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'''Dance Dance Revolution''', a.k.a. '''DDR''' and ''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, Europe and Australia. 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. As of 2007, there are over 1,000 songs featured in all versions of DDR worldwide.
The game is played on a dance pad with four arrow panels in a cross barby formation: left, right, up, and down, eight arrows (two 4-arrow pads), or six arrows (the 4 main directions plus up-left and up-right diagonal panels, known as solo mode). 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.

Contents

Gameplay details

Other modes

Versions

Arcade machines

Arcade releases

Home releases

Similar Games

The ''DDR'' phenomenon

As exercise

Internet fandom

Use in schools

Playing styles

In popular culture

See also

References

External links

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).
Depending on the version of the game, dance steps are broken into varying levels of difficulty. The main difficulty levels are "Basic/Light", "Trick/Standard" and "Maniac/Heavy", and some versions also include "Beginner" and "Oni/Challenge" difficulty levels, usually with extremely easy and difficult sequences, respectively. Songs are also given a "foot rating", ranging from one to ten feet to indicate the overall difficulty of the step sequence. Beginning in ''DDRMAX'', a "dance gauge" known as the "Groove Radar" also shows how difficult a particular sequence is in various categories, such as the maximum density of steps, how many jumps are in the steps, etc.

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.

★ '' introduced a more challenging variant of Nonstop mode, known as Challenging Mode or "Oni" Mode (referring to "demon" or "ogre" in the Japanese language). In this 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" Challenging 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. It is also called "Stellar Master Mode" in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova.

★ Endless Mode is another mode exclusive to home versions. Similar to Nonstop Mode, this 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. Endless Mode became a standard unlockable mode in all ''DDR'' home releases after Konami's American arcade division shut down. (Note: on the Japanese 3rd Mix for the Playstation, Endless Mode could be "beaten", contrary to what its name implies, by achieving the maximum score and stopping the score counter.)

★ Event Mode is a game option whose function differs between arcade and home versions of ''DDR''. On arcade machines, Event Mode is an operator setting that disables all menu timers, and also disables the "Extra Stage" on ''DDRMAX'' and above. A player will also not fail a song immediately even when their dance gauge drops to zero - instead, the song failure message occurs at the end of the song. This setting is used primarily in tournaments, to give judges more time to take an accurate tally of the players' Dance Points. In home versions, Event Mode (settable in the Options menu) returns players back to the song selection screen when they fail a song, and also after completing the normal number of stages. (All Xbox versions of ''DDR'' have Event Mode enabled by default.)

★ Extra Stage, introduced in ''DDRMAX'' and appearing in subsequent arcade versions, rewards a player for receiving a grade of "AA" or higher on either Heavy or Challenge difficulties on the final stage. The player receives 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 (The Dance Gauge starts out full except that it cannot be refilled). 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", and a single mistake will cause the player to fail the song.

★ Dance Magic is a competitive mode introduced in ''Dancing Stage: Mickey's Rave'' (a version of ''DDR'' featuring popular Disney songs). In this mode, the dance gauge is replaced by a single bar that starts evenly divided between the two players. As one player performs better than the other, that player will take over more of the bar. In addition, each player has an "attack gauge" that fills as the player hits their arrows and achieves streaks. When this gauge fills, a random attack is sent to the other player, usually causing a temporary change to their step pattern (a speed change, adding arrows not normally in the song, causing all steps to become jumps, enforcing Sudden or Hidden mode, etc.) and thus making their steps more difficult. Regardless of the technical accuracy of a player's performance, the player who holds the majority of the bar at the end of the song wins the round. This mode appears again in the arcade and PS2 versions of ''DDR SuperNOVA'' (renamed "Battle"), and also appears in the derivative game ''In The Groove'' as "Battle Mode" and in StepMania as Magic Dance.

★ A different mode appears in ''DDR 4th Mix'', in which both players must dance to a special set of steps for a song. Steps are a single color (usually green) and fly out from the bottom-center of the screen to each player's guide arrows. Players are not necessarily guaranteed to have the same set of steps.

★ Unison is a two-player cooperative dance mode introduced in ''DDR 3rd Mix''. Both players play a special set of steps on a single set of merged guide arrows. Players must hit the dance arrows according to their color: Yellow arrows must be hit by both players simultaneously, while red arrows are for the left player only and blue arrows are for the right.

★ Solo Mode is a mode unique to the ''DDR Solo'' series, in which two corner panels (top-left and top-right) are added to the standard orthogonal panels. The player must read and step according to six columns of arrows instead of the usual four. ''Konamix'', the third US home release for the PlayStation, also has this mode.

★ Mush Mode, presented in '', replaces arrows with goombas, koopa shells, Spinies (representing mines from ''In The Groove'' and ''StepMania'') and other miscellaneous items and objects from the Mario series.

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, South 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 first game in the series was simply titled ''Dance Dance Revolution''. Subsequent versions in the main line were released as "mixes" — for example, ''Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix'' — and each release typically introduced new game modes (see above), a new main interface, and/or a new selection of songs. After ''5th Mix'', a sub-name was added to the ''DDR'' title — for example, ''Dance Dance Revolution MAX 2'' — but was also referred to by its mix number (7th Mix in this case) but numerical installment was omitted on EXTREME onwards. The most recent version of the game is titled ''Dance Dance Revolution Universe''.
During ''DDR'''s arcade span, several spin-off versions have also been released: ''Dancing Stage'' is the name of the series in Europe and Australia, and includes ''Dancing Stage: Mickey's Rave'', a special version that includes techno and Eurobeat versions of popular Disney songs. A special single-player version titled ''Dance Dance Revolution Solo'' includes a modified dance stage with six pads (including pads on the upper-left and upper-right corners), and features gameplay with six arrows rather than the standard four. To date, only two versions of Dance Dance Revolution have been officially released in North America: ''Dance Dance Revolution USA'', essentially a localized version of ''DDR 3rd Mix'', and ''Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA''. ''Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2'' is currently being tested and is expected to be released in both Japan and North America.

Arcade machines

Main articles: List of Dance Dance Revolution games

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. Below the monitor are two sets of buttons (one for each player), each consisting of two triangular selection buttons and a center rectangular button, used mainly to confirm a selection or start the game.
The dance stage is a raised metal platform divided into two "pads". Each pad houses a set of four arrow panels arranged and pointing in the orthogonal directions (left, up, down and right), separated by metal squares. Each "arrow" is a thick sheet of acrylic glass that sits atop four pressure switches, one at each edge, and a software-controlled cold cathode lamp. A metal safety bar in the shape of an upside-down "U" is mounted to the pad behind each player. More advanced players frequently make use of this safety bar, to help maintain proper balance, and to relieve weight from the legs so that arrows can be pressed with greater speed and accuracy.
Some ''DDR'' cabinets are equipped with Sony Playstation memory card slots, allowing the player to insert a compatible memory card before starting a game and save their high scores to the card. Additionally, the equivalent home versions of ''DDR'' allow players to create and save custom step patterns (edits) to their memory card — the player can then play those steps on the arcade machine if the same song exists on that machine. This feature is supported in ''DDR 2ndMIX'' through ''DDR EXTREME''. It was expected that for the release of ''DDR SuperNOVA'', memory card support would be existent. However, the division of Konami which handled the production of the memory card slots shut down, causing Konami to pull memory card support out at the last minute.
The ''DDR Solo'' arcade cabinet is smaller and contains only one dance pad, modified to include six arrow panels instead of four (the additional panels are "upper-left" and "upper-right"). These pads generally don't come with a safety bar, but include the option for one to be installed at a later date. The Solo pad also lacks some of the metal plating that the standard pad has, which can make stepping difficult for players who are used to playing on standard machines. Additionally, Solo machines only incorporate two sensors, located horizontally in the center of the arrow, instead of four sensors on each edge.
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.
The promotional materials and cardboard signs that shipped with ''DDR EXTREME'' (8th Mix) suggested that it would be the last release of ''DDR'' in the Japanese arcades. While Konami never made an official statement, fans were led to believe this was the case by statements such as "We're Starting Over!" and "Thank you to all DDR Fans!", as well as the unusually comprehensive set of songs and features in this release. However, on January 25, 2006, Konami announced ''Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA'', a new arcade release for North America. The previous day, a version for Europe, ''Dancing Stage SuperNOVA'', had already been premiered at the Amusement Trade Exhibition International in London, England. More recently, ''DDR SuperNOVA'' premiered at the All-Nippon Amusement Machine Operators' Union (AOU) show in Japan, making this version the first worldwide arcade release in the series. The game was released in Europe on April 28 2006, followed by the U.S. release on May 15 and the Japanese release on July 12. Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix is the only Nintendo version of DDR so far, containing remixes of many popular Mario tunes.
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 has been released in Japan in August 22,2007.

Arcade releases

Dance Dance Revolution machines are listed by country then order of release.
===Japan===
Note: Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX was updated after its initial release with a few new songs and to allow it to be connected to and play alongside Konami's DJ simulator games, beatmania IIDX. While the official name of that version of the DDR cabinet when standing alone was "LINK VERSION"^[1], when connected to the two beatmania IIDX cabinets that were compatible it was referred to by two other unique names.^[2] Below all three names are listed in the order they were released.

★ Dance Dance Revolution

★ Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX LINK VERSION

★ Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX with beatmaniaIIDX CLUB VERSiON

★ Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX and beatmaniaIIDX substream CLUB VERSiON 2

★ Dancing Stage featuring TRUE KiSS DESTINATION

★ Dance Dance Revolution SOLO BASS MIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution KARAOKE MIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution SOLO 2000

★ Dancing Stage featuring DREAMS COME TRUE

★ Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX PLUS

★ Dance Dance Revolution KARAOKE MIX 2nd

★ Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution Solo 4thMIX

★ Dancing Stage featuring DISNEY'S RAVE

★ Dance Dance Revolution KIDS

★ Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX PLUS

★ Dance Dance Revolution Solo 4thMIX PLUS

★ Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX

★

★

★ Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME

★ Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA

★ Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2
===Asia===

★ Dance Dance Revolution

★ Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution Solo 2000

★ Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution Solo 4thMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA
===Korea===

★ Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX

★ Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX (second release)
===Europe===

★ Dancing Stage

★ Dancing Stage (second release)

★ Dancing Stage EuroMIX

★ Dancing Stage EuroMIX 2

★ Dancing Stage Fusion

★ Dancing Stage SuperNOVA

★ Dancing Stage SuperNOVA (second release)
=== North America ===
'NOTE:' These are the versions of DDR that were officially released in North America. The majority of DDR machines in the United States and Canada are imported from Japan or are bootlegs.^[3]

★ Dance Dance Revolution

★ Dance Dance Revolution USA

★ Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA

★ Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA (second release)

★ Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2

Home releases

Main articles: List of Dance Dance Revolution games

''DDR'' has been released on PC, as well as a number of video game consoles, including the PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and now even Xbox 360. Home versions are commonly bundled with soft plastic dance pads that are similar in appearance and function to the Nintendo Power Pad. Some third-party manufacturers produce hard metal pads at a higher price.
''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 three mainstream DDR games, a Disney Mix, and an 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.
A version of ''DDR'' was also produced for the PC in North America. It uses the interface of ''DDR 4thMix'', and contains around 40 songs from the first six mainstream arcade releases. It has not been as well received as the console versions.
The most common criticism of ''DDR'' home console versions is that they tend to provide a more limited selection of songs than in the arcade, despite the increased capacity of DVD storage media in more recent releases. In addition, many fan-favorite songs don't make it to the home versions, usually due to licensing restrictions. This is especially true of North American home versions of DDR. Another common criticism points to the relatively poor quality of most home dance pads, though dedicated fans of the series can find high-quality pads from third-party manufacturers. Some also build their own pads from raw parts (see the dance pad article for more information).
=== Japan ===

★ Game Boy Color

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution GB''

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution GB 2''

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution GB 3''

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution GB: Oha Sta!''

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Dancing Museum''

★ Nintendo 64

★
★ ''

★ Nintendo GameCube''

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix''

★ Sega Dreamcast

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 2nd Mix Dreamcast Edition'' (2000)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution CLUB VERSION Dreamcast Edition'' (2000)

★ PlayStation game console

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 1stMIX'' (1999)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX'' (1999)

★
★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX Append CLUB VERSION Vol.1'' (1999)

★
★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMIX Append CLUB VERSION Vol.2'' (1999)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX'' (2000)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution OHA STA!!'' (2000)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution BEST HITS'' (2000)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX'' (2001)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution EXTRA MIX'' (2001)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX'' (2001)

★ PlayStation 2

★
★ ''Aerobics Revolution''

★
★ '' (2001)

★
★ '' (2002)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME'' (2003)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution Party Collection'' (2003)

★
★ '' (2004)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution STR!KE'' (2006)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA'' (2006)
=== North America ===

★ PlayStation

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution'' (2001)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution Disney MIX'' (2001)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution KONAMIX'' (2002)

★ Windows PC

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution'' (2002)

★ PlayStation 2

★
★ '' (2002)

★
★ '' (2003)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME'' (2004)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2'' (2005)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA'' (2006)

★ Xbox video game system

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX'' (2003)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 2'' (2004)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 3'' (2005)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 4'' (2006)

★ Nintendo GameCube

★
★ '' (2005)

★ Xbox 360

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE'' (2007)

★
★ ''Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE 2'' (2007)

★ Wii

★
★ '' (2007)

★ TV Plug-n-Play

★
★ '' (2006)

★
★ ''My First Dance Dance Revolution'' (2006)

★
★ '' (2006)

Similar Games

The success of the ''DDR'' franchise has spawned many games with similar game play, for many different systems, such as personal computers and video game consoles. Most of these games use their own music and step files, and a variety of both are widely available. Many of these programs hold the ability to create a step pattern for any song. An example of such a program is ''StepMania''.
Flash Flash Revolution (FFR) is another game of the same type. This internet flash game requires no download and is also host to over one million users. The judging on songs in FFR are not judged by grades such as SM does, but rather an accumulation of points and credits which may be added to your account to purchase and unlock new songs.
''In the Groove'' is an arcade dance game based on the aforementioned ''StepMania'' engine, developed by Roxor Games. ''ITG'' features a number of gameplay mechanics used in ''Dance Dance Revolution'', but also introduces new concepts and mechanics that generally appeal to the experienced player. In 2005, Konami filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Roxor, claiming that the ''ITG'' conversion kit, which enables arcade machine owners to install ''ITG'' in existing ''DDR'' cabinets, violated Konami's intellectual property rights. This lawsuit resulted in a settlement in which Konami acquired all intellectual property rights to ''In the Groove''.^[4]
One other noteworthy competing product is ''Dance Factory'', a PlayStation 2 program from Codemasters that converts music from any CD into dance steps.
''Flow: Urban Dance Uprising'' by UbiSoft has a Hip-Hop dance theme. A PC game is also coming out entitled ''Dance!'' which, like ''StepMania'', will allow the player to create homemade tracks.
A partial list of ''DDR'' simulators and competing products follows:

★ Nintendo GameCube

★
★ ''MC Groovz Dance Craze''

★ Wii

★
★ ''Dance Factory''

★ PlayStation

★
★ ''Superstar Dance Club''

★ PlayStation 2

★
★ ''Dance Factory''

★
★ ''

★
★ ''In The Groove''

★
★ ''Pump It Up (Exceed SE)''

★ Xbox

★
★ ''Pump It Up (Exceed SE)''

★ Dreamcast

★
★ ''Feet of Fury'' (Homebrew)

★ PC

★
★ ''Audition Online''

★
★ ''DANCE! Online''

★
★ ''StepMania''

★
★ ''In The Groove''

★
★ ''Dance With Intensity''

★
★ ''Delight Delight Reduplication''

★
★ ''Flash Flash Revolution (Internet Flash Game)

★
★ ''e-Lite Music (Internet Flash Multiplayer Game)

★
★ ''Dance Praise''

★
★ ''Pump It Up (Dance Floor series)''

★ Arcade

★
★ ''Technomotion''

★
★ ''In The Groove''

★
★ ''Pump It Up''

The ''DDR'' phenomenon

''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 have reported how playing ''DDR'' can be good aerobic exercise; some regular players have reported weight loss of 10–50 pounds (5–20 kg). In one example, a player found that including ''DDR'' in her day-to-day life resulted in a loss of 95 pounds.[1] 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, many schools use ''DDR'' as a physical education activity in gym, and in Norway, ''DDR'' has even been registered as an official sport.
Many home versions of the game have a function to estimate calories burned, given a player's weight. Also, players can use "workout mode" to make a diary of calories burned playing ''DDR'' and any self-reported changes in the player's weight.

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. DDR is also seen in a lot of new music videos such as Madonna, Jet sring, Mark.S.Taylor, Kirb rock house and others.
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 first of these, NNR, is now defunct, but more recent websites such as DDRecall have filled its place and include score tracking for In the Groove, a game similar to DDR.
StepMania [2] 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.

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, starting with its 103 middle schools, over the next two years.^[5] 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.
^[6]
Brandeis University also has a physical education class based on ''DDR''. Some schools, like Churchville-Chili High School located in Churchville, New York, as well as Hollidaysburg High School in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, have also added ''DDR'' as a choice in physical education for the students, although other schools, while initially offering the program, abandoned it due to lack of interest.

Playing styles

Many DDR 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. These technical players usually play the most difficult songs on the highest difficulty levels in an attempt to perfect their scores.
Other DDR players choose to incorporate complex or flashy techniques into their play movements, and some of these "freestyle" players develop intricate dance routines to perform during a song. Freestyle players tend to choose songs on lower difficulty levels, so that the player is not restricted in their movements by large quantities of required steps.

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, books, music videos and television shows. DDR has made appearances in the movies ''Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen'' starring Lindsay Lohan, ''Imagine Me & You'', ''Grandma's Boy'', ''Music & Lyrics'' and ''Wasabi''. In music, DDR appeared prominently in Madonna's music video ''Hung Up''. The Game also appeared in Vanessa Hudgens debut music video,"Come Back To Me", as her and her little sister play together in the living room. In Switchfoot's newest music video, "Awakening", what is meant to look like DDR is played, along with Guitar Hero. DDR has also appeared on several major TV shows, including ''King of the Hill'', ''South Park'', ''Family Guy'', ''Megas XLR'', ''Malcolm in the Middle'', Yu-Gi-Oh, ''Will & Grace'', ''Metalocalypse'', ''Ugly Betty'', ''Drawn Together'' and ''Tucker''. Most recently, DDR was featured prominently on the primetime TV show ''Master of Champions'', with juggler/dancer Billy Matsumoto demonstrating his ''DDR'' skills while juggling three flaming torches, earning the show's top honors. Matsumoto was subsequently invited on to ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' to demonstrate his act. It is also in the hit TV show on Disney Channel, Cory in the House renamed as "Step Step Party Tech".

See also

★ Dance pad

★ ''Dancing Stage'' (European version of ''Dance Dance Revolution'')

★ Exertainment

★ StepMania

★ List of dance video games

★ In The Groove Rhythm Game (based on ''Dance Dance Revolution'')

★ DDRFreak

★ Dance Pad Games

★ Dance Dance Immolation

★ Dance Revolution, a television series inspired by the video game series

References

1. http://www.konami.jp/bemani/ddr/jp/am/ddr2nd/linkkit.html
2. http://www.konami.jp/am/bm2dx/club/
3. http://www.ddrfreak.com/locations/locations.php
4. Publisher acquires rights to Roxor game
5. West Virginia Adds 'Dance Dance Revolution' to Gym Class
6. Dancing video game helps kids avoid weight gain

External links

★ Official Konami website for its music game titles, including ''DDR''

★ Flash Flash Revolution (Keyboard internet flash game similar to DDR)

★ e-Lite Music (Multiplayer internet flash game similar to DDR)