DDR 2-4 Judging Thread

[BLueSS]

DDR Bracket 2-4 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. 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

Apricot Stone - Juub005
Electric Shock - Zounder
MAX 300 -takamatt MIN Remix- - Oni-91
Sweet Magic - Nusa
The Koto Chill - Braeden47

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)

[will-i-am]

apricot stone 21 / 25
8 / 10 - Heavy
Pinoy, you know I love you and your obsession with Eurovision, but this kinda fell into the same hole Konichiwa did. The high speed accentuated on the fluctuation of the chart. I think it would've been nice to have more organized patterns, although the rhythms followed were pretty consistent. In spite of that, this is dece overall and feels sorta like LOVE THIS FEELIN' except not as memorable.
8 / 10 - Standard
Long freezes during the chorus were atypical. Don't know if that was the right route to take.
5 / 5 - Presentation
I like the circles~
0 / ±1 - Tilt

ELECTRIC SHOCK 23 / 25
9 / 10 - Heavy
I know you really like those buildups and you made them work exceptionally here.
9 / 10 - Standard
Very cool freeze usage on the "E-E-E" parts.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Purple and yellow make for a good combination!
0 / ±1 - Tilt

MAX 300 takamatt MIN REMIX 24 / 25
9 / 10 - Heavy
Awesome. The freezes were imaginative. I love how you held off on the gimmicks in the beginning and stuck with multiple taps during the freezes that adequately paralleled the music. I do think there could have been more movement during that one long freeze with the x--x--x taps all situated on the right arrow. This should probably be a 9, too. Just sayin'.
9 / 10 - Standard
Little too concentrated with freezes. The parts without them really stuck out.
5 / 5 - Presentation
Sufficient graphics. Gimmicks worked great on the Heavy chart.
1 / ±1 - Tilt
You got me to really appreciate a MAX remix. That's an accomplishment.

Sweet Magic 18 / 25
7 / 10 - Heavy
Relies too heavily on the vocals. The repetition of the vocal rhythms reflected on the overall repetition of the chart.
7 / 10 - Standard
The steps probably should have intensified after the speedup. The first half was good, but I lost interest towards the end.
4 / 5 - Presentation
The slowdowns were horrible. Totally unnecessary. The video can't be the actual music video. Too stationary. I'd actually rather play this file without it. It looks like one of those fan-made YouTube videos for anime music. I have a strong feeling my observation can be confirmed.
0 / ±1 - Tilt

The Koto Chill 18 / 25
8 / 10 - Heavy
Besides this being a little too ITG, I actually think this was a great chart and probably your second best ever. Save for the...
7 / 10 - Standard
Movement was pleasant. But...
3 / 5 - Presentation
Good font and rad ethnic instrument thing. Wait for it...
0 / ±1 - Tilt
STREEEEAAAAAAAMMZZZ!!!

1) MAX 300 takamatt MIN REMIX 24 / 25
2) ELECTRIC SHOCK 23 / 25
3) apricot stone 21 / 25
4) Sweet Magic 18 / 25
4) The Koto Chill 18 / 25

[jammitch!]

Apricot Stone 07 / 15
05 / 10 - Heavy
First rule of simfiling: a chart that's half a 6 and half a 9 does not average to an 8. It's a 9, because a 6-foot player will fail it. But a 9-foot player will find it boring.
With that said, I couldn't figure out what the beginning steps went to. The faster part was better, but it was overstepped, with crossovers to force the difficulty up. There were numerous places with bad flow to boot.
02 / 05 - Presentation
Sample is off. A BPMDISPLAY of 100:200 here would exclude the gimmicks. Art is OK.
00/ +/- 01 - Tilt
Extras: a video.

Electric Shock 12 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
I liked the rhythms and patterns in this one pretty well, but in the end not much - good or bad - really stood out to me.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Good graphics. No deductions.
00 / +/- 01 - Tilt
Extras: Full singles and a video.

MAX 300 -takamatt MIN Remix- 13 / 15
08 / 10 - Heavy
I could have done without the pauses in the song, although they're not wrong. During the break with the freeze-hold, I couldn't figure out what the steps went to. Besides that, I really enjoyed the rhythmic work in this song.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Your ASCII art has a tab/space error in it. Not going to knock a point off for that. Good art. No deductions.
00/ +/- 01 - Tilt
Extras: Full singles, full doubles. I feel a 13 is right for this song so I'm not going to give it any bonus.

Sweet Magic 08 / 15
05 / 10 - Heavy
Please don't halve the BPM here. There's no reason to. There's a lot of awkward patterns here, trying to force the difficulty, and the karaoke rhythms aren't a good use of the song. The step-jumps at the end aren't fun either.
03 / 05 - Presentation
I find the art aesthetically unappealing. Readme is barebones.
00 / +/- 01 - Tilt
Extras: Full singles, video.

The Koto Chill 09 / 15
07 / 10 - Heavy
A nice use of 24ths in a DDR-level chart, without completely going full ITG. The patterning is very good here. My main complaint is that the STREAMS unbalance the difficulty of the chart. I'm also not a fan of what happens during the slowdown.
01 / 05 - Presentation
The sample cuts off in a weird place. Art is rough; readme is bare; .old files present in directory. This could definitely use some TLC. Also, lyrics files used for director's commentary is going to be a negative in most cases.
01 / +/- 01 - Tilt
I actually really like the chart. I'd much rather see this come in around an 11, but the presentation is just missing polish. This will have to do.

[Hainaut]

Going to do brief, partial reviews for Division 2 because I'm too busy with college to do full ones.

Apricot Stone:

Heavy - 9.5/10
The intro seems impossible to step perfectly. I think you did an okay job with what you had to work with, but I still would've liked a little more focus and not as much experimentation there. This becomes extraordinarily fun once it picks up speed, however.

Presentation - 5/5
Pretty cool graphics and a nice, high-quality video.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 14.5/15

Electric Shock:

Heavy - 10/10
What else can I say? Every note fits the song perfectly. The phrases are all highly balanced and logically-placed. I have absolutely no complaints here!

Presentation - 5/5
Graphics aren't my favorite of yours (the artist text in particular seems undersupported and has an odd font selection), but the background video enhances this category well.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 15/15

Max 300 (takamatt MIN REMIX):

Heavy - 8/10
I really like the rhythmic creativity in this chart. Placement is generally quite clean, though a few tricks might've been nice. The song itself isn't that exciting though, and so the steps don't really stand out that much to me.

Presentation - 4/5
What's with those overly-contrasted graphics? I know you're capable of much better artwork than this.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 12/15

Sweet Magic:

Heavy - 7.25/10
For the originality factor alone, this is actually kind of enjoyable. However, the execution could still use a lot of work. First off, there's way too much single-direction facing for extended periods of time, and that becomes quickly distracting. Second, while the karaoke aspect is important to this particular chart's effectiveness, you do go a little overboard with it at times, especially during the verses, which should be laxer. Quirky and energetic enough to keep me interested throughout, but still rather messy and unpolished in numerous areas.

Presentation - 4.5/5
The backdrop in the graphics is really fuzzy and repealing. Small bonus for the inclusion of a bg video.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 11.75/15

The Koto Chill:

Heavy - 7.5/10
As far as your simfiles go, this is definitely a step in the right direction, no pun intended. Direction facing is a lot more balanced for the most part, except for one little area around the beginning of the final section. Phrases are also adequately distinguished so that this isn't too repetitive. For such a mild song, though, I think you could've eased off of some of the particularly challenging note patterns, such as the frequent 24th bursts, as well as the moving streams of 16ths.

Presentation - 3/5
Thankfully, the sound quality here is great, and there's no hideous cut-off at the end of the track. Unfortunately though, the graphics are still pretty unappealing, and the syncing is extremely early.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 10.5/15

[Lisek]

Apricot Stone 8.5 / 15
5.5 / 10 - Heavy
I didn't enjoy this chart too much. It's mostly ok but there has been some ankward step placements. Flow isn't really this file best side too. A lot of breaks in it.
3.5 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are ok, would even say pretty nice. Video seems to be a little offsync. Song quality is ok. Preview seems to be off.
-0.5 / 01 - Tilt
Annoying song. Didn't really enjoyed it. Doesn't really feel like a song which I would like to dance to.

Electric Shock 12.5 / 15
8.5 / 10 - Heavy
It felt a little understepped in some places. It seems ok. Nothing spectacular thought.
4.0 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are pretty simple but appealing, good job on that.
00 / 01 - Tilt
Yay. 1 season k-pop hit. Nothing too interesting.

MAX 300 -takamatt MIN Remix- 14 / 15
09 / 10 - Heavy
Solid stepchart. Could use some BPM gimmicks or more interesting patterns. Still, it's good.
05 / 05 - Presentation
Perfect graphics.
00 / 01 - Tilt
MAX300 remix with 136BPM? Blasphemy. Some of beats would use halved BPM to build up the fun.

Sweet Magic 13 / 15
8.5 / 10 - Heavy
Beginning could use longer fade in. I actually liked the karaoke in this file (fmr?). Lots of interesting patterns.
4.5 / 05 - Presentation
Readable and crisp graphics. Song quality ok. Preview seems ok.
00 / 01 - Tilt
Video is cute. Matches good with the song.

The Koto Chill 11 / 15
08 / 10 - Heavy
Firstly I didn't liked it. I thought it was too simple. I gave it second try and I think of it much better now. It's simple but it has it's own charm.
03 / 05 - Presentation
Banner is a little too simple. Background is pretty bad but at least you tried.
00 / 01 - Tilt
It was offsync about 0.04. Interesting song choice.

Pretty good bracket overall. Good luck to everyone.

[Telperion]

ELECTRIC SHOCK
MAX 300 takamatt MIN REMIX

[aurae]

apricot stone
ELECTRIC SHOCK
The Koto Chill

[Juub005]

Apricot Stone 07 / 15
05 / 10 - Heavy
First rule of simfiling: a chart that's half a 6 and half a 9 does not average to an 8. It's a 9, because a 6-foot player will fail it.

Thanks for your review. I do want to comment: I don't abide by that philosophy either. I rated it an 8 because I don't think it quite reaches a 9's difficulty. Yes, there is one very hard short stream near the end, but in my opinion that alone wasn't hard enough to merit ratcheting up the rating. And the crossovers aren't there to force difficulty- that's not my intention, so much as to create movement.

[Yuke]

Approval votes:

ELECTRIC SHOCK
More k-pop, yay! I was thinking of simming this song, but your simfile is prefect, so I do not have to anymore. Really fun, graphics are neat, what else can I say? :) ("E E E, ELECTRIC SHOCK!" :D)

MAX 300 takamatt MIN REMIX
Ahh, brings back memories connected with the original MAX 300. :)
The graphics and the chart itself are very DDRish and unique. Rhythms are very unique and interesting, patterning is excellent (there are some crossovers, but not too many, same goes for jumps, holds etc.). Great job!

The Koto Chill
At the first look I thought this was going to be horrible. (Looking at the banner, and, uhh, background [which I thought was a coffin-sorta thing when I first saw it xD]). But the steps were good, actually I liked them and I may probably play this simfile sometime again.
(Maybe it would be a good idea to ask someone to help you with the graphics next time? It is allowed in the rules, so why not?)


Also, I am really, really sad I couldn't give a vote for "Sweet Magic".
The song... I absolutely fell in love with it! It's a super cute-girly-sweet-lovely kind of song, and I enjoy songs like that. <3 I do not enjoy the (over)karaokestepping, though (and it was present here, really bad and not fun to play at all), and also, the slowdowns... Eh. :(

[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.

apricot stone 12 / 25
01 / 10 - Heavy 9 double-steps including many that forced the player to DROP A FREEZE to double-step, that's a big NO-NO.
08 / 10 - Standard Just 2 double-steps here, the rest of the song is well executed.
02 / 05 - Presentation LOL, I got the font it's Apricot color but stone and breaking apart, cute but blends in so much with the BG color and what's that BLACK LINE on the faded out apricot? Ewww, good sample, oh and I really am opposed to the 202BPM sections, IMHO it should have been 50.5 - 101 and that's it.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt WTF is an apricot stone I wouldn't eat one, +1 for video.

ELECTRIC SHOCK 25 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Some ambiguous arrows, the one at 70.5 I hit with the wrong foot apparently the rest I got correctly so I only removed one point, perhaps try to force the next step foot placement with a short freeze, otherwise this is a great chart.
10 / 10 - Standard Perfectly scrumptious chart.
05 / 05 - Presentation Good job on the presentation, I like it all, your sample is also perfect.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt Song is admittedly decent and a video +1.

MAX 300 (min remix) 24 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy Perfect chart, does a great job at following the song as is and has very little do do with a Max chart which is good because the song also sounds very little like a Max song.
09 / 10 - Standard I played some of the song backwards because I wanted the double-step to be a turn but it wasn't, an otherwise perfect chart just one bad step.
04 / 05 - Presentation I'm thankful that there were only 2 STOP gimmicks but I would have preferred 0 STOP gimmicks, overall fantastic presentation.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt What an interesting song and mix...

Sweet Magic 18 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy 2 doubles here, the 32nd steps should have been a big hint that you should not have 1/2 the BPM in those sections.
08 / 10 - Standard 2 doubles here, the 1/2 bpm jumps appear to be at full speed and will cause a player to stumble before they realize the arrows just went into SLOW-MO, but I only docked points for the double-steps.
02 / 05 - Presentation Seems like all you did was add the artist on the BN, the rest of the images were apparently just a video rip. I did not like the 1/2 bpm sections.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Hate the song but added video makes this a neutral field.

The Koto Chill 18 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy 1 double at 219.5 the rest of the chart was well executed, maybe overdone for a Heavy chart to such a chillax song, this was probably more suitable to a Challenge chart.
08 / 10 - Standard 2 double steps in this chart, it was also a bit tough for a Standard would have made a better Heavy chart especially since the song is so mellow.
02 / 05 - Presentation Graphics are on the plain side, I like the Text Font.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt -1 for using a song that's already from a rhythm game.

[Greg]

Approval vote:
Apricot Stone
Very unsure about this one. The slow parts suck, but once it starts for real, it's really cool and I really liked the song :) Maybe there'd be some way to make a better cut with more of the fast parts, but I haven't heard the full version so I don't know :P
Electric Shock
It was simply fun, and I like the graphics ;)

[cpubasic13]

Approval Vote

Electric Shock

[Juub005]

apricot stone 12 / 25
01 / 10 - Heavy 9 double-steps including many that forced the player to DROP A FREEZE to double-step, that's a big NO-NO.

There is ONE double-step in the entire chart, in the introductory slow part. If you want, you can read the part right at the end of the introductory slow part as a double-step, though I read it as a spin. Please try playing it again.

Also, to clarify is your scoring system just to subtract a point for each double step? I think many actual DDR charts would get negative scores with this system.

[Kewing]

Approval vote:

Electric Shock
MAX 300 takamatt MIN REMIX

Apricot Stone was a really good candidate too, but ultimately it had some balance issues in difficulty and step density (in part because of the song itself, which does directly affect the steps).
I'll give you credit for tackling such a song, not an easy task at all. Still a good job.

[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.

apricot stone 12 / 25
01 / 10 - Heavy 9 double-steps including many that forced the player to DROP A FREEZE to double-step, that's a big NO-NO.
08 / 10 - Standard Just 2 double-steps here, the rest of the song is well executed.
02 / 05 - Presentation LOL, I got the font it's Apricot color but stone and breaking apart, cute but blends in so much with the BG color and what's that BLACK LINE on the faded out apricot? Ewww, good sample, oh and I really am opposed to the 202BPM sections, IMHO it should have been 50.5 - 101 and that's it.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt WTF is an apricot stone I wouldn't eat one, +1 for video.

ELECTRIC SHOCK 25 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy Some ambiguous arrows, the one at 70.5 I hit with the wrong foot apparently the rest I got correctly so I only removed one point, perhaps try to force the next step foot placement with a short freeze, otherwise this is a great chart.
10 / 10 - Standard Perfectly scrumptious chart.
05 / 05 - Presentation Good job on the presentation, I like it all, your sample is also perfect.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt Song is admittedly decent and a video +1.

MAX 300 (min remix) 24 / 25
10 / 10 - Heavy Perfect chart, does a great job at following the song as is and has very little do do with a Max chart which is good because the song also sounds very little like a Max song.
09 / 10 - Standard I played some of the song backwards because I wanted the double-step to be a turn but it wasn't, an otherwise perfect chart just one bad step.
04 / 05 - Presentation I'm thankful that there were only 2 STOP gimmicks but I would have preferred 0 STOP gimmicks, overall fantastic presentation.
01 / ± 01 - Tilt What an interesting song and mix...

Sweet Magic 18 / 25
08 / 10 - Heavy 2 doubles here, the 32nd steps should have been a big hint that you should not have 1/2 the BPM in those sections.
08 / 10 - Standard 2 doubles here, the 1/2 bpm jumps appear to be at full speed and will cause a player to stumble before they realize the arrows just went into SLOW-MO, but I only docked points for the double-steps.
02 / 05 - Presentation Seems like all you did was add the artist on the BN, the rest of the images were apparently just a video rip. I did not like the 1/2 bpm sections.
00 / ± 01 - Tilt Hate the song but added video makes this a neutral field.

The Koto Chill 18 / 25
09 / 10 - Heavy 1 double at 219.5 the rest of the chart was well executed, maybe overdone for a Heavy chart to such a chillax song, this was probably more suitable to a Challenge chart.
08 / 10 - Standard 2 double steps in this chart, it was also a bit tough for a Standard would have made a better Heavy chart especially since the song is so mellow.
02 / 05 - Presentation Graphics are on the plain side, I like the Text Font.
-01 / ± 01 - Tilt -1 for using a song that's already from a rhythm game.