Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Surprise! I know what you're thinking - this isn't DDR! And you're right, it's not. However, ITG had a PS2 release so I played it and I'm counting it for this series. It was DDR's competitor back then, so I felt it was appropriate to include it. It still feels and plays pretty much the same, anyway. And in case you're wondering, I won't be playing the ITG2 PS2 leak since it never got officially released.
Breaking Point is actually unlocked from the very beginning, so you don't need to worry about unlocking your way there. It also doesn't have Euphoria or Pandemonium, the two hardest songs in the game, so it gives you a little break there (no pun intended). That's where the mercy stops, though. This course only has four songs, the lowest amount in the series so far. But for the lack of quantity, they really toned up the difficulty. Every song in this course is a 12-footer on the ITG scale, which is approximately 17 on the modern DDR scale. Guess the ITG devs wanted to focus on a sprit rather than a marathon.
So, let's talk about the songs. Delirium starts off very easy at first glance, but then it throws in a couple 16th note streams, a section full of stops, and a stream that lasts for 20 whole seconds. The patterns are pretty tame, though, so a little bit of practice is all it takes to breeze through it. Tell is easily my least favorite song in the game. Not only do I not like the song, but the chart is littered with stepjump after stepjump after stepjump. Thankfully ITG is much more forgiving than DDR in terms of cheesing the stepjumps by bracketing all of them, so that's what I ended up doing. VerTex is very tricky with several BPM changes, a couple crossovers, 16th note bursts, and a crap ton of mines. With enough practice, though, this one is also quite manageable - at least up until the 612 BPM section. Just like with Max Period, you have to either memorize it or look at another recording. Finally, you have Hardcore of the North. This chart holds nothing back with really fast 24th note bursts, stepjumps with mines, and BPM changes. It's incredibly technical, but very satisfying to pull off.
Despite being the first course in this series that lets you choose your mods, the game throws loads of them at you throughout the course anyway. Each song periodically throws a couple of them at you at once to make your life harder, and they get a lot worse as the course goes on. Delirium and Tell are readable enough, but VerTex and Hardcore of the North were way too tricky for me. I had to resort to using the "look at another recording" strat to get through them, just like I did with ULTRA16 and The Way of LEGEND in EXTREME US CS. I don't like doing it but readability is more important than memorization to me. If you think that's cheating, that's your opinion. And, if you can make it through this without needing a guide, massive props to you.
Now, I am completely aware this is not my best performance in this series. But in my defense, these charts are much harder than the ones I usually do. I can still do well on them, but they're are more difficult for a reason. Despite that, there were loads of points with huge FA counts, especially in the Delirium streams. I know the Fantastic window is larger than the Marvelous window, but it still felt rewarding to do that well on these harder charts. Thank goodness this didn't have LIFE4 or something similar, or I don't think I could even do this. Especially not Hardcore of the North - I'd get too nervous while having to look at another recording. Also, I hate Tell. Honestly, I was just glad to get this course behind me, and I didn't really care too much about the score. It's a warm up for what's to come in SuperNOVA and SuperNOVA2 (Yes, I mean THAT course). But I'm not there just yet.
Also, I couldn't find the course banner graphic anywhere online, so I just stuck the ITG logo in the thumbnail. :P
Final Score: 87.45%
Mods: 2x
Player: Espik
Platform: PCSX2
Controller: Keyboard
Surprise! I know what you're thinking - this isn't DDR! And you're right, it's not. However, ITG had a PS2 release so I played it and I'm counting it for this series. It was DDR's competitor back then, so I felt it was appropriate to include it. It still feels and plays pretty much the same, anyway. And in case you're wondering, I won't be playing the ITG2 PS2 leak since it never got officially released.
Breaking Point is actually unlocked from the very beginning, so you don't need to worry about unlocking your way there. It also doesn't have Euphoria or Pandemonium, the two hardest songs in the game, so it gives you a little break there (no pun intended). That's where the mercy stops, though. This course only has four songs, the lowest amount in the series so far. But for the lack of quantity, they really toned up the difficulty. Every song in this course is a 12-footer on the ITG scale, which is approximately 17 on the modern DDR scale. Guess the ITG devs wanted to focus on a sprit rather than a marathon.
So, let's talk about the songs. Delirium starts off very easy at first glance, but then it throws in a couple 16th note streams, a section full of stops, and a stream that lasts for 20 whole seconds. The patterns are pretty tame, though, so a little bit of practice is all it takes to breeze through it. Tell is easily my least favorite song in the game. Not only do I not like the song, but the chart is littered with stepjump after stepjump after stepjump. Thankfully ITG is much more forgiving than DDR in terms of cheesing the stepjumps by bracketing all of them, so that's what I ended up doing. VerTex is very tricky with several BPM changes, a couple crossovers, 16th note bursts, and a crap ton of mines. With enough practice, though, this one is also quite manageable - at least up until the 612 BPM section. Just like with Max Period, you have to either memorize it or look at another recording. Finally, you have Hardcore of the North. This chart holds nothing back with really fast 24th note bursts, stepjumps with mines, and BPM changes. It's incredibly technical, but very satisfying to pull off.
Despite being the first course in this series that lets you choose your mods, the game throws loads of them at you throughout the course anyway. Each song periodically throws a couple of them at you at once to make your life harder, and they get a lot worse as the course goes on. Delirium and Tell are readable enough, but VerTex and Hardcore of the North were way too tricky for me. I had to resort to using the "look at another recording" strat to get through them, just like I did with ULTRA16 and The Way of LEGEND in EXTREME US CS. I don't like doing it but readability is more important than memorization to me. If you think that's cheating, that's your opinion. And, if you can make it through this without needing a guide, massive props to you.
Now, I am completely aware this is not my best performance in this series. But in my defense, these charts are much harder than the ones I usually do. I can still do well on them, but they're are more difficult for a reason. Despite that, there were loads of points with huge FA counts, especially in the Delirium streams. I know the Fantastic window is larger than the Marvelous window, but it still felt rewarding to do that well on these harder charts. Thank goodness this didn't have LIFE4 or something similar, or I don't think I could even do this. Especially not Hardcore of the North - I'd get too nervous while having to look at another recording. Also, I hate Tell. Honestly, I was just glad to get this course behind me, and I didn't really care too much about the score. It's a warm up for what's to come in SuperNOVA and SuperNOVA2 (Yes, I mean THAT course). But I'm not there just yet.
Also, I couldn't find the course banner graphic anywhere online, so I just stuck the ITG logo in the thumbnail. :P
Final Score: 87.45%
Mods: 2x
Player: Espik
Platform: PCSX2
Controller: Keyboard
