Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution is also known as DDR or Stage in Europe are produced by Konami and are well known in the video arcade halls for their Metal Dance Pads. Dance Dance Revolution was first introduced in Japan in 1998 where the arcade halls have always been popular. After Japan, the DDR became very popular in North America, Europe and Australia. Konami is a big player in the Dance Mat world, since 2005, ninety versions of Dance Dance Revolution have been released covering about 1,000 songs to play on.

The Dance Dance Revolution game works as follows:
Players can score points or lose them depending on how well they're playing. De player has an energy level that he/she has to keep up, if you put your foot down at the right time, you get more energy, if you miss the arrow completely, you will lose energy. Do not lose all your energy or you'll have failed your game. These are the points awarded or deducted per performance:
* Perfect: +2
* Great: +1
* Good: 0
* Boo: -4
* Miss: -8
* O.K.: +6 (when a 'freeze' well)
* N.G.: 0 (when missing a'freeze')

If the player plays well, a combo can be made. A combo means that you have done a series of steps with a minimum socre of "good", the longer the combo, the more points. If the player gets to do the full song in one combo, it's called a "full combo".

Once the song is finished, the player gets to see a general score where "AAA" the best is and "E" the worst. During the game DDR also calculates a numeric score, this number is based on achievement combined with bonusses from combo's. This means that it'd be possible for a player to score an "A" with a low numeric score (then the player has done a lot of good scores but not a lot of combo's) whereas another could score a "C" with a high numeric score (less good scores, but good combo's).

Dance Dance Revolution has produced Stepmania and In The Groove as main DDR games.

Dance mats

Dance mats have always been fairly popular in arcade game halls, but now home versions have been introduced, it's hitting a sky high popularity. In the times of fighting obesity, this is an excellent way to start, what's more fun than losing weight while having a good time! For people who don't really know how it works, here is some information on dance mats and how to play it.

What is a Dance Mat?

A dance mat literally is a mat, which can be plugged into several different game consoles, such as the PlayStations (PS1,PS2 en PS3), Xbox, Xbox 360 and the PC. On the mat you will see four arrows that point up- and downwards, left and right. Instead of using the console controllers or keybord, you use your feet to play dance mat games.

De bedoeling is om op aanwijzingen van het spel op het juiste moment op de maat van de muziek op die pijlen te stappen. Wanneer dit met hoge snelheid gaat is het een spectaculair gezicht.

How do you play Dance Mat Games?

The point of this game is to step on the correct arrows when the game tells you to, in the right rhytm of the music. Most games have several game modes, so if you're a starter, it's easy to use as well as when you're an expert. There are also a different modes for the reason to play this game, either you are on the game mode which will grade you or the workour mode that has a calorie counter and once you put your weight in it, it will tell you how many calories you have spent by playing the Dance Mat games.
Most Dance Games have a lot of songs to chose from, so there'll be something for everyone. See the menu on the left for videos of people using the Dance Mats. Now start dancing!

Why should I get a Dance Mat?

You could say that it's one of the best and most fun ways to lose weight and keep fit. There are so many possibilities in music, level and game mode that it won't bore you easily!

You won't need an expensive gym membership and get bored at the gym with the same program every time, you can get a dance mat for about £10, depending on quality. Nor do you need someone to play with you, you can play on the dance mats on your own, but also with others if you want to.

In about 10 minutes, you can burn 60 calories, but the dance mats are so addictive, you will probably be playing longer than that!

Not only will you lose weigt, but it also helpes you improving your co-ordination levels. You will find it difficult in the beginning to keep up with the game, but soon you will find yourself dancing like you never have before!

Last but not least, dance mats are easy to set up and put away. The most commons ones can be folded up and be kept in a box, so the mats will only take up some space when you actually use it!