Song-of-Fire
can any one help me I am very new at DDR if any one has tips for me on how to improve please pm me
I knew I was going to post something like this one day...
===================================
Dancing Tips for the Beginner
===================================
KEEP PRACTICING!
So, you've just got into DDR, eh? Good for you! You've become a part of a
cult sensation that still holds tons of respect in arcades across the country!
This game will probably seem quite overwhelming to you at first, especially
if you watch people play it and watch them do 9-footers. Don't sweat it.
You CAN be as good as them with the proper practice and effort.
If you really want to get into this, definitely use the Official DDR Pad.
There's no PS2 controller to use in the arcades, so learn the pad nice and
early. Most game stores have a few of these tucked away (possibly more, if
Konami's hyping this game like they should). If you're truly a beginner, you
may just want to start with a nice cheap pad. That way, if you find it's not
for you, you're not out a huge investment.
So, to begin, use the Lesson Mode the game provides you. It will walk you
through the basics and coach you to be a better dancer.
Despite the Lesson Mode, here are some tips I can give you as a beginner:
1. Get a good feeling for the beat. People who have performed with music have
an advantage. People in marching band have a serious advantage. ~_^ You'll
be stepping to the beat in these early stages, so get used to it now.
2. Now that you have the beat, you must "find the arrows". Yeah, sure. I
know they're right there in front of you, to your sides, and behind you, but
can you hit them without looking? Early on, you'll find that's your biggest
problem: taking a step and not landing on the arrow. If you have to look,
look, but that tactic won't last forever, so before a song takes off, take
some cursory steps to make sure you're hitting arrows.
3. Keep your center. Especially on cheap pads with no definition, you'll find
yourself often taking leave of the center of the pad as you continue stepping.
If there's a break in the song, look down to make sure you're in the center.
4. Use the balls of your feet. You may notice, after some days of a lot of
playing, that your ankles will start hurting. That's normal, and it's
happened to most everyone I know that DDRs. This is your feet telling you to
not step with your heels, but with the front of the foot. Get into that
habit.
5. Now that you have these basics, and the Lesson Mode (largely) completed,
head into Beginner Mode and start tackling songs. In particular, get used to
the speed of the songs, as well as the speeding-up, slowing-down, and stopping
some songs do. When that just gets too easy, take a deep breath and head into
the real DDR world with Light Mode. Try to keep your songs at three feet or
below, but don't be afraid to venture out into the great unknown.
=======================================
Dancing Tips for the Intermediate
=======================================
KEEP PRACTICING!
Well, you're definitely not a n00b anymore (pardon my French). You're at the
point where you wouldn't completely humiliate yourself at the arcades, but
you probably won't impress many people there. In fact, you may just bore them
with your simple steps. It's time to go to the next level.
At this point in your career, it's time to consider a new pad. For me, this
meant going to redoctane.com and ordering their standard soft pad. This pad
has a soft bottom which won't slip or bunch up as much. It's still not a
serious pad, but you could do worse with fifty bucks...
So, first tip is to KNOW THE SONGS. You don't necessarily need to memorize
the steps, but have a basic understanding of the song before you go into it.
Even memorize the music itself, the lyrics, etc. so you can whistle along.
Know where the tempo changes may occur, where stops are. Most importantly,
know where the songs musical notes occur in the melody, because these will
be mostly what you step.
Now that we're heading into dangerous territory, there is one big rule that
I have to stress right away:
Remember how in the last part I told you to "find your center"? Well, you've
found it by now, so now it's time to GET OFF IT. That's a crutch that's
let you into the game, but it will hold you back later on. What you have to
learn is to return your feet to the center as rarely as possible, if at all.
Move your feet from one arrow to the next, and don't move them unless you have
an arrow to go to. This is probably the hardest thing you'll ever have to
learn as a DDR player. Once you've relinquished your grip on the center, you
only stand to improve up to the highest reaches of DDR-dom.
This actually leads to the other major point of going intermediate:
Eighth notes. Those are those off-colored ones. You'll have to deal with
a lot of them, so learn to love them now. This is actually a good first step
to leaving the center, because you are absolutely required to step three or
more arrows in succession, and you'll have no time to return to the center at
all. Use groups of three eighth notes to figure how to properly move between
arrows; combinations such as up-left-down, where your right foot goes on up,
left foot goes on left, and your right foot is already carrying back towards
the down arrow, for example. Once you get strings of three down, you'll be
ready to tackle longer strings, of four, five, seven, even nine if they're
not too tangly...
So, for this end, you'll want to go for songs of four to six feet in
difficulty, as well as treading into the pink pink waters of Standard Mode.
Just about all songs of this difficulty have at least several eighth notes
to give you practice. Take these opportunities to develop your step
combinations for your own style, so you'll be ready to use them when they
appear again in harder songs.
Also, it may behoove you to get into Workout Mode or Endless Mode and
repeatedly hammer some songs, particularly those of a brisk pace. This is a
good first step to building up all-important stamina.
===================================
Dancing Tips for the Advanced
===================================
KEEP PRACTICING!
All right. You're through messing around, and through getting condescending
looks from your peers at the arcade. It's time to show them what you can
really do and kick it up a notch or three.
If you're really serious now, it's once again time for a new pad. Although
7, 8, and even some 9-footers are possible on a soft, flimsy pad, you just
won't get the high scores you cherish. For this, I turned to RedOctane's
Ignition 2.0. It's also a soft pad, but the thick foam insert, soft gripping
bottom, and raised step platforms make it a good pad for aspiring champions,
all for a paltry 100 clams.
Of course, if you have the money to blow (approximately $300), you may want
to take it even further and buy the Cobalt Flux pad, which is a custom-made
hard metal pad. It's VERY resilient, and much like pads you'll see in the
arcades.
Anyway, pads aside, it's time to get down to business:
First, you better have mastered the stuff from the previous sections. I want
to be able to yell out a song title and for you to hum it right there so you
know what it sounds like. I don't wanna see your feet touch that center,
soldier, or you'll drop and give me fifty. At this point, you should also
have quick enough eye-foot coordination so that matching arrows on the screen
with proper steps is second-nature.
Now, for some new tactics:
Chaos. You'll soon find as you reach the higher levels, that not all arrows
are quarter notes and eighth notes. You'll find sixteenths, twelfths, and
thirty-second notes thrown in to mess you up. Very rarely will they be in
random. Almost always, they'll match up with how the song goes, so you'll
at least have that going for you. So, a thorough knowledge of the songs will
allow you to surmount this hurdle with little difficulty.
Taps. This is the name I like to give eighth notes all on the same arrow.
These are always a pain, because you have to train your foot to tap rapidly on
the same arrow for a possibly long time, and it can really wear you out.
There's no easy way to get around this, you just have to learn it as you go.
Gallops. This is the popular name for a series of steps that has two
sixteenth note steps together, then two sixteen notes of dead space, then two
note steps together, and so on. When you step these notes, you'll feel like
a horse gallopping, which derives the name. Oftentimes, these notes will be
strung so that the last note in one gallop is the first note of the next
gallop. To properly step these, leave your last-stepping foot in place, so
it'll be ready to step the next gallop while your other foot moves to the
next note. This leads to the final tactic.
Axis of Rotation or "crossovers". Contrary to popular belief, you do not have
to have your upper body directly facing the screen at all times. A very
important tactic for the toughest songs is turning your body so that making
truly difficult steps becomes easier. Using alternating feet on long series'
of eighth notes is far less taxing than taking two or more eighth notes with
one foot. The best way to start turning your body is with left-down-right
eighth note combos. Left foot on the left arrow, right foot on the down, and
turn so that your left foot hits the right arrow. It'll be very disorienting
at first, but the hard songs will really take it out of you if you don't
learn. After learning a basic turn, learn to maintain your body at a 90
degree angle to the screen for extended periods of time, and then taking it
further by rotating 180 degrees, or even 270 and 360, if you're brave enough
to take your eyes off the screen.
Finally, it's important to be in relatively good shape for this. You have to
have the proper stamina and leg strength to pull off the toughest ones,
because rather dexterous and tiring feats will be required of you, so keep
pounding at it, do hard songs repeatedly to build up strength, and push
yourself harder and harder to go all the way up to the great green Heavy
Mode.
And lastly, never tackle 10-footers without a good insurance plan backing
you up... ^_^
Reply
