05-25-2004, 05:20 PM
Oh, what're you guys worried about? :) I absolutely LOVE the game! I'll be happy to explain it for those who seem to be unfamiliar with it. On the main topic, yeah, it's really been revolutionary for gaming. While the exercise has not been a very celebrated factor of it, it's still quite large. I even saw a DDR game on Playstation (it has a home version and special dance pads for it) with an exercise mode, actually tracking the calories you're burning as you play.
For the uninformed, here's what goes on in the game. Obviously, there will be music playing in the background for you to dance to, which you can usually choose. As you play, there will be up, down, left, and right arrows scrolling upward to a bar on top of the screen (the bar is grey arrows to show when the steps are supposed to happen). As soon as an arrow reaches the bar, you have to step in that direction. Sometimes, two will come up at once, so you'll basically have to do a small jump. Sometimes, when you see a green arrow coming, you'll have to hold your foot there until the green arrow is gone. In the easier levels, there'll be a good enough space between steps that you can regain your position and ready yourself for another step, but as it gets harder, they'll connect more and more until it's as close to a dance as you could imagine for having just 4 step directions to use. It also has an option where you can use both pads at once, so instead of using just 4, you use all 8 (it sounds a lot harder than it really is). Depending on how close your step was to where it's supposed to be, it'll be judged perfect, great, good, boo, or miss (totally off). A bar will be on top of the screen to show your progress, and if it runs out (too many bad steps without good ones), you fail. Perfect and great make it go up, boo and miss hurt it (more than the good stuff), and good just keeps it as is.
When people start playing it for a while, they start to like it a lot, but I haven't seen a single person think it's good before they start. Some even think it's a girl's game because "dancing's for girls." Seriously, it's NOTHING like that. I see a lot more guys than girls playing this game, though I do see more girls playing this game than most (like saying the Buffy CCG had the highest female player percentage among CCGs, though that's only 40%). It's got stuff that definitely appeals to both genders very well, especially the extremely hard stuff. I don't want to sound like an ad, but if you haven't tried this game, I strongly urge you to.
I'm pretty skilled at it, but not an expert. There are 3 main difficulties: light, standard, and heavy, but those are just guidelines. Really, there are 10 levels, which people call steps, since when you're choosing songs, it shows the difficulty in the number of feet on it. Most new players can do level 1 or 2 on their first time, since DDR strangely has its own rythm you need to get accustomed to, and that's fine. Believe me, if you saw me dancing at the level I'm at, you'd think that I just ate a pound of raw sugar. I've seen someone go almost perfectly through the biggest level 10 song on the latest machine, and seriously, even though I saw it, I still literally cannot imagine a human body moving at that speed with a plan behind it.
Wrapping it up to relate to the topic, it does feel a lot like exercise, but it's fun doing it. In essence, it's the almost same thing as jazzercise, but this has a video game feel to it that keeps you entertained. Because it has a scoring feature, some people like to get competitive and try to beat other people's scores, but it judges your performance on several levels. I know that when I get done with some serious stuff, I'm panting at the end, so I get a good workout when I'm through. :)
For the uninformed, here's what goes on in the game. Obviously, there will be music playing in the background for you to dance to, which you can usually choose. As you play, there will be up, down, left, and right arrows scrolling upward to a bar on top of the screen (the bar is grey arrows to show when the steps are supposed to happen). As soon as an arrow reaches the bar, you have to step in that direction. Sometimes, two will come up at once, so you'll basically have to do a small jump. Sometimes, when you see a green arrow coming, you'll have to hold your foot there until the green arrow is gone. In the easier levels, there'll be a good enough space between steps that you can regain your position and ready yourself for another step, but as it gets harder, they'll connect more and more until it's as close to a dance as you could imagine for having just 4 step directions to use. It also has an option where you can use both pads at once, so instead of using just 4, you use all 8 (it sounds a lot harder than it really is). Depending on how close your step was to where it's supposed to be, it'll be judged perfect, great, good, boo, or miss (totally off). A bar will be on top of the screen to show your progress, and if it runs out (too many bad steps without good ones), you fail. Perfect and great make it go up, boo and miss hurt it (more than the good stuff), and good just keeps it as is.
When people start playing it for a while, they start to like it a lot, but I haven't seen a single person think it's good before they start. Some even think it's a girl's game because "dancing's for girls." Seriously, it's NOTHING like that. I see a lot more guys than girls playing this game, though I do see more girls playing this game than most (like saying the Buffy CCG had the highest female player percentage among CCGs, though that's only 40%). It's got stuff that definitely appeals to both genders very well, especially the extremely hard stuff. I don't want to sound like an ad, but if you haven't tried this game, I strongly urge you to.
I'm pretty skilled at it, but not an expert. There are 3 main difficulties: light, standard, and heavy, but those are just guidelines. Really, there are 10 levels, which people call steps, since when you're choosing songs, it shows the difficulty in the number of feet on it. Most new players can do level 1 or 2 on their first time, since DDR strangely has its own rythm you need to get accustomed to, and that's fine. Believe me, if you saw me dancing at the level I'm at, you'd think that I just ate a pound of raw sugar. I've seen someone go almost perfectly through the biggest level 10 song on the latest machine, and seriously, even though I saw it, I still literally cannot imagine a human body moving at that speed with a plan behind it.
Wrapping it up to relate to the topic, it does feel a lot like exercise, but it's fun doing it. In essence, it's the almost same thing as jazzercise, but this has a video game feel to it that keeps you entertained. Because it has a scoring feature, some people like to get competitive and try to beat other people's scores, but it judges your performance on several levels. I know that when I get done with some serious stuff, I'm panting at the end, so I get a good workout when I'm through. :)