DDR Glossary

DanceDanceRevolution
History - Gameplay (Scoring - GROOVE RADAR) - Trivia - Glossary
AC releases (Info - All region) - CS releases (JP - NA - EU - Other)
List of DDR characters - List of DDR artists - List of DDR songs (CS exclusives)

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DanceDanceRevolution Glossary

This page covers the most common terms found in DanceDanceRevolution and its fan community. Not included in this are the modifiers and character names, they can be accessed in the Related Pages section below.

A

• AC: Acronym of the term Arcade Cabinet. Used to designate the arcade version of a title.
• Air: One of the five parameters of the GROOVE RADAR. It is determined by the number of jumps and Shock Arrows in the song.
• Announcer: It's a voice that provides all of the game's commentary, and has been a main feature throughout the series. In order, Thomas Howard Lichtenstein was the game announcer from DanceDanceRevolution up to DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX, Londell "Taz" Hicks from DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX- to DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA2, and Wil-Dog and Justin from Ozomatli since DanceDanceRevolution X. Spin-off titles such as the Solo series and Dancing Stage featuring DREAMS COME TRUE feature other announcers as well.
• ANOTHER: Name for the DIFFICULT dance level in DanceDanceRevolution to DanceDanceRevolution 3rdMIX.
• Auto-Fail: Refers to a setting which when set to on, the song ends immediately when the player's dance gauge is completely empty. Nowadays, PASELI users have that feature set to Off.

B

• BASIC: The difficulty setting aimed at those familiar with the game. Prior to Dancing Stage EuroMIX / DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME, this was the lowest selectable difficulty level.
• BeForU: Group created by Naoki Maeda with the winners of the DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX アーティストオーディション (Artist Audition) 2001, a competition held for a new J-POP group for KONAMI and DanceDanceRevolution.
• BEGINNER: The lowest selectable difficulty level, as of Dancing Stage EuroMIX / DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME.
• Boo: Old judgment, for when the player's step is far off the timing. Replaced by Almost in international releases, and Boo was used instead of Miss. Amalgamated into Miss as of DanceDanceRevolution X2. This judgment breaks the player's combo.

C

• CATASTROPHIC: Old term to refers to a level 9 song, added in DanceDanceRevolution 3rdMIX.
• CHALLENGE MODE: A variation of COURSE MODE where the player has to play from a selection of courses, which may trigger certain modifiers at times. The player is always restricted to having four or eight lives that are removed whenever the player breaks their combo. Merged into COURSE MODE as of DanceDanceRevolution X2.
• CHALLENGE: A difficulty which is often used for charts with higher levels than EXPERT, or charts with "gimmicks" such as Shock Arrows.
• Chaos: One of the five parameters of the GROOVE RADAR. It is determined by the number of steps (including Shock Arrows) which are not placed on 4ths, as well as the number of stops and BPM changes, in the song.
• Clear Rank (クリアランク): Official term used for the grade letters (AAA to E) used in the scoring system.
• Combo: The number of consecutive Marvelous, Perfect, Great, or Good (the latter as of DanceDanceRevolution (2013)) judgments the player has gotten.
• COUPLE Play (カップルプレー):
• Course: A set of songs that must be played back-to-back.
• COURSE MODE: A game mode that allows players to select from various courses of varying difficulty. Removed in DanceDanceRevolution (2013).
• CS: Acronym for Consumer Software, a term that refers to home versions.
• Cut-in (カットイン): Term used to refer to the player's character appearing on the screen when the combo hits 20 or multiples of 50 and 100. A third cut-in appears when the player is halfway through the song, and again when the player is 90% done with the song.

D

• Dance Gauge (ダンスゲージ): Term used to designates the life gauge of the player.
• Dance Level (ダンスレベル): Term used to designates the available difficulty in DanceDanceRevolution.
• Dance Platform:
• Dancing Stage: The name given to European releases of DanceDanceRevolution before X, as well for some Japanese spin-offs.
• DIFFICULT: A difficulty which is used for charts with levels between those of BASIC and EXPERT.
• DOUBLE Play (ダブルプレー): A one-player game using all 8 foot panels.

E

• eAMUSEMENT: Online service offered by KONAMI to enable updates, special content or features as well as providing online ranking to an arcade machine. DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA was the first game to use the service and since DanceDanceRevolution (2013), eAMUSEMENT has to be enabled to boot the arcade machine.
• EDIT: Term used to designate the custom steps created by a user. Also known as EDIT DATA.
• ENCORE EXTRA STAGE (EES): The stage that occurs after the EXTRA STAGE. Usually involves the player playing a difficult song without missing a step (or getting anything lower than a Great, prior to DanceDanceRevolution (2013)). In two cases, a PERFECT FULL COMBO is required instead.
• ENJOY LEVEL:
• EVOLUTIONARY: Term used in the 2ndMIX MODE of DanceDanceRevolution X3 VS 2ndMIX to refer to a level 9 song. Originally, no song rated level 9 was found in 2ndMIX as it was added in DanceDanceRevolution 3rdMIX as CATASTROPHIC.
• EXPERT:
• EXTRA STAGE (ES): A bonus stage that occurs after the FINAL STAGE. Certain songs or CHALLENGE charts can only be accessed in EXTRA STAGE.

F

• Flat footing: This is where the player steps on a foot panel without lifting their foot high as much as possible.
• Free Play:
• Freestyle: A non-official play style where the player aims to look good and perform for an audience when playing a song.
• Freeze Arrow (フリーズアロー): A green-colored step on which the player has to hold down their foot for the full duration. Sometimes also abbreviated as FA. Successfully holding down gives the result OK; failing gives an N.G.
• Freeze: One of the five parameters of the GROOVE RADAR. It is determined by the number and total length of the Freeze Arrows in the song.
• Full Combo (FC): Given to a player that hit all of the notes in a song without getting judgments worse than a Great (Good as of DanceDanceRevolution (2013)), and without getting any N.G.'s on Freeze Arrows or Shock Arrows, effective as of DanceDanceRevolution X.

G

• Geki (激): Alternative name for the difficulty EXPERT.
• GENUINE: Old term to refer to a level 6 song.
• Good: Judgment level, lower than Great but above Almost/Boo. The lowest judgment that will not break the player's combo as of DanceDanceRevolution (2013).
• Great: Judgment level, lower than Perfect but above Good. The lowest judgment that would not break the player's combo until DanceDanceRevolution (2013).
• GROOVE RADAR: A graphic representation of different aspects of the song's difficulty. In DDRMAX, it was the only representation of difficulty.

H

• HERO: Old level name to designate a song rated 7 in DanceDanceRevolution. It was replaced by PARAMOUNT in DanceDanceRevolution Internet Ranking Version, presumably to avoid confusion with a song of the same name which was added in DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX.

I

• Internet Ranking (Net Rank): Feature found in older titles which provided codes to the players during the Result Screen to be entered on the official website. These codes would allow the players to compete for high scores online.

J

• Joint Premium:
• Jump: Two arrows to be hit at the same time. This refers to the fact that you have to jump to hit them with both feet.

L

• Level (レベル): Term used to refer to the rating range found in the game. Also known as foot level.
• Link Data:
• Location test (ロケテスト): Name used for a public test of an upcoming release. Similar to a beta release for a software.
• Long Version: Longer than usual songs that only appeared in DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX and in DanceDanceRevolution X under the name Xmix.

M

• MANIAC: Previous name for the difficulty EXPERT in DanceDanceRevolution to DanceDanceRevolution 3rdMIX.
• Marvelous: The highest timing judgment level as of SuperNOVA2. Also an old name for a rated level 5 song.
• Miss: The lowest judgment, for when a player does not step on an arrow at all. This judgment breaks the player's combo.
• MODERATE: Old term to refer to a level 2 song.
• Modifiers: Term used to refer to the options available to the players in the game. See this page for more details.

N

• NONSTOP MODE: A game mode where the player has to play a set of songs back-to-back without stopping, hence the name. Merged into COURSE MODE as of DanceDanceRevolution X2.
• N.G. (No Good): Judgment given if a player lifts off a Freeze Arrow or steps on Shock Arrows. As of DanceDanceRevolution X, this judgment breaks the player's combo.

O

• O.K.: Judgment given if a player completely holds a Freeze Arrow or avoids Shock Arrows.
• ONE MORE EXTRA STAGE (OMES): Alternative name for ENCORE EXTRA STAGE (EES).
• Oni (鬼): Alternative name for the difficulty CHALLENGE.
• ORDINARY: Old level name given to a song rated 3 out of 9 in DanceDanceRevolution until DanceDanceRevolution 4thMIX.

P

• PARAMOUNT: Old level name given to a song rated 7 out of 9 in DanceDanceRevolution Internet Ranking Version until DanceDanceRevolution 4thMIX.
• PASELI:
• Perfect: The highest judgment level by default until DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA2.

R

• Rank: Official term to designate the grade letters, see Clear Rank.
• Rival (ライバル): Another player that can be added as Rival (Score, EDIT Data) using eAMUSEMENT.
• Roulette:

S

• Save: Rating given in Unison mode when one person misses their arrow, but their partner hits it.
• Shock Arrow (ショックアロー): Arrows which are not meant to be stepped on. Only full lines of four Shock Arrows appear, meaning the intention is for the player to be in the centre or in the air (since Shock Arrows increase the Air parameter of the GROOVE RADAR). "Missing" Shock Arrows gives an OK; stepping on them gives an N.G. and subsequent arrows disappear for a short time. Roughly equivalent to StepMania / In The Groove's mines.
• Sight read: Playing a song without having seen the chart nor heard the song beforehand.
• SIMPLE: Old name for a level 1 song.
• SINGLE Play (シングルプレー): A one-player game using the 4 foot panels.
• STEP BATTLE: Mode found in DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX.
• Step Step Revolution (SSR):
• STEP ZONE (ステップゾーン): The four grey arrows (← ↓ ↑ →) that are usually found at the top of the screen.
• Stream: One of the five parameters of the GROOVE RADAR. It is determined by the overall step density in the song.
• SUPERIOR: Old name for a level 4 song.

T

• TRICK:

U

• UNISON:

V

• VERSUS Play (バーサスプレー): A two-player game with each player using 4 foot panels.
• Voltage: One of the five parameters of the GROOVE RADAR. It is determined by the step density of the measure with the most steps in the song.

W

• Workout Mode (ワークアウトモード): Also known in select games as Diet Mode (ダイエットモード)

X

• Xmix: Found in DanceDanceRevolution X. See Long Version for more details.

Related Pages

• List of DanceDanceRevolution Modifiers (Options)
• List of DanceDanceRevolution characters

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