Best mats for DDR?

lionheart4life

lionheart4life

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I wanna get in on Dance Dance Revolution. I think it would make a cool party game and I'm just looking for a different kind of game. What dance mats would be the best for it at an affordable price? (excluding the expensive metal ones or the actual arcade machine) I'm talking under $30 for one, but must be quality and last for a long time and heavy use. Thanks.
 
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[quote name='murcielago77']no quality ones are under or at 30 bucks the best one that is the cheapes is the red octance ones for like 90 bucks[/quote]

No.... the level six ones are the exact same thing and a third the price
 
I was about to make a thread about the same thing. What about dance pads in the price range of $30-$60, maybe higher if it improves drasticly. I'm definitely not going over $80 though, if I were, I would've already bought that $110 (ouch!) Ignition dance pad in my EB.
 
I have the official Konami pad that came bundled with the first DDR game for the PSone. It's alright but not up to par for me.

Anyway, what if one wants to buy a good hard pad? What's the best ones?
 
Make your own pad. Go to BJs/Costco any store that has those push carts with the handles...Take it home. Cut it in half and nail/staple/molt do whatever you have to do to get your softpad onto it. Thats what I did and it works great! I now have arcade quality pads :)
 
I hate the Cobalt Flux. You can't feel if it is a button or not and there's no buffer on the edges
If it looks like an Ignition Pad, it probably is. A lot of them are made in the SAME FACTORY.
At E3 I found an updated metal pad. I've seen it before on LikSang (And Fry's), but this one had supports on the bottom and felt a HELL of a lot thicker. $150 for it, plus a LOT for shipping. The company had Tiger in their name,
 
I agree the only option for serious DDR playing for Semi cheap is to mod your pad. I spend 100 for the ignition 2.0 with the foam inserts and its not up to par with my modded konami pad. If your heavy like me 220 lbs the foam starts to compress and then loses accuracy. AFter a couple months of use the foam was really compressed for me. The modded pad on plywood has taken a beating almost every day for the past 6 months (i can do 7-8 step songs on standard mode). i've used it off an on for a year but the last 6 months its been at least 6 days a week. After all the abuse i've given it, its still dead on accurate.

I first thought it was too much effort to mod a pad but i had already bought 3 soft pads and the ignition and could not get a reliable solution. So for me this was the last resort and I have to say it was exactly what i needed. It took only about 30 minutes to mod and its been going strong for a year (since ddr max2 came out)
 
My bf modded our pads the same way last summer, but with third party soft pads. They were awesome at first, but the accuracy isn't too great now. One of our pads is dead (non-DDR related reason), the other is on the fritz, and we got a cheap backup Madcatz that we may be putting into use soon. We play Heavy mode, 7-10 feet, and are really serious players. Aside from the metal pad of the arcade machine, the cobalt flux is the closest you're going to get for the long run. We're going to invest in one because we play almost every day and will continue to do so. We would more than likely spend that much at the arcade this summer (let alone what we've already spent).

However this option isn't for anyone. Like I originally said, you really gotta be into this game to shell out those bucks. If you're a passive player, go for the cheap soft pads and "mod" them.
 
I heard the official konami pads are higher quality(used to sell for 75 bucks at import shops before DDRMax 2 came out making them easier to find in the US). I modded mine out of the box. Never used it before I modded it. Using a softpad on carpet or folding it, reduces its life obviiously. Mine takes a beating (daily) and is still just as accurate as it was when I pulled it out of the box.
 
[quote name='moiety']The Cobalt Flux (http://www.cobaltflux.com/) is supposed to be awesome. It's $300, but worth it if you are a a big DDR player. Check out the testimonials and videos on the site. My bf and I will be getting one soon. Right now we have third party pads that he "modded" with a wooden board and plastic floor covering (http://www.ddrfreak.com/library/faqs-modding.php). That has worked really well for us for the most part. :)[/quote]

Cobalt Flux is the best. Also one of the most expensive.
 
Whatever you do, get it soon... today we had a pool party at my house...
unfortunately the weather didnt permit long periods of swimming... so I fired up the ddr games... most everyone had it on their "to get" list when they left that day (hell even my boss played it... :lol: )...

Also Karaoke Rev kicks ass too... actually got my boss singing "power of love" on my digital camcorder... excellent blackmail material...
 
[quote name='moiety']The Cobalt Flux (http://www.cobaltflux.com/) is supposed to be awesome. It's $300, but worth it if you are a a big DDR player. [/quote]

I have had a Cobalt Flux since October. It's an amazing pad. My scores went up considerably. I can now AAA some songs which I could never do before. Best thing next to having an arcade machine (which I tried to buy but could never find a Solo machine for under $1000 or a 2 player one for under $1500, so I bought a Cobalt Flux, Japanese PS2 and all the import DDR games instead)
 
[quote name='YoshiFan1'][quote name='moiety']The Cobalt Flux (http://www.cobaltflux.com/) is supposed to be awesome. It's $300, but worth it if you are a a big DDR player. [/quote]

I have had a Cobalt Flux since October. It's an amazing pad. My scores went up considerably. I can now AAA some songs which I could never do before. Best thing next to having an arcade machine (which I tried to buy but could never find a Solo machine for under $1000 or a 2 player one for under $1500, so I bought a Cobalt Flux, Japanese PS2 and all the import DDR games instead)[/quote]

That's awesome. We can't wait to get one! We're considering buying a Japanese PS2 at some point so we can import DDR Extreme (as well as some other games). We're gonna wait to see how good (or bad) the US release of Extreme is, and then go from there. :)
 
[quote name='Akkis99']DDR for xbox rules. It never ends with that game. Way to addictifve.[/quote]

Hafta disagree there. The Xbox version is horrible compared to the PS2 games: definitely a disappointment considering. You have to be SPOT ON in getting the arrows, and they even mixed up Candy Heart and Candy Star's steps. That's just careless. The frame rate always stutters, and there's load times for the songs? Please.

I haven't gotten tired of Konamix, Max, or Max2 yet, although I'm really looking forward to Extreme. The PS2 versions are better all-around.
 
[quote name='moiety']

That's awesome. We can't wait to get one! We're considering buying a Japanese PS2 at some point so we can import DDR Extreme (as well as some other games). We're gonna wait to see how good (or bad) the US release of Extreme is, and then go from there. :)[/quote]

Have you seen the screen shots of Extreme US yet?

If not you are going to be very dissapointed.

It looks nothing like the Japanese version.

Here is a link with tons of screen shots:
http://www.blinkysrus.com/cgi-bin/newspro/fullnews.cgi?newsid1084331811,72776,
 
Yeah, I've already seen them, sadly. I'm not too interested in the incorporation of the Eyetoy either. Alas, Extreme Jp can never be beat. It has the best interface, best songs, just awesome overall. Why do they gotta go and change a good thing? :(
 
My theory is that they want to make it different than the arcade and Japanese version because with Max and Max 2, maybe people were expecting it to be just like the Japanese versions but they weren't of course. And by having Extreme US totally different, people may not expect the arcade Extreme licscenses like Cartoon Heroes or Speed Over Bethoven to be in the game.

The best example is Max 1 US, other than about 10 or 12 songs the game had nothing in common with the arcade version while the Japanese PS2 version of Max was a perfect arcade port, every song on the machine was in the home version. What I can't figure out is why Konami Original songs were left out of the game like Firefly or True (Radio Edit). With Extreme US, maybe a lot of the more non mainstream type songs even if they are Konami original's will be left out of the game like the Pop N Music songs.

The one think I like so far about Extreme US is that it has There You'll Be in the game which is something that was even left out of the Japanese home version of Max 2 so this will be the first time it will be in a home game. Now if they could somehow get Senorita and Petit Love in the game (both songs have never been released in a home version either) then I wouldn't care about the interface of the game and buy it instantly.
 
I don't even have a PS2, but the complaints behind Ultramix were why it was delayed so much. Imagine 6 months less of development time on it.
 
I don't have so much of a problem with the design or interface of Ultramix as I do with the songlist. Other than Castles In The Sky and a few other songs, I thought it had a horrible songlist.
 
Castle in the Sky sucked. The best song probably was.......wait Ultramix sucks. Me personally, Arcade 5th mix is my favorite. I don't like Extreme much...but to be blunt Stepmania is alllllllllll I play now. I can pick WHAT Songs I want when I want whenever I want. I love it.
 
5th Mix is great. One of the arcades I am at during the summer downgraded their Max 2 to 5th Mix and it's so nice to play some songs that I previously could only play at home with the home versions of 4th and 5th mix.

What I can't stand about the songpacks for Ultramix is that they are charging to download Konami original songs! If they put up licsensed songs for download I could understand the fees but it seems ridiculous to charge $5 for each song pack of Konami original songs.

Ultramix is the only US DDR game I don't own and for good reason. I hope Ultramix 2 is better.

Edit: Post 1000! :D
 
Konami doesn't seem to care about its Bemani fans in the US.

We haven't had a new US DDR arcade machine since DDR USA (I know Konami shut their US arcade division down but they could still release a new machine with another company distributing the machine).

And that they refuse to bring out any other Bemani in the US. I know they can't bring out Drum Mania because MTV holds a patent for their stupid Drumscape game but Beatmania IIDX has a decent sized following in the US and I think it would sell ok here. Same with Guitar Freaks, I think that would be popular here as well.
 
Yup. Konami's USA Coin-op office has been closed for a long ass time. The closest you'll find to a new DDR is In The Groove (www.RoxorGames.com). One of the main programmers on it is Chris Danford, the creator of Stepmania.
 
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