Video games - Dance Dance Revolution

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	Video games - Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR (known as Dancing Stage
in Europe), 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 and Europe. As of 2005, over 90 official versions have been produced, including those for home video game consoles. The Dance Dance Revolution series is a subset of the larger Bemani series of music games.

The game is typically played on a dance pad with four arrow panels: left, down, up, and right. 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 his or her steps accordingly.

Gameplay details

In Dance Dance Revolution, a player must move 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. 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).

DDR is often criticized as being rigid and bearing little resemblance to actual dancing. Many 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. However, there are those who prefer style over accuracy, and may incorporate complex or flashy techniques into their play movements. Some dedicated "freestyle" players will even develop intricate dance routines to perform during a song. Technical players will often practice the most difficult songs for extended periods of time, while freestyle players will choose songs on lower difficulty levels, as to accommodate their desires for easier movement.

Songs and difficulty levels

Music in DDR comes from two primary sources: songs licensed from, although not limited to, Toshiba-EMI's Dancemania collections, and music made specifically for the Bemani series by in-house artists such as Naoki Maeda and "Scotty D" (Konami translator Scott Dolph). Most songs average between one and two minutes long, and may be edited from their original length to accommodate this limit. Exceptions include the three-song or four-song medleys (better known as "Megamix," "Nonstop" or "Marathons", where the music and step patterns from three different songs are mixed together into one stage or played back-to-back.)Megamixes are only found in DDR Solo Bass and Solo 2000, and Long Version songs from DDR 5thMIX
(songs at a normal 3:00 length.), double-length "Long Versions", and, for the home version, the 40-minute-plus "Nonstop Megamixes".

Music in DDR may be fast or slow, and 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.

Excluding full song pauses, be in my paradise from Dance Dance Revolution Club Mix has the slowest scrolling speed of any DDR song, clocking in a constant 63 BPM- only slightly slower than the vastly more difficult 65-BPM bag from Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. Sakura, also from Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME, reaches a tempo of just around 14 BPM for only one note near the midpoint of the song, but speeds up to 320 BPM moments later. On the other end of the spectrum are the MAX songs, including MAX 300 at 300 BPM, MAXX Unlimited at 300 and later 320 BPM, The legend of MAX at 333 BPM with a speed-up to 666 in the middle of a freeze, and finally MAX. (period) at 300 BPM for a majority of the song with 20 seconds of 180BPM (a tribute to PARANOiA with it as the only music) to 600BPM (only quarter notes, 15 seconds) and a sudden slowdown to 150 BPM.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dance Dance Revolution ]

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Video games - Dance Dance Revolution

Gameplay details

Songs and difficulty levels

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