This is the first numbered DDR game to receive a paired release in Japanese platforms and American consoles. As with earlier titles, though, these localized versions all have drastic differences in content and song licenses. This review will cover both individually.
-JP DDRMAX - DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION 6thMIX-
Konami's first of many DDR soft-reboots. The later revivals are all seen as contentious in the rhythm community, either for lack of innovation or outright destroying brand goodwill. Yet DDRMAX, despite having the most drastic changes and cuts from its predecessors, is foundational to everything that defines competitive DDR from this point forward. It makes some deep sacrifices with a strong payoff.
For the first time in mainline series history, all returning tracks have been removed from the game. It was inevitable, unfortunately: There were already signs of licensing and disc storage difficulties with 5th Mix, which cut most returning tracks from 1st-3rd. Max's songlist is microscopicly small and lacks staple mascot songs like Paranoia and Trip Machine. And with the overhaul to the game's graphics and engine tools, it probably would've been difficult to re-transcribe all the old songs and assign new FMV's to them. Removing any more than 5th already did would equally anger fans while pushing up devtime, so it was probably easier to just say 'fuck it' and start with a blank slate, take the heat and move on.
So what makes up for the huge concession? A lot imo
1. USABILITY
Classic DDR is admittedly style or substance - all the flashy backgrounds and dancer animations make the game a nightmare for readability, only worsened by the lack of proper speed and note color mods. Different spinoffs incorporated this features in batches - Disney Mix uses a hardcoded 1.33x speed mod, Solo lets you toggle a 2x and Solo/Rainbow colors, - but this is the first mainline entry to standardize these options. On top of that, dancers and background animations have been replaced with FMV's. Each track is assigned a 'collage' of BG videos selected from a larger archive. There's a lot of overlap between the featured animations per song, but the way they're timed to the music and paired always makes them stand out. This has always been my favorite visual style of DDR; experimental but rarely at the cost of playability.
2. SONG SELECTION
I think MAX has the strongest selection of licensed tracks of any DDR, if purely on how good they are as songs. It's the peak of DDR's symphonic essence, a perfectly-distributed blend of techno, euro, disco and more, with a specific electrosonic edge that makes you scream "FUCK YEAH VIDEOGAMES". My lightning round of favorites has to be Lovin' You, Highs Off U, Miracle, Groove, Do It Right, Telephone Operator, Let's Groove, Flash In The Night, So Deep, Healing Vision Angelic Mix, and the console-exclusive icon, Kind Lady.
The only reason I make the distinction of the 'songs' being my fav is because their stepchart quality can very wildly. Lots of MAX tracks have this problem where the challenge is very poorly distributed across its runtime. The most infamous example I can think of is Flash In The Night on Heavy, which starts and stops with these insane 632BPM triplet chains, but the middle portion of the song is just filler streams and jumps. It makes playing these tracks in a standard session a little clumsy (they make sense in the larger game design scheme tho).
Also, this is totally subjective, but MAX's songlist evokes a very subtle aura of melancholy and mourning that feels totally symbolic of the harsh removal of the old songs. A precursory glance at the song names validates this (BYE BYE BABY BALLOON, DO YOU REMEMBER ME, Look To The Sky), but it especially comes through in the heavily emphasis on Even the graphics reflect this with the way dancing characters are gone, but they still make cameos in the FMV's and menus.
3. BOSS SONGS
DDRMAX introduces the series first formal level 10 song, Max 300. TECHNICALLY, Disney's Rave has songs that are rated as 10's, but their actual difficulty is barely above an 8. They are False Gods and can't compete with MAX.
Now, by modern standards, Max 300 isn't even close to the hardest song in the game anymore; there's at least 100-200 tracks from the current version that usurp it and then some. To modern pros, Max 300 is a qualifier, not an achievement. But in 2001, it totally surpassed the hardest charts by miles. At 100BPM faster than the usual 200 cap for level 9 songs, there were few tracks that could prepare you for passing it. And it's still a perfect challenge chart to play now - the rushing 600BPM streams, triplet waves, and gnashing stomps will never escape my memory. In rhythm and chart design, it perfectly communicates what makes DDR hard to everyone.
4. AIMING FOR MAX
I said before I disliked some of MAX's stepcharts, but I do respect them for one big thing: They're all written to help you practice the skills you need to beat Max 300. Healing Vision and Exotic Ethnic are here for practicing streams w/ double steps and crossovers, teaching you how to keep stamina consistent across a whole track. Fantasy and Flash In The Night have isolated hard sections with speeds comparable to Max 300, but with ample time between waves to regain your energy. So Deep and Twilight Zone are ideal for learning gallops and 16ths. And then Witch Doctor has similar speed to Max 300 across the whole song, but with simplified step complexity.
My point being, if you threw Max 300 into a DDR with difficulty more akin to the PS1 mixes, there wouldn't be enough of an on-ramp to learn the speed.
CONCLUSION. DDRMAX is cool, it deserves a lot of love and praise even if other mixes have way more meat on their bones.
-US DDRMAX - DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION-
Like with prior localized games, US DDRMAX is an entirely different songlist from the JP version, due to licensing issues. However, this is the one case where it works in the series favor. There's nearly 30 more songs here compared to JP, spanning the Konami originals from MAX, a small smattering of Dancemania, returning tracks from 4th/5th/Link Version, and a host of console exclusives. It's such a 'cool' selection, spanning a lot of industrial and underground vibes with a heavy dose of level 9 charts. This was my first DDR game I bought after getting back into the series, and tracks like Matsuri Japan and Sana Molette Ne Ente absolutely did not disappoint. It's the one case where you could argue the localized version is better. I think the only thing wrong with it is that most of the charts they intended you to practice in anticipation of MAX 300 aren't here, so you're taking that hard cut from 200BPM to 300BPM if you don't have other DDR games to practice with.
-JP DDRMAX - DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION 6thMIX-
Konami's first of many DDR soft-reboots. The later revivals are all seen as contentious in the rhythm community, either for lack of innovation or outright destroying brand goodwill. Yet DDRMAX, despite having the most drastic changes and cuts from its predecessors, is foundational to everything that defines competitive DDR from this point forward. It makes some deep sacrifices with a strong payoff.
For the first time in mainline series history, all returning tracks have been removed from the game. It was inevitable, unfortunately: There were already signs of licensing and disc storage difficulties with 5th Mix, which cut most returning tracks from 1st-3rd. Max's songlist is microscopicly small and lacks staple mascot songs like Paranoia and Trip Machine. And with the overhaul to the game's graphics and engine tools, it probably would've been difficult to re-transcribe all the old songs and assign new FMV's to them. Removing any more than 5th already did would equally anger fans while pushing up devtime, so it was probably easier to just say 'fuck it' and start with a blank slate, take the heat and move on.
So what makes up for the huge concession? A lot imo
1. USABILITY
Classic DDR is admittedly style or substance - all the flashy backgrounds and dancer animations make the game a nightmare for readability, only worsened by the lack of proper speed and note color mods. Different spinoffs incorporated this features in batches - Disney Mix uses a hardcoded 1.33x speed mod, Solo lets you toggle a 2x and Solo/Rainbow colors, - but this is the first mainline entry to standardize these options. On top of that, dancers and background animations have been replaced with FMV's. Each track is assigned a 'collage' of BG videos selected from a larger archive. There's a lot of overlap between the featured animations per song, but the way they're timed to the music and paired always makes them stand out. This has always been my favorite visual style of DDR; experimental but rarely at the cost of playability.
2. SONG SELECTION
I think MAX has the strongest selection of licensed tracks of any DDR, if purely on how good they are as songs. It's the peak of DDR's symphonic essence, a perfectly-distributed blend of techno, euro, disco and more, with a specific electrosonic edge that makes you scream "FUCK YEAH VIDEOGAMES". My lightning round of favorites has to be Lovin' You, Highs Off U, Miracle, Groove, Do It Right, Telephone Operator, Let's Groove, Flash In The Night, So Deep, Healing Vision Angelic Mix, and the console-exclusive icon, Kind Lady.
The only reason I make the distinction of the 'songs' being my fav is because their stepchart quality can very wildly. Lots of MAX tracks have this problem where the challenge is very poorly distributed across its runtime. The most infamous example I can think of is Flash In The Night on Heavy, which starts and stops with these insane 632BPM triplet chains, but the middle portion of the song is just filler streams and jumps. It makes playing these tracks in a standard session a little clumsy (they make sense in the larger game design scheme tho).
Also, this is totally subjective, but MAX's songlist evokes a very subtle aura of melancholy and mourning that feels totally symbolic of the harsh removal of the old songs. A precursory glance at the song names validates this (BYE BYE BABY BALLOON, DO YOU REMEMBER ME, Look To The Sky), but it especially comes through in the heavily emphasis on Even the graphics reflect this with the way dancing characters are gone, but they still make cameos in the FMV's and menus.
3. BOSS SONGS
DDRMAX introduces the series first formal level 10 song, Max 300. TECHNICALLY, Disney's Rave has songs that are rated as 10's, but their actual difficulty is barely above an 8. They are False Gods and can't compete with MAX.
Now, by modern standards, Max 300 isn't even close to the hardest song in the game anymore; there's at least 100-200 tracks from the current version that usurp it and then some. To modern pros, Max 300 is a qualifier, not an achievement. But in 2001, it totally surpassed the hardest charts by miles. At 100BPM faster than the usual 200 cap for level 9 songs, there were few tracks that could prepare you for passing it. And it's still a perfect challenge chart to play now - the rushing 600BPM streams, triplet waves, and gnashing stomps will never escape my memory. In rhythm and chart design, it perfectly communicates what makes DDR hard to everyone.
4. AIMING FOR MAX
I said before I disliked some of MAX's stepcharts, but I do respect them for one big thing: They're all written to help you practice the skills you need to beat Max 300. Healing Vision and Exotic Ethnic are here for practicing streams w/ double steps and crossovers, teaching you how to keep stamina consistent across a whole track. Fantasy and Flash In The Night have isolated hard sections with speeds comparable to Max 300, but with ample time between waves to regain your energy. So Deep and Twilight Zone are ideal for learning gallops and 16ths. And then Witch Doctor has similar speed to Max 300 across the whole song, but with simplified step complexity.
My point being, if you threw Max 300 into a DDR with difficulty more akin to the PS1 mixes, there wouldn't be enough of an on-ramp to learn the speed.
CONCLUSION. DDRMAX is cool, it deserves a lot of love and praise even if other mixes have way more meat on their bones.
-US DDRMAX - DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION-
Like with prior localized games, US DDRMAX is an entirely different songlist from the JP version, due to licensing issues. However, this is the one case where it works in the series favor. There's nearly 30 more songs here compared to JP, spanning the Konami originals from MAX, a small smattering of Dancemania, returning tracks from 4th/5th/Link Version, and a host of console exclusives. It's such a 'cool' selection, spanning a lot of industrial and underground vibes with a heavy dose of level 9 charts. This was my first DDR game I bought after getting back into the series, and tracks like Matsuri Japan and Sana Molette Ne Ente absolutely did not disappoint. It's the one case where you could argue the localized version is better. I think the only thing wrong with it is that most of the charts they intended you to practice in anticipation of MAX 300 aren't here, so you're taking that hard cut from 200BPM to 300BPM if you don't have other DDR games to practice with.