Originally Posted by
greekphysics
As much as I love the extremes, I think you may be right. It was challenging for me to stay fluent in all 6 extremes in 2020. Every time I got a little rusty, it took a lot of extra prep time before I felt comfortable just to visit the WDF.
On the other side, there are very few non-extremes where it was rather challenging to hit 13,000. In years past, at least for me there were more challenging non-extremes each year. Choreo-wise, there must be something in-between the main forty dances and the extremes. Maybe not quite as much repetition as the easy dances, but not as carried away as the extremes. This would offer challenge to players who are mastering the main forty quickly, yet find the extremes to be too much.
Great examples! (Though I'm a fan of the concept behind the Nerd version of Born This Way.)
I've been going through the Unlimited catalog recently, challenging myself to see if I can hit megastars on every song using Kinect. There are some difficult (at least for me) songs in this range, especially 2014. I imagine a customer who buys JD 2016 or later, who is new to Just Dance, who starts exploring the Unlimited catalog with Xbox Kinect. The scoring for some of these dances, especially in 2014, could come as quite a shock.
I have a suggestion for the Just Dance team, who indubitably wants new dancers to enjoy their Unlimited subscriptions (and not get frustrated that it's suddenly much easier to hit X's and OK's compared to the newer dances). Just imagine if there were an option, at least for Kinect: Score the 2014 dances with Original Scoring or Modified Scoring. What I have in mind really wouldn't affect scores in the high 12's or 13's. Make it just as hard to hit Perfect or Super as it already is. But in the case of some of those X's or OK's, maybe soften it up a touch to be a little more consistent with the modern scoring, for a new Modified Scoring option. When it gives an X or OK, a penalty is surely deserved, but I'm just thinking, the average dancer who suddenly discovers 2014 in Unlimited, would find the scoring a bit frustrating. So if it just made it a little easier to hit Good instead of X or OK (just talking about some of the 2014 dances), it would make the experience less frustrating for some dancers. Hitting 20 Good's instead of 20 X's or OK's isn't going to turn an 11,000 into a 13,000 of course (and it will still be challenging to hit Super and Perfect), it just might seem a bit less frustrating (due to seeming inconsistency with the way the newer songs seem to be scored). If you make the scoring an option (Original or Modified) for 2014 songs in Unlimited, players who love it the way it is could pick Original (in general, this game needs more options). I'm not sure if remote/phone dancing is affected by 2014, or PS4 camera. But there definitely seems to be a marked difference with Kinect in 2014. I'm way better at the 2014 dances than when I first discovered them a few years ago, but even I get a little frustrated in the heat of the moment at times with these dances. It is rewarding to finally hit a good score on these dances though.
The 2014 scoring with Kinect was probably appropriate for advanced players who devoted an entire season toward mastering Just Dance. But if a player just discovers the 2014 dances in Unlimited using Kinect, and doesn't plan to dance to most of the songs that many times, it's a bit of a different situation. Some of these songs are favorite songs, and the JD team wants Unlimited to appeal to new players (as well as veterans). The scoring discrepancy with 2014 for Kinect may be worth a little consideration. My suggestion aims to address the frustrating side for new players, while hopefully not messing it up with experienced pros (even with a Modified Scoring mode as I've suggested, since it would still be just as difficult to hit Super or Perfect, it would scarcely impact the higher scores).
I love Just Dance, and for me, 2020 looks amazing. I can't wait. By the way, on the JD community forum, I see an offer to buy JD 2019 at the top of the page. Maybe it's about time to change that to advertise 2020 (and there is an option to preorder it, which I did already, so why not advertise this instead of 2019?).