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Comparison of dance pad video games

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This is a comparison of dancing video game series in which players must step on panels on a dance pad in time with music. Step placement and timing is indicated by rising arrows overlapping fixed targets.

General information

Developer[nb 1] First release[nb 2] Latest release[nb 3] Panels/pad[nb 4] Modifiers[nb 5] Courses[nb 6] Bombs[nb 7] USB Card[nb 8]
Dance Aerobics TM Human Entertainment 1987 (Dance Aerobics)[1] N/A 10 No Yes No No
Dance Dance Revolution Konami 1998 (Dance Dance Revolution) 2022 (Dance Dance Revolution A3) 4[nb 9][nb 10][nb 11] Yes Yes[nb 12] Partial [nb 13] Yes
(X to X3)
Pump It Up Andamiro 1999 (Pump It Up) [2] 2023 (Pump It Up 2023 Phoenix) 5 for single, 10 for double[nb 14] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Dance Maniax Konami 1999 (Dance Maniax) 2001 (Dance Maniax 2ndMIX append JPARADISE) 0
(4 hand sensors) 		Yes Yes No No
3DDX NGG Entertainment 2000 (3DDX) N/A 4 ? ? ? ?
EZ2Dancer AmuseWorld 2000 (EZ2Dancer) 2004 (EZ2Dancer SuperChina) 3
(2 hand sensors) 		? ? ? ?
ParaParaParadise Konami 2000 (ParaParaParadise) 2001 (ParaParaParadise 2nd MIX) 0
(8 hand sensors) 		? ? ? ?
TechnoMotion F2 Systems 2000 (TechnoMotion) (TechnoMotion The 2nd Dance Floor!) 8 Yes No No No
Dance: UK Broadsword Interactive Limited 2003 (Dance:UK) N/A 8 ? ? ? ?
EyeToy: Groove London Studio 2003 (EyeToy: Groove) N/A 0
(6 virtual hand sensors) 		No No No No
In The Groove Roxor 2004 (In The Groove) 2006 (In The Groove 3) 4[nb 9][nb 10] Yes Yes Yes Yes
MC Groovz Dance Craze Mad Catz 2004 (MC Groovz Dance Craze) N/A 8 ? ? ? No
Dance Praise Digital Praise 2005 (Original Dance Praise) 2007 (Dance Praise 2: The ReMix) 4[nb 9] No Partial[nb 15] Yes No
StepMania MIT License 1998 (StepMania) 2021 (Project Outfox & Serenity Edition) 3-10 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Performous GPL License 2009 2010 8 No No Yes Yes
Dance 86.4 Funky Radio Station Konami 2005 (Dance 86.4 Funky Radio Station) N/A 3 ? ? Yes ?
Mungyodance Empathetic Gaming (MGD/MGD2)
Monakai (MGD3) 		2005 (Mungyodance) 2008 (Mungyodance 3 The Third Rave) 4 Yes
(limited) 		Yes Yes Yes
Cyber Coach Quick Controls Ltd 2007 (Cyber Coach) N/A 8 [3] ? ? ? ?
Pump It Up Pro Fun in Motion 2007 (Pump It Up Pro) 2013 (Pump It Up Infinity) 5[nb 14] Yes Yes[nb 16] Yes Yes
StepManiaX Step Revolution 2017 (StepManiaX) N/A (ongoing updates) 3 (Beginner)
5 (Easy, Hard, and Wild)
6 (Dual)
10 (Full and Team) 		Yes No Yes No
Uses QR Code

3 or more simultaneous presses

Some games have 3 or more simultaneous presses. This is supposed to be accomplished via pressing two arrows with the feet and the extra arrows with the player's hands, hence the name "hands". Using carefully positioned feet to hit multiple arrows at once (also known as bracketing) is also another method and is the most common method for much harder songs as time goes by.

  • Dance Dance Revolution: No hands officially. A single song in Dancing Stage 1.5 (Uh La La La Maniac Single) features one hand due to an oversight, a single song in Ultramix 2 (Skulk Challenge Single) features at least one hand but the chart is unused and inaccessible without hacking the game, and four songs in Solo 2000[citation needed] feature at least one hand. Hands are also disallowed in Edit Mode, though a glitch can circumvent this[citation needed].
  • Dance Praise: No hands officially, although some songs feature glitches that require three or four panels to be pressed simultaneously.
  • In The Groove: Having 3 or 4 arrows at once is common. Bend Your Mind Double Expert is the only song to use six panels that must be pressed at once, requiring using knees as well. It is worth noting that on machines which were converted from DDR to ITG, it is usually more difficult to hit hands because one must apply much more pressure to get steps to register; this is because DDR cabinets were not originally designed with hand play in mind.
  • Pump It Up: Yes. In Five-Panel (Singles) songs above the level 13, to press three arrows at once (Triples) is fairly common, albeit often done with the heel rather than a hand. In Ten-Panel songs (Doubles) above the level 17, to press four arrows at once (Quads) is not uncommon, but once again, hands are often not involved. In some boss songs, you might have to press five (singles) or six (doubles) arrows at once, in which case you do have to use the hands, but more than this (eight or ten) has been mostly discontinued (except for some boss missions and gimmick "another" charts)
  • StepManiaX: Various songs have multiple 3 or more arrows as well, usually in the form of involving the center panel where it is central to the other panels. Some songs do contain 3 or more panels that don't use the center panel.

Notes

  1. ^ The developer is the company or individual that has produced/created the game.
  2. ^ The first release is the commercial release within the video game franchise that is earliest in time.
  3. ^ The latest release is the commercial release within the video game franchise that is most recent in time. This may be the latest version if there is only one game in the series or the latest sequel if there are multiple games in the series.
  4. ^ The number of panels per pad refers to the number of inputs that are utilized in gameplay after the start of a song/level.
  5. ^ Modifiers are changes that can be made to modify the game's step routine that usually either increase or decrease difficulty. Such changes may consist of modifications to note scrolling speed, changes to the design or integrity of the notes, and alterations to note positioning.
  6. ^ Courses, often termed "Marathon courses," are sets of multiple songs that are played back-to-back without intermediate rests for the player to select the next song. During course play, life meters for subsequent songs are often directly impacted by the life meters from the songs previously completed. Thus the second song in a course set may begin with the same life meter as the player remained with at the completion of the first song in the course. Courses are often constructed thematically.
  7. ^ Bombs are notes that scroll onto the screen along with the note-markers that the player must avoid stepping on. Often, stepping on a bomb penalizes the player's dance gauge by having it reduced. In some games, derivative elements called "Attack Mines" or "Mod Bombs" may be used to trigger changes to the gameplay that the player might find distracting.
  8. ^ USB card availability refers to the capacity of video game systems in the series (typically arcade systems) to read character or song data from an external removable USB drive.
  9. ^ a b c 4 panels per player: left, down, up, right.
  10. ^ a b By selecting Doubles mode, one player can play with two pads, or 8 panels.
  11. ^ Note that in the now-defunct Solo series, only one pad is used. For this reason, Doubles mode cannot be played. However, two panels were added to the standard four: up-left and up-right. The player can choose to play using 3 or six panels.
  12. ^ Removed in the 2013 release of Dance Dance Revolution, Revived in Dance Dance Revolution A20.
  13. ^ The latest arcade, PS2 and Wii versions feature bombs. Universe 3, however, lacks them.
  14. ^ a b 5 panels per player: up-left, up-right, center, down-left, down-right. The Center panel is square, and the corner panels are rectangle (height > width).
  15. ^ Partial. (Dance Praise 2: the ReMiX introduced Custom Playlists. Similar to courses in DDR and ITG, Custom Playlists are custom-made lists of songs to play through.)
  16. ^ Progressive Mode, allowing several songs to be played with a continuous life bar, and modifiers that change between songs and even during songs.

References

  1. ^ Dance Aerobics Release Date. GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-11-30.
  2. ^ "Pump It Up History". Arcade-History. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
  3. ^ "Cyber Coach". Archived from the original on 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
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