Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova

PlayStation console exclusive

The hottest revolution and bestselling video game in the music game category returns to its arcade roots with Dance Dance Revolution Supernova, the first arcade version to be released in North America in 6 years. Dance Dance Revolution Supernova uses a completely new hardware engine and is the largest game in the series. Players will have access to over 300 songs from different musical genres and 2000+ dance step patterns. Dance Dance Revolution Supernova is a brand new evolution in the DDR series and expands on every aspect of what made the original series innovative, fun and addictive.

Also known as: DDR SuperNOVA · DDR 9thMIX · DDR SN · Dansu Dansu Reboryuushon Suupaanova · Dancing Stage SuperNova
Released: 28 April 2006
Platforms: Arcade PlayStation 2
Genres: Arcade Fitness Rhythm
Developers: Konami
Publishers: Konami
Series: Dance Dance Revolution
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Auditory
Themes: Party
Country: Japan United States
Age ratings: PEGI 3 ESRB E10+
Languages: English French German Spanish Italian Japanese

About

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was released in Europe on April 28, 2006, followed shortly by a North American release in May and a Japanese release on July 12.

It is the first DDR game released for the arcades since Dance Dance Revolution Extreme three years before, although there had been steady releases of DDR games for consoles in the interim. Instead of Bemani System 573 Digital, the arcade version was built using the PlayStation 2-based Bemani Python 2, which results in higher-quality graphics and superior sounds than previous games. Unlike previous DDR arcade releases, all versions have the same features and song list. It is the fifth arcade release in Europe, the third arcade release in North America, and the ninth arcade release in Japan.

Keywords

anime
exercise
dancing
high score
music and rhythm
polygonal 3d
motion control
eyetoy support
difficulty level
peripherals
j-pop
dance mat

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game retains the same core gameplay of the series. During gameplay, arrows scroll from the bottom to the top of the screen towards stationary arrows known as the "Step Zone". Once they reach the zone, players step on the dance pad corresponding to the arrows and the game will then judge the accuracy of the timing. The rankings are as follow: "Marvelous", "Perfect", "Great", "Good", "Almost", and "Boo". The last two rankings are taken from the North American games and differ from the ones used for DDR Extreme, which respectively has "Boo" and "Miss".

There are also changes in modifiers. The game adds the option to turn off jumps. In addition to "Flat" (all arrows are the same color), and "Rainbow" (brightly colored arrows taken from Dance Dance Revolution Solo, previously named "Solo"), a "Note" arrow option is added, which recolors the arrows based on timing (e.g. red for 1/4 beat arrows, blue for 1/8 beat arrows, etc.). "Little", which removes all non-quarter beat arrows, has been renamed "Cut".

Reception

The original Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova arcade release in North America reached sales of about 250 brand new cabinets by distributor Betson. The company also released a smaller run of brand new Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 cabinets, and upgrade kits for both SuperNova games. A Polygon article published in 2017 noted that these brand new machines used "lower quality footpads and monitors" compared to Asia, though still of better quality than the infamous Dance Dance Revolution X and X2 arcade releases in North America and Europe.

In October 2018, there were 337 public SuperNova and SuperNova 2 arcade machines available worldwide, of which 253 were located in the Americas. As of August 2021, there are 301 public SuperNova and SuperNova 2 machines worldwide.

Legacy

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dance Dance Revolution, Dance Dance Revolution A received a DDR Selection mode, featuring songs from older mixes. A dozen of songs from the DDR SuperNOVA series, with six per SuperNOVA game, can be played with the SuperNOVA 2 interface by using this mode. Dance Dance Revolution A20 also offers this mode.

In 2019, a love hotel in Kobe, Japan installed Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova in a hotel room.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Releases by platform
Platform	Released	Regions
Arcade	28 April 2006	Europe · North America 15 May 2006 · Japan 12 July 2006
PlayStation 2	26 September 2006	North America · Japan 25 January 2007 · Europe 27 April 2007