The game
DDR, or Dance Dance Revolution, is firstly an arcade game by the japanese editor Konami. The arcade installment of the game looks like this.
The core of the game is quick to get but hard to master: this is about putting your feet at the right place and right time on the dance mat following the instructions on the screen and the rhythm of the music. Not quite clear? Have a look at the page In pictures!
DDR is a musical game, so you need a good sense of rhythm, but the game is also quite demanding physically as the songs go on and on. Many titles are pretty intense, even in the easy mode light! The heavy mode looks to the beginner like it has been designed for extra terrestrians ^^.
Dance Dance Revolution has been ported to many game platforms since Sony's Playstation One (complete releases list here), and to PC with FREE softwares created by fans (mainly Stepmania and Dance with intensity). In my view, DDR is way better on PC than on console!!
Indeed the work of a living community has allowed us to enjoy a huge title collection (by huge I mean thousands) and various software mods, like themes or live comments on your cyber dancer performance.
Musics
Well, what kind of music to play DDR on? To the connoisseur, at the core of Dance Dance Revolution there are the techno-dance japanese titles which are very widespread in the original versions of the game; most of the time, they are the funniest because they are rhythmical and present a good synchronisation between the music and the arrows.
Despite all that, people tend to enjoy playing DDR on famous songs, which is also understandable...You can find some "hits" on every official version and many more among the titles created by fans: Scooter, Rihanna, The Beach Boys, Nightwish...everyone can be satisfied!
Getting started with DDR
The first trys on DDR are often difficult, but after a while progress come very fast. I am giving some basic advice here. You cannot do anything without good titles for beginner, that is why I have gathered a small sample downloadable here : beginner ddr tracks.zip. Just install them as I explain in the Stepmania or Dance with Intensity pages.
DDR newcomers usually come across three main difficulties : rhythm, moves and arrow reading. A good mean to go forward is to solve them one by one.
Rhythm : For your very first steps what you need is a title with very few arrows, so let us begin by It's raining men or YMCA, in light mode of course. The idea is to focus on the rhythm without getting lost with the arrows. An useful trick is the assist tick which is turned on with F7 on Stepmania and F12 on Dance With Intensity. This is a metronome doing little "claps" with every arrow. Take some time to learn where the arrows stand on the mat and try to keep the best timing possible (marvelous or perfect). Do not forget DDR is a musical game, you should not strive to hit the mat when you see the arrow passing right on the mark, but when you hear the rhythm. When it gets easier, try without the assist tick. Most of the time the rythm follows the bass. Do not hesitate to beat time with your feet even when there is no arrows in order to keep the rhythm.
Moves : Once you've got the hang of it, you should move on to Bumble Bee. This is in my opinion the best ddr track for beginner, the rhythm is steady, there are just the good amount of arrows, and the music sounds good. My advice now is to keep training on the same track until you passe grade B at least. This way you won't be surprised by the arrow succession. If you cannot stand the music of Bumble Bee, have a try with Call me (from Blondie). Rhythm sould not be a problem, so let's work on the moves. What you have to concentrate on is DON'T PUT YOUR FOOT BACK ON THE MIDDLE OF THE MAT between each steps. This is a HUGE loss of time, and you get no penalty for hitting extra steps. As an example, if you need to hit left then up then down the natural move is putting left foot on left, KEEP IT THERE, right foot on up then left on down. Keep practicing until you have found the natural moves for each sequence of arrows. You need to be supple with the legs slightly akimbo, like real dance in fact ! These tracks can be AAed virtually just by walking on the mat, if you keep cool and work with your chest. But you will most certainly begin by hopping a lot :D Maybe this video will inspire you. You get it ? Last step !
Arrow reading : This one needs some explaining. I mean by arrow reading the translation from "something is moving up on the screen" to "I put my foot there". This really is not obvious at the beginning. Think about reading : now words immediately pop up as ideas and pictures in your head but first year in school there was a lot of decryption work.
No big advice here, except you should be ok with rhythm and moves first. You should aim at looking at the middle of the screen so that you know the 3-4 following steps and you can prepare the best move. At this point you should vary the tracks, I have selected Baby Baby (Corona), Cotton Eye Joe (a DDR classic) and My favourite game (The Cardigans). You
should also begin to look at the page Links and download other titles. When you passed these titles, you must try the ultra classic track Butterfly, a little trickier, this is the title I have begun DDR on !! After that you should be comfortable with most of the light titles. Standard is another story (once again Bumble Bee is ideal) ! Good luck !
