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Dance Pad opinions please


mesarobins

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My 12 yo dd loves doing DDR on PS at friends homes but we don't have any gaming systems at our house and I am not going to get any just for that. So I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the difficulty of the dance mats that do not require a gaming system. I noticed a couple in the BF ads:

 

KB Toys Dance Maker Hop Hop and Electronic Dance Mat

Kohls Dance Mania Dance Pad

 

Kohls also has a dance mat that is part of the V-tech V-smile system.

 

Does anyone know anything about any of these? I want to make sure it is difficult enough and big enough for a pre-teen. She is only at the second level of DDR so she is not too advanced, but with access to it at home she would get better very quickly.

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I haven't tried out those products personally, but I have pretty good reason to believe that if your daughter is picky and is used to the DDR experience on Playstation, this may be a really poor alternative. The arrows, graphics and all around gameplay are a poor ripoff of the original. The demo I tried at a mall kiosk had poor reaction to the steps and wasn't very fun to play. Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you end up getting a poor version, I'd hate to see you get stuck with it. Good luck on your search! =)
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I haven't tried out those products personally, but I have pretty good reason to believe that if your daughter is picky and is used to the DDR experience on Playstation, this may be a really poor alternative. The arrows, graphics and all around gameplay are a poor ripoff of the original. The demo I tried at a mall kiosk had poor reaction to the steps and wasn't very fun to play. Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you end up getting a poor version, I'd hate to see you get stuck with it. Good luck on your search! =)

Gotta agree, the pad for the game system is the way to go. I was able to get 2 dance pads & the DDR game at Sam's for $49 several months ago.

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The simulator is called StepMania

It's free, you just have to download the fan-made-songs yourself.

The only tricky part is finding a connector that connects a dance pad to the computer.

The connector connects a video game controller to the computer, with some configuring you can make the dance mat act as a controller. You have to buy an X-box, or a Playstation dance mat of course.

I think you can still buy the connector at playasia.com

 

But I agree, if she's already on the second difficulty, those knock-off dance mats aren't going to be much of a challenge to her.

 

Good Luck :fluffy:

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I believe they sell PS2 controller-to-usb adapters at Radio Shack. So you'll just have to buy to dance pad and the adapter. You can get generic PS2 soft pads for around $20. But I would recommend getting one with extra padding, which are usually around $40. The best thicker-padded one is the RedOctance Ignition Pad, you can get it on RedOctane's website.
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I got the Dance Mania double pad for my daugthers (6 and 10) from Kohls with the $10 coupon I got last month. I paid ~$20 OTD since it was 50% off. It was originally a Christmas gift for them, but we decided to let them open early since my older daughter did well in a recent Math test. They love it very much. The only TV game console we have at home is a pretty old model and they do not play it more than twice a year, so there is nothing really for them to compare. It got 9 games for TV connection. The first time we tried, I hooked it up to a digital projector and we are all very happy with it. There are a couple problems with the dance pad. First, it runs only on 4 AA batteries. There is no power adapter option. When the battery runs a little low, you cannot use the TV-free mode. The second problem is the bottom side of the pad does not grip on any kind of surface, floor or carpet. It does come with double side foam pad got attachment, but I don't think that is a good idea. Basically, we have to re-position the pad after each game. For less than $20 it is a very good deal, but I would definitely not pay the full price.
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