Dancing Stage Fusion
PlayStation 2 cover art
Developer(s)	Konami, Bemani
Publisher(s)	Konami
Series	Dance Dance Revolution
Engine	4thMix and Extra Mix (PS1) Extreme (USA) (PS2)
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2
Release	PlayStation, PlayStation 2 EU: 5 November 2004 Arcade EU: April 2005
Genre(s)	Music, Exercise
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system	Bemani Python

Dancing Stage Fusion is a music video game released by Konami for the European PlayStation and PlayStation 2 on 5 November 2004. In April the following year, the game was released as an arcade game. The arcade release of the game was the first arcade machine in Europe since Dancing Stage EuroMix 2 and set a milestone as the first Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine produced by Konami since Dance Dance Revolution Extreme in 2002. The arcade release also marked an upgrade from old PlayStation-based boards to a new system based off of the PlayStation 2. This hardware upgrade would later be globally featured in the arcade release of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova in 2006.

Gameplay

The main mode of Dancing Stage Fusion is the Game Mode, where up to two players compete for points over up to five songs. Each player can choose a different difficulty, with a substantial number of tweaks and settings that can be applied to make the game more or less difficult. Besides the Game Mode, a Workout mode is also included, which is targeted towards fitness or workout, as well as an Endless Mode which allows the players to dance continuously.^[1]

For the PlayStation 2 release of the game, EyeToy support is featured, as well as additional songs from artists like The Darkness, DJ Bobo and others. There is also an option to use two dance mats at the same time, or against each another in versus mode, with eight levels of varying difficulty.^[2]

Music

The songlist for Dancing Stage Fusion received an improvement from its predecessors, containing considerably more difficult songs, as well as more songs overall.

The arcade release of the game consists of 49 songs, while the PlayStation 2 version consists of 54 songs, replacing five arcade licenses with ten console-only licenses.^[3] The soundtrack of the PlayStation release is a cut down list of the music available on the PlayStation 2 version, having only 20 songs as opposed to 54.