DDR Strikes Back

Written by Daniel Lloyd

Tuesday, 27 January 2009 10:30

Is it just me, or is Dance Dance Revolution coming back in a big way? I remember getting really into DDR a few years back, obsessing over it, getting really good, and then it sort of died out. The local arcade didn't have lines anymore. I wasn't seeing arrow patterns when my eyes were closed. Captain Jack wasn't stuck on repeat in my brain. But lately, Konami's original dance game that may very well have started the rhythm game genre is reappearing into the mainstream. And rightfully so. Rhythm games are huge right now (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.) and Konami should be stepping up to say "Hey. Remember us? We're responsible for all of this!," especially after Rock Revolution didn't work out so great for them.

First off, Subway restaurants is giving Jared Fogle a break from pitching sandwiches and teaming up with DDR to promote healthy lifestyles for children. See parents, video games can do some good. Some gym classes even offer DDR as a respectable physical activity. So you can have fun, work up a sweat, then treat yourself to a nice, healthy Subway sub. And people say video games are destroying today's youth...

The iPhone already had a few DDR clones on it's App Store (TapTapRevolution) and it now has the original to go right alongside them. That's right, DDR is on the iPhone, and no, you dont' have to step on your phone to play. With on-screen directions you touch to the beat, rather than step. It even features the silly little 3D avatars that dance around while you play, and will support more songs in the future.

ddr_sticks

And lastly, one of my favorite bands The Bird and The Bee had a new album out recently called Ray Guns are Not Just The Future. The official video for Love Letter To Japan is....well...a love letter to Japan. A young man dreams of being great at DDR, practices on his own, then pwns noobs. He even DDR's it up in front of a Buddah statue!

With all this comeback in the air, it's probably time for me to bust out my PS2 dancemat, load up Cartoon Heroes and get to dancing! I'm excited to see DDR jumping (no pun intended) back into the spotlight. Now I face the real challenge though: seeing if my skills are still as sharp as they used to be.

Comments (5) Add Comment

...
written by Dexie, January 27, 2009

Hey yo, Captain Jack.
Take me back to the railroad track.
Give me a gun, in my hand,
I wanna be yo shootin' man!

...
written by Bob Crossen, January 27, 2009

I used to be really into DDR as well. I actually migrated to Step Mania for the computer for a while. It was a blast during highschool, but it was also a phase I quickly grew out of. It's still quite nostalgic to hear about it today. Maybe I'll boot up StepMania for the first time in 3-4 years (but probably not :C).

...
written by JoshMiller, January 28, 2009

Yay! Er... too bad the local arcade here closed up shop. No more DDR for me. Near the end they had added an In the Groove machine as well as their DDR machine. In the Groove was inherently superior because I could stick my USB drive in it and save my scores to a convenient HTML format. ALSO I could put Stepmania tracks on it and play custom songs.

The best I ever managed was to finally beat Drop Out Nonstop Megamix. Not as hard as real Drop Out though.

I never got much into the home console versions because they always ended up replacing the good tracks with "pop song remixes".

...
written by headcase, February 01, 2009

@JoshMiller: agreed, In The Groove is awesome. Shame Konami lawsuit'd it out of existence before 3 came out.

...
written by TheBBPS.com (Bits, Bytes, Pixe, February 16, 2009

[...] of it. But what other games stay with you when the TV is off? For me, there have been a few. Dance Dance Revolution had me stepping along to every song, imagining how the arrows would go with a certain beat. The [...]