BEST-mix.net - DDR Simfile Tournament

DDR Bracket 1-4 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

Aped - aurae
Gangnam Style - Zounder
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Extended Theme - Jezendar
Space Truckin - Telperion
Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT - k//eternal
Vertex (Stage1) ... from DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Black Label - Kewing

Thanks to Lisek, here are easy to use scoring templates

Option 1 - Complete Review

Code: Select all

[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)

Aped:

Standard – 7/10
This is solid and has a fair amount of appropriate step patterns that don’t go overboard, but I can’t help but feel like it quickly becomes rather stale. Much of this is probably the song’s fault – it seems like a lot of your song choices these days have pretty irregular structures and/or feel like the same thing the whole way through – but I would’ve liked a bit more step variety to maybe compensate for the song’s repetition.

Heavy – 8/10
This improves a bit upon the staleness of the previous stepchart, though it still suffers a bit from the song’s limitations. The steps in themselves are really quite sharp and a lot of fun, but as an entire package, it still doesn’t hold my interest quite as long as I wish.

Presentation – 4.5/5
The sync gets early in a few spots. That’s probably mainly due to the unstable bpm, but I still have to hold you accountable to some degree when judging the presentation of a simfile.

Tilt – 0.5/1
For making an ambitious song choice and doing it pretty much as much justice as possible, I’ll give this a small tilt.

Final Score: 20/25

Gangnam Style:

Standard – 10/10
I’d personally rate this a 5, as I find it pretty easy aside from a small handful of long streams, but the rating is not far off enough that it deserves a score deduction. Other than that, this chart perfectly compliments the Heavy step set, with a lot of the same ideas, only simplified for lower-level players.

Heavy – 10/10
I’ve already commented on this, so there isn’t a whole lot for me to add, but basically, this stepchart is pretty much as well-rounded as you can possibly get. The ideas are numerous, yet accessible and appropriate, and they transition smoothly from phrase to phrase.

Presentation – 5/5
Everything is great here. The graphics are nice and colorful, and the video adds a delicious touch to the whole package.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 25/25

My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic (Extended Theme):

Standard – 8/10
Quite an easy standard chart – for sure a great introduction for someone trying to break into that general level. For the most part, I love your smooth and assured placement. At times, I wish you had done a bit more to give this some more of that edge that’s it’s sort of lacking, but as a whole, I think you did a good job with this.

Heavy – 8/10
This is quite…inoffensive. To be fair though, I think the simplicity of this chart appropriately targets the type of player that would mostly likely want to give this a go. It just seems like the type of song that would quickly lure in new dancers, and I can easily envision this being one of the first Heavy charts they’d try to pass. Actually, I think your placement is pretty excellent from start to finish, and you do start to get fairly creative towards the end. The one sore thumb is the gallop phrase around the middle – whatever you were trying to follow there, the steps don’t follow it correctly, and it just seems out of place. Still, a very playable and well-made stepchart!

Presentation – 2.5/5
There are a fair amount of problems here, unfortunately. To begin with, I’m not exactly sure if this type of song should be stepped at 110 bpm. It’s perhaps debatable, but I think that with such a fast-paced percussion in the background, that 220 bpm would’ve been a lot more appropriate. I guess you were trying to go for that beginner-friendly approach that I just pointed out, but it still does seem a bit odd to me. The graphics are really not that great. The artist text has some really ugly outlining, and the backdrop images are just taken from the official MLP-FIM artwork. The mp3 file is very quiet and should be tuned up. The syncing is definitely a bit early, although it’s not horrible. Finally, you forgot to encode the video so that it plays by default.

Tilt – 1/1
I really like the concept of this simfile, despite a handful of technical issues that I had to dock points for. It’s just too bad this is in the strongest bracket in division 1 by far.

Final Score: 19.5/25

Space Truckin’:

Standard – 10/10
Wow, I never knew a standard chart could be so darn creative! Yeah, 16ths, especially gallops, are quite an anomaly at this difficulty, but this chart is miserly enough that they don’t push the limit to the point where they're unnecessary. The use of breaks is really clever throughout this stepchart – every pattern feels important and fun. A true homer.

Heavy – 9.75/10
You’ve sure come a long way since you first started appearing in simfile competitions regularly 2 years ago. Like Surrender (Nhato remix), this is yet another chart that explores a myriad of quirky note patterns, yet binds them all together without any problems. My only small irk would be that the sets of 5-note 16ths are a bit awkward, and I think they would fit better if they only used 2 arrows rather than 3. Otherwise, fantastic job with this!

Presentation – 5/5
Seriously, those text effects are probably among the best I’ve ever seen in any simfile’s artwork. The whole package is just slick.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 24.75/25

Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT:

Standard – 9.5/10
This whole file is definitely on the tougher side of things, but this stepchart is actually quite well-done. You have a lot going on for a standard chart, but your ideas are numerous and fun. In a few certain spots, you’ll switch the direction the player is facing a bit awkwardly and abruptly – the transition into measure 24 is a perfect example –but this is a fairly minor complaint. Overall, good job!

Heavy – 6.5/10
With such a chaotic and incoherent song at hand, a full-on stepchart like this one unfortunately doesn’t work nearly as well as the more simplistic standard chart, which would pass easily as a mid-level heavy set. The song itself is extremely messy and unfocused, and so nothing within it stands out without being drowned out by the rest of all the noise. This chart tries to closely follow most of what’s going on, but unfortunately it becomes pretty confusing for the most part, despite the fact that your placement and structuring is quite solid. Maybe if the remix was less dissonant and the mastering more focused, this stepchart would work a lot better, but unfortunately it’s just too busy for such a thin, sloppy song to support.

Presentation – 4/5
I don’t usually deduct points because of song choice, but in this case, I feel as though the track genuinely hurts the presentation of this file a bit. It’s sort of like my OSC BoNG entry, Know Your Xenemy, in that the two songs being mashed-up aren’t even in the same key and they clash together quite poorly. There’s a difference between a song that you personally don’t care for, and one that’s obviously erroneous technically, and this definitely fits the latter description.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 20/25

Vertex (Stage 1)

Standard – 8.5/10
This is pretty tricky for a standard chart. I guess you fittingly wanted to design something that played like a toned down version of the heavy chart, as a lot of the ideas are fairly similar, though this is certainly by no means a shameless copy. Overall, I find this to be a pretty enjoyable stepchart, but the song doesn’t offer you a whole lot of potential, and so it kind of felt like something was missing from making this seem perfect. You still handled everything well within your limitations, and perhaps with a more rhythmically prominent track, you could strike home again.

Heavy – 8.5/10
Here’s a pretty crafty stepchart. It’s probably not your best ever, but it still has some really solid placement and a ton of well-executed crossovers. The song itself doesn’t really offer much room for the most exciting steps ever, but you still exploited it quite well and made the best out of what you had. The one little area that I just can’t get into is the brief intro, before the speed gimmick. I just find the use of doublesteps between each stream rather clunky, and the dull measure of quarters that lead into them doesn’t help, either. I guess I just wish you had made something a little smoother, as the approach you used doesn’t go with the song very effectively and pales in comparison to everything else. Otherwise, this is very nice.

Presentation – 4.5/5
It’s probably unfair for me to be judging this category, since I made the graphics myself. Otherwise, not a whole lot bothers me about this, except I wish this track could’ve been a little longer, as I was left hoping for a little more by the end. The cut actually reminds me a lot of the soundtrack for DDR Club Mix – even the track itself bears close resemblance to the music from that game – but still, it’s definitely not quite long enough to fully satisfy me.

Tilt – 0.5/1
Recovering the .5 points from presentation, mainly because I did the graphics, so judging this file is a little funny.

Final Score: 22/25

I've already played Heavy on all these and commented on the download thread, so with that head start, why not make the PR?

I will only give a positive Tilt point if I believe a song has considerable replay value. I won't give any negative points. That would be mean. Unless the song is outlandishly offensive.

Presentation, for me, means as long as you put in the effort into making your graphics somewhat appealing and relevant to the song, you deserve at least a 4. The 5 is for files that went above and beyond the call of duty. Also, if an area is lacking, like graphics, an included video can make up for that area by no more than 1 point. I understand that not everyone graduated from an arts school and/or is naturally talented at art. I'm giving those with little experience using Photoshop a chance and to not be hurt so much by such a trivial aspect as 2D visuals when many simfile artists disregard graphic ability of a step artist entirely.

APED 22 / 25
9 / 10 - Heavy
Bold and effective.
8 / 10 - Standard
It works.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Graphics match the song well and look nice.
0 / 1 - Tilt

GANGNAM STYLE 21 / 25
8 / 10 - Heavy
There were some golden opportunities that were missed out here. Good movement.
8 / 10 - Standard
Went by smoothly. The double-steps used were consistent, though could have been placed better.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Video NEEDS Humping Elevator Man!!!
0 / 1 - Tilt

My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Extended Theme 19 / 25
7 / 10 - Heavy
Wasn't too bad. Reminded me of some old OSC charts that didn't shine, but didn't suck either.
9 / 10 - Standard
Cool use of freezes. Clean overall.
3 / 5 - Presentation
Video makes up for the Google Image graphics. Personally, I would've used this for the bg.
0 / 1 - Tilt

Space Truckin' 25 / 25
9 / 10 - Heavy
Very versatile and imaginative. Really optimizes on the song's repetition. Jumping section maybe could have been handled better.
10 / 10 - Standard
Beautiful. This is the best Standard chart I've played out of the no more than 10 this year! Everything was just so...UH!
5 / 5 - Presentation
ITG graphics fit smoothly here.
+1 / 1 - Tilt
I was being picky with the Heavy chart. And I will definitely play this Ke$ha remix again. Hell, here's a bonus point.

Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT 23 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy
Perfect. Precisely what a hard 9 should look and play like post-SuperNOVA era. It's like every good aspect of SuperNOVA 2's stepping style, so 2 things, was stripped out and compiled in this tribute chart that serves just as much justice to the crappy original as it does to set itself apart from all the other Trip Machines.
8 / 10 - Standard
Compliments the series well, but doesn't stand out as much.
4 / 5 - Presentation
OBJECTION!! PheoniX WrighT was insanely distracting in this horrendous mashup. The background is way too cute, though.
+1 / 1 - Tilt
Oh Hayullz to the Yayaz!

Vertex (Stage 1) 23 / 25
9 / 10 - Heavy
What could possibly be done with this song to make an appealing Heavy chart was done. I think it's just lacking in that little extra somethin' sum'in due to the song itself.
9 / 10 - Standard
Nice crossovers and positioning. Maybe a little tighter framework was needed.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Nice graphics. Clever stops and appropriate BPM changes.
0 / 1 - Tilt

Standings
1) Space Truckin' 25 / 25
2) Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT 23 / 25
2) Vertex (Stage 1) 23 / 25
4) APED 22 / 25
5) GANGNAM STYLE 21 / 25
6) My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic Extended Theme 19 / 25

Approval vote:
(I'll do full reviews of everything in both brackets that survive the first round)

Aped - aurae
Space Truckin' - Telperion
Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT - k//eternal

This bracket is stacked. Four really good files here, but there can be only one.

Aped 12 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
This was... interesting. Nice job using all the various rhythms this song presented. The patterns were nice as well; I especially liked the tasteful (at this speed) jacks. There was one bad crossover that broke the flow.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(OK art. One extra chart. Lyrics help for something this bizarre.)
00 / 01 - Tilt

Gangnam Style 15 / 15
09 / 10 - Heavy
I make a point to stay away from stuff that's only notable as a meme like this, so I hadn't heard the song before. I didn't have high hopes. Fortunately, I was dead wrong here. This is far and away the best chart I've played so far. Nice use of the varied rhythms. Perfect flow throughout, including some well-placed crossovers. Even the gallop run (something that just about never occurs naturally in a song) was very well-placed.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(Two extra charts. Memetacular graphics and video.)
01 / 01 - Tilt
This deserves to move on.

My Little Pony 07 / 15
03 / 10 - Heavy
Everything about this file feels phoned in. First off, the BPM changes absolutely don't work in this song. The steps during the intro don't add anything. The initial run doesn't go to anything in the music - it feels like giving up on the actual rhythms to put down something simpler. Unlike Gangnam Style, the gallop run doesn't fit either. I just didn't have any fun at all with this one.
04 / 05 - Presentation
The banner is aliased. Cut is OK.
(Marginal art. Two extra charts and a video.)
00 / 01 - Tilt
As sick as I am of brony oversaturation, I don't need to pile on any further here.

Space Truckin' 13 / 15
08 / 10 - Heavy
I liked the rhythms in this one too. Patterns were generally pretty good. I liked the 3-note sets of step-jump-step, although I would rather not see the 7-note sets.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(YOUR ASCII ART HAS A NOTCH CUT OUT OF IT. MINUS A MILLION POINTS.
Two full sets of steps, and good art.)
00 / 01 - Tilt

Trial Machine 11 / 15
06 / 10 - Heavy
There was some nice use of rhythms here too, but the step jumps didn't work as well as in Space Truckin', most likely due to the higher BPM. The jump-gallop-gallop-jump part also wasn't doing it for me. There were a few bad flow breaks too, and even if that's Trip Machine-like, I don't think it worked out for you.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(One extra chart. I'll add a point for the nice font work.)
00 / 01 - Tilt

Vertex 12 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
If your song has a single, consistent BPM, but you twiddle with it for gimmicks, BPMDISPLAY would go a long way towards a good first impression, so I can actually choose a bearable speed mod. With that out of the way, this song started out slow, especially with the sour taste in my mouth. The rhythms you follow early are very subdued. Fortunately, they pick up, as does the rest of the song, and it actually gets pretty fun in the second half.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Due to complaints, files with solid art and good sound are now 5s.
(Two charts and decent art.)
00 / 01 - Tilt

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.

APED 15 / 25
06 / 10 - Heavy I guess the steps went with the music although I STRONGLY suspect the 64th arrows were supposed to be 8th notes in fact I'm sure of it because you used 8ths for the same rhythm later on. Two points knocked due to double-stepping and two points knocked off for 64ths.
08 / 10 - Standard Steps flowed well in this chart and you didn't use jumps which makes step placement all the more crucial, but you paid attention and it worked. 64th Note syndrome here just like in Heavy.
02 / 05 - Presentation I like the image used but the text is very plain, the synching is awful and I bet the 64th arrows were used because you didn't sync it good enough, my pet pieve is poor synching so this one bugs me, if you choose a song with randomBPM's you really NEED to work hard to make sure everything is super-precise not just use random values that keep the steps 'close enough' to the beat.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt What an odd song, I don't much enjoy random music though.

GANGNAM STYLE 12 / 25
05 / 10 - Heavy Five places made me double-step, I'm not sure who actually prefers double-stepping or how it makes sense when you use a double-step pattern in one part of the song but then in another identical section you don't IMHO that just looks like a careless chart, for instance there's one gallop section that forces a half-spin then the next gallop section doesn't, so even if you enjoy double-stepping why didn't you make it match? And my real question if the rest of the gallops all followed proper foot placement then why did you have one at all that caused a double-step? And have you ever seen a review that said 'those steps were alright, but I would have preferred more double-stepping', nope because even though some people look past them, nobody asks for them.
03 / 10 - Standard Six places, this chart is full of double-stepping. I would have also really liked to see some 16ths used instead of sticking to 4ths and 8ths for the whole chart (for instance between bars 8&9 the two 4ths in the middle don't go to anything in the song and using 16ths that spread out isn't going to be tough for a Standard chart and would have gone with the music).
04 / 05 - Presentation Bad video cut, but since video is not a requirement... Banner is fantastic, BG is um a freebie since it's just a web available image and you cropped it badly where there's a horse saying something but you cut out half of his comment.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Neutral song choice, it's very popular and not a Korean girl band but still not my cup of tea.

My Little Pony Extended Theme 17 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Just one double-step, the rest of the chart is proficient and seem like they go perfectly with the song, a nicely fit 7-footer.
08 / 10 - Standard No double-steps here but the freeze-arrow section (bars 93-99) don't go to anything and the length of the last freeze is random.
01 / 05 - Presentation I believe the correct title is "Friendship is Magic (My Little Pony - Extended Theme)" but I'm thinking you didn't try to make it proper because that would have taken more work in the graphics department. Audio quality is much to quiet, synching is close but not quite good enough (I bet the 24.25 and 53.75 were really supposed to be 27.5 and 55). and I approve of the 110 BPM, no way should that have been 220 BPM as some people have suggested. Thank you for the music video but since I'm not docking points for video neither do you get extra points for having one. Your SAMPLE doesn't even include the "My Little Pony" WTF???
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt I've never seen the show and the song doesn't appeal to me but I think it could have worked well in a dance game if there was more attention to quality. The more I review this file the more cheated I feel because it feels like I'm spending alot of effort reviewing a file that you didn't care about.

Space Truckin' 25 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy No question about it, this is a winner and through all the varied step patterns that went perfectly to the music you did not make me feel sloppy, you kept me flowing throughout.
10 / 10 - Standard Quite a bit of difference from the Heavy chart but still varied, proficient and FUN, congratulations.
04 / 05 - Presentation Is the BN hard to read, yes. Is it intentional, yes. Does that make it good, no. It's nice but the artist gets impossible to read. BG is well it's amazing but I wanted to mark it down because I did not want to see earth trucks on roads, but somehow they fit in better with the guitars and the gritty feel of the song. I really need a lyric file to try and understand what's going on in the vocals if anything coherant is even intended, but WTF it doesn't matter.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt Fantastic simfile.

Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT 19 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Well that was interesting, I can't dock you point on the spin section because that's pretty much a requirement for a Trip Machine chart and you included it. There was still one awkward step early on that messed up, otherwise the Jump-8th pattern felt forced, but again it's Trip Machine...
07 / 10 - Standard Three non-spin sections that I didn't appreciate, the rest of the chart was great.
03 / 05 - Presentation Bad song cut at or something really fishy begins at Bar 20 to 34 everything becomes very late to the music then back to on-beat, seems like the song does that a few times, maybe it was a bad mash-up, if so you shouldn't have used it or you should have compensated the sync because it makes for an unpeasant experience. I like the graphics, unsure about the extremely long sample.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt No tilt.

Vertex (Stage1) 25 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy These steps are absolutely perfect, the main reason why I don't double-step is because I enjoy turns and you turned me all over the place and did not spin me around, I really enjoyed that.
10 / 10 - Standard Seems cheap of me, but you turned me in different ways than heavy, even some that seemed unusual in a Standard chart but every one of them worked. I stepped out on a limb with my opposite foot and you caught me and kept me turning, another perfect chart.
05 / 05 - Presentation Graphics are amazingly delicious but the STOP gimmicks only served to make me fumble (does anyone actually enjoy when a file does this?), thankfully there were just a few. Also the slow-down gimmick isn't treated the same both times, the first one ramps down and the second one is just 1/2 speed, and honestly the more I play the file the more they make perfect sense, they go with the music. I even LIKE the STOPS (how did you do that to me?), they now feel like they go perfectly with the music and it would make the chart less enjoyable without them. Fuckin' good job sir.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt You did everything right, from song choice, to gimmicks, to graphics, to the step charts. If you add it up you got 26 points but the limit is just 25.

approval vote:
Space Truckin'
Really good steps and interesting song choice.

Vertex
Pretty generic song but well pulled steps. This is something that official mixes lack for some time.

Approval vote:

Space Truckin'
Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT
<3 Phoenix ~~

Approval vote:
Space Truckin'

Approval Votes

Gangnam Style
Space Truckin'
Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT

Approval Vote:
Space Truckin'
The song is stuck in my head now~ :D

Vertex (Stage1)

Approval vote! All the stepfiles were great, which made it difficult to decide. I am casting votes on the ones I may replay in random Stepmania runs.

Space Truckin
Trial Machine PhoeniX WrighT
Vertex (Stage 1)

Approval vote:

Space Truckin
Again, only one in the bracket I liked.

Approval votes:

GANGNAM STYLE

Great, well thought out chart. The jumps on "hey" during the breakdown are a nice touch. The gallops during the chorus are a little lacking - I know you were trying to do the steps from the video, but I find them a bit boring. Overall, great balance between karaokestepping and dance-style stepping.

Space Truckin'

Congrats for using the 1/8, 1/16, 1/16, 1/16, 1/16 rhythm properly. The song is unusual, but the chart is executed very well.

Vertex (Stage1)

Man, this takes me back. Feels very oldschool, reminds me of Vanity Angel from DDR 8th. Fun, balanced chart. I would love if it was a bit longer though.