As always, if a player takes too many bad steps and depletes the life bar, they will fail, and the game will end immediately.
If a net dance-point total of zero is obtained without depleting the life bar and, thus, failing, an 'E' is awarded.
[citation needed] For the long-score system in DDRMax2, it now has a maximum for each song of 10,000,000 multiplied by the foot rating for the routine.
They are also given Japanese difficulty names in conjunction: 楽 (raku), 踊 (you), and 激 (geki), respectively.
Instead, the arrows scroll over clips of full motion video, hence the game does not render any polygons.
In addition, the arrows themselves have been tweaked too, now having a rounded edge on their outer tip rather than the V-shaped cut used in all previous games.
These games retain the Song Wheel interface introduced in 5thMix, but add an easier method to enter modifiers.
In previous versions, modifiers like "Sudden" or "Shuffle" required a combination of dance steps.
Beginning in 6thMix, a player only needs to hold the Start button when they select a song to bring up a full menu of available modifiers, including the ability to speed up or slow down the scrolling of arrows, and a final chance to select the song difficulty they wish to play.
A new options menu accessed by holding down the Start button when selecting a song debuted on 6thMix, and is retained on future mixes.
The exact same modifiers are used, but the song is played in Sudden Death mode, where any step judgment which breaks a combo immediately ends the game.
If the player clears the song with a full combo (which is the only way to do so in Sudden Death mode), a special credits movie is shown.
The user can save his or her scores from arcade performances, and whenever the game is played in the future, the arcade game will load the scores for each user and show them on the song-selection screen to show the player's best performances.
The arcade game can exchange custom stepchart data with 6thMix, as well as any earlier version that has songs that are in 6thMix, though this requires special steps to be taken in 6thMix to write a PlayStation-formatted save file, which must then be copied to the PlayStation memory card by the user.
It displays song difficulties using the traditional foot-rating system and the Groove Radar in tandem.
Dancing Stage MegaMix was released exclusively for the PlayStation 2 in Europe and Australia, and this game also uses the DDRMAX2 engine.
It features a total of 71 songs, with 13 Konami originals (including both Boss songs and both console exclusives) and one license ("Ordinary World" by Aurora featuring Naimee Coleman) shared in common with the Japanese version.
The North American version also features a Nonstop mode, with 6 courses consisting of 5 to 21 songs each.
Beginning with Dancing Stage EuroMix 2, the songs "B4U (B4 ZA Beat Mix)" and "Hysteria 2001" can be played individually, with the Challenge steps available in Expert mode.
This is also the sole arcade release to offer three easier difficulties for each song, although Double mode omits the easiest of these, which is Beginner.
Next Generation ranked it as the 84th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.