DDR

I had 2 DDR experiences during vacation. The first was in Houston. We went to the only DDR machine in Houston as far as I know (it’s at Tinseltown).

SN. There’s a version of DDR in America called Dance Dance Revolution USA. I’ve seen it at Sunnyvale Golfland and that’s the machine in Houston. Anyway, there are several differences between this and the Japanese version. First of all, there are a ton of songs you can choose from. The selection screen looks like All Songs mode. And there are a bunch of songs I haven’t seen before. Also, you don’t have to do any codes to change the skill level – you can choose it at the selection screen.

Most significantly, I think the rating is easier. I don’t know, it seems like they dumbed it down and made it easier for Americans. Those arrogant Japanese.

Anyway, there were a bunch of high school kids camped out there with cups full of quarters, so my sister and her friend (who were the ones who wanted to play) were too intimidated to. They were serious losers, doing the fancy moves on easy songs with their loser girlfriends admiring them.

At any rate, I just wanted to play so I worked my way in and played with one of them. At any rate, I did pretty well. I did one of the level 6 ones, one of the Paranoia mixes and got an A! The high schoolers actually applauded me. I don’t know, I felt pretty good about myself. But like I said, I think they grade it easier on the USA version.

Except that midway through the last song, the level 6, I was physically dying. I was just praying that it would end soon. Afterwards, I was so out of breath and my legs hurt so much I couldn’t stand for like 15 minutes. It was pretty pathetic.

Anyway, I played again in Long Beach a couple days ago (DDR 3rd Remix) and it was humiliating. I just sucked. I played with this little Filipino kid who kept his hands in his pockets the whole time and I kept getting E’s. It was terrible. I was pretty humbled.

I’ve seen a bunch of other games also. There’s this DJ game that I’ve seen all over the place that’s pretty insane. I also played this electric guitar game at Sunnyvale Golfland. It’s similar to DDR – you hold this guitar and press buttons and strum as you see the patterns come up on the screen. But, it was pissing me off because I kept failing. Anger.

I also saw a drumming game, with the full drum set, at Jillians in Houston. (Jillians is like a competitor to Dave and Busters. Exact same type of place.)