Dance Dance Revolution
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| Dance Dance Revolution | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, other subsidiaries |
| Publisher(s) | KCEJ, other subsidiaries |
| Distributor(s) | KCEJ, other subsidiaries, Betson Enterprises (North America) |
| Designer(s) | KCEJ, other subsidiaries |
| Series | Bemani |
| Aspect ratio | NTSC-J / NTSC / PAL, horizontal and vertical |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation, Bemani Pocket, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Windows, Cellphone, TV game, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, DVD game, Xbox 360, Wii |
| Release date | JP November 21, 1998 EU September 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Music, Exercise |
| Mode(s) | 1 to 4 players |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E to E10 (Mild & Suggestive Lyrics) CERO: A |
| Input methods | Pressure sensitive panels & Buttons (arcade), Dance mat & PlayStation controller, Gamecube controller (console) |
| Cabinet | Custom (DDR & Solo) |
| Arcade system | Bemani System 573 (Analog, Digital, Solo), PlayStation 2[1] |
| Display | 29" CRT/flat CRT (Raster, 256x224 & 740x480) |
Dance Dance Revolution, commonly abbreviated to DDR, is a music video game series produced by Konami. It was first introduced to Japanese video arcades in 1998, after being shown at the Tokyo Game Show earlier that year. Since then, the game has gained significant popularity elsewhere in the world, including large portions of North America, Europe and Australia. The Dance Dance Revolution series is a subset of the larger Bemani series of music games. As of 2008, over 100 official versions, or "mixes" of DDR have been produced, with over 1,000 songs featured across the various games.
The series is marketed and sold under the name Dancing Stage in Europe and Australia, as well as in certain Japanese versions.
The game is typically played on a dance pad with four arrow panels: left, right, up, and down. Additional gameplay modes may utilize two four-panel pads side-by-side (doubles mode), or a single six-panel pad with additional arrows corresponding to the upper diagonals (solo mode). These panels are pressed using the player's feet, in response to arrows that appear on the screen in front of the player. The arrows are synchronized to the general rhythm or beat of a chosen song, and success is dependent on the player's ability to time and position his or her steps accordingly.
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[edit] Gameplay
The core gameplay involves the player moving his or her feet to a set pattern, stepping in time to the general rhythm or beat of a song. During normal gameplay, arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over stationary, transparent arrows near the top (referred to as the "guide arrows" or "receptors"). When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform. Longer green and yellow arrows referred to as "freeze arrows" must be held down for their entire length for them to count. Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills the "Dance Gauge", or life bar, while failure to do so drains it. If the Dance Gauge is fully depleted during gameplay, the player fails the song, usually resulting in a game over. Otherwise, the player is taken to the Results Screen, which rates the player's performance with a letter grade and a numerical score, among other statistics. The player may then be given a chance to play again, depending on the settings of the particular machine (the limit is usually 3-5 songs per game).
Depending on the version of the game, dance steps are broken into varying levels of difficulty. The main difficulty levels are "Basic/Light/Standard" (Japanese: 楽 raku, "ease"), "Another/Trick/Standard/Difficult" (Japanese: 踊 yō, "dance") and "Maniac/Heavy/Expert" (Japanese: 激 geki, "violent"). Some versions also include "Beginner" (Japanese: 習 shũ, "learning") and "Challenge/Oni" (Japanese: 鬼 oni, "devil"), which typically fall on the lower and higher ends of the difficulty scale, respectively. Songs are also given a "foot rating", ranging from one to ten feet to indicate the overall difficulty of the step sequence. Beginning in DDRMAX, a "Groove Radar" was introduced, showing how difficult a particular sequence is in various categories, such as the maximum density of steps, how many jumps are in the steps, etc.
[edit] Groove Radar
The Groove Radar is a graphical representation of the difficulty of a song which debuted on DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX - which exclusively used the system to represent difficulty instead of foot ratings, the only version to do this. Due to this, the only songs that have no known foot ratings are FOLLOW ME and FLASH IN THE NIGHT, because both songs have yet to appear on a different mix.
The radar uses 5 categories to represent the difficulty:
- Stream - the overall density of the steps in the song.
- Voltage - the measure of the peak density of the steps (the highest density of arrows that ever appear on the screen at once).
- Air - the amount of jump steps within the song
- Freeze - the number of freezes (requiring the player to hold a note after it has been pressed initially) in the song (but not the length of the freezes).
- Chaos - the number of steps in the song that don't occur on quarter or eighth notes.
The Groove Radar displays up to two graphs, one for each player, depending on the difficulty they select.
[edit] Modifiers
Modifiers are changes that can be made to modify the step routine. Prior to DDRMAX, codes were entered with the pad to activate modifiers. DDRMAX debuted an options menu accessed by holding down the start button when selecting a song. The options menu is still in use, however as of SuperNOVA, the codes are no longer able to be entered on the pad.
Some of the available modifiers include:
- Speed mods change the speed at which the arrows scroll on the screen. You can increase it to multipliers of x1.5, x2, x3, x5 or x8. The default is "x1." This option was introduced in DDRMAX and was the only mod that had no equivalent code that could be entered on the pad.
- Boost, when turned on, causes the arrows to accelerate as they near the step zone. The default is "Off." This option was introduced in DDRMAX.
- Appearance mods change how the arrows appear on the screen. The default is "Visible." "Hidden" makes the arrow fade out halfway up the screen. "Sudden" makes the arrow fade in halfway up the screen. "Stealth" means the arrows are not visible at all.
- Turn mods affect the pattern of the arrows themselves. The default is "Off." "Left" turns all the arrows 90 degrees left. "Right" turns all the arrows 90 degrees right. "Mirror" flips the step pattern so that all left and right arrows swap, and all up and down arrows swap. "Shuffle" creates a random swap of the arrows, and can vary from turn to turn.
- Other mods affect the difficulty of the step routine. The default is "Off." "Little" eliminates all steps that are more frequent than standard 1/4 steps. "Flat" makes all the arrows appear the same color, regardless of their step fraction. "Rainbow" (or "Solo" before SuperNOVA) changes the colors of the arrows to the colors used in DDR Solo 2000. "Dark", a new modifier in DDRMAX2, removes the "step zone," forcing the player to rely solely on the beat to determine when to step.
- Scroll mods affect the direction in which arrows scroll. The default is "Normal." "Reverse" makes the arrows scroll from top to bottom instead of bottom to top. The health bar is also moved to the bottom. This option was introduced in DDRMAX.
- Freeze can turn the Freeze Arrows on or off. The default is "On." This option was introduced in DDRMAX, as freeze arrows did not exist prior to this mix.
- Step allows a last chance to change the difficulty of the song. The default is whichever difficulty was selected before choosing the song.
[edit] Extra Stage
The Extra Stage, introduced in DDRMAX and appearing in subsequent arcade versions, rewards a player for receiving a grade of "AA" or higher on either Heavy or Challenge difficulties on the final stage. The player receives the opportunity to play a free extra song, which is often a very difficult song with difficult song modifiers. Originally, the song for the extra stage was predetermined (MAX300 for DDRMAX, MAXX Unlimited for DDRMAX2). The option of choosing any song was not available until DDR Extreme. A player who attains a grade of "AA" (or "A" as of 'SuperNOVA') on the Extra Stage is invited to play "One More Extra Stage," which is usually a somewhat easier song, but with much more difficult modifiers, and a single mistake will cause the player to fail the song. A player who chose a song other than the default song was not eligible for One More Extra Stage.
[edit] Modes & other features
Several other gameplay modes have appeared throughout the DDR series.
- Nonstop Mode, introduced in Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX, allows the player to play several songs in a row, with no rest period in between.
- DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution 7thMix introduced a more challenging variant of Nonstop mode, known as Challenging Mode or "Oni" Mode （Japanese:鬼). In arcade versions of the game, these courses range from five to ten predetermined songs in length, and can reach upwards of twenty in home releases. Unlike Nonstop mode, a battery divided into three segments is displayed at the top of the screen, with one segment disappearing every time the player scores less than a "Great" judgment, or receives an "N.G." on a freeze arrow. If one of these errors is made while the battery is empty, the player immediately fails the course. The battery is replenished upon successful completion of each song, although the amount given back is dependent on the unique settings of each course.
- Another "Challenge Mode", unrelated to the "Oni" Challenging Mode, is only featured in certain home releases. Gameplay consists of several "challenges" that may be attempted one at a time. In each challenge, the player must complete a certain song or section of a song while meeting certain conditions, sometimes with various gameplay modifiers applied to the song.
- Endless Mode is another mode exclusive to home versions. Similar to Nonstop Mode, this mode allows the player to play through numerous songs one after another. However, Endless Mode continues to queue up songs indefinitely, until the player quits or the Dance Gauge is depleted. The song order is random, but options are available to limit the songs to a certain difficulty or category.
- Event Mode is a game option whose function differs between arcade and home versions of DDR. On arcade machines, Event Mode is an operator setting that disables all menu timers, and not cause a player to fail a song immediately even when their dance gauge drops to zero. This setting is used primarily in tournaments, to give judges more time to take an accurate tally of the players' Dance Points.
- Unison Mode appears in DDR 3rd Mix, in which both players must dance to a special set of steps for a song. Steps are a single color (usually green) and fly out from the bottom-center of the screen to each player's guide arrows. Players are not necessarily guaranteed to have the same set of steps.
- Battle Mode, introduced in Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix as Dance Magic mode, but revived as Battle Mode on SuperNOVA, is a competitive mode between two players. Each player must play on the same difficulty and is given a shuffled version of the stepchart. Creating combos can send one of many different attacks to the other player's side to make it more difficult for them to read their notes. Creating longer combos results in more damaging attacks. These attacks (especially the stronger ones) can include strange modifiers that cannot be selected under normal circumstances. The health bar is replaced by a balance meter on the top of the screen; whoever's side of the bar is longer at the end of the song wins.
[edit] Installments and mixes
Dance Dance Revolution has been released in many forms, in arcades and on various video game consoles. Although the majority of these releases have been limited to Japan, localized versions of the game have been released in Europe, North America, Korea, and other areas of Asia, to varying degrees of success. Japanese versions have also found their way outside the country through importing and bootlegging, especially in North America. According to popular fansite DDR Freak, as of September 2005, more than 2100 arcade DDR machines exist in the United States, with over 25% of them located in California.
The first game in the series was simply titled Dance Dance Revolution. Subsequent versions in the main line were released as "mixes". For example, Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX. Each release typically introduced new game modes (see above), a new main interface, and/or a new selection of songs. After 5thMIX a surname was added to the DDR titles (DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX) but was also referred to by its mix number. Numerical installments were omitted from EXTREME onward.
During DDR's arcade span, several spin-off versions have also been released. Dancing Stage is the name of the series in Europe and Australia, and includes Dancing Stage Disney MIX, a special version that includes techno and eurobeat versions of popular Disney songs. A special single-staged version titled Dance Dance Revolution Solo introduced a six-way style arrow set (Adding arrows to the upper-left and upper-right corners of the standard four arrow stage). Before recently, only two arcade versions of Dance Dance Revolution have been officially released in North America, Dance Dance Revolution and Dance Dance Revolution USA, essentially a localized version of DDR 3rdMIX. As of SuperNOVA, full releases in the United States, Japan, and Europe are now done for every arcade version.
[edit] Arcade machines
A standard Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine consists of two parts, the cabinet and the dance platform. The cabinet has a wide bottom section, which houses large floor speakers and glowing neon lamps. Above this sits a narrower section that contains the monitor, and on top is a lighted marquee graphic, with two small speakers and flashing lights on either side. Below the monitor are two sets of buttons (one for each player), each consisting of two triangular selection buttons and a center rectangular button, used mainly to confirm a selection or start the game. The dance stage is a raised metal platform divided into two sides. Each side houses a set of four acrylic glass pads[2] arranged and pointing in the orthogonal directions (left, up, down and right), separated by metal squares. Each pad sits atop four pressure activated switches, one at each edge of each pad, and a software-controlled cold cathode lamp illuminating the translucent pad. A metal safety bar in the shape of an upside-down "U" is mounted to the dance stage behind each player. Some players make use of this safety bar to help maintain proper balance, and to relieve weight from the legs so that arrows can be pressed with greater speed and accuracy.
Some DDR cabinets are equipped with Sony PlayStation memory card slots, allowing the player to insert a compatible memory card before starting a game and save their high scores to the card. Additionally, the equivalent home versions of DDR allow players to create and save custom step patterns (edits) to their memory card — the player can then play those steps on the arcade machine if the same song exists on that machine. This feature is supported in DDR 2ndMIX through DDR EXTREME. It was expected that DDR SuperNOVA would include memory card support. However, the division of Konami which handled the production of the memory card slots shut down, causing Konami to pull memory card support out at the last minute. SuperNOVA however, introduced Konami's internet based link system e-Amusement to the series, which can save stats and unlocks for individual players (but cannot store edits) using a globalized smart card inserted into a slot unit installed atop the sides of the cabinet on top of the speakers. This functionality however, could only be used in Japan. On SuperNOVA2, e-Amusement service was introduced to North America, with the first ever e-Amusement enabled machine located in an Brunswick Zone bowling alley and arcade in Naperville, Illinois.
The DDR Solo arcade cabinet is smaller and contains only one dance pad, modified to include six arrow panels instead of four (the additional panels are "upper-left" and "upper-right"). These pads generally don't come with a safety bar, but include the option for one to be installed at a later date. The Solo pad also lacks some of the metal plating that the standard pad has, which can make stepping difficult for players who are used to playing on standard machines. Additionally Solo machines only incorporate two sensors, located horizontally in the center of the arrow, instead of four sensors (one on each edge).
[edit] Home releases
DDR has been released on PC, as well as a number of video game consoles, including the PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Wii. Home versions are commonly bundled with soft plastic dance pads that are similar in appearance and function to the Nintendo Power Pad. Some third-party manufacturers produce hard metal pads at a higher price.
DDR has even reached Nintendo's Game Boy Color, with five versions of Dance Dance Revolution GB released in Japan; these included a series of three mainstream DDR games, a Disney Mix, and an Oha Sta! mix. The games come with a small thumb pad that fits over the Game Boy Color's controls to simulate the dance pad.
A version of DDR was also produced for the PC in North America. It uses the interface of DDR 4thMix, and contains around 40 songs from the first six mainstream arcade releases. It has not been as well received as the console versions.
The most common criticism of DDR home console versions is that they tend to provide a more limited selection of songs than in the arcade, despite the increased capacity of DVD storage media in more recent releases. In addition, many fan-favorite songs don't make it to the home versions, usually due to licensing restrictions. This is especially true of North American home versions of DDR. Another common criticism points to the relatively poor quality of most home dance pads, though dedicated fans of the series can find high-quality pads from third-party manufacturers. Some also build their own pads from raw parts (see the dance pad article for more information).
[edit] Similar games
Due to the success of the Dance Dance Revolution franchise, many other games with similar or identical gameplay have been created throughout the run of the DDR series.
Commercial clones of DDR include the popular Korean series Pump It Up by Andamiro, the American series In the Groove by Roxor, which was met with legal action by Konami and resulted in Konami's acquisition of the game's intellectual property.[3] As well as TechnoMotion by F2 Systems, EZ2Dancer by Amuseworld, and MC Groovz Dance Craze by Mad Catz.
Fanmade versions of DDR have also been created, many freely available to the public under the open source license. The most popular of which is StepMania (pictured), which the game In the Groove is based on. These simulators allow for players to create and play their own songs to their own programmed steps. As a result, many DDR fans have held contests and released "mixes" of custom songs and steps for these simulators. Notably the Japanese Foonmix series and the DDR East Invasion Tournamix competitions. Other simulators include Flash Flash Revolution, an online Flash-based simulator, Dance With Intensity and pyDance for Windows, both of which are no longer developed, and Feet of Fury, a homebrew game for the Sega Dreamcast.
Besides direct clones to the Dance Dance Revolution series, many other games have been released that center around rhythm and dance due to its popularity. Dance! Online released by Acclaim combines dance pad play with an MMO element. ABC's Dancing With the Stars and Codemasters' Dance Factory are more recent examples of games that pay homage to DDR and the genre it created. Konami itself also mimics DDR in many of its other music games. Taking music to and from DDR and other series such as Beatmania and Pop'n Music, as well as making references to DDR in its other games and vice-versa.
[edit] DDR Today
Tournaments are held worldwide, with participants usually competing for higher scores or number of Perfects (referred to as "Perfect Attack" [4] tournaments). Less common are "freestyle" tournaments, where players develop actual dance routines to perform while following the steps in the game. [5]
[edit] Playing styles
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
Many DDR players, in order to better focus on timing and pattern reading, will minimize any extraneous body movement during gameplay. These players are commonly referred to as "technical", "tech" or "perfect attack" (PA) players. These technical players usually play the most difficult songs on the highest difficulty levels in an attempt to perfect their scores.
Other DDR players choose to incorporate complex or flashy techniques into their play movements, and some of these "freestyle" players develop intricate dance routines to perform during a song. Freestyle players tend to choose songs on lower difficulty levels, so that the player is not restricted in their movements by large quantities of required steps. Some players can even dance facing away from the screen. A freestyling act can also involve preforming other stunts whilst playing. On an episode of ABC's short-lived series Master of Champions, Billy Matsumoto played DDR 5th Mix's "Can't Stop Fallin' In Love (Speed Mix)" on Heavy mode while juggling three lit torches, and ultimately won the episode.
[edit] As exercise
Many news outlets have reported how playing DDR can be good aerobic exercise; some regular players have reported weight loss of 10–50 pounds (5–20 kg). In one example, a player found that including DDR in her day-to-day life resulted in a loss of 95 pounds.[6] Although the quantity of calories burned by playing DDR have not been measured, the amount of active movement required to play implies that DDR provides at least some degree of healthy exercise.
Many schools use DDR as a physical education activity in gym,[7] and in Norway, DDR has even been registered as an official sport.[8]
Many home versions of the game have a function to estimate calories burned, given a player's weight. Also, players can use "workout mode" to make a diary of calories burned playing DDR and any self-reported changes in the player's weight.
[edit] Use in schools
At the start of 2006, Konami announced that the DDR games would be used as part of a fitness program to be phased into West Virginia's 765 state schools, starting with its 103 middle schools, over the next two years.[9] The program was conceived by a researcher at West Virginia University's Motor Development Center.
Caltech allows its students to use DDR to fulfill its physical education requirements, as students may design their own fitness program.[10]
[edit] See also
- Dance Revolution A television series inspired by the video game series.
- Music video game
- Exergaming
- Dance pad video games
- Dance Dance Immolation
[edit] External links
- Betson Enterprises-US Distributor for DDR arcade machine
- The official Dance Dance Revolution Online Community]
[edit] References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) |
- ^ Konami arcade hardware page. System 16. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
- ^ Betson Enterprises Online Catalog - Konami
- ^ "Publisher acquires rights to Roxor game", GamesIndustry.biz, 2006-10-20. Retrieved on 2006-10-20.
- ^ DDR Zone Retrieved on [2008-05-23]
- ^ IGN Staff IGN: Dance Dance Revolution Tournament Report, 2000-08-28. Retrieved on [2008-05-23].
- ^ Welcome to Get Up Move!
- ^ "West Virginia Adds 'Dance Dance Revolution' to Gym Class", MTV News, MTV. Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
- ^ "Positive Gaming: Machine Dance as Fitness and Sport". Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
- ^ "West Virginia Adds 'Dance Dance Revolution' to Gym Class", MTV News, MTV. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
- ^ "Dancing video game helps kids avoid weight gain", The Washington Post, 2007-02-01. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
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