In the end, despite its problems, despite its bugs, despite anything anyone might claim about its song list, despite its outdated engine, despite its censorship, despite its non-exclusive exclusive songs, despite all the lies that went into its disastrous promotional campaign, despite its lame and overhyped modes like Solo and Battle, despite all of the unfinished work that is apparent in the game, despite the overall lack of effort on the part of Konami's entire staff when they made it...
...it's still the best home version of DDR ever made.
Yeah, I was surprised, too. With so much going against it, you'd think that it would have difficulty comparing even to the previous US DDR releases, much less the import versions. And yet, it beats them all. Easily. Want to know why? Want to know how?
The answer is simple - there's none of that bullshit licensed non-music that's been so painfully prevalent in every other fucking mix of DDR! Hallelujah! Compared to that shit, Konami's original music is actually listenable, and since a dance game is only as good as the quality of its music, Konamix is, therefore, the best mix ever.
Okay, so you may have convinced yourself that you like the licensed music that DDR has always featured. You may even have the opinion that DDR is not DDR without licensed music. Well, if you happen to think this way, I would like to kindly invite you to shut the hell up and go back to licking Captain Jack's ass. Sure, some of that licensed crap is tolerable - some is even listenable - but for the most part, licensed music in DDR all sounds the same, and is all under the same, headache-inducing genre. That genre being the dreaded Eurobeat. Or as most people would call it, Gay Dance Music. You know what kind of music this is: high-energy discoish pop with irritatingly peppy vocals. It's the musical equivalent of cotton candy - universally palatable and sugary-sweet, yet lacking in any kind of substance. I, for one, have had enough of it. It's time to stage a revolt against Eurobeat, before it's too late. I mean, look at the list of licensed songs in DDRMAX - 95% of those songs all fall under that genre! MAX2's song selection is a little more varied, luckily, but all previous mixes contain a frightening amount of Eurobeat tunes. After a few plays, these songs get very, very old. After one can no longer bear to play these songs, only Konami's original songs remain. So after you've played any given mix of DDR for awhile, you get to the point where you'll have to desire to only play a certain small percentage of its songs.
Well, what if there was a mix that was made up entirely of these long-lasting, bulletproof songs? Yeah, that's Konamix. Baby.
Awhile back, there was a version of DDR released that was called Best Hits. It sucked. Konamix is the real Best Hits, as far as I'm concerned. The songs in this game just plain rule. There's some really great stuff in there. Though there were a few painful omissions that should by all means have been included in the game (where's Sana Molette ne Ente?!), and there's at least one VERY painful inclusion that should never ever have even been considered as a part of Konamix's songlist...
...the rest of the songs are at the very least tolerable, and at the very best totally rockin'. And hell, one of the brighter employees at Konami of America even decided to include some rarely-seen and heard Club Mix songs in the thing, too! Sure, some of them are kind of mediocre (Patsenner? Blech.), but a few of them (Like R3! And Genom Screams!) make for great additions to an already fantastic song list. And while Konamix can't lay claim to many exclusive features (though many lies have been made in this regard), it does have one never before seen feature that I like: the Club Mix songs' steps are in sync with the music. The original Club Mix releases of DDR used CDDA, see, so synchronization between steps and music just didn't happen. But in one of the few improvements Konamix brought to the series, these songs are now completely playable for the first time in Konamix.
Thanks to the fact that it contains no licensed crap, the songs in Konamix cover many genres, giving a good sense of variety - a quality that DDR has always desperately needed. Everything from soul to house to j-pop to trance to techno is represented in Konamix, and all are represented well.
Enough rambling. Let's get to the point here.
If you're new to DDR, or are unable to play import mixes, then you need Konamix. With this release, you'll finally be able to see what the big deal with DDR is. And you'll love it. But. If you're a DDR veteran who owns many or all of the import mixes...ah, hell, just buy Konamix anyway. Like I said, it functions as a good Best Hits-type collection. I personally own a copy (eheh) of every DDR mix ever made, and I still feel like my money was well spent on Konamix. I always thought it was annoying to have to swap discs every time I wanted to play a few certain songs that are exclusive to certain mixes. With Konamix, pretty much all of my favorites are right there in the game. How conveeeenient.
As far as difficulty goes (the only other important facet to consider
in a DDR mix, aside from music selection), veterans don't have to worry
about a lack of challenge in Konamix - plenty of catastrophic-level songs
(9-footers) are present. If anything, there aren't enough really
easy songs in Konamix that would allow for anyone new to the series to
become acquainted with the gameplay. But screw those people, they'll
learn quickly enough. And in my opinion, newbies would be better
off if they spent more time with 3- and 4-footers in trying to learn the
proper way to play, anyway; 1- and 2-footers are just too easy and don't
give the proper sense of what most step sets in DDR are like, in my opinion.
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The only thing that really irritates me about Konamix is its lack of extras. Import mixes that used Konamix's engine contained tons of extras that increased replay value immensely, but none are to be found in Konamix. Challenge Mode, a collection of increasingly difficult and sometimes physically impossible step sets and requirements, would have made for a great addition to Konamix. 5th Mix's Gallery Mode provides hundreds of unlockable high-resolution images, giving the player incentive to play long after all of the game's songs are mastered. But neither mode is included in Konamix. And an Information Mode, as found in every import DDR Mix, would have been great to have in Konamix as well - not only would it have been nice to have something that keeps track of everything I unlocked in the game, but after being inundated with Be For U promotional crap in 5th and Extra Mix, I would have at least liked to have seen a translation for that stuff available in Konamix's Information Mode, if it were to have one. But, supposedly due to a misunderstanding between Konami of America and Konami of Japan, Konamix's Information Mode was axed. And thus, all the assuredly vital information available in the import DDRs' Information Modes will forever be encrypted in Japanese. Ah well. At least the Be For U members' measurements were listed in English in Extra Mix.
But really, who needs extras when so many great songs are included in
Konamix? The point is, Konamix does everything right. "Everything"
being actually two things - it has a great selection of songs, and a good
degree of difficulty in step patterns. That's really all that matters.
Everything else - every other shortcoming - really means nothing.
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You say that the graphics suck? Well, they do. And you're an idiot for noticing, because you should be concentrating more on trying to keep your body moving to the rhythm of the music rather than trying to look up Yuni's skirt as she dances in the background. Yes, she has black panties. Get over it.
You say that the interface is clunky? That's because it is. But if you turn on All Music mode, it becomes considerably less clunky. And again, if you're genuinely disturbed by a game's menus not living up to your expectations of what menus should look like, you're an idiot.
You say that the new modes suck? They do. And you don't have to play them. Idiot.
Enough. It's time to put this awful review to sleep. In the classic, creativity-bereft manner that is popular at some of the more putrid review sites like GameFAQs, I shall close with a list of good and bad points about Konamix.
The good:
- Great variety of songs in terms of style, genre, and difficulty.
- Makes for a fantastic introduction to DDR.
- DDR veterans will appreciate it as a compilation of the series' best
songs.
- Club Mix songs!
- No licensed songs!
- 4th Mix engine offers lots of unique play modes (even if they suck).
- Only $30 (as opposed to the $60 or $70 you'd pay for import mixes).
- Best home version of DDR ever.
The bad:
- Uses an old, outdated game engine.
- Has a scoring system that was bad to begin with, but is now also
buggy.
- Contains no exclusive songs.
- The lies, the lies, THE LIES!
- Not every song is made by dj. TAKA (The most talented of the DDR/Beatmania
artists - if his masterpiece, "V," were included as a hidden song, this
review would be completely and entirely positive.)
- "After the Game" plays at the credits, taunting you with its bullshit
existence after every five minutes of gameplay.
I'm giving Dance Dance Revolution Konamix an unheard-of ten thumbs up, out of a possible ten. It's just that good. If you don't buy it, whether you're a DDR fan or not, you're an idiot.
Rating: 
- Sardius
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