Dance Dance Revolution!

[Sahfarry]

For those of you who play DDR! This game is really fun, but I have only played it in arcades. I want to bring home a copy of one of the games, but there are a few versions to my knowledge. The only system I own is a Wii (I have a WiiU, but there are no DDR games on it), and I do not want the GCN Mario edition (the music is ehh). So I just gotta ask, for those of you who play, which game do you think is the best on the Wii? I know of DDR, DDR: Hottest Party 1, 2 and 3.

That aside, from my experiences, I have never been that good at DDR, and I blame the fact that there are no arcades nearby to play it on. I like it because it's fast-paced and I love catchy tunes. Not to mention I had played it quite a bit as a kid. What are your experiences with it?

 

[Zankoku]

I don't really enjoy any of the Wii DDRs, since they're fairly gimmicky and don't have a great music selection (not to mention not having any hard pads built for Wii/GCN hardware).
This series is what originally got me into music games.

 

[Sahfarry]

I don't really enjoy any of the Wii DDRs, since they're fairly gimmicky and don't have a great music selection (not to mention not having any hard pads built for Wii/GCN hardware).

That's a real shame. The music selection is important and the Wii may be the only way I can play. Unless I invest in a PS2, but I'm not entirely up for that right now. How would you say it's "gimmicky"?

This series is what originally got me into music games.

That's awesome! DDR is generally the only music game I would play. I've tried other obscure, non-traditional music games in arcades, but I never understood them (tutorials were in Japanese lol ). Guitar Hero never really did it for me because it's not really as active, which is what I like from DDR. I do like Rhythm Heaven, though, but I'd consider that pretty different from the others..

 

[Zankoku]

Gimmicky in that in addition to the silly mode that tries to make use of the Wii remote in combination with the dance pad, it introduces a bunch of version-unique arrows that do weird things which didn't really feel like it fit with the song. At the very least, it feels more "DDR" than PS3's disaster of a game. Your mileage may vary depending on how tolerant you are of those silly arrows, though.

If you visit arcades, try ITG. It has the same 4-arrow gameplay, though its stepcharts generally trade away some creativity in exchange for pure difficulty. Still a good selection of songs from mostly a completely different pool, though.
As far as favorite versions across consoles and arcades, the ones I liked most were DDRMAX (PS2), DDRX3 vs 2nd Mix (Arcade), DDR 5th Mix (Arcade), DDR Extreme 2 (PS2), and DDR SuperNova 2 (PS2).

 

[Sahfarry]

Gimmicky in that in addition to the silly mode that tries to make use of the Wii remote in combination with the dance pad, it introduces a bunch of version-unique arrows that do weird things which didn't really feel like it fit with the song. At the very least, it feels more "DDR" than PS3's disaster of a game. Your mileage may vary depending on how tolerant you are of those silly arrows, though.

If you visit arcades, try ITG. It has the same 4-arrow gameplay, though its stepcharts generally trade away some creativity in exchange for pure difficulty. Still a good selection of songs from mostly a completely different pool, though.
As far as favorite versions across consoles and arcades, the ones I liked most were DDRMAX (PS2), DDRX3 vs 2nd Mix (Arcade), DDR 5th Mix (Arcade), DDR Extreme 2 (PS2), and DDR SuperNova 2 (PS2).

Ohhh... That sounds... not fun. I could see how bearable it is... I never owned it (we had a DDR club at our old school), but DDR SuperNova 2 was the one that we played and the tracks were excellent!

Never heard of ITG, but I found this video that may take place in it lol.

 

[KnitePhox]

stepmania is top best

played ddr for ps2 ddrmax up to ddrsn2, all usa and jp extreme

arcade max2 to sn2 beta

itg1 + 2 + upgrade extreme cabs and ps2 itg1 ( LOL )

owning a dedicab for itg2 is too expensive and bulky, which is best if you have space and $$$



stepmania beats all of those by a longshot, overall



i prolly could have bought a few cabs with all arcade $ spent


sm > itg2 dedicab > extreme upgrade cab > piu > ddr cabs


ty.

 

[Lore]

How good is the ps3 one? I'm considering getting it.

Edit: Oh wow, never mind. That price is absurd. What's a good cheap mat that will work ok with stepmania?

 

[Sahfarry]

stepmania beats all of those by a longshot, overall

Curiosity question: What makes stepmania the best one?

Oh wow, never mind. That price is absurd. What's a good cheap mat that will work ok with stepmania?

Holy crap you're right. $122.99 for new condition and $60 used? wth? What's up with that?

 

[Zink Imp]

I'm not so good at the DDR games but I love playing them. I go to the arcade and play DDR Extreme there and ITG2. I also own Konamix and Extreme 2 for my PS2.

 

[KnitePhox]

stepmania is free, you can get all (albeit community recreated for the most part) official charts for ddr/itg as well as 10s of thousands of different songs and edit stepcharts yourself to play at home or on an itg2 machine. the cost to play is having a not so laggy monitor as well as ok speakers and lastly dance pad/mat. you dont pay for software at all; you can even go as far as playing on linux for the extent of free. considering it has all other songs charts and all for free, stepmania is king of 4 panel dancing games

 

[Sahfarry]

stepmania is free, you can get all (albeit community recreated for the most part) official charts for ddr/itg as well as 10s of thousands of different songs and edit stepcharts yourself to play at home or on an itg2 machine.

To make sure, is this a reliable place to download it? This seems like a good idea because dance mats for PC recommended on the site are only like $20.

 

[KnitePhox]

you can use any console dance mat with a compatible usb adapter, you are not limited as with a console

To make sure, is this a reliable place to download it? This seems like a good idea because dance mats for PC recommended on the site are only like $20.

yeah that's a good place to download it

I currently use stepmania 3.95 for keyboard with SIMPLY LOVE theme, and stepmania 5.0 with a portrait monitor modded theme for PAD/MAT play

my recommended versions are stepmania 5, stepmania 3.95, and OpenITG

it's kind of hard to find a reliable download for 3.95, so i just uploaded to mediafire and here's the download link
www.mediafire.com/download/xorzxd5cz5t6x3y

there's LOTS of places you can get stepchartted songs from (a folder consisting of song[typically an MP3 file] + steps[either .sm or .dwi file aka text file] and even sometimes a video for the background)

song file paths look like this
...\Stepmania X version\Songs\[SONG GROUP FOLDER]\[INDIVIDUAL SONG FILE]\[SONG FILE {mp3 or ogg} WITH STEPCHART{ends in .sm or .dwi that can be opened and edited with NOTEPAD.exe}]

EXAMPLE: C:\Program Files (x86)\StepMania 3.95\Songs\Piece of Cake\(-[Jayce]-) - Kamehameha - [11]\MP3 FILE AND A .SM FILE ARE HERE

these are typically downloaded as a group of songs, or song "PACKS" (for example, the entire ddr extreme songlist would be one PACK)
here are some links that i have bookmarked to download charts

http://r21freak.com/phpbb3/viewforum.php?f=31

http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/vbz/showthread.php?t=115269

http://divinelegy.com/?portal=simfiles

http://indeedengine.com/packs/list.php

http://houkouonchi.net:8080/packs/

http://stepmaniaonline.net/packlist.php?uid=125

and of course you can make your own "stepcharts" to any mp3 or ogg songfile available to you, this guide might help there
http://r21freak.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=6023

and to SYNC a song to steps VERY well, following this would help
http://r21freak.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12750

you can also customize the LOOK of stepmania to whatever themes are available for the version you are using, as well as ARROWS and ARROW TARGETS
its really great stuff
here's some various potentially useful links

for 3.95 mods you can go to...
http://stepmaniathings.com/

for 3.95's SIMPLY LOVE theme (AMAZING THEME IMO)
http://r21freak.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23504


this is how to put any stepmania, I THINK, in portrait mode; and below the following link, a link to a verticalized theme for stepmania 5.0
http://www.stepmania.com/forums/showthread.php?32428-Open-ITG-in-Portrait-mode
(use this method for any monitor in portrait mode, it's AWESOME in conjunction with the next link )

http://www.stepmania.com/forums/showthread.php?29475-quot-verticalized-quot-default-theme


remember to adjust global offset based on how much delay your respective monitor gives!

hope this info helped someone here and didn't mean to derail from DDR (if i even did)









I heard new DDR cabs are awesome, gunna have to try one out someday lol

 

[Lore]

Very useful stuff! I already play Stepmania on keyboard so I know a lot of it, but it'll be useful for new people.

I'm thinking of getting my first pad soon. Probably from here:
dancepadmania.com

 

[Sahfarry]

Yeah, man thanks for taking the time to post all of this. I'm excited. Odds are I'll be buying a pad.

 

[Sahfarry]

I'm thinking of getting my first pad soon. Probably from here:
dancepadmania.com

Do you plan on getting the deluxe or standard model?

 

[Lore]

I'm not sure! I'm thinking the standard for now, then I might get the Deluxe as a second one if I continue to learn the game. That way I'll have two mats with one of them being cheaper.

 

[Sahfarry]

I'm not sure! I'm thinking the standard for now, then I might get the Deluxe as a second one if I continue to learn the game. That way I'll have two mats with one of them being cheaper.

Yeah, I looked it up and found the deluxe one to be really expensive, and it seems that the only addition is the foam underneath. If that's not the only addition, I'd like to know but it seems like the standard is a better deal. That foam supposedly makes it feel more like an arcade?

EDIT: It says the pad has buttons that pop out a little bit so that you can track your position on the pad. That actually seems helpful.

 

[Sahfarry]

Went to a bowling alley that had Pump It Up. There was this one guy playing--you could tell he played this for sport because he came with a lot of money and a sports drink--and he dominated. He played with both pads at once at one point and he didn't miss a step. My friends and I were watching on and we were impressed. One of us gave him a couple bucks because he was so good.

To all of the people out there who are good at dancing games like DDR: Do you have really quick reflexes, or do you rely on memorizing choreography? Do you think you could get a good score on a song that you'd never played before?

 

[KnitePhox]

You look at arrows and listen to music at the same time, I can't explain it better than that. You use your ears more than your eyes IMO

 

[Zankoku]

Yeah, it's pretty much learning to recognize a lot of the common arrow patterns and then just timing your steps to the audio.

 

[Sahfarry]

Man it gets confusing. I'm looking into buying a dance pad for stepmania so I can practice all I want. It should be fun, because I can get all sorts of songs.