DDR Thread

Flapjacks · Mar 03, 2014 7:51 AM

I never played much DDR, mostly because I was embarrassed to play in an arcade in front of a bunch of people, since that was the only way I could possibly do it. Now, though, I probably wouldn't care, but who goes to arcades anymore? tongue

Stormy · Mar 03, 2014 2:39 PM

A lot of little kids and a few nerds, basically. tongue

Gekoncze · Mar 03, 2014 6:17 PM

bmah · Mar 06, 2014 5:34 AM

Playing DDR at the arcades was always a hit and miss experience for me. I used to play the game to death and spend quite a bit of change on it. The problem is that the quality of your experience all depends on how much the arcade owners maintain the machine, and most often they don't have a clue. Most amazing videos you see of players on youtube and such are on well-kept machines, and consider yourself lucky if you have staff who cares. The process typically goes as such:

people play DDR --> newbies don't understand the degree of responsiveness you need to step on the arrows, so they will step hard --> general wear and tear of the machine --> arcade owners/staff members are complete duds to getting the machine fixed, machine doesn't get fixed --> arrows become less responsive --> any player who wants the arrows to respond need to stomp even harder --> arrow pads become too unresponsive to play --> arcade owners/staff wonder why the machine doesn't get played --> machine removed due to loss of revenue

It's much more possible to play the difficult songs with a more responsive pad. A lot of "pro" players don't actually use their whole body to play; instead, they just use their toes and heels to arch over two arrows at once, and then suddenly the game becomes a bastardized version of Irish tap dancing with all the 16th notes flying on the screen. To actually score well using your entire body is that much more amazing. I can't do this, because 1) the machines I played always had terribly unresponsive arrow pads, and 2) my shoe size is small...I can't straddle two arrows at once conveniently.

In the end, I found it much more rewarding to buy a hard pad at home, and play DDR on my PS2 or something. (and never buy a soft pad if you ever hope to score well on hard charts)

Last edited by bmah (Mar 06, 2014 5:35 AM)

Stormy · Mar 06, 2014 5:33 PM

bmah · Mar 09, 2014 4:31 AM

Congrats on almost passing Max 300 in the arcade! It's still pretty good in comparison to the regular DDRer. The 12th note jacks at the very end can be a killer for sure, but it looks like you got past that...it's too bad you failed at the ending freezes. I really wasn't that great at DDR, but then again I had no clue what measure of skill I had since the home console versions seemed to be slightly more lenient on the timing (could just be getting used to my pad), and the arcade cabinets frequently failed on me. The best I did on whatever machines I played on was probably AAing Xenon on heavy or just Aing Sakura heavy.

The true crazy players don't play DDR but rather ITG (In the Groove). Some of those machines have been modified so that one can put in edits, new charts, and new songs (created using Stepmania on your computer). Check out the youtube videos for ITG; many videos feature truly special players. Again, finding an modded ITG cabinet in the arcade really depends on how much the staff is in touch with those things. Uptight staff members who know nothing about DDR would never allow for such a thing. You might be lucky if the staff members love DDR and ITG as much as you do!

On another subject, what do you think about the songs on the newer DDR versions? I haven't really caught up to DDR lately but I think right now we have Dance Dance Revolution 2013.

Stormy · Mar 09, 2014 5:06 AM

Thanks! I do Sakura a lot too, seem to be incapable of getting A's on this machine, though. I started paying more attention to my Perfect/Great ratio, and it's much worse than I remember ever getting at home. I did wonder if something was different about the timing on the arcade pads.

I've seen some freaking insane ITG stepcharts. Seem to remember a couple that require three arrows to be pressed simultaneously. o_o

The latest game I have is DDR X, so I'm not exactly up to date on that, unfortunately. When I was still buying the latest console games it seemed like they were moving more in the direction of adding more English pop songs, and I'm kind of just neutral on that, I guess. I don't mind them, but it seems like kind of a futile attempt to make DDR more mainstream. They kept adding harder and harder boss songs as well (like the video in the OP, Fascination Maxx), which was good, but slightly annoying that I couldn't keep beating them. tongue

bmah · Mar 09, 2014 5:23 AM

I think the hardest DDR song now is Pluto Relinquished iirc. Those have very awkward crossover patterns in one long 16th stream at the end at a high BPM. The timing window of DDR is smaller than ITG, so it's that much harder to score well.

And yeah I wasn't much a fan of the mainstream songs. It was obviously a tactic to get new players into the game, but at this point in time, rhythm games aren't a new thing anymore. A lot of songs now seem to be transplanted from Konami's other rhythm games such as beatmania IIDX and so on. Many of those songs are well-suited for a game like this. Mainstream songs, not so much.

ITG does have hands (three-arrow chord) and quads (all four arrows). You have to use your hands to hit the other arrows not covered by your feet. It shows once again that you need a very well-kept machine with sensitive arrow pads. If only they had that at my arcade, it would've open up a world of new possibilities. There actually was an ITG machine that was modded with all sorts of weird songs that some regular players added in, but that machine is long gone now. The new arcade owners don't know anything about DDR. Arcades in general are on a decline where I am, and probably is a growing trend in general.

Stormy · Mar 09, 2014 5:48 AM

I might be mixing it up with one of the other boss songs, but I think Pluto Relinquish might've been one of those songs I could just barely get through with a C or a D. I suuuck at crossovers, though (I fail Kiss Kiss Kiss if it ever comes up on random because of those freeze arrows), so either I'm thinking of a different song or there were just barely not enough of those patterns to fail me. I remember my brother and I always considering Fascination Maxx to be the hardest one. I'm pretty sure it had the highest rating, at least: an 18-footer, if I remember correctly.

The mainstream songs might make inexperienced players do one game or so at the arcade, but they won't actually get hooked unless they have an interest in the game itself anyway. My parents even liked some of the older songs they had, but even though we had the machine available in the house all the time, my mom was only interested enough to try it once or twice.

I have one ITG game; it's just called "In the Groove." My brother got it because he kind of mastered all the songs we had available on the DDR games. Anyways, I don't think I ever tried it because of the reputation it has for being so difficult. I wanted to beat all the boss songs in X before trying it, I think, but obviously that never happened. Lol.

Paranoia · Mar 09, 2014 8:16 AM

Ah, this thread makes me sad cause I used to love playing DDR. Home metal pads are my favorite as you probably know... I was able to pass Pluto Relinquish pretty much every time on Expert...Just as soon as I went to college no machine around miles where I live is decent enough for arcade play. I actually found someone a few months ago on craigslist that was selling Cobalt Flux pads, and when I contacted him, he decided not to sell them. :/ Really wish I had a reliable way to play more DDR, but it seems to be dying unfortunately. Me and Stormy's metal pad we bought on ebay just stopped working when I was back in high school, and I've never found a good one to replace it.

Stormy · Mar 10, 2014 7:15 AM

Our metal pad lasted a pretty long time, though. Way better than those Red Octane soft pads, at least. Those things broke the day after the warranty was up. And the warranty was like 7 days. Lol.

I have one of those soft, flat Konami mats just sitting in my closet right now. I wonder how many songs it would take to destroy it. If it's not already broken from being folded and stuffed in a closet. tongue

Stormy · Apr 14, 2014 6:44 PM

Paranoia · Apr 14, 2014 10:00 PM

Nice! If I ever get the chance to visit, we should play some DDR. I haven't done it in years now. sad I can still remember most of the step patterns for Max 300 in my head though, haha.

Stormy · Apr 15, 2014 4:01 AM

RangerOfIthilien · Apr 16, 2014 2:58 AM

I don't completely suck anymore either! I can do Light now!

Paranoia · Apr 17, 2014 3:07 PM

Maybe this summer sometime. Or you could chill at my place seeing that I'm going to have an entire 3 bedroom apartment to myself pretty much the entire summer, haha. But that would mean no DDR sad

I think I've finally given up on my metal pad search seeing as nobody sells them, and when I do find one, they're over $200.

Stormy · Apr 18, 2014 6:10 AM

Stormy · Jun 08, 2014 4:30 AM

Breaking Bad · Jun 08, 2014 4:59 AM

I'm pretty awful.

Paranoia · Jun 10, 2014 6:36 PM

Cool you're getting the DDR pad! Hopefully it will prove to be durable. Were you planning on getting/making a bar attachment for it as well?

And that sucks that the arcade machine just stopped working. Were they able to get it back up and running again?

Stormy · Jun 10, 2014 6:56 PM

Yeah, I'll be buying all the stuff for a bar after it gets here. I honestly don't know how I used to be any good without one, haha.

A mechanic came and restarted the machine, but I was so annoyed by that point that I just left. They didn't even refund my $0.85! tongue

Stormy · Jul 18, 2014 3:11 PM

Okay, so I just got the pad... and there's a bunch of hair and dust visibly stuck between the plexiglass and the image. hmm I hope they'll fix that or replace it because I paid a lot for this thing.

Flapjacks · Jul 18, 2014 8:06 PM

How the hell did hair get in there?

Stormy · Jul 18, 2014 8:58 PM

They make them at home, and they have a dog that sheds a lot. When they were gluing the printed image to the plastic there must have been some dog hair stuck in there that they didn't notice.

I contacted them and they're going to see what they can do to get it fixed without having to send the whole thing all the way back.

#1 Mar 03, 2014 6:39 AM

DDR Thread

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