It's time to feel very old again: today is Dance Dance Revolution 20th anniversary

I'll always remember Bobby Hill mastering it alongside his crush in Tokyo.

It's almost crazy to see how far the game has come. I remember when I refused to believe anything would ever be harder than Paranoia Survivor Max and now it seems every month there's a new song that just makes it look like child's play.

I recently got back into it hardcore. I still don't think there's ever been a more fun arcade experience than DDR.

2MB FTW

I loved this game so much. It will always be in my memories as one of my favorite games as a child and with some of my favorite characters: Yuni and Alice.

Never did progress from the first difficulty.

There'd always be a crowd around someone who was crushing it on the highest difficulty.

Wish they brought it back... I miss alot of those songs lol. Game was a blast

why is everyone on here so afraid of aging

Daikenkai and Dragonblade are still my jams

3rd Mix > your favorite SoundCloud rapper

Kayotix said:

Wish they brought it back... I miss alot of those songs lol. Game was a blast

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Believe it or not, a new DDR arcade game came out a couple years ago called DDR A(ce).

I'm sad that the community is so small now but at least I got to meet some really good and cool players.

Thanks OP. I feel old now :p

I used to be obsessed with it and ITG. Still plan to by an arcade cabinet one day.
I've full comboed almost every official song at home. The arcade was always so much harder though. I did full Combo The Legend of Max in front of a crowd once though. That's one of my fondest memories of the game.

Most of the machines in my city are gone though. I think there's just a single Extreme machine. All the Supernovas are gone, and I don't think there's ever been any Aces.

Oh God...this one hurts...DDR doesn't at all feel like a "retro game" at all. But man 20 years. Konami sure did milk it absolutely dry, that's for sure.

I remember playing the hell out of Extreme as a kid in middle school & junior high, maybe a year in high school because it was the ONLY arcade version I could ever find. I had most of the PS2 games, with ending with X2 & it kinda stopped after that aside from the PS3 game and that's it.

I really wish I could own a nice metal pad & own a good amount of DDR games again because they were such a good form of exercise. The foam pad sucked because it just moved around all the time & if you're upstairs, it'd be super noisy to people downstairs.

IIRC, it took quite some time to arrive here as Konami thought it would never catch on with a US console audience. Was a bti of a challenge to track down a copy back int he day, but once I finally did, my friends and I were hooked.

Can't stop falling in love with this series.

For the 20th anniversary they updated DDR A such that certain songs play with the UI of the game from which they debuted.

Zonic said:

I remember playing the hell out of Extreme as a kid in middle school & junior high, maybe a year in high school because it was the ONLY arcade version I could ever find. I had most of the PS2 games, with ending with X2 & it kinda stopped after that aside from the PS3 game and that's it.

I really wish I could own a nice metal pad & own a good amount of DDR games again because they were such a good form of exercise. The foam pad sucked because it just moved around all the time & if you're upstairs, it'd be super noisy to people downstairs.

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Impulse Pads look like the next coming of the Cobalt Flux. They look so good.

Stepmania and a lagless monitor is all you need.

DDR Max 2 - Kind Lady, Love At First Site, and Days Gone By on Heavy difficulty. The workout mode used to give me a hell of a sweat as well.

I stepped on a DDR machine for the first time in over a decade last year trying to see if I was still good at it. Felt like I ripped every tendon and muscle in my body afterwards.

I can't even dance anymore, my knees just strain and ache if I try to squat.

Still playing! The newest version, DDR A, is wonderful.

Does anybody know of any decent dance pads? I miss my old Cobalt Fluxes, I have a PS2 just sitting around with DDR games going to waste. I've tried the pads included in the old Wii DDR game, they sucked hard (as did the game itself), and I've heard bad things about the metal pads you occasionally see for sale.

Banana Aeon said:

Impulse Pads look like the next coming of the Cobalt Flux. They look so good.

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A bit early to say that, considering the things aren't even in beta testing yet. If nobody has used it, how can its quality be compared to other pads?

What's the best Japanese episode to date?

I've been playing DDR since MAX2 and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

DDR is the game that I've made the most friends with and traveled the most for. I've been playing for about 18 years of the release and still try to get on a machine whenever possible.

My history with the game is a very long one, but it all started when I saw a DDR USA cabinet right when they came out. It was a special time because the crowds were crazy, nobody was very good yet, and the energy was off the charts. I'll never forget the massive crowds that would gather at the mall and how competitive things got around Max2.

Quite a few years back, I opened up a website with some friends of mine and we developed some very well known Sim files for Stepmania. I was an operator at an arcade at the time so I transformed my machine to a SM cabinet and had the hottest Bemani spot in the state for a long time. You can still find our simfiles online, and Chinese bootleg cabinets have been found to contain our data, which is funny in a way.

If you have a Dave and Buster's or Round 1 nearby, please go and play Ace. It's truly the best version of the game they've ever come out with and the support is phenomenal.

I first read Just Dance and got a shock..

DDR... sound about right that it's 20 years old since it came out during the Playstation era.
So I don't feel older because of this info. It feels like DDR has been here longer than Mario 64 (which it then hasn't)

I managed to miss that this thread existed and made a whole separate thread before I found it. Just leaving what I wrote there, here:



Have you played DDR? Who hasn't? This funny dancing game (that may resemble less dancing and more controlled seizure at high levels), released hot on the heels of Konami's "beatmania" DJ simulation game, went on to define a genre like nothing that came before it.

To this day, Konami still maintains the game in arcades, and today have launched a 20th anniversary website with features that will launch within DDR A, the latest arcade incarnation. The festivities have started with a selection of classic songs, that will actually play in full recreations of the version of DDR they originated from.

The #DDR20th hashtag on Twitter is also trending with everyone's stories of what DDR means to them and how, for some, the game was unexpectedly a life defining moment in bringing together a dedicated community of people.

So what does DDR mean to you?

Max Unlimited, Max 300, Paranoia Survivor Max, Paranoia Hades, Pluto Relinquish, Horatio... Damn

Butterfly, Boom Boom Dollar, Paranoia are some of my favorites.

I used to play DDR X all the time... *sip*

Started with 6thMix and I'm still involved with the ITG community.

Happy birthday, old friend.

I used to be so good.

Then I got old, and fat.

Now I can't do 2 sessions of 13's without being completely winded.

I want to play this on new consoles but my dog would just attack my feet and pee on the mat.

Supernova was the game that started it all for me. I was never into that scene, and had no idea what dance games where. I remember going to coney island and all the goth kids would have a huge audience around them doing this, but I never understood how they could do it. Then in the 10th grade, my friend had Supernova and the mats, invited me over and the rest is history. Oh how I wish they would re-release it. Good times

Scuffed said:

I want to play this on new consoles but my dog would just attack my feet and pee on the mat.

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To my knowledge there hasn't been a console release of DDR since a US-only release on PS3, sans dance mat, and sans any sort of design sense

DDR is arcade or bust at this point.

Such an insane thing to to keep alive. I've first played the game back in 1999, got my username/nickname from playing the game, and made a ton of friends a long the way because of it. DDR is probably a good reason why I'm most likely 100 pounds lighter than I would've been, also. How could I forget that this game opened up a lot of music genres and amazing artists I would never have listened to. The first time I ever stepped on the pad and played a song, I walked off. I was so embarrassed because nothing like it was available. Over time, playing it was like second nature, I grew over the embarrassment of playing in public and it has honestly transferred that to other real-world happenings. I don't play as nearly as much I did, but I will be playing all the songs from the generation folders over the weekend.

I never got a chance to play this and I'm sad that I don't have the chance to do this at home any more.

Bemani halcyon days. I didn't run into the game until an anime con in like 2000, but bemani was a big part of my teenage years for sure. Carried into college when my campus surprisingly had Popn and IIDX!

My first exposure to it was in elementary school. Had a music teacher that LOVED it and she would take it out occasionally, because dance was (a small part) of the curriculum. She also bought and brought in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat when that came out years later.

kittens said:

why is everyone on here so afraid of aging

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I'm not at all. I can't wait til I'm old.

I found an unopened copy of DDR Supernova 2 with game and mat at Toys R Us during the purge. A very nice fella on Era sold me his old DDR collection so now I have this.

The only thing I regret is not getting good enough to do legend road. If I had the ability to focus my efforts I may have done that. I was still AAA'ing many 9 footers though during the extreme era.

Edit: This game also made me super fit. I had great cardio during my highschool years because of this game.

The game responsible for me losing 50 pounds and having much better lower body than upper body strength :)

DDR is a legend and I'm so glad it's still going :)

chanunnaki said:

I'm not at all. I can't wait til I'm old.

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yeah I find it quite dope and when anniversaries like this pop up I do fill somewhat wistful, but also wow it's just cool to be alive and here for the time we are so I'm not really stressed

I bought the PS1 import and the soft pad back in the late '90s and played that for a while... thought it was alright, but then I discovered videos from Japan (from Koshiru, ZTT, Jiro, Banakazu, etc.), and my mind was blown. Really got into it after that, even taking a trip out to Nagoya/Ogaki to meet that entire crew, play DDR, IIDX, etc. at the arcades from those videos with them, etc. It was such a magical time. Banakazu drove me around and gave me a tour of the entire area. Guy was such an awesome host... even practiced his English before I arrived so that communication would be smoother. Locally, Ultrazone, Japan Arcade, SHGL, etc. were the spots... I loved the community and culture around that time (circa 2000-2001). It would be the last time I went to arcades with any regularity. Nowadays, I wouldn't even know where to go, and those barcades kind of depress me for some reason.

I started playing this game back when 3rd mix Korean 2 was out in the arcade. I got super addicted and it's all I wanted to do. After school, go to the local arcade to practice to get better. Every single weekend go to the arcade. Met a ton and ton of people from playing this.

Used to go to a bunch of tournaments throughout a few different states wether to participate or just hang out with people.

I stopped playing actively around supernova 1 because my hobby at the time was changing but this game played a huge role in my life back then.

Thanks for the memories DDR.

I still remember when Memories FINALLY had an unlock code for DDR Extreme on PS2 years after it was released.................VIA BURGER KING PROMOTION.

Zonic said:

I still remember when Memories FINALLY had an unlock code for DDR Extreme on PS2 years after it was released.................VIA BURGER KING PROMOTION.

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I booted up the game when it came out just so I could get Dance Master information for all difficulties.
Speaking of PS2 games, I still can't find a copy of X2 for a reasonable price. Game is stupid expensive and pretty damn rare.