There’s really not much to be said for the graphics in Dance Dance Revolution, as they haven’t really changed much over the years. You’ve either got psychedelic patterns in the background with your choice of characters in the foreground and the arrows scrolling up the screen, or you’ve got a music video behind the arrows that are scrolling up the screen. In Supernova, you’ll find it’s pretty much the same. However, now you no longer get your choice of which character is dancing in the foreground in some of the modes, and there are quite a few more songs with music videos than in the previous versions of the game. I miss being able to choose my characters all the time, but I do like having more music videos. The videos can become distracting though, because you’ll find yourself watching The Buggles or Fallout Boy, instead of watching the arrows.

DDR Supernova has a total of 74 songs, 32 of which are unlocked at the beginning of the game, and an additional 5 songs that are playable online only. Supernova provides several more licensed songs than previous DDR releases. Some of these, such as Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” work much better than I thought they would when I saw them in the lists. Some though, such as Fallout Boy’s “Dance Dance”, really shouldn’t have ever been made into a DDR song. And as in every DDR release, Supernova has songs from bands like B4U and Captain Jack that we’ve come to expect. Supernova seems to me to be the best mix of songs that Konami has come up with yet. I don’t like the concept of online only songs though, as many players have never gone online with their PS2 and really don’t want to and many don’t have broadband available. Why have a song on a game that you can’t play when you want to?

Supernova provides 6 different “modes” of play and a mode where you can edit the step patterns to truly customize your gameplay. There’s also a shop where you have to purchase the songs, modes, characters, etc. that you’ve unlocked with the points that you earn while playing.

Stellar Master Mode is what the previous version of DDR added to the game and called “Dance Master Mode”, except Stellar is much prettier, adding a form of training at the end of each node and is easier to “win”. Though actually completing all of it is much more difficult.

Game Mode is what you’re used to if you’ve played any of the previous DDR games. All the songs that you’ve unlocked (and purchased at the shop) are there for you to choose and play. You simply choose a song and play.

Konami has improved Workout mode some from the previous version. Before, you just used either player one or player two and you could track your stats, but you had to use that same player and if anyone else played on that memory card with that player in Workout mode, it would skew your data. In Supernova, they’ve added the ability to create a workout player and even give it a simple password to store your workout data. I quite like this new feature, especially for people like me who often have other people playing on their memory card. Now I don’t have to worry about remembering which day I need to ignore the workout data from. And just like in the previous games, Supernova is quite accurate for how many calories it says I’ve burned compared to what my heart rate monitor says. So if you want to use it to track exercise data, I found Supernova to be very accurate and now protected. I only wish that you were able to track calories burned when you were playing in any mode, instead of only when you play in Workout mode.

Advanced Mode is where you find Courses, Endless, Combo Challenge, Survival, and Battle. Of these, only Courses and Battle are unlocked at the beginning. Courses are preset lists of songs, generally grouped by different factors. To unlock Endless, Survival, and Combo Challenge, you need to unlock all the songs available in the game. Battle is new to this version; the only previous version I remember it in is DDR Disney Mix. In Battle, you play against another player or the computer. Depending on how well you do, the other player gets modifiers added to their screen, which make it much more difficult.

Honestly, Training mode is very simple and really just not worth going through. The plus side is that it only takes about 5-10 minutes to complete. If you want a game with a really good training for dance games, go pick up Flow: Urban Dance Uprising. In Supernova, the Training mode seems like it was tacked on at the end because someone said it had to be there.
If you’re the type of player who’s never quite happy with the built-in game and would like to “fix” it, you’re going to love Edit mode. Editing allows you to take any song that you’ve unlocked and create the dance steps you want to play. It’s pretty easy to use and Konami provides sample data for each song if you don’t want to have to start from scratch.

Online Play makes it possible to test your DDR skills against players around the world. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be very many people using it at this time. I can’t seem to find more than 5 or 10 other people connected at once and they’re all there just to chat. It is also good way to ask more advanced players questions that you might have.

DDR Supernova is the first DDR game that you have to be a truly expert player to actually unlock everything. Previously, you could eventually unlock every song just by playing forever and ever. Now, if you can’t full combo specific (very difficult) songs on Challenge mode or any of the other difficult tasks on “the Last” level of Stellar Master Mode, you’re not going to be able to unlock all the songs. The only other way to unlock everything is to play in Game Mode, get AA on various difficulty levels, and you’ll receive the last few songs as a bonus stage there. I think you have to clear them to get them unlocked, but I haven’t confirmed that for myself. Basically, Konami has made it MUCH harder, and possibly impossible for some, to actually get all the music unlocked. And if you can’t unlock all the music, you can’t get Endless, Survival, or Combo Challenge unlocked. Personally I think this is a turn for the worst, simply because there are a lot of people who are playing for fun, who really don’t care if they can ever full combo a 9 foot song, but who would like to actually have access to all the songs and modes in the game if they’re willing to play long enough to get there. Granted, for those really elite players, in Supernova you can unlock the whole game much quicker than in previous versions, but you will have to endure playing a number of songs on beginner to do so. Other than that, the game is as difficult or as easy as you want. You can play the songs on Beginner all day long if you want easy or on Challenge if you want very difficult. And if the Challenge isn’t difficult enough for you, there are various modifiers that can make it virtually impossible to beat. Supernova is a game that you’ll continue to play for hours and hours.

Game mechanics are exactly like the previous versions of DDR and most of the other dance games available. You simply hit the arrow corresponding with the one on the screen when it hits the target arrow at the top of the screen. In DDR, those arrows are Left, Down, Up, Right. Any of these can also be a freeze arrow, in which you have to hold down the arrow until the freeze is over. All versions of DDR can be played with the standard controller or with a dance pad. Both can be quite fun to play and will honestly provide different game experiences. Certain songs I can play much better on the dance pads; some though... well, my feet just don’t move that fast! I recommend playing both, because there’s only so long you can play on harder levels on the dance pad without collapsing. When you can no longer stand, use the controller and play even longer.