project featuring Sana 90bpm 2/5/8 2/5/8 "If it's only 90bpm, how can it be 8 feet?" You've clearly never heard of Bag. Try it on Heavy, just try it, without turning up the speed. Holy hell, did you see all those arrows? After playing it a few times, though, you can read them with some help from memorization. SECRET RENDEZ-VOUS Divas 98bpm 2/5/7 2/5/7 Good for beginners on Light, and another tough reader for Heavy without speeding up the arrows. SEXY PLANET Crystal Aliens 180bpm 5/6/7 4/5/7 Oni remix is actually a better song, which is rare, but we don't get that. SHINY DISCO BALLS Who Da Funk 132bpm 4/6/7 5/7/8 Exclusive US licensed track. The original version has more lyrics other than just the title, but they don't add too much. You like it or you don't; I think I do. SO IN LOVE Caramel S. 112bpm 3/6/7 4/6/7 Eh. SUPERSTAR DJ Rich featuring Tail Bros. 128bpm 5/6/8 4/6/8 SWEET SWEET (HEART) MAGIC Jun 180bpm 3/6/9 3/6/9 This one will get you on Heavy. It's got one of those pauses midway in the song that'll really trip you up if you're not expecting it... so expect it. THE EARTH LIGHT L. E. D. Light 144bpm 5/6/8 5/6/7 THERE 4 YOU Thuggie D. 112bpm 3/5/6 3/5/7 TRIP MACHINE (LUV MIX) 2MB 160bpm 6/7/8 7/8/9 The Trip Machines, like the Paranoias, are known for their challenge. They're built from the ground up for that purpose, although I would argue that they sound a lot better than the Paranoias. TSUGARU RevenG vs. De-Sire 160bpm 3/6/9 4/7/9 Ah, gallops. It's one of those songs that you try and say, "OH SWEET JESUS! HOW AM I EVER TO DO THAT?" And then you do, but just barely. You keep doing it, and it gets easier and easier, until it takes almost no effort to pass. At least, that's how it is for me.