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| Source // TV Tropes |
There have been two musical rhythm games on this 1001 list that I can recall: PaRappa the Rapper and Beatmania. They were both... lacking... shall we say... but only one of them came from the minds behind the monster that is Dance Dance Revolution.
Arcades are more than familiar with strange gaming concepts, and this one makes use of the fact that arcades are often dark and noisy by blaring out bright colours and loud music from the screen and having players hammer away at inputs with their feet, as though players find themselves in a happening club on a Friday night. I think. I'm not a clubber.
I'm not a dancer. I'm boogie-er. I bop. You can find me bopping. A nice catchy song comes into my ears, I'll bop, but dance? Nah. Not happening.
So how the hell am I going to fare with DDR?
Frustrations
I'm not. But let's elaborate.
I've seen DDR machines in the wild but, to my knowledge, have never played one. I don't even recall seeing others play them, but that may be because the one DDR machine that sticks out in my head is the one with a near-permanent out of order sign, at the arcade of a bowling alley that shut down, in part, to dwindling interest and iffy management. Not your best place for dancing, but I'm sure it saw some life, at some point, when I wasn't there.
These machines are everywhere though, with version after version after version, regional release after regional release the world over. Keeping track of which one is which is a task for scholars, and I sure don't count myself as one of those.
The home console releases also have so many versions to satisfy multiple tastes and markets that it's hard to know where to start. As ever, I want to get as close to the original release as possible, but the best I could emulate was a Japanese warning screen.
There are other ports and versions to emulate, including Dancing Stage something or other (I've already forgotten what), but playing it with a controller is stupid, and playing it with an Xbox D-pad stupider still, so that's not what I'm after either.
I have actually got a dance mat or two for the PlayStation, but they are untested and were found in the rubbish, essentially. At least they'd be closer to my feet than my hands, I suppose...
Tempted to just slap on a YouTube video and follow along with the inputs while sat in my chair, I caught sight of some mini-documentaries on this series of games, and put my feet up in order to do some 'research'.
Fun Times
This is almost mesmerising. When did this stop becoming a game for these folks, and start becoming an automatic response from their nervous system whenever they hear a beat?
I like to watch speed runs of games, especially when players have come up with a method of input that the developers never intended. DDR intends for its players to use their feet, obviously, and it intends for users to challenge themselves, physically and mentally, with their foot-eye coordination, but to have the top players actively use the safety rail in order to haul their weight up and off their feet so that they can input the moves fast enough to actually get those high scores? That's something else.
It's also something that will NEVER happen on your first few attempts, which are so bumbling and off-putting that you've got to have some dedication to keep going past those awkward stages in the first place.
Final Word
I don't think I will ever understand what DDR means to DDR players, but I can very easily understand what it means to groups of people on a night out with drinks potentially in their system because it's the same thing as Karaoke - another Japanese classic.
Dancing and singing - the end result of either activity is something only a very small percentage of people give a damn about. You play DDR to try and beat the last time you played DDR, sure, but ultimately you play it to have a good time.
I haven't had that good time, but that's because I've not played it.
FORGET ABOUT THAT
Found out that Kylie Minogue had a track in Dancing Stage Party Edition, so threw it into the emulator once more. Still sucks to play with a controller, but I'm bopping!
Fun Facts
While the original releases had original, in-house music, as the series went on more and more licensed tracks were added to the mixes, and supposedly recordings by artists made directly for the games.
Dance Dance Revolution, developed by Konami, first released in 1998.
Versions 'played': Dancing Stage Party Edition, PlayStation, 2002, via emulation.
Versions watched: Multiple, Arcade, 1998-201X, (fundistraction, Mark Cabot, Polygon, Vice)