Sam

@juwubeat.bsky.social

939 Followers 685 Following

uk based bemani fan 🏳️‍🌈he/they discord: jubeat more active on twitter: @juwubeat

cat on table
General thoughts on the European version of DDR World and Universal Model Some of this is just opinion and not fact, I think I’ve made what’s fact clear. I’m also for the most part approaching this without the fact that I played DDR World in Japan in mind. Okay so first, things that did impress me: I actually do like how the Universal Model looks; it doesn’t immediately date itself like the 20th Anniversary model. Yes, it’s still the Dancerush cab body, but at least it looks nice. The pads feel nicer than the final European white cab batch. Although from the factory they are quite grippy. DDR World’s UI system is so much more accessible to casual and first-time players. I’m a massive fan of the renaming of Single to Solo, Versus to Duo, and the removal of Doubles on the mode selection screen (now you press 3 after picking Solo mode to switch to Double). The category selection screen that appears at the start of a credit very much reminds me of how Happy Mode in DDR X2 worked - you can only pick Beginner and Basic charts when using the categories outside of All Music. The options menu is also disabled outside of the All Music category, making it far less likely for casuals to get stuck in it. The side lights seemed slightly more muted than the ones 20th Anniversary model. I found them distracting at times in Japan, but barely noticed them here. The venue however was quite well lit so that also could have been a factor in it. Access to options that could previously only be changed on the website is a very welcome addition. Now for everything else: The game is absolutely unplayable if the pads are too close to the screen, I know the solution is to literally just move the pads further away, but the average UK arcade will push them as close to the screen as possible to minimise the footprint of the machine. This is going to make the game absolutely miserable to play for the majority. This is also a problem with 20th Anniversary model, but all the arcades I played it at i…