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Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party

by Mike Gamin - October 25, 2007, 6:40 am EDT
Total comments: 12

8.5

Dance away your sorrows!

Dance Dance Revolution is viewed by many as Konami's attempt at cashing in on EA's Madden philosophy. That philosophy is to release a new version of a game, with only slight changes from the previous version, every year and charging full price for it. In Madden, the team rosters change. In DDR, the song list changes. However, PS2 owners were the biggest victims of this philosophy. Those who have owned only Nintendo consoles have only seen one previous DDR game released, and that was Mario Mix for the GameCube. Mario Mix wasn't a traditional game either, as it featured a cut-scene driven story mode and a toned down difficulty. So that makes Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party the first normal DDR game to appear on a Nintendo console. If you only own Nintendo consoles and/or haven't had the pleasure of playing a DDR game before, you should stop reading now and just go pick this version up. It's one of the most accessible rhythm games ever to be released (rivaled only by the likes of Guitar Hero and Elite Beat Agents).

So what about the people who own three or four DDR games on PS2? Don't just write Hottest Party off as another set of songs to dance to. There are two well conceived additions that may just make it the hottest DDR party yet. Firstly, Konami took full advantage of the motion sensors in the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. While dancing on the mat with their feet, players can also hold the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in their hands. Sometimes, instead of just the normal arrows, Remote icons will scroll up from the bottom of the screen. The one corresponding with the left hand always shows up in the left arrow column, while the right hand one always shows up in the right arrow column. These hand shakes add a layer of complication to the songs that make it surprisingly complex. It feels a lot like the old "rub your stomach while tapping your head" trick. The only flaw with the added layer is that the shakes just aren't as precise as the mat presses. Therefore, achieving "Perfect" ratings on them is kind of a crap shoot. If you are a good enough DDR player that completely perfect runs are what you strive for, you'll probably want to shut off the hand icons. Yes, you can shut them off. The developers were smart enough not to force the new mode on dancing purists.

The other highlight of Hottest Party is the multiplayer support. While you need a room the size of an airplane hangar to pull it off, it does support a full four players with a screen full of scrolling arrows. The multiplayer fun doesn't stop there, either. There are also two cooperative dancing modes that are incredibly fun. In both, only one set of dance arrows is on the screen, as if you were playing single player. Every participating player must try and perform the same moves at the same time. In one cooperative mode, probably the more difficult of the two, the only goal is that no one in the group can get a single "Boo" rating. As soon as a "Boo" rating happens, the song quits, and you fail. The camaraderie between players that this mode promotes is huge. For our group, it was like intoxicated line dancing at a wedding, where form actually matters! The other scoring mode lowers the stress levels a bit and reverts to a standard DDR scoring pattern. The cooperative twist is that whichever player hits the beat the best counts for the team. Therefore, in this mode, high scores are much easier to achieve than in a single player mode. It is a ton of fun to throttle the difficulty way up and see if the hardest songs can be completed together.

Obviously, in order to play these great multiplayer modes, four dance mats are needed. Obtaining this many mats can be an expensive proposition. Thankfully, the mat included with the game plugs right into the GameCube controller ports on the Wii. It is most likely just a re-skinned version of the Mario Mix mat. Therefore, those who own Mario Mix will already have one or two additional mats at their fingertips, as those older mats work flawlessly. This GameCube compatibility also aids in the search for new mats, as all of the third party mats released in the GameCube days should also work with Hottest Party. While it would have been nice if the new mats used the Wii's wireless technology, ease of finding additional mats may make up for that shortcoming.

Really, the only other thing to touch on is the song list. Hottest Party was marketed as having a large variety of songs, covering the last 40 years of popular releases. That statement is very close to the truth, but almost every song still consists of a strong techno beat. If you don't think you can get past a barrage of "boom-tiss, boom-tiss, boom-tiss" music and still enjoy dancing, Hottest Party probably isn't for you. Most DDR fans will realize that the music is really secondary as long as it has a strong beat, and they can still enjoy the frantic dancing.

Not only is Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party the first traditional DDR game to hit a Nintendo platform, it also may be the best version on any platform yet. It's incredibly refreshing to see a new incarnation of this game have such a great set of new modes to go along with the tried and true. Pick this up and start throwing your own Hottest Parties.

Score

Graphics Sound Control Gameplay Lastability Final
8 7 7 9.5 9 8.5
Graphics
8

Arrows move smoothly, even with four sets on the screen at once. 480p resolution is supported. Characters are a little cheesy, but they don't affect the gameplay in any way.

Sound
7

It'd be nice to see some more genres represented, but the soundtrack is made up of a fairly varied list of dance and techno hits from several generations.

Control
7

Hand shaking and dancing at the same time is so complex, it's fun! The precision required for "Perfect" ratings on hand shakes is a little bit too high for the Wii Remote to consistently nail.

Gameplay
9.5

Traditional DDR gameplay is outstanding. All of the new features can be turned on and off as the player sees fit. Multiplayer cooperative modes are a perfect complement to the experience.

Lastability
9

As with almost every DDR game, the difficulty gets so high that the game will continue to challenge players for a long time. Also, if you have all of the needed mats, Hottest Party will find a place in your Wii at plenty of get-togethers.

Final
8.5

Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party is the best game yet in the long running series. While some people will still be turned off by the amount of physical activity required, it really fits well with what the Wii has been all about since day one, and it doesn't have the "been there, done that" feel of most of the previous DDR releases.

Summary

Pros
  • Awesome co-op modes
  • Four player support
  • Fun hand shaking
  • Optional hand shaking
Cons
  • Almost completely techno music
  • Hand shaking precision issues
Review Page 2: Conclusion

Talkback

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorOctober 25, 2007

First off, this is a crap review. There have been a total of five DDR games for Nintendo Systems. Perhaps if Pale had spent more time researching and less time playing, he could have started this review off properly. Man, the quality of reviews here on NWR has fallen.

Anywhoo, so how does the Four Player mode work? Four Wii Remotes + Four Wireless Dance Pads = 8 items....?

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorOctober 25, 2007

Yes, failing to count ridiculous ports to the Game Boy nullifies everything. I was tempted to leave out the space in Game Boy just to further nullify this statement but I didn't!

=P

Also, yes, in four player mode, if you have the hand shaking turned on, you need four of everything. 4 mats. 4 remotes. 4 nunchuks.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorOctober 25, 2007

So, does this mean the Wii can connect wirelessly to more than seven objects? Hmmm....

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorOctober 25, 2007

Mats aren't wireless. :-/

They are just mario mix mats with a new skin.

I tested multiplayer using my Mario Mix mats and my Mom's. face-icon-small-smile.gif

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorOctober 25, 2007

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=21349&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=
What happened to wireless pads?!?

Anywhoo, I assume the Mad Catz pad works as well, since it is officially licensed....

Flames_of_chaosLukasz Balicki, Staff AlumnusOctober 25, 2007

Well Pale these mats are slightly better than the Mario Mix pads if you notice the botton of the mat itself, the material they added makes it harder for the mat to slip and slide which is really a nice feature. But I really agree with this review, and kudos to you for not whining that there are no real speed mods to the game, I personally think that those were pointless anyways.

When I saw DDR Universe on the 360 the soundtrack and the crazy annoying background with the dancing character portrait flashing and shifting around made me feel turned off from the series but to me Hottest Part nailed everything just right (well the gimmicks are lame, and the precision of the wii remote + chuk isn't super accurate the way Konami implemented) but as a first mix on a Wii console I think its awesome.

NinGurl69 *hugglesOctober 25, 2007

CUE PROJECT A-KO MUSIKS

wulffman04October 25, 2007

Quote

Cons: Almost completely techno music


Don't be hatin' on the Techno!

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorOctober 25, 2007

Too much of anything is a bad thing. face-icon-small-smile.gif

darknight06October 25, 2007

The DDR Universe series is made by the group formally known as Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii. They were also responsible for the Ultramixes. They were also responsible for their inconsistent framerates. Konami Japan always went in one direction with the series, Hawaii went the other. Nowhere is that more apparent than the songlists which usually are night and day different, and the upcoming Universe 2 looks to be no different.



Truth be told, this is probably my most played Wii game currently. As a veteran player of about 4 years and going, this is probably one of the best mixes ever made, up there with Extreme 2 and the whole 4th mix era. The stepcharts are WAY better than usual, where even licensed music was given 8 and 9 foot charts without hesitation. A couple of remixes sound weird, but the rest of them were done a huge justice to the point where I couldn't even imagine the original version in the game (Gonna Make You Sweat, Too Little, Too Late). The only real improvements I could see being made to the game is adding doubles and fixing the hand gestures to work a little better so they can be incorporated more into the charts than they are. The gimmicks can stay, even if they are MUCH harder to keep up with on here then they were on DDR Mario Mix. IMO anything less than an 8 for a numerical score review is an instant joke. (see Gamespot's review, 1up review, IGN's 4 month late review)



WindyManSteven Rodriguez, Staff AlumnusOctober 25, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: darknight06
The DDR Universe series is made by the group formally known as Konami Computer Entertainment Hawaii. They were also responsible for the Ultramixes. They were also responsible for their inconsistent framerates. Konami Japan always went in one direction with the series, Hawaii went the other. Nowhere is that more apparent than the songlists which usually are night and day different, and the upcoming Universe 2 looks to be no different.

Truth be told, this is probably my most played Wii game currently. As a veteran player of about 4 years and going, this is probably one of the best mixes ever made, up there with Extreme 2 and the whole 4th mix era. The stepcharts are WAY better than usual, where even licensed music was given 8 and 9 foot charts without hesitation. A couple of remixes sound weird, but the rest of them were done a huge justice to the point where I couldn't even imagine the original version in the game (Gonna Make You Sweat, Too Little, Too Late). The only real improvements I could see being made to the game is adding doubles and fixing the hand gestures to work a little better so they can be incorporated more into the charts than they are. The gimmicks can stay, even if they are MUCH harder to keep up with on here then they were on DDR Mario Mix. IMO anything less than an 8 for a numerical score review is an instant joke. (see Gamespot's review)


I played Hottest Party a little at E3 and have to agree with you completely. I think the hand motions should have been O.K./N.G. instead of timed regualrly, but other than that they throw a curve at DDR vets. I came across LDRDL that had the right hand motion instead of the right step, and that really screwed me up. Mines are in there too, which Konami stole from In The Groove (which was a DDR ripoff itself, of course).

I'm probably going to get this when the game-only version comes around. I have a Red Octane pad for my PS2 and the PS2-GC adapter to make it work on the Wii. Hooray!

Technically speaking, this is only the second DDR to appear on Nintendo consoles in North America. (There was a Disney version for N64 in Japan, plus a couple of Game Boy versions a long time ago.)

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Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party Box Art

Genre Rhythm
Developer Konami
Players1 - 4

Worldwide Releases

na: Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party
Release Nov 06, 2007
PublisherKonami
RatingEveryone 10+
jpn: Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party
Release Oct 25, 2007
PublisherKonami
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