I got my shiny copy of DDRMax 2 early Friday afternoon, just before I was about to leave for class on time. I signed for the package, tore into the package, looked at the beautiful box, but then left to catch my class. When I got back home later, I tore into the game. ^_^
It seems that the cycle of odd sequels continues to be true! 3rd: Good! 4th: Bad. 5th: Good! 6th: Bad. 7th: Good! After playing around for the past year in arcades and other home versions, it seems that each time they wrong themselves, they find a way to make it right. Like the wrongs made in 4th Mix were corrected in Extra Mix. The wrongs made in 6th Mix were corrected in the US release of 6th Mix, DDRMax. This whole theory seems to mostly apply to the home versions, though, as 4th Mix Arcade is really good. Well, 6th Mix Arcade kinda sucks. But 8th Mix is damn impressive.
Anyway, 7th Mix holds its own as a fine Japanese compliment to the US release of DDRMax. 7th Mix goes a tiny step further with 3 more total songs. (74 songs compared to US Max's 71.) There are very few songs that appear in both Max2 JP and Max US. Only 10 or so.
The real step forward is the multitude of Oni courses in Max2, not just the amount, but the difficulty as well. I'm able to beat some Oni courses with some of the beginning courses being mostly standard difficulty, and only 5 songs. There's a total of 21 Oni courses, and 3 of them are "endless." Speaking of which, Endless Mode is back in DDR again (somewhere), which hasn't been in a home version since Extra Mix.
I made a page with the complete song list and the complete Oni course list: here
DDRMax2 is set to come over here in America (land of the free) in November. I wonder how extensive the changes will be with a package this great. A couple songs will disappear due to legal reasons, as always, but hey, we might gain some as well. Hopefully something better than Sandstorm by Darude this time, ugh.
Be sure to stop by McGregor Hall for DDR Sunday Nights because this is what we'll be playing for the remainder of the semester.