Technique

I want to start this post by saying I used a Dance Pad to play stepmania. Now as a huge fan of DDR imagine my joy when I discovered stepmania the bounty of free songs to download. The endless joys of user made content. Now imagine my horror after downloading a pack of some of my favorite video game songs and when I went to play them they should all be given feet ratings of 15+. At first I was amazed that there were people who were that skilled to not only be able to dance this difficulty but to enjoy it. After a little research however I found that these songs were never intended to be put under someone's feet but in fact were meant for someone's fingers. I could not believe it, there were sad little cretins out there who stared at the monitor not more than 2 feet away with an avid fixation as they diddle their keyboards four directional keys.

I mean what is the point of that? Go play guitar hero or something. Getting off your feet and onto your butt you remove a huge element of the game play.

There are 2 very large parts to playing DDR. They work together of course. The first is the ability to hear the music and act accordingly. You must be able to anticipate the flow of the song and how the arrows match up. The second is being able to read the arrows and is incredibly important for positioning. If you come out of a series of arrows wrong you could wind up facing backwards. A lot of times I believe this is intentionally done and can be a lot of fun if done on purpose but getting disorientated does not bode well when you don't mean to. So if you play with the keyboard you don't have to worry about positioning you just read a little ahead so you know what is coming. When your on the pad you have to worry about feet placement hold arrows are a huge challenge because they will paralyze one of your feet making you do odd contortions to get the arrows. Momentum is another issue. Being a big guy I have to keep my body swinging properly so that I can get an arrow and not fly off the pad. When I play I must absorb the entire screen of arrows and my body has to figure out the right dance pattern so not only can I read the arrows but get them as well.

It just seems like you're playing half the game by playing with a keyboard. Not to mention the health benefits. There is nothing like being 3/4 a way through a song having your legs burning and sweat dripping down your face killing yourself to keep your 350 step combo and to finish that sucker. Then you breath hard take a big drink of water as it goes to a D rating than flips back to a AA.

By the way I play Angelic style. (no fancy moves spins or anything I just hit the arrows)