Awesome Music / DanceDanceRevolution

For this song, the violin, viola, and guitar were played live.
... I will write it again, but the violin was actually performed by human beings.
I studied "Grandes études de Paganini" and barely scratched what can be expressed with the violin.
Paganini, who is said to have sold his soul to the devil, destroyed the hearts of human performers.

—ARM, on "ENDYMION"

Dance Dance Revolution simply wouldn't be a proper Rhythm Game without its share of absolute bangers.

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• While not a MAX song, owing to its softer difficulty and different composer, MAXIMIZER is just a minute and a half of fast, pulse-pounding, hardcore techno goodness.
• Both versions of Candy ("Candy☆" and "Candy♥" from DDRMAX and DDRMAX 2, respectively) are equally good. "Candy☆" is a very fast, upbeat, and happy track that makes you forget that it's the One More Extra Stage of the entry it came from, while "Candy♥" is a slower, vocal version of it.
• ORION.78 (Civilization Mix). A combination of an old Okinawan folk song and a pumping techno beat.
• Healing Vision ~Angelic Mix~, a remix of the more mystical themed Healing Vision with techno to give it a more desperate and dire mood.
• UNBELIEVABLE (Sparky Remix), an upbeat, energetic tune courtesy of jun serving as the very first Encore Extra Stage of DDR X3. The song has a long version, which, like "New Decade", is playable in its debut game, DanceDanceRevolution II on the Wii, under the Replicant D-Action folder.
• "Pluto" is a dramatic piano/techno song which matches well with the desperation felt trying to survive or ace its charts. Even the Fake Difficulty stops almost feel acceptable in the face of a song that fits with them so well. Almost.
• Most, if not all, of the songs from DDR A's Extra Exclusive folder are awesome in their own right. Some highlights include:
  • New Century does a great job of feeling like a party song while still reminding you that it is to be taken seriously.
  • Come to Life by Arm of IOSYS fame is yet another high-speed upbeat party track that gives a solid challenge (its Challenge chart being the third Extra Exclusive level 18). The vocals courtesy of Nicole Curry are a nice and welcome touch.
  • Ishtar by Gekidan Record starts off with a western fantasy feel, then halfway through it incorporates elements of EDM. The result is an amazing blend of acoustic and electronic sound.
  • Neutrino starts with a space-like serenity and later takes a darker turn, fitting the difficulty spike that follows.
  • Cosy Catastrophe sounds like an epic fusion of techno and movie-style music.
• DDR A ends with ENDYMION, possibly one of the most amazing final boss songs in the history of DDR,t starts with a calm but strong string melody, then quickly blasts you through a fiery speedcore storm. It's an amazing clash between orchestral and hardcore techno, and perfectly fits its status as DDR A's hardest challenge. The composer of this song? The aforementioned ARM of IOSYS, who stresses that the violin parts were done live, with an actual human performer, and studied the works of Niccolo Paganini — the violinist rumored to have struck a Deal with the Devil — as part of producing the track.
• A20 has been praised for containing many awesome songs, especially within Extra Exclusive and the new Golden League system.
  • "Ace out" is the game's main menu music, although it deviates a bit once it gets to the drop that is used as the evaluation music — switching from its big room house sound to a more dubstep-like feel.
  • "F4SH10N" is, as the title suggests, pop-ish house music fit for runway voguing. Work those arrows, baby.
• "Hyper Twist" in DDR A20 Plus, a frantic and relatively fast paced song that can more than justify receiving an equally crazy chart loaded with crossovers.

• Dynamite Rave by Naoki Maeda, from Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix. A classic song that nails the Dance part of the series name and like something worthy of the Rave in its title. Though the original version was unfortunately lost and replaced with a less popular version after losing the rights to the original from DDR X onward.
• MAX 300 from Dance Dance Revolution 6th Mix (also known as DDRMAX). The first Extra Stage-exclusive (initially) song, and the first to clock in at 300 BPM. When DDRMAX was first released, being able to clear its Heavy/Expert charts was a huge deal.
  • Fascination MAXX. Taking leg-breaking insanity up to eleven and sounding awesome while doing it.
  • The sequel from DDRMAX 2, MaxX Unlimited, starts fairly similarly to "Max 300", with some easy feeling slowdowns. And then comes the stop followed by the 320 BPM speed up section, with a long sequence of jumps near the end that is awesome.
  • MAX would go on to become a series institution, with DDR EXTREME producing The legend of MAX. It starts with a much darker and edgier tone, solidified by being the fastest song yet at 333 BPM, briefly speeding up to 666 during the series' traditional freeze before a stop. From there it takes a more encouraging vibe even as the difficulty ramps up, with some encouraging voice clips in the background, before finishing off with its climax.
  • The less-remembered 2MB remix MAX.(period) (clean audio only link here), available only on the Japanese console version of Extreme. It was the utter peak of difficulty escalation in DDR before In The Groove's challenge-oriented design forced Konami to up the ante to match. The fourth wall gets a beating - the background video depicts recording sessions and the distorted voice is whispering "WHY DO YOU NEED KONAMI ORIGINAL SONGS?". The normally silent slowdown has a tiny glimpse of nostalgia to the first ever DDR mix, with the faint background music and step patterns taken from PARANOiA, the first boss song of the series. After a few seconds of standard MAX fare, the speed rockets to a staggering six hundred beats per minute, the fastest official song scrolling speed around that time. If you can finish such a ruthless attack against you, the song congratulates you with cheerful applause and "THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!". The rest of the MAX songs skirted the line between "legitimate song" and "difficulty justification", but MAX. is an unabashed attack towards the player. In DDR 2014, MAX.(period) was available as the Encore Extra Stage of the Replicant D-Ignition event. When the second phase began, however, MAX.(period) was moved down to the Extra Stage. Meanwhile, they added a challenge chart that was rated level 18. Getting a AA rank on either the Challenge or Hard chart would move you to the True Final Boss, Over The Period...
  • MAX 300 (Super-Max-Me Mix) (originally) from DDR Ultramix 2 on X-box, a remix of both MAX 300 and MaxX Unlimited (though mainly the latter). It takes elements from them to make a distinct yet familiar song with its own tricks up its sleeve, such as finishing with some of the longest fast BPM streams the series had seen up to that point.
  • DM Ashura's Ascended Fanboy mix deltaMAX starts with a large "100" in the background while a slow-moving but dense (on higher difficulties) pack of arrows attacks the player. Then the "100" increases in number, one-by-one, while the arrows start moving faster. Yep, that number is the BPM, and it's going to keep going up for the rest of the song. If you can survive this remorseless, no-holds-barred onslaught against you, you're congratulated with a massive blast of shine ending at Konami's lucky number, 573. The song itself is bits and pieces of the classic Maxes seamlessly mixed with original sounds. For added fun, the video makes a "checkpoint" effect every 100 BPM.
  • For the 20th Anniversary came yet another MAX 300 remix: MAX 360, which stays true to the original with elements of it throughout the song. But it also is even more intense in order to warrant its status as the Final Boss of the 20th Anniversary songs, with its technically undemanding but ruthlessly stamina draining charts.
• PARANOiA HADES from Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2. Think of it this way - one of the hardest songs in the game. Halfway in, the song drops in speed, then speeds up slightly again. Partway through that speed up (at 1:26 in the video), the build-up begins. Then, the song gives the vibe that "This next part is going to kick your ass." Add to that the disturbing backing video, and you actually fear the next part of the song, in the most awesome way. All of this by jun, by the way. Yes, the same jun who makes happy-go-lucky Lucky Charms Title songs like "KIMONO♥PRINCESS", "Happy☆Angel", and "EMERALD<3KISS".

• POSSESSION from DDR X2 AC starts with a serious tone, but gets surprisingly upbeat as it continues and culminates in a final section that even feels like it's cheering the player on to finish strong. It says something when there are no less than five official remixes of it, even getting an orchestral arrangement.
• Valkyrie Dimension, the True Final Boss of the Replicant D-Action event from DDR X2 AC. It set the bar high for songs that get the 19 rating with its exceptionally dire and frantic tone making abundantly clear that the player will be shown no mercy.

• PARANOiA Revolution from DDR X3's 2nd Mix Mode. A song with reverence to the PARANOiA series' legacy and a very dark tone befitting the game's 19 True Final Boss.
• DDR X3 brings "London EVOLVED" to the table, which varies between upbeat before its darker tone kicks in and ends with three variations:
  • Version A, with a brief breakdown followed by a climactic and intense ending.
  • Version B, which suddenly becomes Darker and Edgier at the end.
  • Version C, which does the inverse of Version B, ending on a happy note.
  • Tohoku EVOLVED, a special 2MB remix (or in this case, 2.1MB underground, to stay true to EVOLVED song tradition) dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. In contrast to "London EVOLVED", it has a more consistently upbeat tone to go with it and voice clips to shout out to the unfortunate victims of the catastrophe.
• New Decade, especially the long version. A frantic but upbeat tune that makes great use of samples from the series' past. Also doubles as That One Boss.

• Blew My Mind from DDR 2013. Another fast paced and upbeat tune that can't be underestimated.

• Over The "Period", the Encore Extra Stage song of the Replicant D-Ignition extra stage system. It starts at a very slow tempo, but, as to be expected with a 19, it's exceptionally chaotic and threatening with its large number of BPM changes.

• Immediately following a high-score run on ENDYMION is ACE FOR ACES, which gives a fitting sense of finality to the Extra Exclusive songs and DDR A as a whole. Oh, and it's the third Encore Extra Stage song in the series to have the Attack!! Perfect Full Combo criteria. Good luck.

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