Here's the first of my reviews for this bracket. The rest will follow later.
CHEER TRAIN:Heavy: (3/11)
Meh, I didn't really care for this. The note patterns here are totally overdone and as a result, this chart felt extremely tiring and unfun to play. There's just way too much stream overall, and I really don't think that you needed to bump up the chaos meter quite as much as you did. There wasn't really any major distinguishment between any phrases, and the note placement wasn't particularly creative or interesting. It definitely presents a challenge, but in this case I feel like the challenge was very unnecessary and completely detracted from the overall fun of the package. Not a stepchart that I enjoyed playing at all.
Challenge: (3/11)
Pretty much just a stepchart that's difficult just for the sake of being difficult, in my opinion. While the notes definitely follow the song closely, I just really don't think that this type of track really calls for such a tremendously hard set of steps. The intensity feels incredibly forced and inappropriate throughout, and the use of step-jumps is awkward and out-of-place. Fine, I guess, for someone who seeks an artificial challenge, but once again, I did not enjoy playing this chart at all.
Presentation: (1.5/5)
The graphics really don't look so hot to me. Not only is the artist name missing in the banner, the title text is incredibly overdone with the ugly bevelling and iffy usage of rainbow colors. Using Thomas the Tank Engine as the background image just completely rubs me the wrong way. Yes, he is a train, but I just don't think it's a very good idea to use a trademark character in a song with no correlation to that character whatsoever. The samplestart is not accurate. Gets a small score increase for the inclusion of a video.
Tilt: (0/3)
Sorry, but I just wasn't much a fan of this.
FINAL SCORE: (7.5/30)
DON'T STOP BELIEVING (FONZERELLI REMIX):Standard: (9/11)
Pretty darn good, overall. The steps were smooth and well thought-out and had enough variety to stand out. Occasionally the note patterns would follow the song rather awkwardly, though.
Heavy: (10/11)
Also a very good stepchart. Though I sometimes thought the difficulty progression was a bit too stagnant, the package as a whole felt very authentic and DDR-like. I really liked the occasional use of smart double-steps to vary the chart flow a bit more.
Presentation: (4.5/5)
Has a plentiful amount of extras, including background videos and even a DDR Universe-style banner. The background is absolutely
gorgeous, although it should be visible at the start of the song and not just the end. Small point deduction because the arrows are definitely a little offsync (early).
Tilt: (3/3)
A very strong effort, and definitely something I could easily expect to find on an official DDR Arcade cabinet.
FINAL SCORE: (26.5/30)
OUR SONGS:Light: (10.5/11)
I thought you did an excellent job here. The note patterns prevalent throughout this year have a consistent structure, yet vary throughout the song enough that they're truly fun. This is definitely a pretty difficult Light stepchart, and especially because of the fast bpm, I think the jump-hold + step note combinations are pushing the difficulty threshold just a little. Light players usually don't have the coordination to follow these types of patterns easily, and as a result I'd say they're even harder than the steps during the final instrumental phrase. Overall though, fantastic.
Heavy: (10.5/11)
I dont' really feel like criticizing this chart very much because it seems like you truly knew what you were doing with it throughout. I think that I occasionally felt that this faced forward a bit too much, and that one gallop seems rather out-of-place, but as every well-made stepchart has its own unique style, I'm not going to elaborate too much more. This works quite excellently as it is. Oh yeah, I
totally noticed the resemblence to Breakdown during the chorus, as you mentioned.
Presentation: (5/5)
May as well give this a full score. The graphics are clean and simple, yet extremely effective, and the background video enhances the package even further.
Tilt: (3/3)
Probably one of the best files in the entire contest, if you ask me.
FINAL SCORE: (29/30)
PARANOiA HRX:Heavy: (11/11)
I actually really don't have anything to complain about here. It's definitely a step down difficulty-wise from most of the official PARANOiA's, but it certainly plays just as well as those. This chart is full of smoothly-placed, well-distinguished, and interesting note patterns that work perfectly for the type of song. It pretty much deserves a full score, in my opinion.
Challenge: (10/11)
This was also extremely fun and well-done. It's definitely a great alternative for those who want a challenge that's in the same calibur as the more traditional PARANOiA's. The only major thing that I would probably change would be the frequent double-jumps. They felt very contrived for some reason, as if they should have been better led-into than they were. Also, though not as significant, I think it would've been a good idea to eventually stop facing left during the middle phrase that has lots of jackhammers, since there isn't a whole lot of pattern variety and it therefore becomes somewhat repetitive. The rest, however, worked fantastically, and I'd definitely play it again.
Presentation: (4/5)
The art for this is appropriate in following the PARANOiA theme (where's the robot, though?), but I'm really not much a fan of the glow and bevel effects you applied to the title text. The bg video clips are just taken straight from DDR, but they do at least make this package feel a little more like an actual song on a DDR machine.
Tilt: (3/3)
Wow, I gotta admit that I was quite pleasantly surprised by this entry. The steps here show clear expertise and would definitely draw me in to play it multiple times.
FINAL SCORE: (28/30)
SAI WA NAGERARETA:Heavy: (11/11)
This was actually quite a fun and interesting stepchart. The frequent usage of doublestepping was implemented quite well and cleverly prevented this from being just another generic rock stepchart. The patterns were tricky and variable enough to keep you on your feet (no pun intended), yet clean and consistent enough that it didn't feel technically bad. This gets a full score because it definitely brings out the very best that could've been done with the song and is quite fun to step to.
Challenge: (11/11)
Much like the Heavy stepchart, this has a lot of double-stepping, but it's used really effectively throughout. I think far more fanmade simfiles should do this, as it's actually quite common in official DDR stepcharts and is honestly a lot more fun and less predictable to play. The difficulty increment from Heavy is modest, but just high enough that it delivers just enough of a challenge to please those who want to burn a few more calories. I don't think anything significant should be changed to make this more enjoyable, so once again, I'm giving this a full score.
Presentation: (4.5/5)
The graphics for this aren't quite perfect (something about them strikes me as being just a
tad unclean), but they're still pretty aesthetically dynamic and interesting. Don't add background images like that, though, since it makes the package look like a joke file that isn't supposed to be taken seriously. Besides, the steps are so good that there's no way I wouldn't take this simfile seriously!
Tilt: (3/3)
I'm really quite surprised by the very high overall quality of this bracket. I usually try to be at least fairly strict with my grading because I want to distinguish the
truly good simfiles from the just adequate to not-so-good ones. Once again, though, this
is a truly good simfile! Great job with this!
FINAL SCORE: (29.5/30)
ZAMURAI:Heavy: (8.5/11)
Well, this simfile is certainly anything but ordinary to me. For the most part though, I thought it was actually quite fun. The few nitpicks I'd made here would be first, to add a little more variety in note placement. It feels like this faces forward quite a lot, and as a result the steps play a bit stagnantly to me. Second, the few areas where you crammed a whole chunk of chaos into small incriments of time (I think you know what I mean) stand out a lot in comparison to the rest of the steps in terms of difficulty and therefore feel out-of-place. Overall though, this was well made, even though I feel like it could've been slightly better-polished.
Challenge: (6/11)
This is more difficult than Heavy, but unfortunately as a result, it also has more flaws. Although I still find this to be fairly enjoyable, it comes off to be as a bit too overdone and a little awkward, probably because the note patterns follow the song so directly. The frequent karaoke steps flow iffily for the most part because the rhythms or notes that they go to are so irregular. There was a little more variety in terms of step placement, but I still think that this could've benefitted from a few more crossovers to break up the forward-facing monotony.
Presentation: (4/5)
Graphics-wise, this simfile is spot-on. I love that yummy title-text, and the design is appropriate enough that it works as an animated banner. The background video is a nice touch, and there are plenty of extra charts. The reason I docked a full point from this score is due to the song length. 1:24 usually isn't too short for a DDR cut, but in this case I think that it isn't long enough to support the huge amount of variety in the track, and as a result I feel that the song ends quite abruptly and leaves me wishing for more.
Tilt: (2/3)
Not quite a perfectly-rounded simfile step-wise, but definitely a unique and creative one that I could certainly see myself coming back to in the future.
FINAL SCORE: (20.5/30)
~END OF REVIEWS~
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:58 pm
