Copyright © Konami 2000

Many in the U.S. may not be familiar with the video game phenomenon known as DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, but there are many who know it all too well. For those who aren't in the know, DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, colloquially known as DDR, is one of a group of video games included in Konami's BEMANI series. This denotes a whole family of music rhythm games created by Konami, which include BEATMANIA, KEYBOARD MANIA, DRUM MANIA, GUITAR FREAKS, and of course DDR. When DDR debuted in Japan in 1998, it was probably regarded as something of a curiosity to Japanese gamers. There were no enemies to fight, nothing to shoot, no one to race against. Coupled with bass-pounding music and simple flashy graphics, the concept was simple; directional arrows would scroll up from the bottom of the screen to the top and when they hit a designated level on the screen, the player must hit the corresponding arrow button on a dance platform, which he or she is standing on. With the exception of selecting songs, modes and starting, the entire game is played with one's feet, helping to distinguish DDR players from their more sedentary arcade brethren. Such a novel concept could have died out quickly, but thanks to its originality, simplicity of gameplay and most of all, music, this curious little game became transformed into a mania that swept across Japan, and other countries all over Asia, notably its nearest neighbor South Korea. After 7 arcade sequels, multiple home versions of the game for the PSX, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo GameBoy and N64, and upcoming clones from other companies, DDR has made its mark in video game and arcade history. This review focuses specifically on the third and latest PlayStation version of the DDR series, released in Japan June 2000.
Like prior versions for the Sony PlayStation, DDR 3RD MIXis a home version of the 3RD MIX arcade game, including several additional songs not found in the arcade version, and several modes as well. Plus there are special features in the home version of 3RD MIX that allows you to save data on the Sony memory card and load it on the arcade machine in Japan. Among the different modes found in the PSX version of 3RD MIX include; a straight port of the 3RD MIX arcade game, Step Step Revolution aka SSR, a 3rd ReMix Mode, Practice Mode, a new Diet Mode, Endless Mode and a Paint Mode. There are 3 levels of difficulty that can be chosen for each song; Basic (easiest), Another (aka trick mode, moderate difficulty), and Maniac (highest difficulty).
In the 1ST and 2ND MIX games, hidden button combination codes would open up these different difficulties, and they had to be opened before the start of the 1st round, and could not be changed back. However in 3rd Mix arcade, the player can freely toggle between Basic and other difficulty levels between songs, and if two people play, then each player could choose his own difficulty level, rather than both having to play a song at the same difficulty. In order to play SSR (the most difficult level) in the arcade, the player had to enter a code prior to starting the 1st round and had to commit this level, like the game announcer says 'There are no easy choices with this one.' This is warning to inexperienced players; SSR is difficult!! 3rd ReMix mode is unique to the PSX version where all the difficulty levels can be accessed by hitting the arrow buttons up or down twice, including SSR, and this is the mode most often played by yours truly.
The novel Diet Mode allows a player to play through a series of songs, and a calorie counter calculates the number of calories burned by the player based on the number of total steps made. Other modes such as Endless Mode were taken from the Dreamcast version of DDR which is similar to the endurance mode in many fighting games, allowing a player to dance to as many songs as possible without failing. Paint Mode is fairly cute but useless, allowing a player to create his own custom DDR arrow with a graphical editor. Most of these modes are not available from the start and must be opened up as more songs are played and completed.
An additional comment must be made about the Practice Mode in 3RD MIX. Like the previous two games, this allows one to practice individual songs at any difficulty and even allows slowing down of the songs so the faster ones are actually approachable. I have been only able to learn the more difficult SSR songs by slowing them down at first. This mode has been improved over the previous two games by allowing the actual music to be slowed down, whereas the first two games contain redbook audio music which could not be slowed down, and one had to practice slowed songs with no music, and just a metronome beat. 3RD MIX practice mode allows you to practice with or without the music, in combination with a metronome for keeping the beat, and a handclap to give the exact rhythm of the steps.
The game's concept is simple. There are 4 'arrow' buttons (up, down, left, right) and a neutral spot in the middle, laid out on a platform. In the arcade version, there are support bars behind the platform and two sets of arrow buttons, allowing two people to play side by side. As the music starts, arrows scroll from the bottom of the screen to empty arrow outlines at the top. The player must step on the arrow button as the arrows hit the top of the screen, often to or complementing the beat of the rhythm. There are several options to play when the game starts including Single, Versus, Unison, and Double. Single is the standard single player mode, where half the screen has arrows scrolling up the screen and the player hits one set of directional arrows on his side of the platform. Versus is a two player mode where a couple will play single player mode side by side, dancing the same steps unless they choose different difficulty levels for the same song. Unison is an update to the fairly unpopular couple mode (which differs from versus as the two players dance complementing steps on their respective sides of the platform rather than the same steps). Unison poses a greater challenge to seasoned DDR players by merging two sets of arrows into one that scrolls up the middle of the screen and is color coded as red, blue and yellow (standard color) arrows. Red arrows are steps designated for one player and blue are only for the other players, while the yellow arrows are for both people. This mode is actually quite difficult, as each player has to decide which steps to do. And like the previous games, double mode is included which allows one person to do step routines using all 8 arrows on the platform.
Compared to the first two games, 3RD MIX is no graphical leap, consisting of many random scrolling images, kaleidoscopes, flashing text, lights, and colors in the background with one or two polygonal figures dancing in the foreground as the arrows scroll up on the screen. The polygon models for the dancers have improved somewhat from the first game but are by no means considered incredible. The overall graphical presentation is flashy, psychedelic and yet simplistic, and while some may complain about this, they are most likely people who are watching the game and not playing. As many seasoned DDR players know, as they play, the background graphics are the last thing they notice, as they are concentrating on the rhythm, the arrows, and most of all the music, which leads us to probably one of the most important aspects of the game.
Next to the simplicity of the gameplay, the one other feature that makes DDR the sensation it is, is probably the music. As one may guess, all the music is dance genre, but spanning many different styles including, hip-hop, techno, trance, rave, freestyle, and my personal favorite euroNRG. It is perhaps no coincidence that while the eurodance music phenomenon is becoming a passing fad in the USA, it has gained increasingly strong popularity in Japan in the last few years. Hot dance acts such as E-Rotic and Captain Jack, well known in eurodance circles, have started make there presence felt in the video game industry now. Drawing music from Konami's DANCEMANIA collection, 3RD MIX boasts an ever impressive collection of upbeat, pulse-pounding songs such as "Dam Dariram," "Operator," "Do It All Night," "Dynamite Rave" as well as a whole array of Konami original songs, remixed covers of pop songs, and multiple Italo-Disco dance hits. Another nice touch is that some of the songs will actually display the lyrics on screen for onlookers to read, which has amusing results especially with the E-Rotic songs such as "Oh Nick Please Not So Quick" and "Turn Me On." The PSX version of 3RD MIX boasts an impressive 36 songs to start with and 16 songs that open up after repeated gameplay. To this reviewer's disappointment, a few songs from the arcade version are missing in the PSX version.
So far, DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION 3rd Mix is the latest and best of the series available for home play. Since it is an import, it may be an expensive investment to purchase a copy of this game and a pair of dancing mats, and while I don't usually believe in purchasing bulky specialty controllers for certain games, this is an investment that is well worth the money and time. Oh and for those who are curious, this game can be played with the controller pad, although I don't know why anyone would want to. So seasoned gamers, get off your behinds and move your body to the rhythm!
One final note: Konami has officially announced that they are releasing a version of DDR for the U.S. in both the arcades and PSX. This version will contain a mix of songs from 1ST, 2ND and 3RD MIX including original songs not found in any Japanese version. They will also be releasing the official Konami dance pads as well.

Rating: 8 / 10

Sony PlayStation (1 CD)
Dance rhythm action
1-2 Players
compatible with dance-mat controller (sold separately)
SLPM 86503
¥5800
Availabile now in Japan
Where to buy