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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 video 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 and position 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: faster songs have faster scrolling arrows, which may sometimes be easier to read than the slower and denser arrows of slower songs.

Excluding full song pauses, be in my paradise from Dance Dance Revolution CLUB VERSION 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 seconds later. On the other end of the spectrum are the MAX songs, including Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX at 300 BPM, Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX 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, Fascination MaxX, which alternates between 100, 200 and 400 BPM (the majority of the song is at 400) 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.

The common misconception of the stated BPM is that the song in question actually contains an integer multiple of the actual BPM. These songs can usually be identified by their BPM scrolling to the slowest BPM then to the highest BPM on the Music Select screen however there are some that will not have this option available.

Each song has multiple step patterns, rated in difficulty from 1-10. The difficulty is measured in units called "feet", as the game screen will display a certain number of feet attributed to the song's difficulty before the player chooses it. Naturally, the more "feet", the more complex the step pattern will be.

The 1-3 foot step patterns are recommended for newer players and 4-8 range from intermediate to, at times, frustratingly difficult (many players have complained about songs being "mislabeled", that is, given foot ratings that do not properly measure their difficulty.) Nine foot songs, commonly referred to as "catas" (short for "catastrophic", the label given to this difficulty of steps on 3rdMIX and DDR USA), generally require high levels of practice of one or more specific DDR skills. The skills include:

  • Stamina - Ability to hit arrows in rapid succession for an extended period of time
  • Rhythm - Ability to stay on beat throughout the song
  • Alternation - Ability to alternate feet on each step, leading into more complex steps
  • Spins - Following a step pattern requiring rotation, where the player must face away from the screen
  • Crossovers - Being forced to hit the left arrow with the right foot, and vice versa
  • Candles - Usually rapidly executed steps where the foot must pass over the center square on the dance pad
  • Gallops - A set of 1/4th and 1/16th or 1/4th and 1/12th (or eighth note triplets) notes in rapid succession
  • Triplets - One beat, or a fraction of, divided into 3 equal notes. (1/6th, 1/12th, 1/24th, etc.)
  • Trills - Alternating on two steps that must be hit repeatedly in rapid succession.
  • Jackhammers (also called jacks) - Steps on one arrow that must be hit rapidly.

Songs with 10 foot step patterns are considered the most difficult, including runs of up to 10 arrows a second for 10-20 seconds and complicated rhythm patterns. Four songs have earned the distinction as "Flashing 10 Footers", testing the player even further with complex step patterns (such as a 40 second stream of crossovers at 290BPM). The term "Flashing 10 Footer" borrows from Beatmania IIDX, in which the highest difficulty rating is seven stars, and the most difficult have seven flashing stars.

Most music in DDR has 3 or 4 separate step patterns with increasing difficulty and are called difficulty "modes". In 1st-5th Mix, the difficulty modes are known as "Basic," "Trick" and "Maniac." Starting with Dance Dance Revolution 6th Mix: DDRMAX, these modes are called "Light," "Standard" and "Heavy."

Certain new music in DDR 7th Mix: DDRMAX 2 is only available in "oni mode" courses (explained later) and have only one set of dance steps. This music becomes playable in regular game mode for DDR Extreme with the exact same steps and are labeled as "Challenge" steps.

In DDR Extreme, a "Beginner" step set is introduced to all music with "Light," "Standard" and "Heavy" step modes. These steps are very easy to step to so that beginning players can learn how to play. Depending on the music, this can lead to a song with 4-5 different step difficulties.

Many songs include Freeze Arrows (first introduced in "Dance Dance Revolution 6th Mix: DDRMAX") which require the foot to remain on the appropriate pad arrow until the scrolling arrow's "tail" has disappeared. Also, most songs have double arrows, or pairs of arrows that must be pressed at the same time. Sometimes the scrolling arrows will stop completely to match a gap in the music, and resume unexpectedly. The upcoming release Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA features the song "Chaos" which has a high difficulty rating solely due to its continuous use of pauses (somewhere between 43-488 stops to be specific). Players may also introduce modifiers, such as distorting the patterns of the steps (shuffle, reverse, right and left) and changing the scroll speed of the arrows (first introduced in "DDRMAX")

Other modes

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. The player chooses a particular Nonstop course to play, each course containing a predetermined order of songs. In 3rdMIX, the number of songs played is dependent on operator settings, but the mode later reappeared in DDR EXTREME with a fixed number of four songs.

  • Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX introduced a more challenging variant of Nonstop mode, known as Challenge Mode or "Oni" Mode (referring to "demon" or "ogre" in the Japanese language). In Challenge Mode, a player chooses a predetermined set of songs, similar to Nonstop mode. These courses range from five to ten songs in arcade versions, and can reach upwards of twenty in home releases. Unlike Nonstop mode, a Dance Gauge is not used to determine whether the player continues to the next song. Instead, 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" Challenge 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. For example, some challenges may require the player to not hit Up and Down arrows, play one set of steps with the wrong song playing, or play with the music reduced to half speed. Challenges are grouped into several sets within each game, depending on their difficulty. This mode was renamed "Mission Mode" in later console releases in Japan, and "Dance Master" mode in the US.

  • Endless Mode is also exclusive to home versions, and similar to Nonstop 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. The player may also choose to have a break stage appear after a certain number of completed songs. After Konami was forced to cease their arcade operations, all later DDR releases had the Endless Mode added by default into all mixes.

  • Event Mode is another where there is no set number of stages. After a person completes or fails a song, the game goes back to the song selection screen. (Standard game mode in all the Xbox versions of the DDR games is set to Event Mode.) In the arcade versions of the game, Event Mode must be activated in the operator's menu, and fuctions somewhat differently. When Event Mode is active in the arcade releases of the game, the "Extra Stage" is no longer available, and players are still limited to a set number of songs per play. However, a player will no longer fail a song instantly if his dance gauge drops to zero, and the timer on the results screen is deactivated. This is primarily used in tournaments so an accurate tally of the players' Dance Points can be achieved.

  • Extra Stage, introduced in DDR "Max" and appearing on subsequent arcade versions of DDR, rewards a highly skilled player for performing well on his or her last song. The player is rewarded with the opportunity to play a free extra song, which is often a very difficult song with difficult song modifiers, such as 1.5x, Reverse, Dark, and No Recovery. A player who attains a grade of "AA" 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 such as "Dark" and "Sudden Death".

  • Mush Mode, presented in DDR: Mario Mix, replaces arrows with goombas, bob-ombs, and other miscellaneous items and objects from the Mario series.

Game versions

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 "DDRFreak", as of September 2005, more than 2100 arcade DDR machines exist in the United States, with over 25% of them located in California. The versions of "Dance Dance Revolution" are released as "mixes" and range from "Dance Dance Revolution" to "Dance Dance Revolution 8th Mix" otherwise known as "DDR Extreme" There was also "DDR USA", which was one of the first mixes released for the U.S.

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. The wide base of the machine creates horizontal ledges on either side of the monitor, which may be used to mount cardboard displays that ship with the game, or to store player possessions.

Below the monitor are two sets of buttons, each consisting of two triangular yellow "Select" buttons, pointing left and right, and a middle rectangular green button labeled "Decide". These buttons are mounted on a raised plate, which forms a small lip between the monitor and the buttons. The "Select" buttons are used to scroll player options or songs, while the "Decide" button confirms a player's choice. On many DDR machines, players may often use tokens or other personal items to form an organized system of the players' order. "Coin lines", as they are commonly called, clearly shows the order of prospective players, so as to eliminate confusion. Some machines are even equipped with PlayStation memory card slots located below the buttons, to store player scores and to play "edits", or, a custom-created step pattern for a player's chosen song.

On the floor in front of the cabinet is a raised metal dance platform, divided into two "pads". Each pad consists of nine 11-inch squares in a 3×3 matrix: four arrow panels for input (up, down, left, right), and five neutral metal squares. There are four pressure-activated sensors underneath each arrow panel, one placed at each edge, along with neon lights underneath the sensor that light up when the sensor detects a player's input. Mounted to the pad behind each player is a metal bar, resembling an upside down "U", which is commonly used to assist in balance.

Dance Dance Revolution Solo machines have smaller cabinets, and only one dance pad, which includes "Up-Right" and "Up-Left" arrows, in addition to those previously mentioned. Interestingly enough, there is no metal bracket surrounding the "Up R/L" arrows, which can make stepping difficult for a player not used to the extra arrows. Solo machines generally do not come with a bar, but all have the option for one to be installed at a later time.

The rare Dance Dance Revolution Karaoke Mix also has one dance pad, as well as a smaller screen, and a microphone to allow the player to dance and sing simultaneously. Similar functionality is available in Karaoke Revolution Party, released on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox.

Although some evidence suggested that DDR EXTREME would be the final arcade release in Japan (this has never been officially stated), on January 25, 2006, a new arcade release was announced for North America, Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA. A version for Europe, Dancing Stage SuperNOVA, was premiered at the Amusement Trade Exhibition International in Birmingham, England, the previous day. More recently, Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA made an appearance at this year's AOU (All-Nippon Amusement Machine Operators' Union) show in Japan, making the game the first world-wide arcade release in the series.

Home releases

DDR has been released on a number of video game consoles, including the Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox. Home versions are often used with soft plastic dance pads, similar in appearance and function to the Nintendo Power Pad. More durable dance pads may be constructed out of materials such as wood, hard plastic, and metal. See dance pad for more information.

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 3 DDR GB games, a DDR GB Disney Mix, and a DDR GB 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.

Konami has also produced their own version of DDR for the PC in North America. It uses the interface of DDR 4thMIX, and contains about 40 songs from 1stMIX through Dance Dance Revolution 6thMIX. It has not been as well received as the console versions.

Critics of ports for home video game consoles tend to gloss over the inferior quality of home pads, given the availability of third-party hardware (see dance pad). Their main criticism is that despite the increased capacity of DVD storage media, the home ports have much less musical selection than the arcade machines do, and have an unfortunate tendency to "leave off" fan-favorite songs. This is especially true of releases that reach the American market, due mainly to licensing rights.

DDR Japanese home releases

DDR North American home releases

Simulators and clones

There are several simulators of DDR available for personal computers. These games use their own music and step files, and a variety of both are widely available. The obvious advantage these programs hold is the ability to create a step pattern for any song in a digital audio format (typically an MP3 file). Such programs include StepMania for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Xbox; Dance With Intensity for Microsoft Windows; the Flash-based Flash Flash Revolution; Dance Praise (http://www.digitalpraise.com, Christian music); 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.

In The Groove is an arcade dance game based on the aforementioned StepMania engine, developed by the young Texas-based company, RoXor Games. ITG features a number of gameplay mechanics used in Dance Dance Revolution, expanding upon certain concepts to appeal to a certain subset of DDR fans. In 2005, Konami filed a lawsuit against the company, regarding the possible trademark infringement caused by the company's conversion kit, which allows In The Groove to be installed on Dance Dance Revolution arcade cabinets.

The DDR phenomenon

Many players would say 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, and becoming part of a local community. 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. Some players enjoy showing off by looking away from the screen, and dropping to the floor to press arrows with their hands, among other performance techniques.

DDR is a phenomenon around which subcultures of fans and enthusiasts have gathered. Tournaments are held worldwide, with participants usually competing for higher scores or number of Perfects (referred to as "Perfect Attack" tournaments). Less common are "freestyle" tournaments, where players develop actual dance routines to perform while following the steps in the game.

As exercise

Many news outlets are beginning to report how playing DDR can be good aerobic exercise; some regular players have reported weight loss of 10–50 pounds (5–20 kg). One player reports that including DDR in her 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, a handful of schools use DDR as a physical education activity, and in Norway, DDR has even been registered as an official sport.

DDR's usefulness for weight loss is helped in that many home versions of the game have a function to estimate calories burned if given a player's weight. Also, players can use "workout mode" to make a diary of calories burned playing DDR and any changes in the players weight. (The latter must be self-reported.)

The benefits of DDR to be good exercise inspired Dance Revolution, a new children's television series, which will be set to air on CBS's Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party, starting September 16, 2006.

Internet fandom

Dozens of fan websites have been created in response to the popularity of DDR. In the United States, one of the most popular is DDR Freak, which was originally formed in 2000 to promote DDR in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has since become an international player resource, featuring DDR-related news coverage, codes and "step charts" for the various games, a database of machine locations, Internet forums, an internet radio station and an IRC channel. DDR Freak's forums are heavily trafficked, and boast over 55,000 members as of July 2005.

Aaron In Japan is another popular website, and is geared more towards "tech" players. The site's forums tend to discuss specific DDR issues, such as technique and timing on specific songs or mixes, or reverse engineering of scoring and grading systems. A large section of the website is dedicated to storing photographic records of "AAA" grades accomplished by DDR players worldwide. Several sites have also been created where players can track their high scores in an organized fashion. The most popular of these, NNR, is now defunct, but more recent websites such as DD:Recall have filled its place.

StepMania is a popular open source DDR simulator for the PC, Mac, and Linux that works with dance pads or the keyboard. It allows players to create their own stepfiles manually or automatically (via [Dancing Monkeys), and download many more user-created files at websites such as BemaniStyle.

An interesting website is the popular Flash Flash Revolution. Rather than using a dance mat, the player uses the up, down, left and right controls on the keyboard. The game also gives the user the ability to control how they see the arrows, rather than just the traditional arrows at the top of the screen, they can be viewed from all sides of the field, allowing for an endless array of ways to play.

DDR is also the subject of two webcomics, The 10K Commotion by Yukon Makoto, and Event Mode by Marcelo Cesar, Matthew Simmons, and Nathan Schaad.

In December of 2005, Konami launched Music In Every Direction as a showcase for DDR and its other music-related titles, including Karaoke Revolution and BeatMania.

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 756 state schools over the next two years. *. 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.

Underground mods

A modified version of DDR called Dance Dance Immolation (DDI) premiered at The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival in Oakland, California, in June 2005. Intended as an interactive artwork for Burning Man, DDI features a similar gameplay to DDR, only players are hit in the face with a jet of fire when they make a mistake, or rewarded with big blasts of fire up in the air when they do well. All players must wear safety gear while playing.

In popular culture

With its increase in popularity over the past few years, Dance Dance Revolution has been featured in many instances of popular culture, including movies, television shows, and songs. Some of the more popular references are listed here:

  • A Dancing Stage machine (the European counterpart to Dance Dance Revolution) was featured in Madonna's video Hung Up and also an original Dance Dance Revolution machine appeared in Everything But the Girl's video Five Fathoms.
  • When Hank and family travel to Japan on the hit Fox TV show King of the Hill ("Returning Japanese" Parts 1 and 2), Bobby Hill is seen several times playing Dance Dance Revolution utilizing the typical DDR stage, plus a large monitor built into the upper part of a large building.
  • On South Park, Stan searches for members to create a group for a dance off. He comes across a Japanese boy who’s spent $500 playing on a Dance Dance Revolution machine.
  • On Will & Grace, Jack shows off his moves on a Dance Dance Revolution machine in an arcade.
  • In an episode of Rugrats All Grown Up!, Dil Pickles is seen playing on what looks to be a parody of a Dance Dance Revolution machine.
  • Dance Dance Revolution was featured in the movie Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen starring Lindsay Lohan who was challenged to a dance off by her nemesis.
  • The "Celebrity Rocket" episode of Robot Chicken features a segment in which a teenager and Fidel Castro square off in a game of "Dance Dance Revolución" and "Dance Dance Counterrevolución".
  • In an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Tea Gardner is seen playing on a Dance Dance Revolution machine against Steps Johnny in a dance-off battle.
  • DDR was featured in the movie Grandma's Boy, where the main character's friend Jeff is challenged by another geeky video game tester.
  • In the movie Imagine Me & You, the two female protagonists are seen dancing on a Dance Dance Revolution machine after they have finished watching a soccer match.

See also

External links

Arcade games | Konami games | Dance video games | Dance Dance Revolution series | Computer and video game franchises | 2000s fads | Fads

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Dance Dance Revolution".

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