I have nothing but good things to say about Dance Dance Revolution. It is a source of exercise, entertainment, self-improvement, and social interaction. It's like a sport, only I never really liked sports. I suppose it's not exactly an easy hobby to take seriously to the casual observer, but to you casual observers out there, DDR is more than just a game we play to look stupid for the sake of your amusement.
Here are all the accomplishments I've had time to log so far...
Charts of all my grades for the home versions I own...
Konamix (I'll get around to it)
5th Mix (I'll get around to it)
DDRMAX (I'll get around to it)
Here's a list of all the 9- and 10-footers I've passed on single (I still mostly suck at doubles). The ones in bold are 10's. All of these are on heavy.
| A (oni) | Across the Nightmare (oni) | Afronova |
| Afronova Primeval | B4U (Glorious Style) | Bag (1x) |
| Be Lovin' | Break Down | Broken My Heart |
| Burning Heat! | Burnin' Up the Floor (technically...not really...) | Can't Stop Fallin' In Love (Speed Mix) |
| Captain Jack | Cartoon Heroes (Speed Mix) | Colors (Oni) |
| Dead End | Destiny Lovers | Do Me |
| Drop Out | Drop Out (Oni) | Dynamite Rave |
| Dynamite Rave (Oni) | Electro-Tuned | End of the Century |
| Exotic Ethnic | Fantasy (Melissa) | Furuhata's Theme |
| Frozen Ray (for Extreme) | Gradiusic Cyber | Healing Vision (Angelic Mix) |
| Hypnotic Crisis | i feel... | Insertion |
| Irresistiblement | Justify My Love | Kakumei |
| Leading Cyber | Lupin the 3rd '78 | Luv to Me (disco mix) |
| Matsuri Japan | Max300 | MaxX Unlimited |
| My Summer Love | No Limit | Orion.78 (AMEuro Mix) |
| Orion.78 (Civilization Mix) | Paranoia Eternal (5th Mix) | Paranoia Eternal (Extreme) |
| Paranoia (KCET Clean Mix) | Paranoia Rebirth | Paranoia Survivor |
| Rain of Sorrow | Rhythm and Police | Romansu no Kami-sama |
| Saint Goes Marching | Sakura | Sakura (oni) |
| ska a go go | So Deep | Stay |
| Stoic | Sync (Oni) | Sweet Sweet Love Magic |
| Tears | Trip Machine Climax | Trip Machine Survivor |
| Tsugaru | Tsugaru (Apple Mix) | Twilight Zone |
| V (Oni) | Wonda | Xenon |
I started out on a 5th Mix machine. I sucked. Good thing nobody went to that arcade. Within the week, I had two 3rd-party soft pads and a copy of Konamix. I got 2 Hot Dance pads and a copy of 5th Mix for my birthday, and after quite a bit of practice, I started getting more aggressive with my money at the arcades. For several months, I mainly played DDRMAX2, occasionally dropping my the local DDR5th machine after work to relieve some stress.
DDRMAX was probably one of the biggest reasons I bought my PS2. Of course, shortly after I got it, I wore out my second pair of pads, so I had to get some more. After getting an A or better on every song on every difficulty, I went back to playing in the arcade. When DDR Extreme was released, it renewed my motivation to play the game, as, for whatever reason, I was making vast improvements over short periods of time.
Whereas before DDR Extreme, I was proud to have a half dozen heavy AA's under my belt, I now have about 50 saved to my memory card, including several 9-footers. My endurance became good enough to beat Max300 in the arcade consistently. I started trying Paranoia Survivor Heavy and beat it on my 3rd or 4th try. And finally, on April 8th, 2003, I cleared MaxX Unlimited Heavy. As nice little bonuses, I also AA'd So Deep and A'd Paranoia Survivor that same day. Crazy.
Currently waiting for more unlock codes so I'll have new songs to try and pass.