Get me off this crazy thing!

[jducoeur]

Here's a question for the DDR experts (specifically DDR Max 2) in the audience:

I just unlocked Endless Mode (having decided that, to keep my stress levels down, I'd better get some exercise between characters). It's a lot of fun, especially once I turn off regulation and configure it to my taste -- it's great for exercising.

But the problem is, I'm sort of in-between skill levels. I've mostly beaten Light Mode: there are one or two songs that are still kicking my butt, but I'm getting As and Bs on most of them. I'm still very much *enjoying* Light: while I'm doing it well, I'm not yet at the point of being bored with it and needing to move up to Standard. So in Endless Mode, I can pretty much just keep going indefinitely in Light Mode.

The problem is, I don't have endless *time*. I usually have 30-45 minutes to exercise, and then I need to stop and get to work. What I would *like* to do is stop and save at the rest break; failing that, I'd like to say, "Okay, enough: take my score and call this a game". But there's no apparent way to do that, short of just letting myself die on the next song. (Or turning off the machine, and simply not keeping my score, which is a valid but annoying option.)

Any suggestions? Is there a way in Endless Mode to say, "Game Voluntarily Over"? I'll survive if not, but it's a mild pity...

Comments

[asdr83.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried endless mode but if I'm in the middle of playing, stepping on and holding "select" will stop it and save my data. Don't know if it'll work for Eendless mode but it's worth trying.

[jducoeur]

Hmm. Worth a try, anyway -- heaven knows, Endless Mode *needs* it more than anything else does. (Endless Mode is just what it sounds like: it just starts spinning songs randomly, with no choice and not even much pause between songs -- there's a pause every five songs, then back in you go. Lots of fun, but a *lot* of effort.) Thanks!

[mindways]

I haven't played a lot of Endless Mode, but my impression was that the only way to finish (barring death) was to go through every song on the disc.

When I'm looking for continuous exercise routines, I tend to instead use Nonstop Mode (possibly called different things on other discs), in which you play between 4 and 20 songs in a row with no breaks - there are some prefab sets (which can be played easier [Light-Std] or harder [Std-Hvy]), and you can stores up to 3 custom playlists. And I *think* you can put "Random" into Nonstop Mode slots, even, if you want to mix things up.

The one disadvantage is that in Nonstop Mode, when you miss steps, you lose life quickly - about on par with Heavy mode, perhaps? (I know on some discs, like Extreme 2, life loss starts out low but ramps up with every successive song; I don't think Max 2 does that?) However, if you know you can do the songs in question, you'd probably be fine.

To access Nonstop Mode, when you're selecting difficulty level, go right to Heavy and then hit Right again. You'll enter a new screen, and hear "This mode is difficult!".

[jducoeur]

I *suspect* I'm not up to Nonstop Mode -- while I'm good at Light Mode, I'm not *great* at it. So the fast life-loss isn't ideal from my POV. (Being able to do the songs well enough to get an A on Light is still a ways from perfect.)

But I'll give it a look. Thanks!