Although I’ve played DDR years ago on my friend’s Playstation (2?) and in the arcade at Dave & Buster’s, I considered myself a newbie when I got my own copy of the game to play on my Wii console. If you’re an expert, this post probably wouldn’t be helpful to you, but if you’d like to share your own tips, please feel free to do so in the comments section. I won’t repeat the tips that could be found on the dance pad, in the instruction manual, and in the first venue of Groove Circuit Mode.
- Konami recommended using bare feet and to avoid using “shoes or stocking feet”. When I played barefoot, it limited how long I could play because my feet eventually got sweaty and even though I tried to wipe them on the carpet, it eventually affected game play. I wasn’t sure if stocking was the same as socks so I didn’t take the chance in the beginning. Then one time I forgot to take off my socks and realized that I was fine. Sweat was no longer a problem.
- I had a lot of trouble beating the “boss” level of the second level of Groove Circuit Mode called Genesis Venue. No matter what, I could not win. Finally, I turned off the Hand mode and my score improved. I don’t know if it’s my incompetence but the hand gestures don’t seem reliably responsive, and thereby messing my score.
- To turn off Hand Gestures, go to the Options menu during the view that shows the songs.
- Be careful about where your feet are while in the menus. I was using the Wiimote to navigate so I wasn’t even aware of the dancepad’s controls. I kept having my foot on the left arrow, which is used to select the songs. Because of that, the song selector kept going and going, which made me think it was in some spin-the-wheel selector mode. Not that everyone is as silly as me.
- Since the hand gesture icons are diamond shaped instead of arrow-shaped, I had a hard time with the timing. I finally figured out how to do it correctly. The right and left points of the diamond need to line up with the horizontal line of the arrow, or think of the right and left points lining up with the arrow points. Once I figured that part out, hand gestures didn’t mess up my score as much.
- Think of parsing the step arrows like reading words out loud. When reading, it helps to glance ahead and to group words that go together. In DDR, try to look at the arrows before they reach the top, and group them based on some common patterns that will become obvious with some experience (e.g., ???? or up-right-up-right if the fonts don’t turn out) and prepare to be in position for them.
Ali (1 comments) said,
I’ve been having unreliable results with flinging the controllers forward, sideways, and pressing controller buttons as I swing them. Your last tip about the diamond points lining up could be my problem..I’ll check that.
My biggest problem with the game is all the waiting in between screens.. The waits aren’t long, but I guess I’m impatient and keep hitting buttons to try to skip through and speed it up, and inevitably I hit the wrong thing at the wrong time and end up in Expert mode (I’ll belong on Basic for a while yet) and then arrows fly at me and my blood pressure goes up and I die very quickly….
Oh, I guess that brings me to my second or bigger issue — there seems to be no “pause” option. Having no pause option is thoroughly ridiculous to me. Thoroughly.
Since I seem to be listing my issues with the game (–I love the game, btw.. this is my first DDR game ever, and I’ve looked forward to getting it since I heard the Wii would have it–) I’ll add that the dance pad, while reasonably solidly made, could definitely use varying textures for tactile response. The whole surface feels the same, and I unknowingly shift off center and inadvertently end up standing on one of the arrows, messing up my gameplay. Thankfully it blinks on the screen, but would make much more sense to feel it under your feet. I guess this might not work so well if you’re wearing socks, but maybe if your socks are thin….
That’s a whole lot more writing than I intended.
Anyway, good day(ing) and happy gameplaying to you
October 8, 2007 - Monday at 5:32 am
K-Dog (1 comments) said,
I haven’t tried this out personally yet, but I’ve been told that shaking the controllers for the hand markers isn’t the only way to hit them. An FAQ I read stated that you can also simply hit the Z button for the left marker and the B button for the right. Better still, however, is to simply turn off the hand markers in the options screen. I know they’re supposed to be one of the great reasons to get this version of DDR, but they’re mostly just annoying. If you must keep hand motions on though, try just using the buttons. They HAVE to be more responsive than the controller shake, which seems to map a button press to the beginning of your hand movement rather than an abrupt stop, ala Rayman Raving Rabbids’ musical minigames, which almost always worked as expected.
All in all, the hand motions become pretty useless though, since you’ll get far more exercise by using your feet instead of your hands. If you want to exercise your arms, grab some small barbells and hold them while you play. Just DON’T DROP THEM!
October 16, 2007 - Tuesday at 5:44 pm