DDR 1-3 Judging Thread

[BLueSS]

DDR Bracket 1-3 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

Bubble Pop - Yuke
Flip Flap - NIQ9
I'll be there for you - Greg
Russian Unicorn - Zero-X
The Master ov Time, pt. 1 - Escape - Lisek
Totalimmortal - jammitch!

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)

[k//eternal]

approval vote:

Bubble Pop

[Hainaut]

Bubble Pop:

Standard – 8/10
This chart starts off a bit slowly. There isn’t a whole lot of rhythmic variation early on, and it gets dull. However, it does pick up speed by the chorus, which has some cute jumps and 8ths that compliment them well.

Heavy – 9/10
This is pretty darn fun. I love the smart placement that contains lots of surprises and still goes along with the main melody quite effectively. I do have to point out that you really shouldn’t start the steps as soon as the music begins playing, though.

Presentation – 4/5
I like the graphics for the most part, but you really should’ve distinguished the artist name from the title. Also, why is this synced so that it’s constantly shifting between 145.99 and 146.00 bpm? It sounds like you were having a bit of trouble syncing this, but you really should’ve just stuck with one tempo and not have to incessantly change it. Also, the song goes on for a rather long time and really feels like it should be trimmed down a bit.

Tilt – 1/1
I really enjoyed this simfile a lot as a whole, and so I think it deserves an extra point to make up for some of the little technical things that you botched up.

Final Score: 22/25

Flip Flap:

Standard – 8/10
I don’t usually like grading 12th note-based stepcharts, since they play so much differently from your traditional, quarter-8th-16th type of chart. Overall, this is a pretty good chart. Not amazing, but it’s relatively variable and has decent phrasing. The one part I found particularly boring was the section with the long quarter taps on the same arrow a few times consecutively. Otherwise, not bad.

Heavy – 7/10
This has great placement for the most part, and it has decent variation as well. However, I do think you follow the melody a little too closely in numerous sections, especially when it means long, fast streams of 12th notes. A good chart, but it could’ve been a little more rhythmically creative.

Presentation – 3.5/5
Graphics are pretty plain-Jane, and the songwheel sample doesn’t start at an appropriate point. Sound quality and syncing are both good.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 18.5/25

I’ll Be There For You:

Standard – 7.5/10
This is a decent stepchart. In parts, especially the intro and chorus, it goes a little overboard with the karaoke, but the placement is pretty solid and consistent, and the occasional use of freezes break the phrases up pretty nicely. Not particularly exciting, but certainly passable.

Heavy – 5/10
While I can hardly fault your placement and technical cleanliness, there’s nothing particularly exciting or creative about this stepchart to a pretty formulaic anime rock track. I know that you’re really not the biggest fan of doublesteps, but I still think this chart needed way more breaks and much more creative ideas if it were to stand out at all.

Presentation – 5/5
Everything looks great here. I’m especially glad to have found someone else who experiments with different text beveling styles in Photoshop.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 17.5/25

Russian Unicorn:

Standard – 9/10
I love the double freeze taps in the verse – they add a fairly creative touch to this otherwise straightforward chart. In general, I don’t have a whole lot else to say about this; it’s well-rounded and varied, like most of your charts, even though it doesn’t quite blow me away.

Heavy – 9.5/10
As repetitive as your step style is, typically loaded with somewhat twisty 8th streams with quarter transitions into single-freeze jumps, you still manage to create lots of quality stepcharts nonetheless. A few trick patterns, including the occasional 16ths and especially the 2-note jump-steps later on, add a nice additional challenge.

Presentation – 5/5
Your presentation is always pretty spot-on. Lovely graphics, great sound quality + syncing, and a crisp bg video. Great stuff.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 23.5/25

The Master ov Time pt. 1 – Escape:

Standard – 5/10
This stepchart has none of the same energy or excitement that make me quite love the song. It doesn’t have and significant standout sections and instead just mainly goes along with the vocal track, not quite verbatim, but still without any creative algorithms to make it anything beyond predictable and boring. Placement is pretty mediocre – the amount of movement is a bit underdone in parts, and there’s a lot of left-facing during the measures leading into the chorus. I really wish you had added more jumps to this chart and made it a bit more patterned, because then it would’ve been a lot more solid and not left me as overwhelmed as I am. There’s no way this stepchart is a 6, by the way – even for a 5, it would be so surprisingly easy all the way through.

Heavy – 6.5/10
This is a little stronger than standard, but still not particularly spectacular. It’s not quite as understepped, but I still think you could’ve exploited the song in a much more interesting way. Your patterning is a little more balanced and varied, but a lot of this is still a little too dependent on the melody, considering how intense the instrumentation is. I think this would’ve been more effective if you had included more jumps to go along with those banging drums, as well as some longer streams that suggested but didn’t completely follow the tune. All-in-all, this is definitely playable, but I think you could’ve done so much more with it.

Presentation – 4.5/5
The sync is notably early, even on my relatively quickly responding Mac OS X. The shadow effects you used for the text are also a little tacky, but the graphics are still good overall.

Tilt – 0/1

Final Score: 16/25

Totalimmoral:

Heavy – 9.5/10
With such a vocally driven song as this, it’s no surprise that you took this in a mostly karaoke direction, but wow, you sure handled it with expertise! At first, I was a little skeptical about the effectiveness of this chart over a fast, not-horribly-sharp punk rock track, but as I’ve played it a few more times, I’ve come to really love it. This has just the right amount of variation and syncopation that it’s fun and balanced all the way through. The placement is overall fantastic. I am a little unsold on the slowdown, particularly coming into it, since the notes you’re following there are sort of hard to hear, and then you don’t do a great job of distinguishing the following area, where the drum hits come in, from that section. Nonetheless, this is really solid and a lot of fun!

Challenge – 9.5/10
I find it pretty funny that this is given the same foot rating as Heavy, even though it’s clearly much more difficult. I think you could’ve easily gotten away with rating this an easy 10, but it’d still be a fairly borderline 10 anyway, kind of like Liquid Moon from ITG. Anyway, being that this pushes the difficulty even further of a song mostly run by the vocals, I was worried that you’d run into numerous obstacles here, but you manage to overcome them surprisingly well. Yeah, the streams are a little longer, there are more step-jumps, and there are bunch of jacks thrown in to add more of a technical challenge, but you still made this fit together solidly without it seeming too difficult. During the slowdown, the drum hit areas are distinguished much better this time, but I do think the long 16th stream should’ve been left behind, as it doesn’t follow anything particularly audible, and that area would’ve worked better as an opportunity for a break instead.

Presentation – 4.5/5
It seems like your sound quality is a bit off the mark here – the ogg is pretty quiet and a bit sandy. I looked up this song’s sample on iTunes to see if it wasn’t your fault, but the iTunes version sounds better. It’s not completely unacceptable sound quality, but I still would’ve liked the ogg to be a little cleaner. Other than that, this category is pretty good. Nice job syncing this!

Tilt – 0.5/1
Stepping punk rock like this is no easy task, but despite the few minor complaints, I think you did a great job with this.

Final Score: 24/25

[Yuke]

You synced this a beat too late!

Oh crap, I really did. I had no idea that this happened. I probably just randomly pressed 'Insert' while going through this chart for the last time before submitting it here.

If it is possible, I would like to request everyone to go to the Editor Mode before judging Bubble Pop's Standard chart and press 'Delete' on keyboard once (At the beginning of the file). Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.

I am also going to write a PM to BlueSS, asking if and when I could replace the .sm file with the correct one.

Also, why is this synced so that it’s constantly shifting between 145.99 and 146.00 bpm?

I was trying to make the syncing perfect, so I did some of it manually, using DDReam Studio. The parts that I wanted to sync manually have their syncing correct, but unfortunately this program adds this stupid 0.01 changes everywhere and I do not know how to remove them. (They are also present in my second file).

Glad you liked the file, though!

[BLueSS]

Judging for Bubble Pop should reflect the updated .SM file (Fixes standard from being off-sync) [DOWNLOAD LINK]

[hellrazor]

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.

Bubble Pop 22 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy This is the exact type of chart that someone who normally double-steps would miss out on all the great turns and thus the point of the step-chart, fantastic job zero errors.
10 / 10 - Standard The ONLY problem here is all the arrows are off, play-test your charts before submitting them next time.//Changed to a 10 because BlueSS said to fix the chart before reviewing, originally I gave it a 5, in my opinion there is no excuse not to pad-test your completed entry.//
03 / 05 - Presentation Everything is great (really truly great BG/BN) except for the song-cut, there's a very noticible cut in the end that if you change the BPM to 146 (which I had to do because it was MESSY and to fix the Standard chart) causes the last few steps to be EARLY. Precision song-cuts are very important, you shouldn't cover-up sloppy cuts with sloppy BPM's.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt Don't like the song.

Flip Flap 09 / 25
05 / 10 - Heavy From Beat 128 - 184 all those boring 12ths should be 4ths. You have a very boring chart, lots of repetitive steps with a few 12th runs here and there, it flows well enough but lacks creativity but since I'm not taking any points off for creativity you only lose points for the off-beat steps you used.
04 / 10 - Standard Same problem as Heavy and it doesn't make sense because from 184-189 you move to 4ths even though the music doesn't change. There's also a FREEZE arrow that almost hides the next step, that's a gimmick and a bad one to use in a Standard chart like this one or in ANY DDR style chart, the rest of your freeze arrows leave enough time to see the next arrow and step on it. Chart is just as boring as Heavy but without the interesting 12th runs.
01 / 05 - Presentation Google search for this song/artist reveals it's from a rhythm game already and there are great graphics available, yet you didn't use them, but you at least have something.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt Song already has been used in other packs and rhythm games, I prefer unique music, experimentation not remakes.

I'll be there for you 24 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy Perfect flow, the last freeze arrow is hit with the OFF foot but it doesn't matter because it's the last freeze arrow and I'm sure it was intentional with the clearly careful attention to step-placement. See I am being completely unbiased and fair and even if I wasn't I actually like your steps for this song, well done not overdone or underdone but well done.
10 / 10 - Standard Same as Heavy, last step off-foot and it's perfectly executed. Great standard steps for this song, my only complaint is the freeze arrow section there probably should have been a little less overlap between each freeze arrow.
04 / 05 - Presentation You need to match the #TITLE: with the banner, SO IF THE BANNER IS ALL CAPTIALS the TITLE should Also be in all capitals. As much as I don't want to like this I can't do it, your graphics look great and the video is a big plus and makes the graphics much more relevant and the more I play it the more I like it.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Anime = -1point but because it looks really interesting (swords, dragons, castles, I actually WANT to watch this) +1 = 0.

Russian Unicorn 24 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy One half-spin the rest of the steps were perfect.
10 / 10 - Standard Flawless chart.
05 / 05 - Presentation I do like your graphics although I still have no idea what this song is about.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Have I ever mentioned I hate music in the 122-132BPM range because it's so common, why can't Pop music use faster speeds and why didn't you explain the song choice it's just odd? I don't hate pop music enough to drop your score and kudos on bringing in some cheese.

The Master ov Time 23 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Just one bad turn in the chart.
10 / 10 - Standard Proficient step-chart, no problems here.
03 / 05 - Presentation I think you could have had a MEAN challenge chart for this song, but I won't dock you for what could have been, instead the graphics seemed generic, they didn't mean anything to me but I guess they mean something to you. For some reason every time I see your BN or BG I wish it was an image of Orko from the old "He-Man" cartoons. I can't imagine that lost looking girl being THE MASTER ov TIME.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt For using open-licensed music, brave move.

Totalimmortal 18 / 25
08 / 10 - Challenge Two bad turns/spins at the very end, a little Afronova walk just before that not sure if that was intentional because you lost it soon after, but up to that point there were no problems with the steps.
10 / 10 - Heavy No problems in this chart although I hate the synching, it's annoying how loose you were with the BPM's but your steps were quite proficient, I would have made it an 8.
01 / 05 - Presentation Bad Sample at the "Sometimes just WALKING is surreal" it gets strangely loud at the WALKING part then quiet = very annoying. The synching is SLOPPY and has huge shifts, seems like constant over-under compensation these BPM's were much too loose for me to enjoy. Your banner looks great although the image seems random, BG is washed out and completely random, thanks for the lyrics or I would have no idea what he/she was singing "Holes through your flawless soul" no wonder they went EMO, that's not scary.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt Low volume, brave song choice however.

[Zounder]

-Same caveats apply from what I listed in my 1-1 review. I also want to mention that I do comment on extras in the presentation like the video, but my score is never influenced by it in such a way as "this has a video, bonus points!" but more along the lines of "Well, Tweet Tweet starts with a black image but it has a video so I'm not deducting crazy points for the official starting BG being a black image."

Bubble Pop 10 / 15
(The actual title is "Bubble Pop!" by the way. I did warn in the general discussion thread I would be overly critical!)
6 / 10 - Heavy
-So first things first, excellent song choice. This song screams DDR and it's crazy catchy. The steps flow pretty well, but there are lengthy portions of the chart where the player is facing the same direction for a good amount of time (mostly in the first third of the chart), and other parts with stale step patterns, like the huge DLUDRU-ish run near the start. These issues improved as the chart went on. But the cut didn't need to be this long at all. it should cut to the end immediately after the first chorus, removing the excess. As much as I love the song, I found myself zoned out and completely losing interest after awhile. This really took away from my enjoyment of the file. Two other small things bothered me: I don't like it when charts have steps immediately when the music starts unless it's absolutely called for (in this case it's not) and the random left arrow following nothing at the end. Was that intentional? Anyway, It certainly wasn't bad, for as long as it went on there were no massive over-arching errors across the chart, but the problems I listed took away from my enjoyment significantly.
3 / 5 - Presentation
-The graphics are pretty good but I think having a different font/color for the artist would work a bit better. Also, that error in the cut before the final chorus really bugs me.
1 / 1 - Tilt
-I'm fully aware I went harder on this file than I should, so I hand out my only full +1 tilt point here.

Flip Flap 9 / 15
7.5 / 10 - Heavy
-Overall this was pretty solid. I was pleasantly surprised given that ugly groove radar. That huge run with repeating 12ths was rough, though. There has to be something else to do during that part because that was pretty boring. Before and after that, though, I enjoyed the varied patterns and the rhythms, while a bit stale at times, fit the song. It got just a bit more difficult that it needed to be at times, but ultimately I enjoyed it. One last thing: That 12th note step-jump was a little fishy at that speed.
1.5 / 5 - Presentation
Uhhh
0 / 1 - Tilt

I'll Be There For You 13.5 / 15
8.5 / 10 - Heavy
Very nice! The rhythms were great throughout, and for the most part, the patterns were really fun. They didn't vary much, but the doesn't really call for it. I like how the difficulty spikes slightly at the end. That's the kind of thing I expect in a chart for a song like this. My main issue here is something I keep seeing throughout this bracket: What's with people's fascination with really really long DLUDRU runs? That part felt stale, but everything else was fun. One other slightly awkward thing: It might just be me, but at the very start of the chart, the "you" in "for you" feels a bit delayed in the song and so the step comes just before the "you" and it messes up my rhythm. I'm not really sure if delaying the step would have improved anything, but I figured I'd mention it because it did throw me off. Anyway, I really liked this. nicely done!
5 / 5 - Presentation
Great graphics, and that video quality was really high.
0 / 1 - Tilt

Russian Unicorn 14.75 / 15
(Side note unrelated to score: I was VERY disappointed when I found out the lyrics were not really matching the video.)
9.75 / 10 - Heavy
Anyway, this was absolutely fantastic. Everything from the great use of freezes to the rhythms to the crossovers. I really can't think of anything to criticize except for the fact that a couple times during this chart I found myself facing left for just a biiiit too long for my liking. One of the great things about this chart was the movement, but there were a couple of stagnant spots. That's me REALLY being nitpicky though. This is overall an excellent chart. very nice!
5 / 5 - Presentation
A great song choice couples with a great set of graphics. And another really high quality video!
0 / 1 - Tilt

The Master ov Time 12.5 / 15
7.5 / 10 - Heavy
-This was solid. pretty non-nondescript but enjoyable nonetheless. The instrumentals and the beginning at the end had a very very similar step pattern, featuring a freeze on the up or down arrow forcing a sideways facing, which was fun but I felt it got old after awhile. I think it could have been solved by changing up the patterns a bit during the second instrumental, and perhaps adding a bit of a difficulty increase to differentiate from the first instrumental. overall though, a solid chart.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-Solid and effective.
0 / 1 - Tilt

Totalimmortal 12.5 / 15
7.5 / 10 - Heavy
-This is a very ambitious chart and for the most part, it succeeds. The BPM changes added great flavor. My main issue with this chart is the entire first portion. The song doesn't have a whole lot going on at that point but there's heavy stream in the steps, and it really doesn't match. I can image that part being very hard to step properly, but the way it was stepped I couldn't get into it. From that point on, the chart was very enjoyable. Watch those 8th note step-jumps at that speed, though. Overall, this was an ambitious chart and I enjoyed it.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-Love the font choice.
0 / 1 - Tilt

[Valex]

I liked Song Title too

[Zounder]

I liked Song Title too

The funny thing is that Flip Flap was also Song Title before I caught it. Looks like I missed a second instance!

[Spork!]

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

Russian Unicorn - Zero-X
Totalimmortal - jammitch!


Good job all!

[Nusa]

Approval vote:

I'll be there for you
Russian Unicorn
Totalimmortal

[Aki]

Approval Votes:

I'll be there for you
Russian Unicorn

[aurae]

Approval votes:

Bubble Pop
First of all: That very last step (after the final L-D-freeze) made no sense to me. Then, this file comes in a little too harsh. I mean, the very first few measures are, like, the hardest of the entire file, and the music doesn't justify this. The song preview goes on forever. The song feels like it goes on forever. Alright, enough of that: I LOVED this chart so much! Very challenging and upbeat, nice turns and interesting patterns throughout the whole thing (except for the beginning, as I already said). Amazing job!

I'll be there for you (Zero no tsukaima F)
Ugh, that song is horrendous! Still, I had a good time playing this file, because the step placement did not focus solely on the vocals, but used somewhat interesting patterns and kept a great flow to emphasize different elements of the track. I'm with hellrazor on the banner issue: If there's a subtitle in the song wheel, you gotta put it on the banner. If the subtitle isn't that important, leave it out completely (what is that even? The anime where this track is from?). Another nitpicky thing: I don't like it when the artist name is above the song title in banner graphics. Still, your graphics are very nice and look great (which is why I approve this file)!

Russian Unicorn
You're a genius for thinking about making a BLR simfile! Every single one of these is so great. There's nothing not to love about this file, the graphics are beautiful, the video looks very good, and your steps flow nicely and keep me interested for the whole thing. Yup, best one of the bracket.

The Master ov Time (pt. I - Escape)
Another song that I don't enjoy at all. Plus, even though it's under 2 minutes, it somehow drags on quite a lot. That's alright though because I enjoy the solid step patterns you're using in here. Presentation is decent as well, I'm digging the little drawing action going on in there.

A word to the others:

Flip Flap: The steps were alright and fun for the duration of the first chorus. The middle section wasn't as good though, the focus on the off-beat bass was interesting but didn't work for me. Rest of the file was just repetition of the first chorus (that's because of the repetitive song, I know BUT STILL) with some decent patterns. Overall an overstepped song with sub-par execution in this particular case!

Totalimmortal: The synching at the tempo changing sections, especially at the beginning, is terrible. It finds its way back to on-sync every time, but it takes a couple of beats to get there, leaving me with unnecessary Goods or Greats. I'm pretty neutral to the song choice, and it may be the track's mixing which makes it sound like it does: Props to you for choosing it, though! The stream sections are hard, then again it's a 9, so I won't complain. They flow with the song, but especially right at the start it seems a little much (during the slowed-down section as well).

[will-i-am]

Russian Unicorn
Michael Bublé does pop now? Maybe I'll start listening!

Totalimmortal
AH THRU HAW THA FLA LA SAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo

[Telperion]

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

The Master ov Time pt. 1 - Escape
Flip Flap
Russian Unicorn