This is a somewhat late 'impressions' of this game considering I've had it for 3 weeks. In those 3 weeks, I've played it enough times that I probably don't ever need to play it again.
Dance Dance Revolution Max has some shiny new things that make gameplay quite interesting, but its DDR down to the soul, and to me, this game was nothing more than a new set of songs. This game has no replay value what so-ever.
2 years ago, when DDR 3rd Mix came out on the Playstation 1, I played that game so much. Out of all DDRs, I've by far played this one the most. But hey, it was also my first, so it was all I had and how i got good at it. In DDR 3rd Mix, there were a billion things you could do in the game. There was Endless mode, Step Step mode, and Nonstop mode. There was so much, you could never completely do everything in it. Not to mention, there were close to 30 songs to unlock (I think).
I skipped 4th mix for some reason, and then 5th Mix was released.
Where the hell did all the modes go? Even though it had the great addition of some trance and techno tracks, the only replay value you had after unlocking the 15 some songs was the endless unlocking of photos in the gallery.
Then we reach todays mix, number 6th. Or renamed to DDRMax. What a piece of shit. I unlocked all 5 hidden songs, and got bored of half the songs within one whole hour. There are 5 new songs that are quite exquisite, along with some of my favorites from 5th mix. But beyond that... nothing. There is nothing more i can do in the game.
So, sadly it seems that the arcade cult hit has turned into an arcade port. Nothing more than the gameplay to get you by. And like the arcade game, you'll get bored of it once you run out of monetary change in your pockets.
So, this sucks.
But wait a minute now. The Dance Dance Revolution series has a quirk that I probably should have payed attention to before diving head first into the shallow pool that is DDRMax.
The odd sequels (3rd and 5th) are always better than the even sequels (excluding 2nd mix). The even sequels are always just shadows of the previous release. 4th mix's menu system echoed the 3rd mix quite closely. And then, 5th mix was released which rewrote the menu system all over. And now 6th mix's menu echoes 5th mix very closely again. A vicious cycle.
Konami knows this. Christ, they advertise DDRMax2 (7th mix) in the manual more than twice!
My finally word on the subject of DDRMax: "Hey look!! It's DDR on the ps2.. hoorah!! But wait, I can put 5th mix in my ps2 and now its also on the ps2!"
Also, another final word on the subject is that DDRMax2 comes out in October. Why the hell did i buy this? Well, I'm a fan and didn't know DDRMax would be this way.
Also, here's my preview from earlier this year: DDRMax Preview