SO WHAT IS DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION ANYWAY?

Dance Dance Revolution is in my opinion THE most innovative video game idea to come out in the history of video games! The arcade machine (pictured at right) consists of 4 main sections: the head, the screen, the base and the stage. The head consists of the game title, four colored spotlights and two satellite speakers. The screen consists of, well, the screen (Duh! Like, I never would have guessed!). The base consists of the four bass speakers, the coin mechanism and four neon tube lights going around the speakers. The stage (a rather romantic name for what most people call the pad) consists of two dance spaces, with four buttons for up, down, left and right, and a bar on the back (presumably for hanging on to for dear life if you suddenly decide to pass out while dancing). After depositing your coins (50 cents per player in most locations) you select your difficulty mode (if you've never played before pick Easy or Soft depending on the Mix you're using), pick your song, and start! As the music plays, arrows progress up the screen from the bottom towards four outlined arrows at the top. The object is to step on the arrow that matches the one currently lined up with the outlines at the top. The mistake I see most first timers make (and I've seen a lot of first timers!) is hitting the buttons as soon as they see the arrows, and missing them once they reach the top. So all I can say is WAIT!!! The first few times you play you will spend all your time learning how to read the arrows and correspond it with your feet; it will seem like second nature after a while. Oh, and a note on song selection: at the song selection screen, the difficulty of the song you have highlighted will show up, but it's measured in feet! Oh so witty of the folks at Konami to measure dance difficulty in feet! For example, if you are playing the 3^rd Mix (the one at my home arcade, which is Cyberstation in the Independence Mall, Kingston) either the song Xanadu by The Olivia Project or Upside Down by Coo Coo will be automatically highlighted by the machine. Below the title, there is one yellow footprint and the word Simple indicating the difficulty level (by the way, if you are playing two-player, the footprints will appear but not the word). This is the first song you should try. As a matter of fact, the machine always automatically selects the easiest song. As you get better, you will move on to such songs as Silent Hill by Thomas Howard (2 feet) and So Many Men by Me & My (3 feet). As you flip through the songs, older players will find new electronica versions of old favorites, such as Flashdance (What A Feeling) and In The Navy. There are also the original versions of some KC & The Sunshine Band songs (apparently they are undergoing a surge of popularity in Japan, where this game originated) such as That's The Way (I Like It) and Shake Your Booty. You may come to like some foreign dance music (I myself am extremely attached to the music of Smile.dk). So experiment! Enjoy yourself! Totally get down, shake it, promenade, whatever! I promise you, YOU WILL GET DDRed!!!