BEST-mix.net - DDR Simfile Tournament

DDR Bracket 1-2 Judging Thread
- The scoring from this thread will determine which 3 songs move on to the next round.
- This thread will be locked sometime on Friday morning/afternoon so scores can be tallied to go with the release of Bracket 2. Get your reviews in before Friday.
- You must pick 1 review method, you can't mix them.
- The entire bracket must be reviewed.
- The list of songs in this bracket are below for reference:

Code: Select all

Fireflies - itzJV
Good Time - Braeden47
Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi - C - hajtos
Love In The Shadows - #Infinity
MAX 150 - rikame
Sparks Fly - y3v0n

Thanks to Lisek, here are easy to use scoring templates

Option 1 - Complete Review

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[b][size=150]Song Title[/size][/b] __ / 25
[color=#008040]__ / 10 - Heavy[/color]
[color=#FF0000]__ / 10 - Secondary Chart[/color]
[color=#BF8040]__ / 05 - Presentation[/color]
[color=#40BFFF]__ / +/- 01 - Tilt[/color]

example:
Template Song 24 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy
Great fun chart but lacks something. It needs more 1/16th jackhammers.
10 / 10 - Secondary Chart
It's great, nothing to add.
05 / 05 - Presentation
The background is dazzling so much that I lost my eye-sight.
01 / 01 - Tilt
Nice video but I understand that some people may not like it.

Option 2 - Partial Review

Code: Select all

[b][size=150]Song Title[/size][/b] __ / 15
[color=#008040]__ / 10 - Heavy[/color]
[color=#BF8040]__ / 05 - Presentation[/color]
[color=#40BFFF]__ / 01 - Tilt[/color]

example:
Bad Song 08 / 15
06 / 10 - Heavy
Could be better. I thought that this was pad competition thought.
02 / 05 - Presentation
The background is ugly. Comic Sans is so 90's.
00 / 01 - Tilt
No tilt. Leave me alone.

Option 3 - Approval Vote

Code: Select all

[b][size=150]Song Title[/size][/b]

example:
Blue Sad Song
I cried. I cried a lot. It's nice.

Option 1: Complete Review (25 points/song)
- Heavy (10), secondary chart (10), presentation (5), and tilt (±1)
Option 2: Partial Review (15 points/song)
- Heavy (10), presentation (5), and tilt (±1)
Option 3: Approval Vote (5 points/song)
- Typical approval vote style; vote for as many songs as desired, each vote awards equal points (5)

approval vote:

Fireflies
Love In The Shadows

(Same notes apply as the ones I listed in my 1-1 score post)

Fireflies 12.5 / 15
7.5 / 10 - Heavy
-I've warmed up to this chart since my initial comments. I still think the steps feel a bit too busy for the most part, but it's not as extreme as I initially stated it was. I do still feel like it needs to be a bit simpler in places, similar to my thoughts on the freeze simfile. Another comment I have is about the chorus. I feel like the rest of the file had nice rhythms and patterns but then suddenly things get really straightforward in the chorus, and I didn't like the "freeze-UU UU UU" 16th patterns, especially compared to some of the other fun patterns used beforehand. Still, I liked the song choice and ultimately I did enjoy the chart.
5 / 5 - Presentation
I REALLY like these graphics, my favorite set in bracket 1. Love the color scheme especially.
0/ 1 - Tilt

Good Time 9.5 / 15
(Note unrelated to score: This file was noticeably offsync to me)
7 / 10 - Heavy
Ahh, that cut at the end! It made me sad because everything else about this chart is very solid. Good rhythms, good patterns, if a bit bland in places. overall enjoyable, but the song cut in the end is really abrupt and takes away from the enjoyment a bit.
2 / 5 - Presentation
-These graphics are pretty bland, but not completely horrible. I already accounted for the cut in my assessment of the heavy chart so I won't double-penalize here.
.5 / 1 - Tilt
-I gave this a bit of a bump because I feel the fun factor of this file isn't what the score makes it out to be.

Hyadain no Kakakata 11.5 / 15
8 / 10 - Heavy
-I enjoyed this quite a bit. I like the overall feel of the chart-- Simple 8th note streams with jumps, kind of like a slightly more difficult Love <3 Shine. I have a couple issues, though. First, and this really isn't a big thing, but I would have liked to have seen a BPM slowdown in the middle. I think it would have been appropriate and given you more of a varied feel to the chart, which allows me to segue into my second issue which is that the step patterns didn't change too much throughout. This isn't big deal either but I would have liked the last sequence (when the song repeats what I guess is the chorus) to have been a bit more difficult than the first time, given that the song is building up at that point. I would have liked the steps to build up as well. Still this was a great chart.
3.5 / 5 - Presentation
A bit too simple for my liking, but effective nonetheless.
0 / 1 - Tilt

LOVE IN THE SHADOWS 13.5 / 15
8.5 / 10 - Heavy
-Very solid. I enjoyed this a lot, mostly because I love the feel of this song as a whole and how it has the old-school 1st/2nd mix DDR vibe to it. The steps do not disappoint, either. My only issue, ironically, also stems from the song itself-- I feel the song doesn't really change at all until the chorus, which allows you to switch up the steps there a bit. Before that, you did an admirable job of keeping the steps fresh anyway, but the song felt a bit stale after awhile until the chorus finally hit. This is just a minor issue, though. Otherwise, this was a very solid chart and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-Love the beach theme.
0 / 1 - Tilt

MAX 150 12.5 / 15
(Note unrelated to score: This file was noticeably offsync to me)
8 / 10 - Heavy
I really can't fault most of this chart, but I wasn't feeling the song at all. I feel like it's a gimmicky choice and the song itself isn't very interesting. Steps were technically sound and had varied rhythms and patterns, but the overall package isn't for me.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Simple, effective.
-.5 / 1 - Tilt
-This pretty much accounts for the fact that while I couldn't really technically fault the steps, I didn't enjoy it as much as the score indicated.

SPARKS FLY 11.5 / 15
6.5 / 10 - Heavy
-My comments for this are simple: Very solid step patterns, but the rhythm followed the vocals too closely throughout. This chart could have some more rhythmic variation. That being said, the fun patterns kept me interested enough to say I did somewhat enjoy this.
5 / 5 - Presentation
I love the song choice and the graphics.
0 / 1 - Tilt

FIREFLIES 10 / 15
5 / 10 - Heavy
I liked when my planet earth turned slowly on the slow part. That's about it.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Why? Just WHY did you have to step this song?
0 / 1 - Tilt

Good Time 8 / 15
6 / 10 - Heavy
Hey, you stepped something easier than a 10!! But I wanted a boss chart out of this. ):
2 / 5 - Presentation
It's almost as if I'm actually on an island, about to have a good time! Of course, this mix pulled the routine same artist pick. Last time it was Katy Perry; this time it's Owl City. I think I liked last time better. Also, IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD WOOOO-
0 / 1 - Tilt

Hyadin no Kakakata Kataomoi - C 12 / 15
7 / 10 - Heavy
Better than most fanboy charts.
5 / 5 - Presentation
The simplicity of the graphics actually match the anime video fairly well.
0 / 1 - Tilt

LOVE IN THE SHADOWS 12 / 15
7 / 10 - Heavy
Don't know what exactly you could have done with this. I guess this passes.
5 / 5 - Presentation
I'm all for experimenting, but...I think you should stick to either Eurobeat or Upbeat.
0 / 1 - Tilt

MAX 150 10 / 15
6 / 10 - Heavy
Wasn't sure what parts of the song this was following at points, but hey, this should have been terrible, right?
4 / 5 - Presentation
Whoa, a MAX that isn't 300 BPM!? Right on! A little more polishing on the graphics would be nice.
0 / 1 - Tilt

SPARKS FLY 14 / 15
8 / 10 - Heavy
I was expecting sparks to fly. I sensed a flare. You were very close, though. I could feel the heat!
5 / 5 - Presentation
Fucking incredible sample and amazing banner. I mean, HOLY $#!^
+1 / 1 - Tilt
This song is just insanely perfect for DDR. I already forgot what the steps were like. Here, wait, lemme play this file again.

Standings
1) SPARKS FLY 14 / 15
2) Hyadin no Kakakata Kataomoi - C 12 / 15
2) LOVE IN THE SHADOWS 12 / 15
4) FIREFLIES 10 / 15
4) MAX 150 10 / 15
6) Good Time 8 / 15

I rate charts based on how they flow with the music and are dance-able. So a perfect score means I thought it went well with the music and had no errors (not that I was amazed at the steps I am being entirely objective). I'll decrease the score if I hate gimmicks enough. For brevity I thought all the arrows went well with the music unless noted otherwise, if so then I only knocked off points for making me face away from the screen unless it's a full spin and I enjoyed doing it.

FIREFLIES 22 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy It's A Great! Earth Turns Slowly = slow SPIN into backwards jumps but not at all hard to hit, that is an example where a SPIN makes the chart better.
08 / 10 - Standard Two bad spins, the rest is good.
04 / 05 - Presentation The banner is gravy, BG is a little washed out.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt No tilt, I would have liked to have had a harder chart somehow.

Good Time 21 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy Fairly plain, you should have tried for some 16ths although it seems like there wasn't any part of the song that would have supported faster steps (maybe a better cut of the song would have helped)... It's technically proficient, nice flow, turns, freezes just nothing remarkable but since I'm judging on technical proficiency this round you WIN.
10 / 10 - Standard Still technically proficient, good use of turns again, seems very similar to Hard but not much you can do with this song.
01 / 05 - Presentation One point for trying. Banner is plain, BG is just random, even the text is rough on the edges, the cut at the end of the song is bad, sample is even bad it starts at "IME"?
00 / ± 01 - Tilt No tilt, I will have to try your doubles charts though.

Hyadain no Kakakata 18 / 25
06 / 10 - Heavy From beat 94 to 158 there should be no 16ths or 8ths all those steps should be 1/4ths and 1/12ths. The way it is now is off-beat. All the patterns work but you missed something very obvious.
08 / 10 - Standard Same as Hard but fewer steps I had to fix so less of a penalty, your step patterns still flow very well just the one off-beat section.
05 / 05 - Presentation Let's see, your graphics are great, video is a plus, fade into an image works, you have everything right.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt I don't like the song choice.

LOVE IN THE SHADOWS 21 / 25
09 / 10 - Challenge Step at beat 23 turns me backwards, the rest of the chart is perfect actually better than that, you use lots of turns but they all work very well so it's strange you missed one.
06 / 10 - Heavy Four double-steps caused here, you should have employed measures similar to the challenge to either use freezes to force the double-step or jumps to straighten out the player but then it would have just been your challenge chart so just work on player positioning.
05 / 05 - Presentation Fantastic presentation.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt I like the song choice, good job on branching out.

Max 150 24 / 25
10 / 10 - Challenge Nailed it.
10 / 10 - Heavy Nailed it here as well, good job on player positioning.
05 / 05 - Presentation I like it, I even like your CDTitle image.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt Another Max 150? At least it's a different mix than what I'm used to, I hate the STOP.

SPARKS FLY 24 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy Perfect.
09 / 10 - Standard One double-step and there's a big break between the steps but that doesn't excuse it.
05 / 05 - Presentation I like your graphics and overall presentation.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Generic pop music, no bonus.

Fireflies 12 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
First things first, cut that outro. It doesn't add anything - it just wastes 15 seconds of my life going through the motions to get to the next song.

The beginning of the song feels like it's trying too hard not to karaoke, which leads to the song feeling understepped. I can kind of hear you going to the bass, but it's not consistent. The patterns are still fun. I could also do without the jacks.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(Two extra charts. Good art. "Copied from Copied from" shows a lack of attention to detail.)
00 / 01 - Tilt

Good Time 09 / 15
05 / 10 - Heavy
What a hideous cut at the end. The patterns here are dull, and freezes you can't miss are a personal pet peeve of mine, even if you're trying to accentuate a synth (which it doesn't really help with). (I know the ITG community disagrees strongly.)
03 / 05 - Presentation
Weak art, bad cut.
01 / 01 - Tilt
Extra set of doubles charts.

Hyadain no Kakakata 08 / 15
03 / 10 - Heavy
This song didn't have much of a beat, which means you're forced to follow the vocals, leaving very predictable steps. This makes for a bad example of karaoke steps. Some places are trying too hard to ramp up the difficulty, such as the step-jumps. Nothing distinguishing about the patterns here either.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(One extra chart. Good art and a video.)
00 / 01 - Tilt

Love in the Shadows 10 / 15
04 / 10 - Heavy
This is a baseline competent chart, but it's exceedingly dull. There's not a lot of beat here, so there's nothing prompting my steps, and the whole thing just feels a bit invented. The patterns are pretty blah, except for the crossovers, which don't really fit in a 6.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(Two full sets of charts, good graphics and a video. Nice readme too.)
01 / 01 - Tilt
Offsetting my disagreement with the presentation rules.

Max 150 09 / 15
04 / 10 - Heavy
Those slowdowns are awful. They don't fit the song at all. The pause is OK, but I really don't want to see the Sakura step there, especially after the beat's just gone for so long. The rhythms right after the pause don't feel right to me at all either. Besides that, the patterns weren't very imaginative.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(Pretty much the minimum requirements.)
00 / 01 - Tilt
This score feels a bit lower than I intended, so instead of the -1 for bare-bonesing it, you'll get back to 0.

Sparks Fly 12 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
This is an example of a well-done karaoke chart. It's fun, but it doesn't color outside the lines, so it's predictable and unimaginative. At that point, this is about the best you can do.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(One extra chart.)
00 / 01 - Tilt
Offsetting the basic presentation.

approval vote:
Sparks Fly
It's really awesome. The background is so sparky :)

Approval vote:

LOVE IN THE SHADOWS
SPARKS FLY

Approval Votes:

Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi - C
Love In The Shadows

Approval votes:

Fireflies
Very nice step placement right here! The only pattern that I didn't like as much, and again I'm with Zounder here, is the jack-ish freeze sections during the chorus, they didn't really fit into the thing at all. Other than that, I loved the presentation and steps ("planet earth turns slowly" during the slow ending part, and you deliver the perfect turn-around-steps <3).

Love in the Shadows
Again, solid step placement and superb presentation make an amazing simfile! And while I think that these steps are not "amazing" throughout the whole thing (the flow was alright most of the time, though), I'm digging the dedication to put to these kinds of files. It's very fun to play during warm-up!

A word to the others:

Good Time: It's the little things that annoy me... your banner graphics states the artist as "Carly Rae Jepsen & Owl City", yet the song wheel says "Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen". I know it's kind of nitpicky, but come on, man! These little details could be taken care of beforehand. Steps were fun for the most part; I wasn't so sure about the long off-beat freezes, even though they fit their voices. Get someone to cut your song choices and you've upped your simfile quality by a big number!

Hyadain no Kakakata (Kataomoi-C): This wasn't that enjoyable to me because of the already mentioned heavy focus on the vocals. Then again, that's all that this song offers almost all the way through, but it's not that fun to me to just tap the vocal rhythms. The track itself annoys me, too, however that's not an issue concerning my "scoring" of this file. As hellrazor pointed out, the middle section should have been stepped using "swing-style" 1/12th arrows.

MAX 150: This was too easy for a 9. I mean, the 16th fills could justify this rating, but then again the rest of the file was way too 8-ish (or even 7-ish in some parts). I had no idea what was going on during the electric guitar introduction (where there was no rhythm), that was highly confusing. The graphics are nice on this one, though!

Sparks Fly: It almost hurts to put this on here. Presentation is AMAZING, song choice (while not my kind of music) fits perfectly into DDR, and the steps are well placed for the last third of the file. However, similar to Hyadain no Kakakata, you put the emphasis almost entirely on the vox, but unlike Hyadain, you had cool rhythms to work with in this! I like the flow of your steps and the chorus section with the ending (as I said, last third...), but before that it's a bit too much for me to handle. Sorry...

Approval vote! (Detailed feedback next round for the songs that get through)

Sparks Fly
Love in the Shadows

Approval vote:
(I had troubles with this bracket, because there are a lot of good simfiles, but nothing made me 'wow'. I mostly didn't enjoy the songs too. So this time only one approval vote).

Fireflies
Everything I would expect form a good 7. The chart is interesting and varied. I didn't like the song, but oh well.

Approval Vote:

Love In The Shadows
Probably the only one I enjoyed in this bracket.

Approval votes:

FIREFLIES

Fantastic 7 footer. Great pacing, varied rhythms, interesting steps. The spin at the end is very fun. I don't really agree with the double-taps on 1/16ths though.

LOVE IN THE SHADOWS

Solid charts, but not much else to say.

Fireflies 15/15
Presentation 5/5: Absolutely gorgeous graphics and stellar audio quality.
Heavy 9/10: On the second playthrough I understood where you were going and I'm quite pleased with how creative this chart is. In the part where he talks about fireflies teaching him how to dance, I think the freezes should be omitted since they don't really match anything in the music. (Of course, then you'd have people not understanding that you had to double step at that part...) Just a little bit more rhythmic structure would have been cool, but this is quite superb.
Tilt +1: Doing a song 90 BPM or lower is extremely brave in a simfile contest like this, especially when you're not matching the rhythms as closely as you could have.

Good Time 8/15
Presentation 2.5/5: I don't understand why you never asked anyone to show you how to put a fadeout at the end of the song :/ At least this time it's ended at more of an appropriate moment. Banner needs more style, and the background has an appropriate image while the text is minimal.
Heavy 5.5/10: The steps are significantly more fun in Carly's verse than in the first verse. I understand that a lot of the design might have to do with keeping it simple, but more creative patterns could have been used in the first verse and chorus. It was still okay overall. I appreciate the patterns with the short freezes.
Tilt 0

Hyadain no Kakakata 12/15
Presentation 4.5/5: Gets the job done. A little more creative text in the banner would have been cool.
Heavy 7/10: That was quite a rush... The stomps and jumps did quite well to emphasize the hyper nature of the song. I did think it followed the vocals too closely throughout - I would've liked to see the rhythms build a more creative way. Positioning was novel in parts, but in some parts felt a little more on the plain side. Overall still good fun.
Tilt +0.5: Great song choice - very suitable for a stepfile and I'm glad you introduced it here and stepped it fairly well.

Love in the Shadows 14/15
Presentation 5/5: Wow, the background is especially beautiful, and fits the 80s style of the song perfectly.
Heavy 8.5/10: At first I didn't get why there was so much facing forward in the beginning, but after a couple of plays I saw that it's well patterned and rhythms are emphasized well. I do wish the positioning were a little bit more diverse, but I appreciate the effort for simplicity in the chart. Also, there's this quarter note jump in between streams of 8th notes that seems to get in the way of buildup to the chorus. Either that or having a quarter note jump and then such a long stream seems not to work. However this is a minor nitpick and I was very impressed by this overall.
Tilt +0.5: I still think submitting a 6 foot heavy chart is brave in a contest like this.

MAX 150 11/15
Presentation 4/5: Well-executed BPM tricks. However, with the graphics, the text doesn't mesh with the backdrop as well as it could (the outlining could be improved on the title, and the beveling on the artist text clashes with the style of the backdrop)
Heavy 7/10: A good sampling of rhythms here, and well-balanced difficulty, with a good amount of thought put into positioning. After the pause, I think the steps follow the guitar too closely. (While it is good to make it hard to combo this part, the guitar is kind of fading in and out as far as loudness goes, making it a little awkward to step it so closely there.) I also think that you didn't do as much as you could have with the song - there are some nice tricks here (like making the steps after the pause hard, the 32nds in the intro, and the 8th note/16th patterns during the slow part that fool you into thinking the chart is going to speed up if you play on 1x) but it would've been nice to have seen more. Still it's a fun play overall.
Tilt 0

SPARKS FLY 9.5/15
Presentation 5/5: Beautiful graphics, audio quality great.
Heavy 5/10: This starts well, and the close tie to the vocals makes the steps interesting for the first few measures. But continuing to be that tied to the vocals just doesn't work later on, when there's so much room for creativity with the rhythms. The positioning was fairly interesting, but the problems with the rhythms overshadow this.
Tilt -0.5 Lots of potential with the song, and I feel that more could have been done here.