I'll put this out there now, and I probably should've earlier. I feel that there should only be one "Story Mode" category and one "Story Mode EX" category. With how the run can be manipulated to be faster by getting a lower rank than A and how heavily RNG based the runs can be, it would become very tiresome for someone to repeat the same story three extra times just to get runs submitted in all the categories. No matter what difficulty you choose, there is no change in length to the story, only "difficulty" of a run that already would require you to mess up to get a faster time. The rules for these runs should be, if condensed into just a general "Story Mode" and "Story Mode EX" category:

1. Timer starts as you press A or Start to choose your difficulty and ends when the word "Cleared" displays on screen after "Bowser's Castle."
2. You may choose either Mario or Luigi to play as.
3. Any grade can be achieved on songs. (I say "Any" because of the same time save, but people should know that if they choose to get an F, they will have to redo the song in order to progress and if they fail to beat a dance off, the same scenario will apply.)
4. Controller or Dance Pad may be used. (This is another thing that should be enlightened on. Already there are rules in DDR:MAX stating no controller may be used on PS2 runs, but to me I feel because it is a PS2, it should be allowed. It would be considered unfair if you were to use an alternate input method on a DDR:MAX arcade like a mini-cab with sanwa buttons acting as the pad. Since a controller is a allowed function in this game, I feel that it should be allowed as an input option)
5. A timer must be displayed on your recorded output or a split log must be provided when submitting your run.
6. If running on an emulator such as Dolphin, you are not allowed to "time warp" or let your game run at any speed but 100%.

Now for the next part. This has kinda bugged me since I first saw this run, but there is no "Super Hard" choice for story mode at all. This I think should be replaced with just "PFC Freeplay." PFC (Perfect Full Combo) Freeplay would be a run focused on getting nothing but Perfects for every song. The rules on this would be very simple:

1. The run starts as soon as you press A or Start on the first song of choice and ends when the word "Cleared" appears. For assurance that everything was perfect on the last song, leave an extra few seconds of recording to show the final result screen. (This should be unnecessary in general I think since people should automatically fail out and retry if they are sure they missed a perfect, but extra precaution.)
2. A Perfect Full Combo must be earned on every song in one playthrough on Super Hard difficulty, Mush Mode Off.
3. As stated earlier, you may start on any song of choice and play through any order you please.
4. Your settings can vary from Meter Level 1 through 4 and/or Fail at End or Immediate. And rules 5-7 would be the same as rules 4-6 on Story Mode/Story Mode EX.

The Extras I am talking about in the title would be sub categories or Miscellaneous categories for the three main categories, like PFC Story Mode/PFC Story Mode EX and the only additions being "must be played on Very Hard" and "must achieve a perfect full combo on every song." Miscellaneous for PFC Freeplay would have the Mush Mode On instead of Off, since it adds a different gameplay with different notes like Koopa Shells, which alter the note chart when hit perfectly due to knocking off the next note in the lane.

Oki so maybe there isn't super hard mode for story mode which i have to check again but i thought that there was as this difficulty exists when selecting a single song. I think that PFC and other categs would be better only for IL than main as i said in an another forum this game isn't that busy and it isn't that complex like an actual DDR

Edit: Super hard mode is supposed to exist in story mode as when you beat story mode in very hard i think you unlock super hard for story.