Mungyodance (or MGD, as it's also known) is a video game unlike other video games. Instead of a controller where you have to button mash, you stand on a panel with four arrows and follow the arrow that show up on the screen, by stepping on the matching arrows with your feet and hands.
In short, Mungyodance is essentially what DanceDanceRevolution would be like with a Furry Fandom facelift. The Mungyodance trilogy was created by an individual known as Renard (aka Ren Queenston), using StepMania as its engine, and the game takes many influences and features from fellow SM game In the Groove; such as mines, extremely difficult charts, and modes involving visual distractions and effects applied to the arrows themselves.
Three games have been released in the series. The second (appropriately titled Mungyodance 2, released in 2007) added almost 300 new songs, changed the scoring system to be just "hit/miss" like a certain popular American rhythm game from 2007, and added two Interface Screw features (modbombs and Extra Mode, the former functioning much like the mines of ITG, but applying a visual distraction for a few moments when stepped on). Mungyodance 3: The Third Rave was released in August 2008, adding another 300 new songs, a new life system, different difficulty levels triggering completely different versions of songs, and a new unlock system. And yes, most of the artwork for the songs do involve anthros.
This game provides examples of:
- After Boss Recovery: On MGD3, hold arrows give out lives when held. Boss Rush happens to have segments between songs that only consist of a rapid L/R run of holds.
- Awesome Music: Video Games: While the series does have its fair share of awesome songs, it does borrow awesome music from other video games (especially in 3), such as Rez, Jet Set Radio, Ridge Racernote , Sonic Rush, beatmania, Tekken, Wangan Midnight, Ollie King & Mega Man.
- Boss Rush: One of the nonstop mixes on MGD3 is in fact, a Boss Rush, titled Boss Rush.
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Nerd On Acid
- Downloadable Content: The second and third have had at least 1 expansion pack of additional songs. The third game had a second pack in the works, but it was canceled.
- Earn Your Fun: On MGD3, all the unlockable songs become visible and playable on every third song played. Beating a locked song while in this state will unlock it permanently.
- Easter Egg: Just try playing Dash Hopes III on Another, or Dash Hopes II with a speed of 6x on MGD3. Trust me.
- The opening splash for MGD3 is from F-Zero GX.
- Expy: The entire game is an expy of either In the Groove or DanceDanceRevolution, the Destination series is a parody of DDR's constantly remixed boss songs (i.e. Paranoia, Trip Machine, etc), "Due in One Hour" and "Dis" are parodies,
Suspiciously Similar Song, or influenced by "DUE_TOMORROW" (from beatmania) and Vertex (from ITG) respectively, etc - Furry Fandom: Masterminded by a promiment member of, Renard. So of course, expect a lot of anthro art.
- The presence of "Move Your Dead Bones" on MGD3 is in fact a reference to this too. However, it averts it by including its "actual" music video instead (which features scenes from Beyond Re-Animator).
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Pro, INSANE, Another)
- I Have Many Names: Renard, who much like the average Bemani artist, has a thousand different pen names. note
- Interface Screw: In two forms beginning on MGD2, the Mod Bombs (similar to mines from In the Groove, except that they apply a modifier to the arrows when hit), and Extra Mode (Which is essentially Marathon Mode from ITG, but with just single songs instead of courses)
- Lyrical Dissonance: MGD2 has a remix of "Cancer" originally by My Chemical Romance, set to happy hardcore dance music.
- Rank Inflation: Averted, as the evaluation has gotten progressively simpler throughout the series, starting with DDR-style letter grades, then a ranking out of 1-8 paws, and then just a straight "hits/misses" tally. The first game even used DDR-styled judgements per step, but these were dropped for hits/misses on the second.
- Stealth Pun: The MGD3 data files have the .yif extension.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The "EX" songs on MGD3, which invariably uses a remix of the song it is attached to, or a completely different one (case in point, Dash Hopes III EX)
- Unwinnable: Dash Hopes III. Dash Hopes was supposed to be this, but someone cleared it. Then Dash Hopes 2 was at first considered this as well, but turns out some players are quite god tier
.
