What Made You Interested in DDR in the First Place?

I remember how I got into DDR very clearly, and I apologize in advanced for the long detailed story. It's just that DDR was probably the fondest memory I have related to any kind of gaming.

I used to live in Tacoma, WA, and was in the fifth grade. My classmates were talking about this game called "DDR" that the local youth center just got in. I've seen the machines in arcades before and whatnot, but I didn't really know what they were talking about. I also showed little interest, not bothering to check it out and being too intimated by the sheer size and sound of the arcade machines to play one.

Before Christmas of 2004, my family and I moved to Alabama, and I was bored out of my mind since we were busy trying to unpack everything. I had my PS2, but I had already beaten most of the games on it. So what I decided to do in an attempt to entertain myself was pull out some of my old PS2 Jampack discs to try out the demos. On the Winter 2003 Jampack I had, there was a demo of DDRMAX 2. I got intrigued and decided to try it.

It took me a few rounds to even realize how you were supposed to hit the arrows, despite the how to play screen. It also only had four songs: D2R, I Feel, Still In My Heart, and Tsugaru. Once I figured out how to play, though, I grew hooked. I played the songs D2R and Tsugaru over and over again, and since I didn't own a dance-mat, I would imitate the steps on my carpet while hitting the buttons on my controller. It looked so ridiculous, but my ten year old self was having a blast.

So I told my parents about the game and they decided to take me to the mall during the weekend to see if there was an arcade machine there. When we arrived, there was a DDR Extreme machine in the back, and the volume was turned up very high. Once I inserted those coins, and experienced the loud booming music and the flashing lights for the first time, you could say the rest was history. After playing at least six or seven games, we left the arcade, and my parents took me to Gamestop where we picked up a copy of DDRMAX2 and a fold-out dance-mat.

I'm 20 now, and several tournaments, game purchases, and dance-pad upgrades later, I'm still playing DDR and I still love it.

I don't remember if I done this before on a previous similar thread, but I'll put down my story. (Waring: Wall of text incoming)

It started near the release of DDR Konamix, where I was told that my older step sister was going to get DDR. It didn't interest me too much, as I was just 8-9 at the time, but when they finally got the game, eventually, I got on the dance pad...

...and did training mode. I get that I was young and inexperienced at the game, but I feel today, I could have probably went right into playing songs. But either way, I went through, passed all the lessons, and went to play After the Game (of Love), even though back then I didn't know that. And surprisingly, on my first try, I passed...with a C I believe. I liked the song, though when listen to it today, it doesn't sound the same as I heard it before. I eventually got a little better, but couldn't play anything beyond a...5 foot at my best when young.

Then I found out about MAX and MAX2 from my best friend. Since at his house we couldn't play on the pads, except if we were downstairs, we played with the controllers more. Which I also remember when I AA Peace Out on MAX and got to the Extra Stage for MAX 300, as we noticed when we ran the roulette wheel, it would show MAX 300 select-able if you land on it. We didn't know what we had coming for us, but hell, it was one hell of a surprise. I got my dad and step mom to buy both MAX and MAX2, which pretty much was more played by me than anyone else in the house.

Then for Christmas, my mom (My parents are divorced, and I still lived with my mom at the time) got me DDR Extreme. Me and my best friend made crazy charts that had triples in them...we didn't even realize that was a glitch in the game. The charts were shitty, but we had fun. It was like ITG, but uber shitty user submitted charts.

I then found out about Stepmania, and started downloading all these songs, blah blah blah, then lost interest in DDR and Stepmania. A year passed and then I remembered I use to play Stepmania, which returned my interest in DDR back.

I got SuperNova2 for Christmas one year, and I was shocked by how harder it got. And then that stopped all PS2 versions of DDR that I got for a long while, until I had my own money and bought the other mixes for PS2, minus X and X2 as I can't find those in a used game store.

And since I've gone on for so long, I'll sum it up with this, played more Stepmania, got better, found the right people with the right resources, blah blah blah, and now I play anything Bemani, because of this game.

TL;DR: I played when I was young, lost interest, regained interest, still play to this day.

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Here's my story

about maybe 8 years ago when I was still innocent, My parents and I went to a church members house to practice their choir singing. My parents left me to play with the member's son who had a PS2. We went into his room and played a few games. He then showed me his copy of DDRMAX2 and pulled out a dance mat to play on. He first showed me how to play it, and I got too into it. I didn't want to leave, so my dad took me to gamestop a few days later and got me DDRMAX2. I still remember going through the tutorials and getting the hang of it. I caught on fast. I eventually got pretty good at it and I started playing songs with little struggle.

I did also end up getting DDR Extreme ps2 US and finally Supernova. I think I stopped there because of the lack of good konami original songs by Supernova 2. Along the way I went through several Dance Pads (Including a Drum dance pad that was a round piece of thick foam with sensors in it that you hit. I believe It was sold at gamestop)

Sadly, right now I live in apartments on second floors, so I can't buy any dance pads to play DDR on. It's just not the same. However, DDR has gotten me interested in Pop'n Music and Beatmania IIDX. I'm actually currently looking into building a Pop'n controller. Otherwise, I've only been playing on Stepmania, PS2 DDR's, and a copy of Pop'n for PS2. Nearest DDR machine is kinda far from me, until the new arcade nearby opens up (assuming they have a DDR Machine)

I first tried DDR in 2002, when I had broken my arm and was in a sling for two weeks.

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It all goes back to my late childhood when, my mother finally divorced from a bigot who used to abuse us and was also attending pentecostal church [meaning no dancing, no art or freedom]
And I had been seeing Music Genre wars since I would remember via TV [which has now scarred for life the way stereotypes work where I live].
But then, my mother would take me to arcades more often than usual.

I saw this machine that looked like the Spider Stomperz I used to play when younger, but with actual sense and meaning.

I saw so many people set aside their musical differences and their violence to enjoy a game that had it all.....

And it warmed my heart to see that DDR could bring together people with simple, the grossest to the most cryptic styles around in harmony.
And I wanted to become a part of that community. That community that had no boundaries........


And I miss those days.

That is why I am now resorting to forums, those days are gone... But I won't forget <3
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DDR inspired the root of the career I am studying for. I am currently in the second phase studying Sound Engineering. Soon enough I'll return the favor.

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my cousins had the disney mix and one of the PS1 versions... that's what got me started, good times

I was fascinated by it when 2nd ReMix first landed at my local video game arcades. I was a kid back then so I had a bit of a phobia about it especially when there are other people around watching me.

The 90's music was very popular that time, of course, so it truly hypnotized me with all those cheesy pop songs as well as their visuals (i.e. the dancing characters, intro movies and the song selection).

Also, it introduced me to various genre of music, especially Techno/Electronica, which helped me shape up what kind of music I would prefer to listen to.

In conclusion, DDR made a huge influence to my childhood and I will never regret that.

I think it was probably 2002 when I first saw a cab at an arcade (pretty sure it was extreme) I noticed someone had left credits in, so I figured, "why not". I failed horribly and my 8 year old self wondered how people could play this. Fast forward to Christmas of 2006, and one of my presents was CS Supernova. I learned kinda slowly, but yeah the rest is history.

>2002
>Extreme

pick one

Nearly everything about it speaks to me.

Catchy music, great gameplay, replay-ability, difficulty, and cool characters. All wrapped up in a really good rhythm game franchise.

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A good portion of the people I watched anime with back in 2003 would also go to the arcade and play DDR/PumpItUp/GuitarFreaks.
I was embarrassingly bad at all the games though, so I did not play much until a few years later when I could go out in the evenings and play alone without my parents getting worried. Freckles, CANDY★ and Love♥Shine were my favourites in the early 2000s.

These two videos. And then I got attracted to an under-rated part of DDR.

I first caught these in 2006-2008 when I had DDR Extreme USA... Unfortunately, one of them were exclusive to a challenge-only song (DROP OUT NONSTOP MEGAMINX) and I could never get far enough to see the video I saw ONCE from my brother playing. I later decided to make an edit data with 0 steps so I didn't have to put up with those. I was only 8 at the time, I think. Alongside that time, I began to get attracted to more of the videos, and later began to download the songs on my computer. By 2009 hit, I actually got a hold of beware's 2005 pack and that changed my life. I also got a hold of DDRMAX2 and then a few months later I began getting motivated to track down some videos not in the pack that I saw in the credits, like Sirens1, Beads3, Boy5a, Robot18a, Robot18b, and other videos that weren't there for some reason. Once the fall of 2010 hit, I think I began actually learning how to play stuff on Heavy. I managed to AA on pad I Need You, think ya better D, Heaven, Drifting Away, and Keep On Liftin'. Then I began learning I was specifically into a set of movies similar to the 2 above (I call them 3DTextura movies) that debuted in the japanese Max2. I also discovered 'More Than I Needed To Know' and later found a very catchy band 'Scooch' that later led me to actually trying to make music in LittleBigPlanet2, alongside Class of 3000, a very interesting show. And then...well, here I am today, with every single DDR movie (even the Euromix2 movies) and trying to re-make them in HD.

I remember those, so hard to see the arrows when the background is colourful and busy

There's also the option to darken them or turn them off completely.

FYI our pads are super sensitive you can literally play with your fingertips, we've had people that were up in apartments claim success by learning how to step lightly using a chair and some type of foam like a yoga-mat under their pad. You can also workout a deal with the downstairs neighbors to find a time when you can exercise in your apartment, ask your manager to mediate because it's your right.

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Needless to say, I got addicted to DDR thanks to earworm. Back when I was a toddler or so, I saw two people playing Dynamite Rave (during the 3rd mix era) then the song got stuck in my head. Long story short, I eventually fall in love with the other songs and DDR's gameplay so much I wanted to try the other mixes

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It's pretty rude though, even if it is a "right".

DDR songs are very catchy. I've had "think ya better D " stuck in my head since last night >_>;;; pretty impressive that you'd remeber a song from when you were a toddler. I assume you've only heard it once at the time.

Sorry, this may get long-winded, but I kinda wanna share my story, too.

When I was young, maybe somewhere between 12-14, the local mall had a pretty awesome arcade with a hefty number of fantastic games, one of which, and the focus of this story, being DDR Extreme. Whenever my cousin and I walked by the arcade, we always saw a decent crowd of people standing around, watching and waiting to play. My memory is pretty fuzzy, it was ten years ago, after all, but I remember we would stand with the crowd, watching these people pass songs on without even breaking a sweat, and they always looked like they were having SO MUCH FUN. We just had to try it. Thankfully, the regulars were cordial and accomodating, and gave us a cursory explanation on how to sort the song list and bring up the options menu, two things I definitely would have never figured out on my own. Naturally, we started on and , and we struggled. But it was fun, and we would always play a few rounds when we were at the mall.

Eventually, we both pitched in to get DDR Extreme on the PS2 and a soft mat. We would set a dining room chair behind us while we were playing to function as a balance bar, and it worked surprisingly well, at the risk of looking a little silly. Eventually, we both got to the point where we could pass songs, and we were slowly getting better, but was still far out of reach. I told myself, "One day, I'll get good at this game. One day, I WILL become 'Mall Guy.'"

But, life happened. My cousin stopped being interested in DDR, which killed a little bit of my motivation, and the arcade in the mall closed down because the people who worked there were more interested in doing drugs in the back room than keeping the place working properly. I was deprived of my niche, arrow-based Japanese dancing machine, and I was saddened. Two years after that, I got into college. Long story short, the Student Center had a small game room with console games, Time Crisis II, and most importantly, DDR Extreme. But Chemical Engineering is a major about many things, and free time is not one of them. I played a few games now and then, mostly on . The machine broke and was removed before I could really get back into it, but I was too busy to be worried about it.

But then, last spring semester, I landed an internship in Pensacola, Florida, and was living less than ten minutes away from a bowling alley with a Supernova cabinet that was in stellar shape. I started going to play once a week.

Then I went to play once every three days.

And eventually, I was playing every day. I was hooked. Obsessed. Addicted. You couldn't pay me to stay away from the thing.

Now, I'm on the second round of my internship (in a different location) and have a mall about 20 minutes away that I visit fairly regularly that has DDR Extreme on free play, you just have to pay for an arcade pass. One day, I was playing A- on Doubles, and when I finished it (with an A, yay me) I heard some cheering and clapping behind me. I turned around, and there was a group of kids, probably about 12-14 years old, watching me with looks on their faces that looked like they had just seen a Pikachu in real life.

And then it hit me.

It finally happened. I became Mall Guy.

And I couldn't be happier, and I still play DDR just about every day, and, barring extreme circumstances, probably won't ever quit. I'm in far too deep now.

Sorry if this dragged on, it's just a fun series of events to recall.

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Neat story and thanks for sharing. It's so rare to see people play the game, let alone have an audience or someone glance at you play ever nowadays.

Congrats.