Toshiba Emi's licensing policy caused difficulties for Konami when localizing the early DDR games, as each borrowed song from Dancemania would need to be relicensed for each new region. Because of this, most mixes from 1st-8th were Japanese only, and Konami exported those versions to US arcades instead of making new region ROMs (no idea how legal this was). That's why if you're lucky enough to find a DDR Extreme cab, it'll have that big ol' 'IF YOU PLAY THIS OUTSIDE JAPAN, WE WILL KILL YOUR FAMILY" warning. That's how things go when you build your IP around cross-media licensing before it's an industry norm.
Same strategy can't really 'fly' in the console space, though. Konami had to suck it up and do re-licensing for their American DDR and European DS games. Of course, their strategy to Toshiba Emi's ballgame was not to play at all: And as such, Konamix is originals only. There are NO licensed songs here whatsoever. With that stipulation, you'd think the songlist would be pretty sparce. Yet the focus on Konami originals makes this extremely comprehensive - almost every original from 1st-5th is accounted for. For newcoming fans, it's an incredible sampler of Bemani's in-house style, bring high difficulty and consistent quality to the table. Trouble is, Konami's OG tracks tend to have more challenging and complex stepcharts than licensed ones. You really start wishing the arrow and speed mods from the later games were here. You can technically apply this criticism to all the PS1 mixes, but this is the first one where it felt like a pervasive issue in every song. And since the game is built on 4th Mix's engine, all the same criticisms of that version apply here.
I like this mix, especially with all the CLUB mix beatmania songs that never returned. Most of these DDR originals have been brought back during the PS2/Xbox releases, though, so there's not much to miss if you have access to Max1/2, Extreme1/2 and the Ultramix series. But having all these bops in one space without a lot of filler is nice.
Oh also, funniest trivia: DDR 3rd Mix CS had a vocal version of a song from one of Konami's basketball games, and the lyrics were about hard fucking. They removed the vocals from the version of it in this game, so there's just, a fuckin' song from a basketball game with album art of a lady's lips. Good shit.
Cool songs from here:
-HYSTERIA
-LUV TO ME (AMD MIX)
-On the Jazz
-patsenner
-think ya better D
-Do It Right
-Holic
-La Senorita Virtual
-Matsuri Japan
-Trip Machine Luv Mix
-Super Star
-R3
Same strategy can't really 'fly' in the console space, though. Konami had to suck it up and do re-licensing for their American DDR and European DS games. Of course, their strategy to Toshiba Emi's ballgame was not to play at all: And as such, Konamix is originals only. There are NO licensed songs here whatsoever. With that stipulation, you'd think the songlist would be pretty sparce. Yet the focus on Konami originals makes this extremely comprehensive - almost every original from 1st-5th is accounted for. For newcoming fans, it's an incredible sampler of Bemani's in-house style, bring high difficulty and consistent quality to the table. Trouble is, Konami's OG tracks tend to have more challenging and complex stepcharts than licensed ones. You really start wishing the arrow and speed mods from the later games were here. You can technically apply this criticism to all the PS1 mixes, but this is the first one where it felt like a pervasive issue in every song. And since the game is built on 4th Mix's engine, all the same criticisms of that version apply here.
I like this mix, especially with all the CLUB mix beatmania songs that never returned. Most of these DDR originals have been brought back during the PS2/Xbox releases, though, so there's not much to miss if you have access to Max1/2, Extreme1/2 and the Ultramix series. But having all these bops in one space without a lot of filler is nice.
Oh also, funniest trivia: DDR 3rd Mix CS had a vocal version of a song from one of Konami's basketball games, and the lyrics were about hard fucking. They removed the vocals from the version of it in this game, so there's just, a fuckin' song from a basketball game with album art of a lady's lips. Good shit.
Cool songs from here:
-HYSTERIA
-LUV TO ME (AMD MIX)
-On the Jazz
-patsenner
-think ya better D
-Do It Right
-Holic
-La Senorita Virtual
-Matsuri Japan
-Trip Machine Luv Mix
-Super Star
-R3