Not only is this the debut Dance Dance Revolution title on the Gamecube, but it also marks the first DDR game to include a Story mode. Now if you thought that a DDR story mode would be fast paced, entertaining, visually and audibly in-keeping with the pace of the hyper atmosphere of a Dance Dance Revolution title – in this case you’d be wrong.
Death...by dancing
The story (and I use the term loosely) goes something like this: someone has stolen four musical keys from Truffle Towers (oh no!) and plans to enslave all of Mushroom Kingdom and beyond, by sending out hypnotic pulsations which will launch the inhabitants into an unstoppable groove. Unfortunately no warning is given to the gamer who will also fall prey to hypnosis, stemming from the dullness of the experience as a whole. Irregardless, the gamer takes flight with Toad in the SS Brass on a journey to recover the keys from the different worlds, aptly named “World 1” through to “World 5” (no, not kidding.) In 1989 it was excusable not to name your levels, 16 years on – there is no excuse.
In the same vein as Mario Party, minigames are scattered throughout story mode and provide a time-out from dancing for the gamer. This time-out, however, feels like more of a chore as the games are simple and include uninspiring tasks. Whack-a-Goomba is exactly the same as your old whac-a-mole arcade game, the ‘Flagpole Leap’ has the gamer bongo-ing the mat at a speedy pace to give Mario the momentum to reach great heights up the pole. “Avalanche” sees the gamer helping Mario avoid rolling snowballs by darting left or right on command. There are 13 or so minigames, all of which are available outside story mode, but none of which are very stimulating unless you are easily pleased.
Cloud 9, a store which randomly appears during story mode allows the gamer to purchase items that can assist by replenishing the dance meter when it’s low or prevent the dance meter from dropping, amongst other advantages. This is an interesting inclusion but proves to be redundant, as the only thing preventing you from ‘clearing’ a song would be a sudden case of rigor mortis. As the items are story mode exclusive, it gives you the opportunity to wipe the floor on ‘hard’ in story mode (not that you would have any trouble doing it anyway), stock up on items early and familiarise yourself with the songs in free mode.
Mario takes out his frustration on innocent bystanders
Let’s get jiggy with your mat then – Mario is your main man, with his bro Luigi as understudy should you choose him. Now DS:MM plays like any standard DDR game, when the arrows line up with the step zone – step on the corresponding arrows, missing the arrows will cause the dance meter (DDR version of a ‘health bar’) to drop, which could ultimately mean failing the song. The obligatory Nintendo twist comes into play with the inclusion of “Mush Mode” items being incorporated into some songs where an item or creature will either modify the arrows or randomly insert itself into the flow of arrows and the gamer will either have to step on it or skip it – depending on what you have been instructed to do. This certainly livens up gameplay to an extent, but in this case is never challenging enough to cause the gamer to seriously falter.
The staple of a great DDR game is a pumping soundtrack. With this, everything else just seems to fall into place, but without it, everything seems to fall apart. A lot of revamped memorable tunes are present in DS:MM; side scrolling Super Mario music, to modern ‘classics’ from titles such as Wario World and Mario Kart: Double Dash which will tide over Ninty fans young and old. Randomly thrown in are other songs from who knows where to flesh out the list and give a bit of variety but they won’t be staying with you for a long time afterwards. If you thought the Crazy Frog was annoying, wait till you hear the remix of Twinkle Twinkle little star. Getting into a rhythm is quite difficult with many of the songs, due to a weak and muddled tempo, so knowing the music from the old sidescrollers off by heart would be an advantage to predict arrow motions. Players unfamiliar with the ‘classics’ may struggle.
The graphics are easily the high point of the game. Beautifully rendered characters and settings constantly grace the screen. While every character essentially dances the same, they can really bust-a-move when it’s called for. Drawing inspiration from break dancing, square dancing and other forms of getting-on-down, there is plenty to look at when playing – which is a good thing considering there will be plenty of opportunity to watch while you wait for the arrows to drag themselves up the screen, not to mention providing much needed eye candy during the bland story mode.
You'll be seeing this screen a lot
On the replayability front, the obvious intention was for the gamer to play through the story mode a couple of times to unlock all the extras, however, this isn’t very enticing considering the tedium which must be gone through to unlock them. The minigames get old, fast. Then there is the challenge of bettering yourself on every level of every song, but a lot of players will be able to do this without so much as breaking a sweat - it is simply too easy. Super Hard mode will challenge you, but again it can be conquered reasonably easily - working up to an A grading will take only a few goes. Unfortunately, all of this can be accomplished in a number of hours and it will leave you wondering what might have been. Multiplayer comes at a price, $50AU to be exact. You’ll need to give Nintendo of Australia a buzz and shell out for an extra mat in order to verse a friend. Of course, you could use the controller instead of a second mat (Konami has kindly included an option to have the controller vibrate in certain instances), but unless you get a huge buzz from letting your fingers do the dancing, it just won’t have the same impact as using your legs.
On the topic of using your legs, the game comes bundled with a surprisingly good quality dance mat. Complete with extra padding and a non-slip texture underneath, this is one of, if not, the best mats to ever come bundled with a DDR game and will make you wonder why these simple additions haven't been made to all bundled mats before.
Brought down by a debilitating story mode, dismissible minigames, having only half the song list up tempo enough to qualify to the DDR standard and not providing an adequate challenge – Dancing Stage Mario Mix is truly one of those titles that ‘could have been.’ Having to fork out another $50 for an extra mat just simply isn’t worth it and I’ve got a feeling there will be a stockpile of these mats sitting at Nintendo of Australia headquarters.
This game will appeal to loyal Mario fans and especially to the younger audience; the only catch is the kiddies will have to be able to read. If you’re a health nut and interested in using this game for exercise, register your player information including your weight then each time you play, the calories you burn will be counted for you. Gamers looking for a challenge and serious DDR’ers wanting to carve up the dance mat may prefer a visit to the local arcade.
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