Hot Dance 2000

This article is about Hot Dance 2000. For games with a similar title, see Dance 2000 (disambiguation).

Hot Dance 2000 is a plug-and-play dance mat game, running on Famicom hardware. It is loosely based on Dance Dance Revolution in gameplay. Numerous variations of the game (some likely predating this version) were produced by multiple companies under different names.

Hot Dance 2000 was developed by an unknown development team currently referred to as the "ex-Subor developers", as this game as well as other dance mat games related to Hot Dance 2000 possess various connections to Subor, including the sound engine and composition style that are also present in some of Subor's educational software (i.e., the Subor V study cartridge and the Subor SB-2000 educational computer). This company is credited as "DL" in the earliest known iteration of their dance mat games, Dance 2000/"跳舞天使 - 動感 2000 12 in 1", though is otherwise not credited in any later versions. The games are speculated, albeit unconfirmed, to be connected to an entity known as Zhongshan Wanxin Technology, who reportedly worked with Subor.^[1]

Overview[]

When you first boot the game, you’ll be greeted by a title screen featuring glowing silhouettes with a glitchy effect and text filling the silhouettes, alongside a dancing character wearing all green in the bottom left corner.

Once you get past the title screen, you’ll be shown a menu with 3 options. “Single”, “Mix”, and “Game”

The game plays similarly to Dance Dance Revolution, only with the songs being 8-bit renditions of the originals, and the up and down arrow positions on the screen being switched. The player hits arrows that scroll to the top of the screen, just like in DDR. However, the game fails to take into account that the left/right or up/down double combinations do not play well with an NES/Famicom controller. This isn’t an issue on the original Plug-and-play, due to it using a dance mat.

The game doesn't feature a health bar but instead features an audiometer, which only works in the original Dance 2000 and doesn't work in any other.

Modes[]

Single[]

When you select “Single”, it will cut to a simplistic menu, featuring a list of songs.

The songs included on the cartridge that's already been found and in the order of the game:

1. "Hey, Girl. Look Over Here" by Richie Jen/"The Girl Next Door" by Kankuona Beat (called Girl Glimpress Over in the game)
2. "You Are My Sunshine" by Johnny Cash (called My Sunlight in the game)
3. "Summer Love (Sha La La Style)" by Phil Gordon (called First Love in the game)
4. "The World Is So Beautiful" by Teresa Teng (Called “Beautiful World” in the game)
5. "Beat It" by Michael Jackson
6. "Where Do I Begin?" by Andy Williams (called "Love Me Tender" in the game)
7. "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion (though it's an original remix)
8. "Oh. Carol" by Neil Sedaka (Miss-spelled in the game with a "G")
9. "El Bimbo" by Paul Mauriat" (called The Necklace in the game)
10. "Lemon Tree" by Fool's Garden
11. "Butterfly" by Smile.dk (played on title screen)
12. "Sha la la La" by The Wynners
13. "Dub I Dub" by Me & My
14. "Hero" by Miss Papaya
15. "Mr Wonderful" by Smile.dk
16. "Follow The Sun" by Triple J
17. "If You Were Here" by Jennifer
18. "Have You Never Been Mellow" by The Olivia Project (called "Bad Girl" in the game)
19. "Bad Girls" by Juliet Robert (called "Mellow" in the game)
20. "Boys" by Smile.dk
21. "Bam Bam Bam" by Bambee (called "Boom Boom Dollar" in the game)
22. "South-bound Train" by Jean JiYoon (called "Strain" in the game)
23. "Wrongful Meeting" by Kim Gun Mo (called "Bes Meet" in the game)
24. "Fame" by Irene Cara
25. "Festival" by Uhm Jung-Hwa
26. "Declaration of Freedom" by Kim Hyun Jung" (called "Free" in the game)
27. "High Way Star" by Deep Purple
28. "Regret" by Jo Sung Mo" (called "Bhoo Hee" in the game)
29. "Meeting" by Koyote
30. "Heartless" by Chae Jung-an" (called "Moojung" in the game)
31. "Geniune" by Koyote" (called "Soonjung" in the game)
32. "Tell Me Tell Me" by S#arp" (called "Tell Me" in the game)
33. "Wa" by Lee Jung-Hyun

Mix[]

When you select “Mix”, you’ll be greeted by a menu similar to “Single”. Each disk features 2 or 3 songs like (First Love + Beautiful World) It curiously starts at 34 and ends at 66.

Game[]

“Game” features the same menu, but with a list of games.

67. Hit Mouse - An originally-programmed, whac-a-mole styled game with graphics lifted from Hit Marmot. It is likely connected to the "educational computer" variation of Hit Marmot, which is seen on consoles such as the Asder PC-95.
68. Pac Man - unhacked version of Pac-Man
69. Pin Pan - control-hacked version of Arkanoid
70. Pin Ball - control-hacked version of Pinball

Dance 2000/"跳舞天使"[]

Dance 2000 (动感2000), also known as Dancing Angel (跳舞天使) and Crazy Dance, is a Famicom game sold as a cartridge alongside a plug-and-play dance mat. It is loosely based on Dance Dance Revolution in gameplay. The game is notable for seemingly being the first version of the series of Dance Dance Revolution-inspired dance mat games that Hot Dance 2000 belongs to, sharing many of the same idiosyncrasies as those games, including the use of the Subor sound engine as well as the distinct sound design. Both a Chinese and English version of the game are known to have been released.

Compared to most of the known variants, the game itself is a rather simplistic clone of Dance Dance Revolution. The player can pick one of 12 songs and several difficulty levels. Unlike other versions, the accuracy system is seemingly based on combos, and goes from BOO —> GOOD —> GREAT —> PREFECT [sic]. Later versions would replace this with a proper timing-based accuracy system.

The game features 12 songs, all of which are (likely unauthorized) 8-bit renditions of other songs. Oddly, two songs ("The Girl Next Door" and "Summer Love") credit their original artists while others do not. The featured songs include:

"Butterfly" by Smile.dk (also played on the title screen at a much slower speed)
"Sha La La La" by The Wynners (titled "Sha La La" in-game)
"The Girl Next Door" by Kankuona Beat (titled "Kankouna' Beat The Girl Next Door" in-game)
"Summer Love (Sha La La Style)" by Phil Gordon (titled "Phil Gordon - Summer Love" in-game)
"Beat It" by Michael Jackson
"My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion (uses a custom remix with a rock & roll-like sound)
"Lemon Tree" by Fool's Garden
"The World Is So Beautiful" by Teresa Teng (titled "Beautiful World" in-game; an identical rendition is used in the demo program on the Subor SB-2000 educational computer)
"El Bimbo" by Paul Mauriat" (titled "The Necklace" in-game)
"You Are My Sunshine" (titled "You Are My Sunlight" in-game; possibly based on the 1989 Johnny Cash cover)
"Oh. Carol" by Neil Sedaka
"Where Do I Begin?" by Andy Williams (titled "Love Me Tender" in-game)

Variants[]

Multiple variants of this game are known to exist, which were released on dedicated plug & play dance mats by other companies like Advance Bright Limited and Gold Leopard King (GLK). Several updates were made to the game engine, menu system, and song rosters across different releases. Many variants include renditions of officially licensed music, or have been partially or entirely reskinned for various brands including Bratz and American Idol.

In 2006, Majesco and Konami released a pair of officially-licensed Dance Dance Revolution plug-and-plays: a port of Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix, and the fully-original Dance Dance Revolution: Strawberry Shortcake. These feature the same sound engine, several graphical and audio similarities, and share a dance mat form factor with various ABL releases, leading to the belief that these were developed by the same team as all of the Hot Dance 2000 variants.

Name(s)	Notes
Dance 2000 Crazy Dance 跳舞天使	Earliest variant that is known to exist, utilizing the same mapper as Subor V. Features an entirely different way of scoring, partially based on combos as opposed to accuracy, which start at Good -> Great -> Perfect. This is the only variant that features a functional audio meter, as well as in-game instructions that are accessed by pressing Select while in a song.
Hot Dance 2000	Most well-known variant. It features the largest list of songs and 2 new games. Pac-Man & Arkanoid.
Revolution 2000 Hot Dance	Updated variant of Dance 2000 with updated graphics and removed song previews. Several updated variants, including Revolution 2004 and Revolution 2006 were released, with some adding the full song roster from Hot Dance 2000.
GLK Dance Shi Shang Tiao Wu Tan	Common variant using the same menu system as Revolution 2000. Features FengLi branding on the title screen.
Hot 2000 Dance 2000	Uses the same menu system as Revolution 2000. The backgrounds for the songs themselves feature digitized photos, including but not limited to several movie posters. Features both Cup of Life and Three Days and Nights. Soyin branding is present on both the title screen and in-game.
Dance Xtreme	Features no title screen but a new menu style and a few new songs. Many songs are duplicated with different titles to artificially increase the number of songs.
Shi Shang Tiao Wu Tan 时尚跳舞机	A compilation featuring a version of GLK Dance with Chinese song titles ("12in1"), as well as a variant of Dance Xtreme ("24in1"). An English version was also bundled with certain Gameinis Virtual Station consoles, featuring the GLK Dance branding but no FengLi logo on the title screen.
Dance Master	Variant with an entirely new main menu, allowing the player to pick between Dancing Game, Pinball Game (or Tetris Game on certain variants), and Knock Out Game (Hit Mouse). It uses the Song Select menu and engine as Dance Xtreme, but features a new set of songs that has been licensed from Sony Music Group, including a screen crediting the songwriters and license holders before each song.
Bratz Stylin' Dance Party	Variant of Dance Master that replaces the dancers with Bratz and features a different set of licensed music, but without the copyright screens.
Cheesestrings You Just Gotta Dance Fanta Tapete De Baile	Unknown. Potentially an unmodified version of Dance Master.
Teens Star Dancer Hot Dance	Variant using an updated version of the Dance Xtreme engine, featuring a version of the Hot Dance 2000 title screen with the "2000" removed.
Hot Dance with Samba	Variant utilizing the same menu system and engine version as Teens Star Dancer. It features a total of 23 games. (18 Inventor hacks + 3 Nice Code Originals + Hit Mouse) It also features a "With Samba" mode that involves the use of maraca controllers. The mode selector has taken the place of the difficulty selector, so only the easiest difficulty is available for both the "Hot Dance" and "With Samba" modes.
Twin Dancers American Idol Twin Dancers Double Dance Mania	Updated variant of Dance Master. It now supports two players and features a separate set of Sony-licensed music. The graphics for the song selection menu appear to be based off of the character selection menu in Sonic Advance 2. The main game engine appears to be based on the version used in Teens Star Dancer. This version also features a "Funky Dance" mode, which replaces the arrows with various musical instruments. Another variant featuring different licensed songs from Warner/Chappell music was also released. This song list would also be used in the first version of Senario Double Dance Mania; this release features different minigames compared to Twin Dancers, but the other differences are currently unknown.
Dance Party Professional	Unknown engine variant. It is possibly unrelated to Hot Dance, but appears to have graphical similarities with Dance Party and Mix Party pads from ABL that were likely not developed by the ex-Subor developers. Features the same Ping Pong and Knock Out (Hit Mouse) games as most of the aforementioned variants, as well as a set of licensed Warner/Chappell music that is not shared with Twin Dancers.
Double Dance Mania: Techno Light Edition	VT03-based system. Only features six games and three original songs, for a total of nine games.
Dance Dance Revolution: Strawberry Shortcake	An officially licensed VT03-based DDR game based on Strawberry Shortcake. The graphics and engine have been overhauled to more closely resemble a proper DDR game (specifically Disney Mix), including a life bar and combo counter.
Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix	An official port of the game of the same name using the same hardware and game engine as Strawberry Shortcake.
Dance Maker	A variant that appears to be based on the original Double Dance Mania, but with the songs being replaced with renditions of music from stock libraries such as FRESH Music.
American Idol Dance Showdown American Idol Double Dance Showdown	An American Idol-themed version of Dance Maker, featuring most of the same music but with alternate titles.

Trivia[]

The music used in the Hit Mouse bonus game is a rendition of "The World Is So Beautiful" (世界多美麗) by Teresa Teng. The exact same cover was used in the introduction program on the Subor SB-2000 educational computer, further suggesting a link between the "DDR clone" lineage and Subor.^[2]
- The Dance Master versions of the game ("Knock Out") instead use the title screen theme from version 5.0 of Subor.
The star field in the title screen of Dance 2000 is modified off of the one seen in Fei Suo Computer Studio's F-BASIC, which Subor had stolen, and was sued for.
The character that dances on the title screen of some variants of Hot Dance 2000 is similar to Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon.
The song that plays on the title screens of Hot Dance 2000 and Dance 2000 is a rendition of "Butterfly" by Smile.dk.
Pressing select in-game in Dance 2000 will show the player a screen giving instructions on how to play the game. This is removed in the English version, but an unused translation is present in the ROM.
- If the Select button is pressed on the menu in the Chinese version of Dance 2000, a text box appears stating "DDR VERSION(1) COPYRIGHT BY DL (1999-2000)", "DL" presumably referring to the developers of the game. This is removed in the English version.
Footage of the Chinese version of Dance 2000 was shown in Episode 51 of GameCenter CX, where Chief Arino managed to get it from a trip to South Korea. The game made occasional appearances before its last appearance on the show in 2011, where it was supposed to be given away to the viewers. As of 2012, it is unknown what happened with the cartridge.

Gallery[]

Hot Dance 2000[]

Dance 2000[]

Revolution 2000[]

Dance Factory

Dance Master[]

Licensed versions[]

References[]

↑ https://youtu.be/6K07IPPz1VE
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DgxFPzO6zA (note that the video has low audio volume and incorrectly refers to the SB-2000 as the "SU-2000")