Dance Dance Revolution Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR for short, is a video game controlled by the player's feet. It was first introduced by Konami as a video arcade game in Japan in 1998, and many variations have been produced, some even for home use. It is classified as a Bemani game (Bemani is a Japanese-style shorthand term for Beatmania, the name of Konami's first musical game, which has come to refer to all of Konami's musical games.)In the arcade, the game appears as a tall cabinet with unusually large speakers and flashing lights. On the floor in front of this cabinet is a raised dance platform with square panels. The more common two-player machines provide each player with 9 squares in a 3×3 matrix to stand on: four colored arrows (up, down, left, and right), and 5 neutral metal squares. One-player "Solo" machines have only one 3×3 matrix, with two extra arrows in the upper left and upper right spots. There is a bar behind each player to grasp to assist in balance, but many consider it poor form to cling to the bar while dancing except when doing tricks. Using the bar unnecessarily is sometimes called "bar hugging" or other, more insulting terms.
Players select one of a variety of songs, which typically have a heavy beat. While the game is in play, there are four stationary arrows at the top of the screen. Other arrows scroll up from the bottom of the screen and pass over the stationary arrows. When scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, as the illustration shows the Up arrow is about to, the player must step on the corresponding arrow square(s) on the platform (it is permitted to remain on the square or "panel"). A "jump" step will involve pressing two arrows simultaneously. In this way, the game encourages the player to dance a pre-choreographed series of steps to the beat of the music. Each step is given a rating that indicates how close to the beat the step was. From best to worst, these ratings are PERFECT, GREAT, GOOD, BOO, and MISS. On many American home releases of the game, BOO and MISS are changed to ALMOST and BOO, respectively, and on DDR Extreme in Oni/Challenge mode (and in some simulators) there is MARVELOUS timing, which is even better than PERFECT. It sounds very mechanical, but once a player has learned to respond to the arrows, there is some freedom in style and balance which better players exploit, to the entertainment of other players and passersby. Some players prefer "doubles mode" (usually costing twice as much), where both platforms are used by one player; this is generally considered more challenging.
At the end of each song (assuming the player has made it that far), players receive a final score and a letter grade from "A" to "E" based on how many correct steps they made and how well-timed those steps are. Exceptional performances with almost all PERFECTs (over 90%) will receive "AA" ("S" on older versions) or, should the player make the commendable achievement of earning 100% PERFECTs, "AAA" ("SS" on older versions and see links below for such feats). A game may consist of one or more songs in a series, or multiple attempts at the same song. There are also challenging "courses," or specific groups of songs, which can be played.
Music in DDR may be fast or slow, or may even change tempo. It is a common mistake to assume that slower songs must be easier; often, the exact opposite is true, as reading fast-scrolling and thus widely spaced arrows is often easier than reading lots of dense, slow-scrolling arrows. Each song has multiple step patterns associated with it, rated in difficulty from 1 to 10 "feet". The 1-3 foot step patterns are recommended for beginners, and 4-8 are of intermediate difficulty. Nine foot songs, commonly referred to as 'catas' (short for 'Catastrophic', the label given to these steps on 3rd Mix) generally require high levels of mastery of one of more specific DDR skills (such as stamina, rhythm recognition or special techniques such as 'spins', 'crossovers' or 'gallops'), and being able to pass these songs is widely regarded as the mark of a proficient player. Last are the songs with 10 foot step patterns. There are very few of these, and the steps for all but one proceed at an incredible speed; runs containing 10 arrows per second are not uncommon. Extreme demands are placed on a player's physical endurance, as well as arrow reading and balancing capability; only a handful of players can pass these songs with ease. Most regular players of DDR play on Heavy mode, although beginners are advised to start with "Light" mode, which contains mostly songs rated from 1 to 3 feet. Some versions additionally have a "Beginner" mode where almost every song is rated 1 foot and has a dancer in the background demonstrating the moves. However, by following the dancer players will learn to go back to the middle of the pad after every step. The problem is that this playing style only works well on the easiest of songs and is therefore heavily frowned upon by more experienced players.
Increasing levels bring more and more arrows in more elaborate and difficult arrangements, "hold" or "freeze" arrows which require the foot to remain on the appropriate square, and syncopation. Sometimes the scrolling arrows "freeze" in time with a silent gap in the music. Players may also introduce variations, such as obscuring the arrows (forcing the player to dance by memory) or changing the scrolling speed.
Regular players of DDR drive the continuing markets for game upgrades. There are many DDR versions; each new "mix" includes both familiar music from past games and new songs (so-called "Konami originals"). There are also Disney-specific and "Euromix" versions. Reluctance by Konami to release some versions in the USA has led to widespread gray-market imports of mixes intended only for the domestic (Japanese) market, and even bootleg copies. A Korean company, Andamiro, produces a competing dance game series called Pump It Up which has 5 floor buttons instead of 4, in the four corners and center of the pad.
DDR can also be played at home using the Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2 or Xbox, consoles. They use a dance mat, a novel input device that looks like the mat from the game Twister or the Power Pad from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Some dance pads connect directly to a television, and carry a limited number of songs in their internal memory. More durable metal dance platforms, such as those sold by Cobalt Flux, are also available. Alternatively, several manufacturers such as RedOctane sell mats similar to the plastic mats but containing a foam rubber insert.
There are several clones of DDR available for personal computers. These games use their own music and step files, and a variety of both are widely available. Clones include Dance With Intensity for Microsoft Windows; StepMania for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X; the Macromedia Flash-based Flash Flash Revolution; and the cross-platform pydance, which runs in a Python environment on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux among others. A particularly novel DDR simulator called Text Text Revolution can be displayed on text-only terminals. An official, Konami-made version of DDR exists for the PC as well. It has the interface of DDR 4th Mix, and contains a comparatively small number of songs from 1st Mix through DDRMAX (6th Mix). Some feel, however, that it does not compare to the console editions. Although there are no PC Dance Mats as of the time of writing, most PlayStation and Xbox dance mats can be used via USB controller adapter; however, only some of the adapters are compatible with dance mats, as the rest cannot handle the simultaneous presses of Left + Right that the game requires. The StepMania web site contains a list of compatible adapters.
DDR is also a phenomenon, around which subcultures of fans and enthusiasts have gathered. Tournaments are held worldwide, some to determine highest scores (called "perfect attack" or "score" competitions), and others for exhibitions of style (called "freestyle" competitions); a player who knows the steps can develop a routine for the rest of the body to follow while playing the game. One of the largest examples of this is the European Cup (held by DDR Europe), gathering players from all over Europe.
Playing DDR can be good aerobic exercise; some regular players have reported weight loss of 10-50 pounds. One player reports that including DDR in their day-to-day life resulted in a loss of 95 pounds. It is argued however that the cases of significant weight loss have all been stories where a significantly overweight player loses a few pounds, and then becomes motivated to take action to lose weight, including dieting, and regular gym attendance. Although reports of weight loss have not been scientifically measured, some schools use DDR as a physical education activity, and in Norway, DDR has even been registered as an official sport.Gameplay
Songs and levels
Most songs are licensed from Toshiba EMI's Dancemania collections, imported from other Bemani titles or created for the game by Konami artists such as Naoki, the main music producer for the DDR series.Arcades, home consoles, and clones
There are over 1400 arcade style DDR machines in the USA. The game first caught the interest of players in Asian American communities in California, and even today more than 25% of DDR machines are in that state.Other Konami music games
Other Bemani games include:
See .The DDR phenomenon
Many players would tell you that playing at home is an excellent way to practice, and it saves money in the long run compared to playing in the arcade. However, many would also say that a large part of DDR is the experience of dancing in public. DDR is a social game. Two players can dance together side-by-side in friendship, the better player offering encouragement to the lesser, or in competition. Crowds may gather while the dance is in progress and become involved. Skilled players enjoy showing off by looking away from the screen, dropping to the floor to press arrows with their hands, as well as other distractions.
| Name | Format | Region | Release Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dance Dance Revolution 1st Mix | Arcade/PlayStation | Japan | 1998 | First in the series. |
| Dance Dance Revolution 2nd Mix | Arcade/PlayStation | Japan | 1998 | Essentially an upgraded version of 1st Mix; contains a few more songs. |
| Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix | Arcade/PlayStation | Japan | 1999 | Introduced 9-foot songs and nonstop mode, where a set of songs are picked all at once at the beginning of play, with short or no breaks in between them. First in the series to use an MP3 decoder to fit more songs on the game CD. |
| Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix | Arcade/PlayStation | Japan | 2000 | Introduced the short-lived concept of song genres in DDR; a specific subset of songs would be chosen, such as all the Eurobeat, Rave and Happy Hardcore ("Euro/Rave/Speed") songs, and the song list during gameplay would be narrowed to that subset. |
| Dance Dance Revolution USA | Arcade | USA | 2000 | 26 songs, pulled from 2nd Mix and 3rd Mix. The second offical release of DDR in the United States. Largely played by players who had already been exposed to the import machines. Offered internet ranking & a beginner mode. |
| Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix Plus | Arcade/PlayStation | Japan | 2000 | Added 14 more songs to the 4th mix playlist, all of which ended up in 5th Mix. Introduced an "All Music" genre, allowing every song to be chosen for gameplay. |
| Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix | Arcade/PlayStation | Japan | 2001 | Introduced 'long version' songs (3 minutes instead of the usual 1:30). First arcade release to employ the music wheel, where the list of songs is placed on the left half of the screen. Features 122 songs. |
| DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution 6th MIX | Arcade/PS2 | Japan | 2001 | Introduced 'freeze' steps and the advent of the 10 foot songs through the boss song "Max 300". However, foot ratings were taken out of this version, to be replaced with a "Groove Radar", rating the song on five parameters, such as number of jump (2-arrow) steps or freeze steps. |
| DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution | PS2 | USA | 2002 | Introduced 'freeze' steps and 10-foot songs ("Max 300" again) to the US console market, as well as some USA exclusives like Sandstorm. This version, unlike its NTSC-J counterpart, had Oni mode. |
| DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution 7th MIX | Arcade/PS2 | Japan | 2002 | Introduced Oni mode and Challenge songs to the arcade. Oni mode is much like Nonstop (a set of songs is picked ahead of time, with little rest time between them), but any step worse than PERFECT or GREAT, or any instance of not completing a freeze arrow, caused the player to lose a life. Certain classic DDR songs were remixed (or had existing remixes brought in), with steps inspired by (but different than) those of the original songs. These songs could only be played in Oni mode. Reintroduced foot ratings. |
| DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution | PS2 | USA | 2003 | Missing features present in its Japanese counterpart. Does not have Oni mode (although it does have the similar Nonstop mode), nor does it have many of the Dancemania licensed songs popular among arcade players (this being true of any USA release of DDR, as Dancemania licensed songs are allowed as a type of free advertising for the Dancemania series, and USA is outside of its market). |
| Dance Dance Revolution Extreme | Arcade/PS2 | Japan/USA | December 25, 2002 (PS2 version October 2003, pending USA PS2 version summer 2004) | Has 240 songs, as well as both non-stop and oni mode. USA PS2 version has support for the Eye Toy peripheral. Many songs from other Bemani games were given DDR steps, and all the Oni-exclusive songs from DDR MAX and DDR MAX 2 were made selectable in normal gameplay. |
| Dance Dance Revolution MegaMix | Arcade/PC/PS2 | Japan/USA | December 25, 2003 (PC and PS2 versions pending winter 2004, USA PC and PS2 versions pending summer 2005) | Almost the same as DDR Extreme. It has 240 songs, as well as both non-stop and oni mode. Many songs from other Bemani games were given DDR steps, and all the Oni-exclusive songs from DDR MAX, and DDR MAX 2 were made selectable in normal gameplay. |
| Dance Dance Revolution UltraMix | Xbox | USA | 2003 | Almost the same as DDR Extreme, DDR MAX, and DDR MAX 2, but with purchasable song packs from Konami. This release also includes Xbox Live support, which lets you play against and chat with others through the Internet, and enables online rankings. |
| Dance Dance Revolution UltraMix 2 | Xbox | USA | pending 2004 | Introduction of Quad Mode (A 4-pad version of Double Mode). Also introduces the Party Mode with two "mini-games": Attack and Bomb. |
| Dance Dance Revolution Party Collection | PS2 | Japan | 2003 | Includes songs from many older mixes, and a few new ones, but only has around 40 songs. You also have Nonstop and Oni mode in this version. |
| DDR Festival: Dance Dance Revolution | PS2 | Japan | TBA | Was announced on August 17th to be released on November 18th, but this date and the fate of this game is uncertain. |
| Dancing Stage EuroMix | Arcade/PlayStation | Europe | 1999 (PlayStation version June 16, 2001) | European version of DDR 3rd Mix |
| Dancing Stage EuroMix 2 | Arcade | Europe | August 2002 | European version of DDR MAX2, but without Oni mode or extra stage, and with fewer songs. |
| Dancing Stage Party Edition | PlayStation | Europe | November 15, 2002 | European console version of Konamix |
| Dancing Stage MegaMix | PS2 | Europe | May 30, 2003 | European console version of DDR MAX2 |
The reverse step pattern, right-up-left-down-right, transitions from a front to a back-turn.
Start as with a normal back-turn, left-down-right, as described above. Then, instead of hitting the down arrow to continue a back-turn, hit the up arrow with your right foot. This will turn you around backwards. To complete the turn, hit the left arrow with your left foot.
A different way of doing these steps in situations where you might not want to turn around (for example, when doing "perfect attack" on a fast song such as Healing Vision -Angelic Mix-) is to treat this like an "inverted turn" — use your right foot on the left pad (ie. your body is more or less turned to the left), then the left foot on the down pad, the right foot again on the right pad, and the left foot on the up pad. The only difficulty after this is finding out what to do with the left step; depending on the steps afterwards the simplest thing might be using the left foot again (however, many people find using the same foot twice awkward), or you could use the right foot (but this makes you turn again). This style of play, where turns and other potentially "dangerous" techniques are avoided on fast songs, is sometimes referred to as Angelic-style, because it is almost a required strategy to successfully complete Healing Vision (Angelic Mix).
This is an Article on Dance Dance Revolution. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Dance Dance Revolution DDR/Dance Games Websites
DDR fan sites offer Web forums in which players can chat about the game and discuss tournaments, scoreboards and media archives of past tournaments, arcade machine location databases, and fan-created song and step files (simfiles) for clone games. Simfiles include versions of the "official" steps as well as "originals" with new steps for Komani songs, or entirely new songs.Common Step Patterns
As a player advances in the game, some common patterns occur in many different songs. Advanced players watch for these patterns. Recognizing them makes interpreting the song easier. This section describes these common patterns. It will only be useful to people who have played the game.Turns
Hit the left arrow with your left foot, then the down arrow with your right foot. You should now be partially turned to the right. Hit the right arrow with your left foot. Often, this pattern will continue down-left-down-right. It can also start on the right pad as right-down-left. That is simply the mirror of this.
Hit the left arrow with your left foot, then the up arrow with your right. You should now be partially turned to the left. Hit the right arrow with your left foot. Often, this pattern will continue up-left-up-right. It can also start on the right pad as right-up-left. That is simply the mirror of this.
These are usually on the end of a back-turn, when you are going "backwards". The first part, right-down-left, is the back-turn. Then, instead of the down arrow to continue on the back-side, hit the up arrow with your right foot to go into a front-turn.
A more advanced pattern involves a complete turn around. This is often used in "freestyle" DDR to show off. These are sometimes called Butterfly turns, because they occur often in the standard and heavy levels of Smile.dk's Butterfly. Because you cannot maintain eye-contact with the screen through the turn, it might help to memorize what happens after the turn to give yourself time to find your place in the song again.
Other
On some songs, Cowgirl and Matsuri Japan on Heavy being good examples, each direction has two closely spaced arrows together, and they continue with several of these pairs. The idea is "skip", or jump from one to the next. Think of each pair of notes as one, which you hit twice: once when you land on it, and once before you take off for the next one. It usually helps to jump to keep momentum, and to keep from stomping on them.
Some songs contain arrows in the same direction close to each other, usually depending on the tempo on the song, they are usually 1/16th or 1/8th note apart from each other. The concept 'machine gun steps' comes from the rapid and continuous hitting of the same arrow. Good examples are the songs Dead End (near the end) and Can't Stop Falling in Love (Speed Mix) (at the end of the chorus), both on Heavy.See also
External links