Is DDR SuperNOVA the Ultimate Evolution of the Revolution?

The Dance Dance Revolution series has finally returned with its new edition, Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA.
Is DDR SuperNOVA the ultimate evolution of the revolution?
Lets find out...

Dance Dance Revolution: SuperNOVA is an interactive dancing video game. If you’ve never played Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) before, here’s how the game works: There are four stationary arrows (Left, Down, Right, and Up) at the top of the screen, that’s the step zone, now as soon as the song starts to play, arrows begin to scroll up toward the step zone. You must try to hit each arrow when it is perfectly in the step zone of the specific arrow. If you do well, you’ll score a “Marvelous”, “Perfect” or “Great”. If you slightly miss it, you’ll score a “Good”. If your way off, you score a “Boo” There are also arrows called “Freeze Arrows”. When a “Freeze Arrow” appears, you must hold on that arrow until it completely disappears. If you hold the “Freeze Arrow” until the end, you’ll score an “OK”, but if you fail to hold the “Freeze Arrow” until the end, you’ll get an “NG” (No Good). As you dance, your dance gauge (located directly above the step zone) will either increase or decrease depending on your arrow scores. If your dance gauge runs out, you will fail.

DDR SuperNOVA comes packed to the max with a total of 12 different game modes, which will keep dancing gamers dancing for a very long time. The modes included are: Stellar Master Mode, Game Mode, Workout Mode, Course Mode, Battle Mode, Endless Mode (Unlockable), Survival Mode (Unlockable), Combo Challenge Mode (Unlockable), Training Mode, Edit Mode, Online Mode, and Link Mode. Stellar Master mode sends you on a quest through an unnamed galaxy where you must dance in dance clubs (Which the game calls "Stellar Joints") to prove your worth and earn VIP cards which grant you access to more Stellar Joints. Each Stellar Joint has a specific list of dancing requirements which you must complete successfully in order to be able to challenge one of three different showdowns. Some examples of requirements are: Complete 2 songs on the Basic level or score a total of 17 million points on your next 4 songs, or score a AAA ranking on an Expert level song, etc. Once you have cleared enough requirements, you will be allowed to participate in a showdown. There are three different showdowns at each Stellar Joint including: Showdown, Showdown EX, and the Diamond Showdown. You can clear any of the three showdowns to gain access to the next stellar Joint, but if you are trying for a 100% clear rating, you must complete all three showdowns. If you successfully complete a showdown, you will earn a VIP card according to which showdown you completed successfully.

Game Mode lets you pick your style (Single, Versus, Double, or Hands & Feet), song, and difficultly level. There are five different difficultly levels to choose from, including: Beginner, Basic, Difficult, Expert, and Challenge. You can set highscores, earn letter grades, and customize gameplay options in this mode. Workout Mode keeps track of the number of calories you have burned while playing. Up to 10 different players can track their calories burned by saving their data to a userfile. You can even set a password on your userfile so that no one else can use your userfile. Course Mode lets you play a series of predeterminded songs. You can also create you own original courses to play too. Battle Mode lets you play against a friend or the computer and has you unleashing attacks on your opponent which will modify their dance steps, such as: Speedup or slowdown their dance steps, make their dance steps disappear, etc. When playing against the computer, you can set his skill level, ranging from 1 to 5. 1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest. You can select your song and difficultly level for both players in this mode. Endless mode lets you keep playing until your dance meter runs out. You can choose to play all songs, only songs of your choosing, or add various options to the game. Survival Mode is for expert players. In Survival Mode, if you get a rating of GOOD or lower 4 times, your game will end.

Combo Challenge Mode challenges you keep your perfect combo going for as long as you can. The game ends once your combo ends. Training Mode lets you practice any song at any difficulty level. This mode can be quite helpful especially when learning harder songs at a high difficultly level. Edit Mode enables you to create custom designed dance routines for any song in DDR Supernova. You can play your custom dance routines in Game Mode. Online Mode lets you compete with other players online, and fight for a place in the worldwide rankings! You can also chat online with other players too. Link Mode lets you connect to the arcade version of DDR Supernova. You are first required to create link data and then you can take your PS2 memory card with link data on it, to a DDR Supernova Arcade Machine. You can unlock new songs, and transfer your arcade stats into your PS2 version of DDR Supernova. DDR Supernova also includes a shop mode where you can spend your earned DDR points on new songs, backgrounds, modes, characters and various other things.

DDR Supernova's Graphics are very nice and impressively improved over past DDR games. The game graphics now have more of a industrial, metallic type look to them. Everything thing including the arrows, backgrounds, characters and interface, seems bolder in detail and brighter in color. The songs are all quite enjoyable and My favorite song is "My Only shining Star". I've played that one song the most! The game features very nice voice acting and the sounds are standard DDR-fare, taken from previous DDR games I suspect. My only negative to the game, is that I felt this version of DDR seemed to be a bit easier than past DDR games. The game overall is quite impressive and really gives the revolution, the needed evolution!