Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix

THE BAD:
Too easy at times.
Almost no replay value once you've "A"ed all the songs.
Story Mode lacking.

SUMMARY:
DDR has hit the Gamecube. Will it live up to its predecessors on the PS2? Or will it crash and burn? Only time will tell...

Actually, I'll tell you. DDR: Mario Mix has opened up a new port from which we can enter the dancing universe. This game marks the first to be released on the Gamecube. I unlocked some songs, and to my amazement, they are remixes from other Mario games, like Mario 1,2 and 3, Mario World, Wario World and more. After playing this for a while, however, I realized something. This game is geared towards younger people/people who have never touched a DDR
pad in their life.

There are 5 Difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Super Hard, which you won't get until you've cleared a song on Very Hard. Being a pretty seasoned DDR player, Easy is just that, easy. Up and down don't even play a part. Just left and right over and over. Normal isn't much better. Hard is when Mario Mix starts to get the same as a Light/Basic setting on other DDR's. Very Hard is halfway between Light/Basic and Standard/Trick. Super Hard is about the same as Standard/Trick. If you're experienced enough that you consistently play Heavy/Maniac on other DDR's, I say don't bother with Mario Mix. Sometimes, especially on Easy and Normal, you'll find yourself standing there, doing nothing, waiting for an arrow to come up.

Another aspect in which Mario Mix fails is that there are no Freeze arrows. While I admit that they may be considered hard, I think that they at least should have included them in Very/Super Hard mode.

The story mode is not an option at the beginning of the game. At first, you have one song. "Up, Down, Left, Right" which is a remix of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" Ugh. Anyway, to unlock more songs, you must play through Story Mode and clear the stages, which are very boring at times. In fact, you won't even get all of them on the first play-through. You'll need to play though 3 or 4 times.

All in all, I reccomend it if you're not that experienced and/or like Mario a lot, but for those used to the challenge that Heavy, Oni, or Endless mode in other DDRs offer, I'd say stay away.