DDR Enthusiasts and Rise of Popularity
I still remember the first time I saw DDR at the arcade. There were a group of guys playing while dancing and hopping on the back metal bar without a care in the world. They had towels with them to wipe the massive amounts of sweat coming from their bodies.
I was never that into DDR but it was impressive to see how talented and dedicated the DDR community was.
Good DDR players would draw crowds at the arcade, which helped in persuading others to try out the game.
Dance Dance Revolution was always pretty popular in Japan from its beginning. These enthusiasts are what propelled DDR’s popularity in the United States.
I am going to give a look at the history of Dance Dance Revolution and how it shaped gaming culture by making rhythm games at the arcade and at home the next big thing.
Dance Dance Revolution History and Release Date
Dance Dance Revolution was released in 1998 in Japan and 1999 in North America and Europe. Konami developed and published the game.
Konami has been making popular arcade machines since the late 80s. Their arcade success began with Frogger in 1981. They made a bunch of the best beat’em up arcade games such as TMNT, X-Men, and The Simpsons arcade game.
Konami actually had its own division within the company just for making music video games. This division was called Bemani. Dance Dance Revolution, along with all of Konami’s other music games, were released under the Bemani brand.
I will go into detail on the other arcade rhythm games a little bit later. But first, let’s look at how popular DDR became and its influence on video games and our culture.
DDR Pop Culture References
- The Office
- Malcolm in the Middle
- Dance Dance Revolution in Movies
- Yes Man
- Grandma’s Boy
- Kissing Booth 1 & 2
For clips of these Dance Dance Revolution references check out this summary video:
Most Popular DDR Songs
These songs were mostly taken from the first version of DDR. Fan-favorite DDR songs.
- Butterfly – by Smile.dk
- Dub-I-Dub – by Me and My
- Trip Machine – by De-sire
- Kung Fu Fighting – by Bus Stop featuring Carl Douglas
- That’s the Way (I Like It) – by KC and the Sunshine Band
My most memorable Dance Dance Revolution song was Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. My family got DDR for PS2 on Christmas and I remember playing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on my DDR pad at my house.
Where to Play DDR Online
Stepmania
Stepmania is an open-source Dance Dance Revolution clone that was released for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
Players can make their own custom songs and stepcharts. There is a large library of custom songs to dance to if you have your own DDR dance mat that can connect to your PC. Otherwise you can use your keyboard to press the corresponding arrows but that is not as fun.
Arcade Rhythm Games Like DDR
There have been a few music rhythm games at the arcade prior to Dance Dance Revolution.
Konami and their internal team, called Bemani, released Beatmania in 1997 to arcades just before they released DDR.
Beatmania was a large arcade cabinet with turntables and keys. You had to hit the keys and spin the turntable to the beat as bars fell from the top part of the screen.
Beatmania helped in making music games a normal thing at the arcade.
During the music game craze, Konami/Bemani tried to cash in on the popularity with many other arcade rhythm games.
Pop’n Music was just a simplified and more childish Beatmania. The arcade cabinet looked more cartoony and the game only had buttons with no turntable. It was released to arcades in 1998.
Reflec Beat – A Lesser Known Arcade Rhythm Game
Reflec Beat was released in 2010 to arcades.
Reflec Beat is a touch screen based game. The player has to touch circular objects with the right timing, corresponding to the beat of the song. The gameplay is very similar to other popular rhythm games such as Elite Beat Agents and osu!
Reflec Beat + can be played on Itunes as it was released as an app in 2011.
The First Instrument Arcade Game that Guitar Hero Copied
GuitarFreaks, DrumMania, and Keyboardmania
These games were made for arcades starting in 1999. Long before the popularity of Guitar Hero. The Guitar Hero and Rock Band series were definitely influenced by these games that came before them.
You play with a plastic guitar, drumset, or keyboard. There are four columns of notes scrolling down from the top of the screen. You must hold the right button and hit the fret lever to hit the note as it crosses a line. Almost identical gameplay to Guitar Hero.
The drums also play very similarly to the Rock Band drums.
Because of the vast similarities, Konami sued the developer of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Harmonix, in 2008. The lawsuit was eventually settled in court and the claims were dismissed.
DDR was the first arcade rhythm game to really popularize the genre even outside the arcade and into home consoles.
Guitar Hero at the Arcade
Unlike Konami’s rhythm games, Guitar Hero started out on home consoles and later came to arcades.
The arcade version of Guitar Hero was released in 2009. Despite all the lawsuits and conflict, Konami developed the arcade version of Guitar Hero. Activision was still the publisher.
The arcade game was based on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. It had 50 songs. Some songs came from the third Guitar Hero game’s setlist and some from downloadable songs that came out later.
I always thought it was weird that it did not have every song from the original on the arcade version. Maybe this was to keep it simpler so arcade goers aren’t scrolling through hundreds of songs while others wait to play.
I still play the Guitar Hero arcade game at my local arcade to this day. The plastic guitars usually take a beating and I think they are phasing out Guitar Hero from most modern arcades.
Arcades have recently been getting into the virtual reality space.
Beat Saber – VR Arcade
The first time that I played Beat Saber was at the arcade. There is a section of the arcade I go to that has VR headsets. This experience allowed me to try out virtual reality before I spent any money on the expensive hardware.
I bought an Oculus Quest VR headset because I enjoyed Beat Saber at the arcade so much. Currently, it is one of my favorite modern rhythm games and I can play it from the comfort of my own home.
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Arcade Music Video Games
Rhythm games give such unique ways to play video games. It helps you move your body in different ways to stay physically active and engaged.
The fake instruments and hardware required to play these unique music games deters a lot of people from buying them for their homes.
Arcades are where these fun and inventive rhythm games got their start. The future success of arcades is up in the air, especially with the current pandemic. But I believe arcades are the perfect environment to showcase new, experimental games that could be the next cool video game craze.