The Gamecube unlike the n64 has gotten more rhythm based games. One of those was Donkey Konga by hitting the bongos and clapping. It was a pretty original take but the one flaw that the series still has is the lack of a nice soundtrack. There was also MC Groove Dance Craze that tries to imitate the DDR franchise, but completely fails with uninteresting soundtrack at all; arrows are confusing and very plain backgrounds. This year we get Karaoke Revolution Party that let's you sing and dance at the same time, and we also get Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix. Finally the true DDR games have arrived both from Konami. But does the combination of the DDR series with the Mario series works well? Keep reading and find out.
DDR Mario Mix offers a simplistic plot and storyline has you may expect from a Mario Game. The 4 music keys have been stolen by Waluigi spreading them in different worlds. Now the world is silent with no happy background music around. Toad comes in a hurry to Mario or Luigi's house (you decide which character) and asks for their help on finding the stolen music keys. Eventually your 1st mission is to cross the river on a boat that can only be done by completing the song dancing. The game's only way to take care of the trouble is just to finish dancing the song until the end to solve the problem and proceed the adventure.
DDR Mario Mix won't certainly be that much different for those who have play any previous DDR game on other consoles or arcades. DDR for those who still have no idea, consists of you dancing on the dance pad along with the arrows that are coming up to the transparent arrow were you must hit that arrow when is reaching the transparent arrow. Arrows are left, right, up and down, unlike Groove Dance Craze that also had diagonal arrows. It can certainly sound simple but in hard modes when you get many arrows coming up it can certainly get very tricky and truly confusing, but that's all the challenge about. There are different difficulties: Easy, normal, hard, very hard and super hard. The easy mode can be way too easy because only left and right arrows come up and you really don't get the feeling of dancing in that way.
In Mario Mix's story mode from normal and up difficulty it is obligatory to do the songs on mush mode. Mush mode is when they replace some arrows with items from the Mario Universe. For the most part you have to hit them so they don't take out your points. Is actually a good thing to make something different to the DDR formula but the problem with mush mode is the fact that these items or characters that appear can really confuse you the screen. Still does a pretty good job and gives some interest to each song. Some of the stuff that will appear is Goombas in which you just step in them and squish them, koopas hit them so they get inside their shell and hit them for a 2nd time so they disappear. Pretty much all of them consist of just hitting the arrow that the item or character goes to.
DDR Mario Mix also includes minigames which are not quite addictive but interesting to play. In one of the minigames Goombas will appear on a left, right, up or down pipe and if it appears on the up pipe you hit the up arrow, simple but funny fun to play. Other minigames consist of running away from a Chain Chomp, collecting coins, etc. Each world on the story mode has a store in which you can buy a new song and some extra helpful goodies like potions that make you not lose points even if you miss an arrow. The only thing is once you visit the store you can't go back to it unless you go and play the game again from the beginning and reach the store. That's quite a problem in the game because sometimes you don't have the amount of coins to pay for something but later when you have it you can't go back to the store.
Other modes that DDR Mario Mix offers are free play mode in which you play all the songs you have unlock in any difficulty and with mush mode on or off. Here you can also play against another friend with a normal controller or dance pad. But of course DDR games are only fun with a dance pad because otherwise the franchise would not exist right now. The other thing that the game offers that could sound a little ridiculous for some is a calorie system. Yes this game calculates you on how many calories you burn on each song you dance and asks for your weight so you can see if you lose weight by dancing. Is nothing too special but funny to play around with. The game also has a scoring system for each song with letters: A, B, C, D, and F, which is pretty much evaluating your skill on each song. It all depends on how many arrows you miss and which arrows you hit early or late, if you never miss an arrow and not hit an arrow early or late then you get the score of A. So getting A's is certainly a tricky thing at least on hard mode and up.
The graphics on the game are quite a good presentation of the Mario world. The character design is greatly animated and look just has they should be. The worlds on each area are colorful and full of cool animations here and there. While dancing you get has background Mario dancing around with some cool moves and other characters joining the rhythm. Special effects are not many to see but they are not truly needed, after all this is a dancing game there is no time to pay attention to the background all the time. Is a great presentation overall on the graphics area. Although not an impressive looking game like Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4 but it fits with the gameplay you are getting here.
DDR Mario Mix in the sound area offers a pretty nice collection of remixed tunes from the Mario Universe. The problem is that all songs are from Mario games, it just could have been cooler to have music from other Nintendo franchises like Donkey Kong, Star Fox, and Zelda. That way it could have more variety in the soundtrack. The remixes are done great with a more electronic-techno style in them. The songs are good to hear and interesting enough to dance them. There is no voiceover characters here but this is no surprise after all Mario games never have voiceovers so is already a common thing. Sound effects are not much to talk about since you hear more music on the game then sound effects. But there is not a high amount of special effects so don't expect that much sound effects here is all simple funny sounds you have heard on previous Mario games. Overall the music selection is quite great but it would have been much better if it had more music from other Nintendo franchises and a few songs from music of today. And last the game only offers around 25 songs to play with.
DDR Mario Mix does offer quite enough replay by trying out all songs in different difficulties, unlocking new songs through the story mode, burning calories (for some is good), trying to get better scores on the songs and doing your best to get A on all of them. Also DDR Mario Mix can also be a fun game to play again when you want to move exercise yourself around or practice some moves. But, most especially replayable when you are tired of your new games and want to go back dancing on DDR Mario Mix. But it all depends if you think the difficulty is good enough for you or too easy for you. And also if you like the songs, because if you don't like most of the tunes then there is no need to dance something you don't like. But the big problem in the replay area is that the amount of songs is short thye are around 25 songs only.
Overall DDR Mario Mix has a lot to offer that Gamecube owners who never experienced the DDR series should definitely start with this game before going to the arcade and challenging and expert at it. The game is also in a good price since it comes with the Dance pad, same thing like Donkey Konga with the bongos. If you are an expert on DDR then Mario Mix could feel a little too easy for your level. Still is worthy at least the rent, that if they let you rent the game with the dance pad, because if you have no dance pad you won't find any fun in it. DDR Mario Mix is in total a fun rhythm game addition to the Gamecube.
Pros:
+ Fun remixed songs from the Mario Universe
+ Nice presentation on the graphics area
+ good for DDR beginners
Cons:
- Only Mario tunes are here and only 25 songs to play with
- Might be too easy for some people
Create an Account
Member Login
