Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX, or DDR Ultramix, is the sixth home version of Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR for short, is a music video game series introduced by Konami in 1998. It was first released as an arcade game in Japan, and several variations have been produced, including those for home use. It is part of the Bemani music game series, and has... Dance Dance Revolution to be released in the The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America¹, the States, or (archaically) Columbia — is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii... United States, and the first DDR game to be released on the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for various computing devices. Its best known product... Microsoft Xbox and a Controller S The Xbox is Microsofts game console, released on November 15, 2001. It is Microsofts first independent venture into the console arena, after having collaborated with Sega in porting Windows CE to the Sega Dreamcast console. The price is currently 149 USD, 149 EUR... Xbox The Nintendo GameCube is an example of a popular video game console. A video game console is a dedicated electronic device designed to play video games. Often the output device is a separate television or a computer monitor. Once, video game consoles were easily distinguishable from personal computers: consoles used... video game console. It was released by Konami Corporation (コナミ) is a leading video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1969 in Osaka, Japan by Kagemasa Kozuki. It is now headquartered in Tokyo. Over the years, Konami has created some of the biggest and most memorable video games. From the vampire hunting... Konami exclusively in World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and in population after Eurasia and Africa. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the... North America on November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 42 days remaining. Events 1-1899 461 - St. Hilarius becomes Pope. 1493 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to go ashore on an island he only saw for the first time... November 19th, 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. Pascal Couchepin becomes President of the Confederation in... 2003, though an adaptation called Dancing Stage Unleashed was created in World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. It is conventionally considered a continent, which, in this case, is more of a cultural distinction than a geographic one. ( National Geographic, however, officially recognises... Europe. It comes with 51 songs, nine of which are hidden and unlockable. 15 of those songs were new to Dance Dance Revolution.

DDR Ultramix was developed and published by Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii.

The interface used is a recoloring and smoothing of the song wheel interface first introduced in the US in DDRMAX. The names of the difficulty modes are "Light," Standard," and "Heavy," just as they were in DDRMAX. By pressing the Start button, you can change the sorting method from the default (New songs first, then returning songs, then unlocked songs) to an alphabetical sort, a sort by song speed in BPM, and a sort by popularity.

Gameplay

The general premise of DDR Ultramix is the same as other Dance Dance Revolution games. One player can play using one dance pad (Single play style), Two players can play using one dance pad each (Versus play style), or One player can play using both dance pads (Double play style).

A player must step to the beat, matching the beat to the arrows presented to them on screen by stepping on arrows on a metal-and-plexiglass dance stage. Depending on the timing of each step, the step is scored "PERFECT," "GREAT," "GOOD," "BOO" or "MISS." A health bar is on the screen, and starts half-way at the beginning of the routine. PERFECT and GREAT steps increase the health bar until it is full. BOO and MISS steps diminish it. GOOD steps have no effect either way. If a player accumulates too many BOOs or MISSes in rapid succession, and the health bar fully diminishes, then they fail the songs.

Freeze Arrows, introduced in DDRMAX, have returned. Instead of just stepping on the arrow, you have to hold it for as long as the green arrow line remains on the screen. If you hit the arrow and keep it held, you score an "O.K.", which scores six dance points. If you do not succeed, it scores an "N.G.", with is worth nothing when your dance points and grade are calculated. OKs help build up the health bar, and NGs diminish it. You get extra base score points for successfully holding a freeze arrow.

At the end of each song, the player sees their accumulated points and how many of each kind of step they stepped. They also get a letter grade, ranging from E (only seen in two player modes when one player fails but the other passes) to AAA (all steps PERFECT), solely determined by the kind of steps they make.

There are two scoring systems: the long-score system used to determine rankings, and an independent dance point system used to determine the grade.

The long-score system is changed. Bonus points have been eliminated, and now the maximum score for a song is the foot-rating for that routine multiplied by 50 million. The highest number of points possible for a single song is 500 million points for a 10-foot song. Bonus points are also added based on performance.

The dance-point system uses raw step values to determine the grade. It goes by the following formula: A PERFECT step adds two points, a GREAT step adds one point, a GOOD step is worth nothing, a BOO step takes away four points, and a MISS step takes away eight points. An O.K. freeze adds six points, and an N.G. freeze is worth nothing. The dance points are also tied to the life bar. As always, if you take too many bad steps and deplete the life bar, you will fail, and the game will end immediately. In two-player games, if one player fails, they can continue dancing, but it ceases to accumulate dance points for the failed player, accumulates score points at only 10 points per step, and automatically gives the failed player an 'E' for the song.

How a dance score is connected to a grade is unknown, but the grading system is known to be somewhat more lenient than arcade DDR games.

There is no Arcade-style gameplay in DDR Ultramix. The regular game continues in Event Mode, where the dancer plays songs until they decide to quit. If a song is failed, the player is sent back to the song wheel.

Backgrounds

Dancing characters can be turned on or off in the Options menu. They are on by default. Only two dancers are available. Afro is the dancer for the first player, and Lady is the dancer for the second player.

Full motion video, usually abbreviated as FMV, is a popular term for television-quality film or animation in a video game. The first use of FMV began in the early 1990s when personal computers and consoles became technically capable of utilizing more than a few minutes worth of movies in... Full motion video backgrounds can also be turned on or off in the Options menu. They are off by default. Both can be on at the same time, but some gamers complain that the game slows down when both are on, so most gamers use one or the other.

Groove Radar

The Groove Radar is a graphical representation based on a five-point difficulty system. The five skill areas are as follows:

• Stream is the ability to smoothly go through from step to step. This is determined by the number of steps in the song.

• Voltage is the ability to hit the fastest steps consistently. This is determined by the fastest tempo of the song, and how long such tempo is sustained in aggregate.

• Air is the ability to hit "jump steps," steps that require you to hit two arrows at the same time. This is determined by the number of jump steps.

• Chaos is the ability to navigate rapidly-changing step patterns. This is determined by analyzing the overall step routine.

• Freeze is the ability to hold onto the freeze arrows. This is determined by the number of freeze arrows.

The foot-rating system of measuring song difficulty is also used. The representation appears beneath the Groove Radar graphic.

Modifiers

Modifiers are changes that can be made to modify the step routine. A menu is available to make these modifications easily. This menu can be accessed by holding the Green select button when you choose your song.

Some of the available modifiers include the following:

• Speed mods change the speed at which the arrows scroll on the screen. You can increase it to multipliers of 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 5x or 8x. The default is "1x."

• Boost, when turned on, causes the arrows to accelerate as they near the step zone. The default is "Off."

• Appearance mods change how the arrows appear on the screen. The default is "Visible." "Hidden" makes the arrow fade out halfway up the screen. "Sudden" makes the arrow fade in halfway up the screen. "Stealth" means the arrows are not visible at all.

• Turn mods affect the pattern of the arrows themselves. The default is "Off." "Left" turns all the arrows 90 degrees left. "Right" turns all the arrows 90 degrees right. "Mirror" flips the step pattern so that all left and right arrows swap, and all up and down arrows swap. "Shuffle" creates a random swap of the arrows, and can vary from turn to turn.

• Other mods affect the difficulty of the step routine. The default is "Off." "Little" eliminates all steps that are more frequent than standard 1/4 steps. "Flat" makes all the arrows appear the same, regardless of their step fraction. "Solo" changes the colors of the arrows to the colors used in Dance Dance Revolution Solo, or DDR Solo, is a music video game series introduced by Konami in 1999. It is a spin-off of the Dance Dance Revolution series, featuring a smaller arcade cabinet and dance pad, two new arrows (diagonal up-left and up-right), and new gameplay modes... DDR Solo 2000. "Dark", a new modifier in DDRMAX2, removes the "step zone," forcing the player to rely solely on the beat to determine when to step.

• Scroll mods affect the direction in which arrows scroll. The default is "Normal." "Reverse" makes the arrows scroll from top to bottom instead of bottom to top. The health bar is also moved to the bottom.

• Freeze can turn the Freeze Arrows on or off. The default is "On."

• Step is the last chance to change the difficulty of the song. The default is whichever difficulty you selected before choosing the song.

Challenge Mode a.k.a. Mission Mode

The Challenge Mode in DDR Ultramix is nothing like the Oni Mode in US DDRMAX or arcade DDRMAX2. In fact, a version of it would appear in US Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME is the seventh home version of Dance Dance Revolution to be released in the United States. It was released by Konami on September 18th, 2004 for the Sony Playstation 2 video game console. DDR EXTREME contains a total of 70 songs, 26 of which are hidden... DDR EXTREME as Mission Mode. Players must complete a series of tasks of increasing difficulty in order to get more unlocks.

Workout Mode

Workout Mode is a special mode where you can play songs and have the game keep track of your exercise performance, such as calories burned.

Xbox Live Capability

Live Mode takes advantage of the Xbox Live is a subscription-based online gaming service for Microsofts Xbox video game console. It was released on November 15, 2002 and allows players to play games with or against other Xbox Live players from around the world. Features Xbox Live provides, as standard, voice communications (through a... Xbox Live online gaming service. An This article is about the Internet, the extensive, worldwide computer network available to the public. An internet is a more general term for any set of interconnected computer networks that are connected by internetworking. Graphic representation of the WWW information network structure around Wikipedia, as represented by hyperlinks The Internet... internet connection is required. In Live Mode, players can play online against other players around North America. It keeps track of global rankings.

By Xbox Live, players can download song packs that add new songs to the game. For DDR Ultramix, six song packs are available in the United States at a price of $5.00 each. Each song pack has five songs in it. These song packs can be used in DDR Ultramix 2, but song packs from the latter cannot be used nor purchased on DDR Ultramix.

External links

• Konami (US Home Page) (http://www.konami.com/), makers of DDR.
• Official DDR Ultramix Website (http://www.konamihwi.com/ddr_ultramix/)