History VideoGame / DanceDanceRevolution

** For X, due to cost concerns, North America and Europe did ''not'' get the highly anticipated new machine design that Japan got. Raw Thrills (who had previously worked with Konami on a arcade version of ''GuitarHero'') designed a more frugal variation for the American market. Unfortunately, these machines were plagued by a poor sound system, an uncalibrated monitor, and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Z51uOEFuI&feature=related very crappy pads]] with a single sheet of metal atop them. Some adjustments were made for X2 (including building the pads more like the pre-X design, and making the cabinet look a little more aesthetically pleasing), but problems still surfaced. Even worse, due to concerns that the SN2 to X hardware upgrade would be too much for operators to handle ([=SuperNOVA=] involved one too, but they managed), they refused to offer upgrade kits for legacy machines.

* BonusBoss: X2 featured ''Replicant D-Action'', an extra stage system inspired by that of recent ''{{beatmania}}'' (as if that wasn't the only [[RequiredSpinoffCrossover IIDX-related thing]] going on in X2). Certain songs were unlocked by meeting particular conditions in game. Completing all six songs unlocked the TrueFinalBoss for the Encore Extra Stage, and wiped out your progress on the previous 6. This was a very tedious ordeal, given that the final boss song on that version was quite the challenge.
** X3 does not have such a secret tier. However, a new event known as the "Extra Tour" began in May 2012, where different Evolved songs essentially go on a road trip across Japan, becoming available as Extra Stage songs in certain areas.

* ContinuityNod: The song and video for "Dance Dance Revolution" on Extreme is a remix of the opening theme from 1st to 4th Mix, and its Challenge routine is a [[NostalgiaLevel medley of chart fragments from notable songs]]
** Some of the 3D stages (especially in Hottest Party 2 and 3, X2, and X to an extent) have video screens that play some of the old FMV background videos from the [=DDRMAX/MAX2/Extreme=] era.
** The old arrow style from 1st to 5th Mix (characterized by a V-shaped cut in its end rather than a V-shaped cap) was an unlock on X.

* NostalgiaLevel: Dance Dance Revolution's Challenge steps feature bits and pieces of some of the more popular song's steps sprinkled throughout. Also, Paranoia Max (SMM Special), features a lot of patterns from its predecessors, [[ThatOneBoss even though most of them are going at double speed.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original trailer for DDR 2010 on the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=len-36qxifQ Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3]] showed a very different game; with 3D stages (like Hottest Party, but with much higher quality venues), a themable interface, DLC from ''every'' arcade DDR game, "Octo-Move" 8-panel mode, and mainstays such as Edit Mode, and alignment with the excellent song list of Hottest Party 3. But somehow, existence of it was only presented at E3 2009, and then it just vanished. But, when news of a [=PS3=] version re-surfaced in 2010, fans hoped it would finally be the game they were hoping for. What they got just threw everything out the window.
** However, things from this elusive version did show up elsewhere; much of the interface design got polished and used for X2 AC, and Octo-Move remained in a way on DDR PS3 ... but now only on Challenge charts, and with a very confusing layout that shoved the corner arrows in the same lanes as Left and Right (by contrast, Octo-Move would have given them all separate lanes, and would have been a mode of the same level as Single and Double). DDR PS3 did end up having ''some'' DLC, but not at the same extent originally promised, and it instead inherited much of its song list from "Hottest Party 4" on the Wii.

* CreatorBreakdown: Paranoia Hades, considered by many to be one of the most unsettling songs in the series, is believed to be an instance of this. For those who don't know, αTYPE-300 is Jun, writer of Happy Hardcore tracks such as SUNKiSS ♡ DROP, Raspberry♥Heart, and TRUE♥LOVE.

** The ultimate one is probably [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QIG7Gb62u4 Conga Oni from Universe 3]]. Usually, the licenses tend to be the ''easier'' songs.

** One of X3's boss songs, "PARANOiA Revolution", is played within 2nd Mix Mode, which emulates 2nd Mix's nuances. This means no speed mods, forced flat, and having to play a 10-footer in the skin of a game where 10-footers didn't even ''exist''.

** DDR X3's TrueFinalBoss "Tohoku EVOLVED" takes this to a whole new level: the LastNoteNightmare jump which comes after the song's supposed end, at over 1000 BPM, changes every time. While most Evolved songs do have variations with noticeably different music/routines for the second half of the song, this one doesn't. Combine that with Sudden Death, and you'll see why many players are failing right here.

** Battle Mode in the Playstation version of [=X2=] is filled to the brim with Fake Difficulty mods. For example, take a song that's challenging to begin with (like Moonster) and throw in random, semi-applicable modifiers at times, like Sudden on some arrows and double speed on others, and try not to fail.

** Somehow, the Universe games are notorious for frame rate issues. On a console of such power, how is this even ''possible''

** An interesting case is the boss songs on the Xbox 360 games which are harder simply because no one has made a decent dance pad that's compatible with the 360.

** Somehow, the Universe games are notorious for frame rate issues. Some players have been puzzled at how this can even happen on a Xbox 360 in a game like this.

* CapcomSequelStagnation: 3rd and 4th Mix had "Plus" updates, which added songs from their Korean versions and other tweaks (such as the ability to play Maniac difficulty without going to SSR mode on 3rd Mix, and a All Music mode on 4th)
* CanonImmigrant: Some songs had their first appearance in more obscure entries before showing up in the core arcade series, such as "AM-3P (303 Bass Mix)" (''Konamix'' -> ''Extreme'') and "Cutie Chaser (Morning Mix)" (''Oha Sta.'' -> ''MAX USA'' -> ''Extreme'').

** The old arrow style from 1st to 5th Mix (characterized by a V-shaped cut in its end rather than a V-shaped cap) is an unlock.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Tohoku EVOLVED" (the DarkerAndEdgier remix of "London EVOLVED", refers to 2011's devastating earthquake and tsunami which caused severe damage in the Tohoku region. When beaten as an Encore Extra Stage, the Cleared screen instead reads "Pray For All"

* RhythmGame
* SampledUp: Universe 3 features "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)", a song which samples Chicago's song "Street Player". One year later, Hottest Party 3 featured Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)", which is mainly him rapping over "75, Brazil Street", which also samples "Street Player". How meta can you go?

** The quality of the pads on a particular machine can vary depending on their condition, how often its repaired/cleaned out, etc. Poorly maintained cabinets can turn even the easiest song into a Gambol-grade struggle to get a decent score at all. A variation comes from the DDR X cabinets outside of Japan: someone will probably get a Perfect Full Combo on [[HarderThanHard Valkyrie dimension Oni]] before someone ever makes a DDR X cabinet in the U.S. work just as good as a Japanese model.

* BonusBoss: Similar to recent ''{{beatmania}}'' games, X2 had an extra stage system known as "Replicant D-Action", where certain songs are revealed by meeting specific patterns in the songs you play. Completing all six songs unlocked the TrueFinalBoss for the Encore Extra Stage, and wiped out your progress on the previous 6. (meaning that to do it again, you had to play them all AGAIN.)

** Quite a few of the 3D stages in recent games (especially in Hottest Party 2 and 3, and X and X2 to an extent) have video screens that play some of the old FMV background videos from the [=DDRMAX/MAX2/Extreme=] era. X3 also has a course of 2nd Mix revivals that does the same with the old sprite animations from that very version.

* ContinuityReboot: ''DDRMAX'' was supposed to be one since it changed so much: it introduced a new scoring system, re-named the difficulty levels, added full motion video backgrounds (and dumped the characters entirely), completely dropped the old level-based difficulty system in favor of the Groove Radar (a graph rating songs by their actual contents), added an options menu with more options to replace the old pad codes, introduced freeze arrows, the Extra Stage. But of course, it also removed ''every'' song from previous versions in favor of a completely new soundtrack. Boy, did Konami learn a huge lesson there.

** Arcade versions before DDR X (those on PS1- or PS2-derived hardware) rounded all notes' timing to 64th notes. This was fine for most songs, but it made "bag" and other songs using 24th notes very tricky to time perfectly. Songs with 12th notes, such as "Burning Heat", were affected to a lesser extent. Charts with this bug were fixed on DDR X. bag got a new Challenge chart on X2 which is exactly the same as the Expert chart but with the [[AscendedGlitch purposely broken timing]].

** Despite getting [=SuperNOVA=], Europe did not get the arcade version of [=SuperNOVA 2=] ''at all'', since Europe-wide export restrictions on the [=PlayStation 2=] revision used in the hardware (apparently, these restrictions did not suddenly took effect and prevented them from selling kits anymore. This was rectified on X, as it now uses a Windows-based computer, as with every other Bemani title. This didn't stop them from releasing a version for the ''home'' [=PS2=], however. Of course, as usual, [[BadExportForYou they managed to screw that one up too]], by giving them essentially a carbon copy of the American PS2 version with ''fewer'' songs (mainly by replacing most of the licenses with ''one'' ''EurovisionSongContest'' reject), and was ''way'' behind schedule.
** However, it seems like the tables have turned; Konami has all but given up on releasing versions of arcade Bemani titles on major consoles in Japan (except on portable devices, and even some of those are outsourced) .... except in America. In fact, much of the content on the new arcade version [=X3 vs. 2nd Mix=] comes from the Wii exclusives DDR 2010 and DDR II, which were released everywhere but ... surprise surprise, Japan! Despite the fact that DDR II plays catch-up on X2 AC in the same way as the [=PS2=] versions did (the "new version contains the later unlocks from the previous AC and ''some'' songs from the new one" pattern), X3 vs. 2nd Mix has to play catch-up on both DDR 2010 and DDR II. Hence, Japan gets two whole CS games worth of new songs they haven't "seen" before.
*** Combine Hottest Party 3 with DDR II and you pretty much have most of X2 AC. Nice.

* NonIndicativeDifficulty: The Challenge/Oni charts indicate that they're a harder difficulty than Expert/Heavy, yet for many songs they are slightly to significantly easier.
* NoBudget: Betson by far. Since [=SuperNOVA=], cabinets have been built on a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-CAmHSYRMAhave very slim budget]]. The cabinet problem got even worse on X; while Asia got extremely nice new cabinet design and the ability to retrofit old cabinets for the game, everyone else ''had'' to buy a new cabinet. Even worse, the new cabinets were [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITb6lzoy1Zw built to be as cheap as possible]], and suffered from numerous problems with the pads (which, just to show how lazy they were, were covered with ''one piece of metal with holes in it'' for gods sake!) and lag issues with the monitor. Some of these issues seemed to have been rectified upon the release of X2, although there are still reported issues.

** Averted in the film ''Yes Man'', where Jim Carrey's character plays ''Hana Ranman ~Flowers~'' on a [=SuperNOVA=] cabinet. Despite moving around a bit more than most players would, he actually performs the steps correctly, crossovers and all. Carrey was trained by an expert DDR player just for this scene.

* ProductPlacement: Until Extreme, DDR was the main vehicle used by record label Toshiba EMI to promote its dance music compilations ''Dancemania''; the label had made a deal with Konami to advertise the albums in-game, in exchange for letting them use songs from them as the bulk of their soundtrack (in fact, "DDR Solo Bass Mix" pretty much only featured songs from "Dancemania Bass" - bass as in Miami Bass). Additionally, the partnership also allowed the label to distribute the official soundtrack albums, which as a result could contain both the "licensed" music and the original songs. If this seems insignificant, think again: a lot of the iconic music of the franchise's early years came from this arrangement.

* VideoGameRemake: As indicated by its title, DDR X3 vs. 2nd Mix features "2nd Mix Mode", an apparent HD remix of DDR 2nd Mix, with most of the songs intact, and with HD graphics. This is most likely in honor of [=Dancemania=]'s 15th anniversary too (given how important Dancemania was in the early days of DDR), since EMI Japan is also producing a special re-issue of the 2nd Mix soundtrack in honor of the anniversary and as a tie-in for X3

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The "Master Songlist" (a file available in the data of every PS2 game) includes all the songs in the series that have appeared in their Arcade and Console incarnations. The songlist also includes a really good number of licenses and Konami Originals that never made the cut. But, sometimes the Master Songlist also revealed songs that would eventually appear on the next version.

** The title cards for the PARANOiA songs feature robots similar to Music/{{Kraftwerk}}'s [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ "The Robots"]].

** The DDR X announcer is probably the most hammiest of all. Combine that with his overly cheesy sounding lingo, and you got a hot diggidy pig!

** The quality of the pads on a particular machine can vary depending on their condition, how often its repaired/cleaned out, etc. Poorly maintained cabinets can turn even the easiest song into a Gambol-grade struggle to get a decent score at all. A variation comes from the DDR X cabinets outside of Japan: someone will probably get a Prefect Full Combo on Valkyrie Dimension Oni before you can have a DDR X machine in North America working just as good as a Japanese model.

* BadExportForYou: Has happened to various degrees. Usually due to differences in what kind of music is popular in certain areas, licensing, etc., For the hardcore players who are more used to what the Japanese arcade versions offer (or are on a neverending quest to get all perfects on ''every'' song ever stepped), the regional variations can quickly turn into OneGameForThePriceOfTwo meets [[{{MissionPackSequel}} Mission Pack Sequel]]
** The [=PlayStation=] versions based off the arcade titles were quite different between territories. The Japanese releases would be an accurate port of the arcade version, and even have some bonus content or songs from the next arcade version. Then for America, they get the branding and some of the original music from the corresponding arcade version, but almost everything that wasn't a Konami Original would get replaced by American pop (essentially, [[{{InNameOnly}} In Name And 50% Of The Content Only]]). If Europe were lucky, they'd get a game at all, but it would have European pop, and would be part of a completely separate continuity. be called Dancing Stage, and have little connection to the game its based off.
** Beginning on [=SuperNOVA=] (which was by the way, the first arcade version to get an almost consistent international release), Konami got the bright idea to release an American [=PS2=] version of it ''before'' the Japanese versions. Missing songs and features that came through unlocks or the Japanese [=PS2=] version got held over to the next release, if not at all. For the most insane example, just look at how significantly different the [=PlayStation=]'s "DDR X2" was in comparison to the arcade version.
** The Wii games, for the most part, avert and subvert this at the same time. Except for its tendency to use different logos in Europe (and eventually staying with the Hottest Party branding, even though American versions would reset the count on HP4), the Hottest Party games between America and Europe are almost identical. In Japan, the first one was ''close'' (with a few odd song replacements and a new boss America would not get until [=HP3=]), but the second and third editions diverged with completely different names, and a selection of J-pop to replace most of the American music.
** The debut of Konami's e-Amusement system (which stores statistics/progress, etc. on an online account accessed with a smart card reader) on [=SuperNOVA=] frustrated many American players, since the game's unlock system and other features had a dependency to it, and it's exclusive to Asia. This left American [=SuperNOVA=] cabinets without complete access to all of the game's content (although a software patch distributed via CD for sync issues ''did'' unlock one of the main boss songs for regular play).
*** However, you've got to give Konami credit for at least ''trying'': a ''[=SuperNOVA2=]'' machine in Naperville was the test site for a beta test of e-Amusement in the United States. Due to a lack of interest (most likely due to the fact that it was subscription-based and needed a bit of extra hardware to work, and even ''Golden Tee Live'' manages to pull off online functionality through either just a normal internet connection or a cellular network out of the box), it didn't launch officially, but code-based unlocks would also return on SN2, thankfully.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Many of the arrow skins, such as the Vivid, Note, and Solo/Rainbow will color the arrows differently depending on the type of the note (i.e. depending on whether it is a 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/16, etc.) The Flat note skin which was the only one available before 3rd mix (and in 3rd mix, is the default in SSR mode), averts this.
** The difficulties have also had signature colors; light blue for Beginner, orange for Light, magenta for Standard, green for Heavy, and blue for Challenge.
* ContinuityNod: The song and video for "Dance Dance Revolution" on Extreme is a remix of the opening themes from 1st to 4th Mix, and its Challenge routine is a [[NostalgiaLevel medley of chart fragments from notable songs]]
** Quite a few of the 3D stages in recent games (especially in Hottest Party 2 and 3, and X and X2 to an extent) have video walls that play some of the old background movies from [=DDRMAX/MAX2/Extreme=] era. X3 also has a course of 2nd Mix revivals that does the same with ''the old sprite animations from that very version.''
** Recent versions offer the old 1st to 5th Mix arrow style as an option (it appears similar to the current one, except its point has a V-shaped "cut" in it rather than a rounded edge.
* ContinuityReboot: ''DDRMAX'' was supposed to be one since it changed so much: it introduced a new scoring system, re-named the difficulty levels, added full motion video backgrounds (and dumped the characters entirely), completely dropped the old level-based difficulty system in favor of the Groove Radar, added an options menu with modifiers, freeze arrows, the Extra Stage, removed ''every'' song from previous versions in favor of a completely new soundtrack. Boy, did Konami learn a huge lesson there.
** A similar reset happened for the Wii and PlayStation 3 versions released in 2010, which were titled just "Dance Dance Revolution" in North America. The Wii version also brought an UnexpectedGameplayChange by removing the "gimmick" modes from Hottest Party and replacing it with a new "Choreography" mode, an extension of hand-based gameplay added on the Wii version to form actual routines using new motions with the Wii controllers (or, in other words, it was trying to be like ''JustDance''). In Europe however, they got re-branded as "Hottest Party 4" and "New Moves" respectively.
* CriticalAnnoyance: Flashing danger background and crowd booing. The arcade version of ''Extreme'' was particularly notable. If the player let their lifebar drop too low, the (usually cheerful) background videos would be suddenly replaced with [[NightmareFuel an animation of a shark swimming straight at you]]. [[UnstableEquilibrium This is unlikely to help you recover]].
** Beginning on the "Extreme U.S." engine (used by that, Extreme 2, and [=SuperNOVA=] among others), this was dropped in favor of a flashing "danger" text on the lifebar.

** DDR X3's TrueFinalBoss "Tohoku EVOLVED" takes this to a whole new level: the final jump, which to make things even worse comes after the song's supposed end ''and'' gets hit at over 1000 BPM in speed, changes every time. While most Evolved songs do have variations with noticeably different music/routines for the second half of the song, this one doesn't. Aside from that.

** In recent mixes, some classic songs have returned ... but with somewhat different charts.

* LuckyCharmsTitle: Numerous song titles. Especially songs by Jun. (Love♥Shine, Happy☆Angel, Kimono♥Princess, Sunkiss☆Drop, etc)

** Tohoku EVOLVED might be the ultimate example of this. Most of the song runs at 340 BPM, then the final chord comes and the music fades out...and then five full seconds later, the song goes up to 1020 BPM (triple speed) and there's '''one more jump''' that comes out of absolutely nowhere. Thanks to it being an EVOLVED song, this jump is ''random every time you play it''. It was even nastier when this song used to be only playable on Encore Extra Stage, because it was extremely likely that a player would fail right there on the last step.

** MAX. (period) suddenly doubles its speed from 300 to 600 BPM (a new record at the time).
** Healing-D-Vision on Challenge, for the vast majority of the song, is deceptively simple for its rating, until the ending which has about three seconds of what is probably the hardest possible step pattern in the game (LURU LDRD LURU LDRD etc.) at 12 steps per second.

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* [[HijackedByGanon Hijacked By Waluigi]]: Bowser, the usual BigBad of the ''SuperMarioBros.'' series, stays out of the plotline of ''Mario Mix'' until Mario or Luigi gets all of the {{MacGuffin}}s. He would have usurped the BigBad title too, had Waluigi, who initiated the plot in the first place because he wanted to TakeOverTheWorld, not have been fought ''very'' early on in the game, thus leaving the title in disuse for most of the game.

* TakeOverTheWorld: How Waluigi planned to do after he took the 4 music keys. [[spoiler:Bowser (Near the end of the story however) Stole the 4 music keys because he's tone deaf.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The "Master Songlist" (a file available in the data of every PS2 game) includes all the songs in the series that have appeared in their Arcade and Console incarnations. The songlist also includes a really good number of licenses and Konami Originals that never made the cut.