NESpresso: Game Reviews \ PS1 \ Dance Dance Revolution

Game Stats
System: Playstation 1
Genre: Rhythm / Dance
Players: 1-2 Simulatenously
Memory used: 1 Block
Playtime: 00:06 / --:--
ESRB Rating: Everybody (6+)

Note: Dance Pads required for maximum enjoyment

From the arcades in Japan to the front door of your home, it's the dance sensation that's making couch potatoes into dance machines. One of Konami's greatest hit of the BEMANI series finally penatrating into the US, Dance Dance Revolution (aka DDR). If you haven't played or seen the game, here's a run-through of the game. You're pretty much a dancer on the stage & you dance to the songs. The arrows scroll across the screen & you step on them when they hit the stationary arrows (called the step zone) in order to play. Songs generally last about a minute or two, but the selection of songs can vary from nice & slow to a fast-paced rave. All the songs featured in the game are normally upbeat & can be surprisingly easy to dance to. Like other musical games, accuracy is a key issue, but you'll find that DDR is more forgiving.

Konami Computer Entertainment of Tokyo (KCET) was creating a music-related gaming series in the 1990's. The first BEMANI game (Their brand-name of the series) was Beatmania, which was a DJ-style game & was a hit. Dance Dance Revolution was created around 1995 & became an international phenomenon. Some of the arcades in the US managed to import some of the DDR machines for US audiences to try out around the turn of the century. The arcade crowd in California managed to give rave reviews to the game & Konami of America started talking to KCET to see if they could create a mix for the US.

Dance Dance Revolution, or better known as DDR (US) in the DDR circle, is actually a mix of songs from the first 3-4 mixes in Japan & whatever songs KCET could managed to secure in the US. They cranked out a 26-song mix ranging from Pop to Techno, placed in the 3rd Mix interface.

This may be the weakest part of the game because what exactly could you do to make a simple concept interesting? Pretty much all that goes for graphics is virtually eye candy in the background. You have your characters dancing in the background with a lot of visual effects & animation while the arrows scroll in the foreground. Probably the best to think of yourself as the visual entertainment since everybody will most likely be watching you instead of the screen. Think of the screen as more of a teleprompter with your steps on it & you can probably overlook this.

Even though this doesn't really have any US artists on it, unless you cound Olivia Newton-John as one, but it surprising doesn't matter because once you get into the game, you'll most likely get into the music. All the songs in the game are completely danceable, but the best question is how well can you move your feet. Besides the dance music getting pumped through the speakers, you will hear the game announcer from time to time, who is either cheering you on (when doing well) or booing you (when doing bad). The only annoying part of the game would have to be announcer because he can be a little to chatty, however, they do give you the option of shutting him up.

One notable down side to the sound is the small selection of music & the lack of fan favorites. Pretty much the only Fan-favorite in the US mix is Boom Boom Dollar, but they also have some general favorites like Dynamite Rave, Afronova & Paranoia. Unfortunately, it also has the least favorite song of the US audience: Let them Move.

DDR's controls are so unique that Konami & some third party manufacturers have created dance pads (for those who remember the 80's with the Nintendo Power Pad) just for this game. Some fans have even gone far enough to create their own arcade style pads, mainly because this game is to be played with your feet & NOT with your thumbs. The idea is simple, you have a dance pad per controller port & you step on the arrows. The controls are so simple that you can practically play the game without even looking at the manual. You will also see that most of the basic instructions will be listed on the screen.

DDR 101: Basic Terminology

Getting into the DDR scene can leave some newbies in the dark, but here are some common terms that are used for the steps for the series

Quarter Step: Known as a "Step", it's the most common.
1/8th Step: Another common step, they're 1/2 of a quarter step
1/12th Step: Better known as "Triplets" for coming in threes. They're 1/3 of a quarter step
1/16th Step: The fastest note used in the game. They're 1/4 of a quarter step
1/32th Step: These are the fastest available note, but only used in custom steps in simulators. They're 1/8 of quarter step.

Freeze steps: These are in DDR Max & later. You must hold that step for a certain amount of time.

As for gameplay, DDR has one of the strongest cases here. Most of the problems with this game usually falls on the controller or the player (pad slips, pad wears out, player tires out, ect.). It's pretty much a visual case of "Simon Says" where you hit the arrow when it gets into the step zone. Instead of being a hit-or-miss situation, the game actually has a nice 5-level scale on accuracy which varies from "Perfect!!", when you hit the arrow within .05 seconds from the actual placement, to "Miss...", where you were nowhere near the actual step (over .5 seconds). The best thing that Konami has done with DDR & other BEMANI games is that it only penalizes you for MISSING the steps & NOT for adding other steps that aren't in the song. The groove meter, the bar at the top of the screen, reresents your life. The better you dance (with Greats & Perfects) the more it fills while dancing poorly (with Boos & Misses) will drain it. Once the meter bottoms out, you fail the song. One thing that you will definately notice is the large range of song speeds, which vary from 90 beats per minute (bpm), or about 1-1/2 steps a second, to a strong 200 bpm, or 3-1/3 steps a second.

Each song has 3 levels: Standard, Trick & Maniac; & have a different difficulty rating which is measured in feet where 1-3 feet are usually easy & relatively slow or 6-9 feet will break you out in a sweat with tough & fast. Once you feel like you've mastered a song, there are plenty of ways to make you think twice. There's modifiers that can really trip you up & there's always doubles mode, where one player has to play BOTH PADS at once. Trust me, it's very challenging. Finally, for those who don't want to stop dancing, there's Non-stop mode where you play a list of four songs in succession WITHOUT BREAKS! A lot of fun, but a lot harder since you can't stop between songs & your groove meter doesn't reset between songs.

DDR is one game that has replay value up the ying-yang here! Master singles? Try Doubles! Master Doubles? try freestyling! YES, FREESTYLING! It may sound strange, but there are contests around the country where you mix in your dance style to the game steps. Again, since the game only penalizes for missing steps & not for creating non-existant ones, you can have fun just seeing what you can do. Sites like DDR Freak have tournament freestyling videos that will amaze you. The hardest part of freestyling is mixing your artistic moves in with the technical parts (actual steps in the song).

Another thing that really drives up the replay value is something that hasn't been seen in nearly 15 years in the home enetertainment sector. Disguise exercise as a game, which this game does every well & even has a special Workout mode built in where 2 people can workout by dancing the songs without fearing failing the song. You enter your weight, the workout level (in stars, separate from the song difficulty) & your workout goal in either playtime or calories & you're practically set. Next is to either manually select the songs or let the game run though the songs automatically. One change in workout mode is that the foot-difficulty scale is replaced with a workout bar, showing how agressive a song is where 1 bar is pretty calm & 8 bars is very agressive.

The only hole in the replay value is the missing ability to create custom steps for the songs, where you can create harder or easier steps for the songs. However, if you're new to the DDR scene, it's a good start for the US DDR mixes.