The game retains the same core gameplay of the series. During gameplay, arrows scroll from the bottom to the top of the screen towards stationary arrows known as the "Step Zone". Once they reach the zone, players step on the dance pad corresponding to the arrows and the game will then judge the accuracy of the timing. The rankings are as follow: "Marvelous", "Perfect", "Great", "Good", "Almost", and "Boo". The last two rankings are taken from the North American games and differ from the ones used for DDR Extreme, which respectively has "Boo" and "Miss".
There are also changes in modifiers. The game adds the option to turn off jumps. In addition to "Flat" (all arrows are the same color), and "Rainbow" (brightly colored arrows taken from Dance Dance Revolution Solo, previously named "Solo"), a "Note" arrow option is added, which recolors the arrows based on timing (e.g. red for 1/4 beat arrows, blue for 1/8 beat arrows, etc.). "Little", which removes all non-quarter beat arrows, has been renamed "Cut".
Aesthetic changes include the renaming of three difficulty options: "Light", "Standard", and "Heavy" to "Basic", "Difficult", and "Expert", respectively. The song selection screen is still displayed in the form of a song wheel, but all difficulties are now displayed at once, instead of having to be highlighted separately. Instead of pre-rendered videos, songs are set to randomly generated characters dancing in several backgrounds, though certain songs may replace them with pre-rendered videos instead.
Instead of a difficulty option shown after selecting play styles, the game presents a mode selection offering eight options: "Tutorial", "Easy", "Medium", "Difficult", "All Music", "Nonstop", "Challenge", and "Battle". Tutorial is a new addition: it teaches first-time players on the basics of the game, before offering them a chance to play a song out of a limited selection in Beginner difficulty. Easy, Medium, and Difficult modes take players to normal gameplay but restrict them to a limited selection of songs based on their difficulty. As the name indicates, the entire song list can only be accessed through the All Music mode. Nonstop and Challenge modes, retained from previous games, can also be accessed through the same mode selection. Finally, the game introduces "Battle" mode, a gimmick-based gameplay in which opposing players compete by sending modifiers to mess up each other's playthrough.
DDR SuperNova is the first in the series to support e-Amusement functionality. The service is used for Internet Ranking, updates, and content delivery. The service is not available outside of Asia. In addition, it was supposed to feature Link Data, designed to provide connectivity between the arcade and PS2 versions of the game, by means of a PS2 memory card. The reader was depicted in arcade flyers, but it was never released. This feature already existed in Dance Dance Revolution Extreme and several earlier releases, but used original PlayStation memory cards and readers instead, which SuperNova does not support. Supplier issues with Sony forced Konami to cancel the functionality. To compensate, Konami offered a coupon or soundtrack sampler for customers in North America who purchased the game in 2006.[2]