DDR 2-3 Judging Thread

[BLueSS]

DDR Bracket 3-1 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. 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

Canonloid -memorandum- - cpubasic13
Ghost of Stephen Foster - Lisek
Jump Into The Fog - Spork!
liberated liberater - Excel
TAKE OVER CONTROL - will-i-am
The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant! - Ronin

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)

[DjJRun]

Canonloid ~memorandum~ 21 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy
You made a lot of fun choices with patterns, even a couple patterns where you start facing to the side with your foot behind you. Nice and challenging in a speedy song, but still mostly in reason. Wasn't a fan of using the syncopation early on when that part of the music was just starting to fade in. I also usually hate putting notes on synth strings because they're not solid beats, but I do realize your choice in that section of freeze arrows was basically that or nothing.
08 / 10 - Standard
This is a good standard chart and within reason for this speed. It was nice that you had some crossovers on the 4ths to keep things interesting. I just feel like the one pattern was way overused…the groups of three 8ths where the foot on the beat only keeps hitting the same arrow? Hard to explain: examples at measures 43, 47 and 49.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Great happy graphics that fit the song.
00 / 01 - Tilt

Ghost of Stephen Foster 22 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy
Overall well stepped. The slow-down and speed-up sections were well done. I did notice though that if you get rid of the video, the chart is actually a little boring. A lot of measures consist of doing something in one direction, and then just doing the same thing back in the other direction. Maybe that works well with the song style? Way too many three 8th-note groupings that just did LUL, LDL, RUR, or RDR. It changed up more toward the end. Nice that there were a couple crossovers on 4th notes though.
08 / 10 - Expert
This chart definitely was more interesting. Patterns are pretty good. Just had issue with a couple things. With the verse starting at 52, the singer starts taking some artistic license…stretching out some notes, changing the rhythms a bit…but you still pretty much follow him with straight 8ths, so it feels awkward. Also, the 'no no no' at 63 is syncopated, but you still have 3 8ths that feel off then. And not one crossover in this chart.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics and video included definitely helped this. Actually, with the animation 'bouncing in time' through the cartoon, it helped you keep the beat during the slow-down and speed-up : )
01 / 01 - Tilt
I have to definitely give you a point for such effort put into a unique file.

Jump Into the Fog 20.5 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy
Pretty good choices with rhythms and patterns. I like how some sections follow the drum set close for a while. I do feel the song is slow enough to warrant some crazier steps like that - crossovers and their ilk. So I generally enjoyed it.
07 / 10 - Standard
This chart was a touch uneventful. A couple crafty things here and there. And I did appreciate the nuance of switching between a jump and a freeze arrow to go with the drum accents. But the song makes it a little tough in spots not to seem sparse.
4.5 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are a little blah, but maybe appropriate for a song with a more somber feel. Something bright and sparkly wouldn't quite fit, heh : )
01 / 01 - Tilt
Yay for doubles charts and lyrics!

liberated literater 16 / 25
06 / 10 - Heavy
The tricky steps in the beginning with the three-quarter turns made me quite happy! Don't see those often. This chart has a slight repetition problem (but maybe not as obvious as in Standard). My major issues though were the strings you put 16ths to were triplets (24ths) I believe, and the jump-hit-jump-hit business at the end just felt like a bit much. I think there were a couple rough spins or double-step setups too…leading into gallops and such.
05 / 10 - Standard
This was a nice song to dance to… and at first, I appreciated your use of double-steps because it made sense musically, but then it became repeat city. Just became tiresome. You did also utilize freeze arrows well though in going with the prominent strings in the music.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics and all seem to fit the bill.
00 / 01 - Tilt

Take Over Control 21.5 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy
Good variety of patterns, jumps, freeze arrows. Utilized freeze arrow sections quite well. Liked the instrument break section and taking advantage of the stops. Didn't love the syncopation following the string background, but I suppose you were trying to avoid the song getting too repetitive?
08 / 10 - Standard
All well within reason for a standard. The syncopation during the long freeze arrow felt odd to me…it was playing off of the drums, right? Just felt strange. Overall good work… definitely liked the instrument break section again. Again, this song does lend itself to feeling repetitive, but I think you did the best you could to avoid that.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Good, appropriate graphics.
0.5 / 01 - Tilt
The music video (lined up with the lyrics nicely) was a welcome addition.

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant! 23.5 / 25
9.5 / 10 - Heavy
Wow! Lots of fun. Cool crossovers, jackhammers, off-beats, occasional drum bursts and long streams. This was tastefully done. Just a couple awkward spots with the starts of some streams, and maybe slightly too many crossovers? Still, nice work!
09 / 10 - Standard
This chart had a great variety of 8th rhythms for Standard - very interesting and just challenging enough. There were just 2 or 3 spots where there were very prominent off-beats that fought the on-beat steps you put. Certain spots got a touch repetitive too, but all in all, I really liked this.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Banner and bg go with video well. Video kills me! Fun : )
00 / 01 - Tilt

[jammitch!]

Canonloid -memorandum- 10 / 15
06 / 10 - Heavy
I was worried about this, but it was actually really fun. For about half the chart. Then it turned into Arrabbiata. At this speed, I'd like to see much more conservative movement patterns. The song also draaaaaaaags ooooooooon.
04 / 05 - Presentation
Good fontwork on someone else's art. Pretty short readme.
00 / 01 - Tilt
Extras: Light chart.
"You know what would be awesome? If someone made Canon using Vocaloid." - S*** No One Says.

Ghost of Stephen Foster 09 / 15
05 / 10 - Heavy
When I see the Long Version banner, my first thought is "please cut this". While this wasn't too repetitive, it still runs on too long.
With that said, I found the patterns and rhythms in this chart to be dull and uninspired, especially with a song that allowed for so much rhythmic complexity. The eighth note runs are a total cop out.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Looks like you vectored a still from the video. And, well, the video. No deductions
-1 / 01 - Tilt
Extras: Full singles and Pump charts (!).
I feel like this song is going to coast on the strength of the video. Even with the extras, 10 is too high for this.

Jump Into The Fog 11 / 15
06 / 10 - Heavy
The rhythms are fun in this song, as are the double-taps. The big problem here is freeze and hold exit positioning. I had to reposition my body a lot coming out of jumps. A nice example is the first note. Starting with an U-D freeze is problematic because I don't know which foot is intended to be on the U, and I can end up backward very easily. Freeze spins also make sight-reading nigh impossible - should I turn away and be unable to see what's coming up, or just let the freeze go?
04 / 05 - Presentation
Decent font work on the art. No other deductions.
01 / 01 - Tilt
Extras: Full singles and doubles; lyrics.

liberated liberater 10 / 15
06 / 10 - Heavy
After the first half of the song, I thought I was playing the best song of the night. After that, the gallops set in - you know, the ones that try to leave me backwards or make me shuffle my feet. After that, the step-jumps came in. The step-jumps that repeated, with only minor variation, for sixteen measures - including the measure with Be Lovin jumps that I really didn't need either. Such a shame.
03 / 05 - Presentation
Decent font work on the art. Sample cuts out early.
01 / 01 - Tilt
Extras: Full singles.
I like this better than Ghost of Stephen Foster, so an extra point for it.

TAKE OVER CONTROL 12 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
This chart doesn't know what it wants to be. At least you realized that half a 6 and half a 9 makes a 9, not a 7 or 8 - but it doesn't make for a good 9. The beginning and end would have been perfect for US MAX2. The gallops, not as much, and then the crossovers seemed like an attempt to pump up the difficulty to justify the one part. It would be an 8 if it were a proper 6 or 7 footer. I wanted to give this a 6, but it's better than the last two charts regardless, so it gets a 7.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Nice art. No deductions.
00 / 01 - Tilt
Extras: Light chart, video.

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant! 09 / 15
06 / 10 - Heavy
This chart has every form of karaoke stepping imaginable. It's competent, but there's absolutely nothing interesting about it in any way.
03 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are mediocre. Sample is, at best, an odd spot to highlight, and sounds like it cuts out a measure short. I would prefer to see the files named appropriately, but that's not a deduction.
00 / 01 - Tilt
Extras: Light chart, video.

[Zounder]

Canonloid -memorandum- 12.5 / 15
7.5 / 10 - Heavy
-This was very enjoyable. Sometimes, charts with so much intense stream can get really boring, but for the most part this chart kept my interest. Although, I will say, as jammitch! said, that the song seemed to drag on a bit towards the end. I also want to point out that at times, the step patterns seemed a bit stale. For example, there were a lot of streams with patterns in the style of RDUDR, UDLDU, patterns that semi-alternate between arrows. I would have liked to see more patterns that move you across the whole pad. Sill, there was enough variation in the patterns, and the rhythms were appropriate. I definitely had fun with this chart.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-I know it's text tacked onto an image, but for some reason I feel like it's the most appropriate image ever. The color scheme and the lights on the left side of both images are especially fitting.
0 / 1 - Tilt

Ghost of Stephen Foster 13 / 15
(I just want to say this might be the most awesome song choice I've seen in my 8+ years of simfile making! Way to think outside the box!)
7 / 10 - Heavy
-The simplicity of the chart is something I mostly enjoyed, except for the fact that the song cut is so long. I think simple charts are almost a lost art form. I was discussing this with #infinity recently. Space Truckin', a great file in it's own right, is massively popular in this contest, and it has a very technical heavy chart. The top two finishers in DDREvolved's Simfile Olympics, Surrender and Saturday Night Love, also great simfiles, were also very technical. it's refreshing to see a chart like this. There's absolutely nothing wrong with simplicity when it's called for. And it is, in this song. Unfortunately, the length of the cut does not gel well with simple steps. Most of the good simply-stepped DDR songs are effective because they are on the short side, and there's less time for the player to get bored. I appreciate the simplicity here, but not when coupled with the song cut, which was unnecessarily long. (Was it a technical challenge to get rid of the second verse?) This is probably a flaw in the chart that will prevent me from otherwise championing it as my favorite in the contest, but I do believe it deserves to move on to next round.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-I like how you greyed out your cdtitle.
1 / 1 - Tilt
-For the fact that the challenge chart gives the player a chart that's a bit more intricate, and for the sheer creativity of the song choice.

Jump Into The Fog 11 / 15
7 / 10 - Heavy
-Nothing special stands out to me, but this was definitely solid. Some awkward positioning in places, and I think the song lacked both intensity and "full-ness," if you will. By that, I mean that the wasn't a whole lot going on in the song for much of the time. both of those aspects of the song negatively affected the steps since the vibe of the steps didn't match the vibe of the song. Still, there some intricacies to this chart that I appreciate, and it was certainly enjoyable.
4 / 5 - Presentation
-I'm not a big fan of the font, but the overall look of the graphics are very DDR-ish.
__ / 1 - Tilt

liberated liberater 8 / 15
3 / 10 - Heavy
-I didn't enjoy much about this chart. Way too streamy, the steps followed the main melody way too closely, too many unnecessary 8th note step-jumps, repetitiveness, and awkward double-steps/spins (I was OK with the 4th notes in the opening, but there were some instances seemingly at random later on involving gallops and 8th notes.) I did like the use of the gallops, as a positive note. Overall, though, this chart needs some work.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-Simple, effective.
0 / 1 - Tilt

TAKE OVER CONTROL 12 / 15
7 / 10 - Heavy
-Overall, I liked the patterns a lot, and especially the rhythms. The rhythms in the opening were especially fun. Those rhythms reminded me of your Saturday Night Love chart, which is a good thing. I did feel the part before the first BPM stop was a bit overstepped. And not just the 16th runs just before the stop, but the part before that as well, with stream when there's not a lot going on in the song. Another issue I had is the fact that there were some times after the first BPM stop where the player is facing the same direction for awhile, though I feel like that might have been intentional, and it wasn't a huge issue. There's enough fun to be had here for me to say this chart is solid overall. One other thing: the steps started at a really awkward time. I think waiting until the end of that phrase in the song would have been optimal.
5 / 5 - Presentation
-Pretty!
0 / 1 - Tilt

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant! 13.5 / 15
8.5 / 10 - Heavy
-This caught me off guard! It was very entertaining. I liked the streams and the jump placement. There was a nice progression as well. I do think the chart suffers slightly from the talking portions of the vocals, but it's not a big deal. I'm also not too sure about those 16th notes. Everything else was great though, and I really enjoyed this.
5 / 5 - Presentation
0 / 1 - Tilt

[Telperion]

Canonloid -memorandum-
TAKE OVER CONTROL
The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant!

[aurae]

Ghost of Stephen Foster
The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant!

[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.

Canonloid 22 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy One doublestep at 419 the rest of the chart is rather lackluster but proficient.
10 / 10 - Standard Fantastic standard chart for this song, just the right amount of everything.
03 / 05 - Presentation Text + Image = simple quick and done, sample is a little short IMHO and ends to soon especially considering the length of the song.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt I would have liked to have seen a tougher Challenge chart, song is fine I do like fast music.

Ghost of Stephen Foster 25 / 25
10 / 10 - Challenge Great flow, steps all worked well, I think you could have made it a little more interesting but I'm grading on technical proficiency and you nailed it.
10 / 10 - Heavy This chart was also perfectly executed.
05 / 05 - Presentation Rock on, you beasted this it's a perfect presentation for the file although I would have used a sample with lyrics. Also you over-synched it, I could have synched it with probably 90% less changes, you have changes of about 4 BPM from one beat to the next and that's ridiculous, synching is like driving a car, you can drive a straight line even if you jerk the steering wheel left and right all the time and if you do it fast enough you'll appear to travel the road but a better driver would wait until each turn in the road before turning the steering wheel resulting in a much smoother ride. Oh and your values such as .999 just round it to 1.000 the .001BPM spanning 1 beat is beyond redundant. But so far it seems like you kept the car on the road you just swerved way to often.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt I absolutely adore this simfile, everything about it my comments are meant to help not as complaints.

Jump Into the Fog 14 / 25
06 / 10 - Heavy 3 double-steps and one spin that I didn't like (probably due to the song speed), the rest of the chart was fine.
05 / 10 - Standard 5 double-steps the spin at the start was okay, you need to work on foot placement. At 57.5 what foot is supposed to hit that arrow, I ended up with LEFT foot on the down freeze then RIGHT foot to hit the left arrow and I'm now backwards. Did you expect someone to DROP the freeze AND double-step 57.5? I probably should have taken two points off for making someone drop the hold but I didn't.
03 / 05 - Presentation Plain text, plain image, no FOG I don't see the relevance of the image to the song...
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Song sounds nice enough but not my cup of tea, no tilting.

liberated liberater 03 / 25
01 / 10 - Heavy Nine double-steps, most of them were clearly intentional and I'm reluctant to deduct points but in order to remain perfectly unbiased and not have to explain why these were okay, well I'm sorry.
00 / 10 - Standard This chart is cluttered with double-stepping and they don't work nearly as well as the Heavy chart, it's as if you cut/pasted all the steps then removed arrows without paying attention to foot placement, I quit counting after 10 and it wasn't even halfway through the song.
02 / 05 - Presentation You added some text to an image and that was it, oh and why do we need the BPM shown on the BG, StepMania already shows the BPM of the song... The volume was also low.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Song is plain, no tilt.

TAKE OVER CONTROL 25 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy You probably thought the gallps at the beginning were double-steps but I took them as turns and they worked just fine, maybe you got lucky or maybe you planned for that, I found zero foot-placement problems in the song.
09 / 10 - Standard Double-step at beat 199, ambiguous step at 54 (you should have made it an UP instead of a DOWN to make it an obvious LEFT-Foot press, I feel like hitting that arrow with my right foot).
05 / 05 - Presentation Cool graphics, redudnant CDTitle, the presentation is overall great.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt Video +1

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant! 25 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Ambiguous step at 71.5 (I took off a point for it here because I hit it with my wrong foot, a RIGHT arrow would have worked much better to force my foot), an otherwise fun and flawless chart.
10 / 10 - Standard A great standard chart with no flaws.
05 / 05 - Presentation The only thing I don't like about this file is the song choice, you however have an excellent presentation.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt And even though I don't like the song-choice the video and steps just make it all work so well +1.

[Hainaut]

Canonloid ~memorandum~:

Heavy - 9.5/10
This is awesome. The placement is so focused and clean, and the choice of patterns is effective and appropriate throughout. The only little nitpick I have is that the occasional 16ths you use are difficult to hear and stand out awkwardly.

Presentation - 5/5
Excellent graphics and no technical issues.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 14.5/15

Ghost of Stephen Foster:

Heavy - 9/10
Even with such a simplified approach, this stepchart matches the song excellently, with spot-on perfect placement and a nice sense of progression. The song is maybe busier and more energetic than this chart suggests, but the steps are so focused that it actually works. The only real complaint I have is that the slowdown section should have quirkier note patterns, as the chart starts to become a little dull during that section.

Presentation - 5/5
How can I possibly mark off anything here? The song cut may be longer than perhaps necessary, but the extras more than make up for it. I love how you decolorized your author cd-title to match the graphics.

Tilt - 1/1
This entry is impressive and creative enough that I think it deserves a full score.

Final Score: 15/15

Jump Into The Fog:

Heavy - 9.25/10
This is a pretty strange stepchart, since it seems debatable whether this should be set to 158 or 79 bpm. However, I do have to say that it's extremely effective, regardless. You somehow managed to find a solid balance between the vocals and drums. The steps are solid and coherent, yet pretty quirky and variable. You sure know how to implement breaks effectively. Not a particularly conventional stepchart, but still a surprisingly enjoyable one.

Presentation - 4/5
I really don't care for this song, but that's just due to my own personal distaste in British indie rock (song choice has no effect on your score here). Graphics need a lot of work. The source image is pretty grainy, and the text effects aren't any better.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 13.25/15

liberated liberater:

Heavy - 7.75/10
I have some pretty interesting feelings about this set. In one sense, I find the frequent use of quarter-phrased double-steps a little odd, and perhaps your placement could've been a bit less repetitive in areas. However, there's still quite a great deal of creativity throughout this as well, and the chart is focused enough that I can mostly appreciate your quirky take on the song. I think you overdid the step-jumps towards the end, but overall this is not bad. It's just too bad it's in probably the most competitive bracket in the entire pack.

Presentation - 5/5
Graphics are clean and pleasing.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 12.75/15

Take Over Control:

Heavy - 9/10
Boy, you really love complex stepcharts, don't you? Your take on this song is pretty much as challenging as can possibly be while still being appropriate, given the song choice. The patterns throughout this chart are intricate and technical, but the placement is clean enough that they're accessible and fun. I do notice a bit of repetition though, as many of your streams seem to be laid out in a "tower" alignment, anchored either by the up or down arrow, if you know what I mean. Still pretty fun, nonetheless.

Presentation - 5/5
You're certainly one of the better graphics artists of this day and age. Lovely stuff.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 14/15

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant!:

Heavy - 8.5/10
This is an example of karaoke done right. Even though you're following the vocal melody more or less the whole time, your steps are patterned enough that they feel carefully planned and not cluelessly improvised. Perhaps this chart is a little over the top and could benefit from a few more breaks, but it's nonetheless really enjoyable!

Presentation - 5/5
This would do well in a Cheesemix.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 13.5/15

[Yuke]

Approval Vote:

Canonloid ~memorandum~
I love every single one of cpubasic13's simfiles and I look up to him very much.
This was not an exception. And a Miku-song for the contest, yay! <3
Take Over Control
I just simply had fun playing this. :)
The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant!
Brutal, very brutal with all of this crossovers on a very high pace. I like the "RinRinRirinRinRinRirinRin" and "nya! nya! nyanyanyanyanyanya!" parts. Oh, wait, that is like a half of the song. :D The song choice was also great. (Iosys <3)

[Nusa]

Approval vote:
Ghost of Stephen Foster - Lisek
Jump Into The Fog - Spork!


Dayo.

[Greg]

Approval vote:
Canonloid -memorandum-
The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant!

[Kewing]

Approval vote

Take Over Control
Ghost of Stephen Foster


Canonloid almost was in, too, but it has some slight difficulty balance issues, and it definitely feels more karaoke than it should, besides on feeling a bit too long (still a good file tho, great patterning, although definitely a 10 and not a 9)

[Juub005]

Canonloid 14/15
Presentation 4/5 Nice graphics, and appropriate for the song. The cut is a bit too long, though... 612 steps on Heavy, yikes.
Heavy 10/10 I wanted to complain about this one, but I really couldn't. So many good patterns, and you really handled this song really well.
Tilt 0/1

Ghost of Stephen Foster 12.5/15
Presentation 4.5/5 The only problem I have with the otherwise great presentation is that your CDTitle is enormous and it distracts from the banner. However, I haven't taken points off for this in other files, so... The other thing is that the artist text is too small and seems like more of an afterthought.
Heavy 7.5/10 Good idea, and fairly good execution of that idea. (The idea being to make a fairly basic chart with few crossovers.) One thing is that this really should be rated 6 feet, because it's really, really easy, even during the slowdown, where the patterns are repeated in such a manner that there's no way someone who's just learning Heavy couldn't figure it out eventually. Also, your patterns could be spiced up just a little bit more. There's this one part earlier on (I think before 200 combo) where you have RDRLR RUR patterns, which aren't bad at first, but the repetition goes on for too long and it gets rather dry.
Tilt 0.5/1 Excellent, creative song choice and brave idea on Heavy.

Jump into the Fog 11.5/15
Presentation 3/5 A good attempt with the texture on the title text, but the outlining is too solid in the background and it gives a very artificial look.
Heavy 9/10 I was surprised that you managed to pull this off fairly well. A good diversity of patterns. The one part that seems like overkill is the spin with the freezes followed by the stream that follows the background guitar. The "JUMP" patterns in the chorus are also a bit awkward but that's only personal preference.
Tilt -0.5/1 Nice that you added the lyrics. However, I do feel as though the BPM should really be half of what it is.

Liberated Liberater 11.5/15
Presentation 3/5 The song cut is a bit too long - it makes the file feel a little drier than it should. I think the background is well done, but I do have a slight complaint about the banner, which is that the alignment of the two words is awkward. Alignment similar to what you did in the background would've been better.
Heavy 8/10 The patterns near the end are quite awesome. Earlier on, the step patterns around 130-220 combo get a bit too repetitive. Overall, this is fairly solid.
Tilt 0.5/1 Innovative patterns near the end of Heavy, risky in a contest like this.

Take Over Control 15/15
Presentation: 5/5 Very pretty graphics and good quality video.
Heavy 10/10 You made me realize elements of the music that I didn't know were there previously, and you emphasized them very skillfully. Well done top to bottom.
Tilt 0/1

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant/Orin's Hell Mansion 13.5/15
Presentation: 3.5/5 The banner makes the subtitle larger than the title... it's clean, but a bit plain. Didn't really entice me to play the file. Background fits (I would suggest you make your text outline bigger on the title - same comment for subtitle in the banner), video is a nice inclusion.
Heavy 10/10 This was a really pleasant surprise. Patterns with jumps to single steps were awesome, as well as the stomps. Good streams and crossovers too.
Tilt 0/1

[BLueSS]

Simply quoting this for reference in case the original post gets edited.

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.

Canonloid 22 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy One doublestep at 419 the rest of the chart is rather lackluster but proficient.
10 / 10 - Standard Fantastic standard chart for this song, just the right amount of everything.
03 / 05 - Presentation Text + Image = simple quick and done, sample is a little short IMHO and ends to soon especially considering the length of the song.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt I would have liked to have seen a tougher Challenge chart, song is fine I do like fast music.

Ghost of Stephen Foster 25 / 25
10 / 10 - Challenge Great flow, steps all worked well, I think you could have made it a little more interesting but I'm grading on technical proficiency and you nailed it.
10 / 10 - Heavy This chart was also perfectly executed.
05 / 05 - Presentation Rock on, you beasted this it's a perfect presentation for the file although I would have used a sample with lyrics. Also you over-synched it, I could have synched it with probably 90% less changes, you have changes of about 4 BPM from one beat to the next and that's ridiculous, synching is like driving a car, you can drive a straight line even if you jerk the steering wheel left and right all the time and if you do it fast enough you'll appear to travel the road but a better driver would wait until each turn in the road before turning the steering wheel resulting in a much smoother ride. Oh and your values such as .999 just round it to 1.000 the .001BPM spanning 1 beat is beyond redundant. But so far it seems like you kept the car on the road you just swerved way to often.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt I absolutely adore this simfile, everything about it my comments are meant to help not as complaints.

Jump Into the Fog 14 / 25
06 / 10 - Heavy 3 double-steps and one spin that I didn't like (probably due to the song speed), the rest of the chart was fine.
05 / 10 - Standard 5 double-steps the spin at the start was okay, you need to work on foot placement. At 57.5 what foot is supposed to hit that arrow, I ended up with LEFT foot on the down freeze then RIGHT foot to hit the left arrow and I'm now backwards. Did you expect someone to DROP the freeze AND double-step 57.5? I probably should have taken two points off for making someone drop the hold but I didn't.
03 / 05 - Presentation Plain text, plain image, no FOG I don't see the relevance of the image to the song...
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Song sounds nice enough but not my cup of tea, no tilting.

liberated liberater 03 / 25
01 / 10 - Heavy Nine double-steps, most of them were clearly intentional and I'm reluctant to deduct points but in order to remain perfectly unbiased and not have to explain why these were okay, well I'm sorry.
00 / 10 - Standard This chart is cluttered with double-stepping and they don't work nearly as well as the Heavy chart, it's as if you cut/pasted all the steps then removed arrows without paying attention to foot placement, I quit counting after 10 and it wasn't even halfway through the song.
02 / 05 - Presentation You added some text to an image and that was it, oh and why do we need the BPM shown on the BG, StepMania already shows the BPM of the song... The volume was also low.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Song is plain, no tilt.

TAKE OVER CONTROL 25 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy You probably thought the gallps at the beginning were double-steps but I took them as turns and they worked just fine, maybe you got lucky or maybe you planned for that, I found zero foot-placement problems in the song.
09 / 10 - Standard Double-step at beat 199, ambiguous step at 54 (you should have made it an UP instead of a DOWN to make it an obvious LEFT-Foot press, I feel like hitting that arrow with my right foot).
05 / 05 - Presentation Cool graphics, redudnant CDTitle, the presentation is overall great.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt Video +1

The Ultimate Grilling Restaurant! 25 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Ambiguous step at 71.5 (I took off a point for it here because I hit it with my wrong foot, a RIGHT arrow would have worked much better to force my foot), an otherwise fun and flawless chart.
10 / 10 - Standard A great standard chart with no flaws.
05 / 05 - Presentation The only thing I don't like about this file is the song choice, you however have an excellent presentation.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt And even though I don't like the song-choice the video and steps just make it all work so well +1.