Supernova provides 6 different “modes” of play and a mode where you can edit the step patterns to truly customize your gameplay. There’s also a shop where you have to purchase the songs, modes, characters, etc. that you’ve unlocked with the points that you earn while playing.
Stellar Master Mode is what the previous version of DDR added to the game and called “Dance Master Mode”, except Stellar is much prettier, adding a form of training at the end of each node and is easier to “win”. Though actually completing all of it is much more difficult.
Game Mode is what you’re used to if you’ve played any of the previous DDR games. All the songs that you’ve unlocked (and purchased at the shop) are there for you to choose and play. You simply choose a song and play.
Konami has improved Workout mode some from the previous version. Before, you just used either player one or player two and you could track your stats, but you had to use that same player and if anyone else played on that memory card with that player in Workout mode, it would skew your data. In Supernova, they’ve added the ability to create a workout player and even give it a simple password to store your workout data. I quite like this new feature, especially for people like me who often have other people playing on their memory card. Now I don’t have to worry about remembering which day I need to ignore the workout data from. And just like in the previous games, Supernova is quite accurate for how many calories it says I’ve burned compared to what my heart rate monitor says. So if you want to use it to track exercise data, I found Supernova to be very accurate and now protected. I only wish that you were able to track calories burned when you were playing in any mode, instead of only when you play in Workout mode.
Advanced Mode is where you find Courses, Endless, Combo Challenge, Survival, and Battle. Of these, only Courses and Battle are unlocked at the beginning. Courses are preset lists of songs, generally grouped by different factors. To unlock Endless, Survival, and Combo Challenge, you need to unlock all the songs available in the game. Battle is new to this version; the only previous version I remember it in is DDR Disney Mix. In Battle, you play against another player or the computer. Depending on how well you do, the other player gets modifiers added to their screen, which make it much more difficult.
Honestly, Training mode is very simple and really just not worth going through. The plus side is that it only takes about 5-10 minutes to complete. If you want a game with a really good training for dance games, go pick up Flow: Urban Dance Uprising. In Supernova, the Training mode seems like it was tacked on at the end because someone said it had to be there.
If you’re the type of player who’s never quite happy with the built-in game and would like to “fix” it, you’re going to love Edit mode. Editing allows you to take any song that you’ve unlocked and create the dance steps you want to play. It’s pretty easy to use and Konami provides sample data for each song if you don’t want to have to start from scratch.
Online Play makes it possible to test your DDR skills against players around the world. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be very many people using it at this time. I can’t seem to find more than 5 or 10 other people connected at once and they’re all there just to chat. It is also good way to ask more advanced players questions that you might have.
