As a dance challenged, lazy, out of shape gamer-girl whose nights often include pizza and movies (yeah I know there's more of you out there!) I bought this DDR wii game to help me get active. I highly recommend it to inexperienced dancers because each song has various difficulty levels (four actually, but I've yet to get passed 1- beginner and 2- basic.) It will keep you challenged and give you room to improve, making this game a good investment for the game play time.
There is a good single player work out mode where you can select how many calories you'd like to burn during your session. This is basically setting a duration goal, I usually hit "100 calories" and it makes game play a bit over 30 minutes (depending on the intensity level of songs you play) before it tells you you've reached your goal. You can keep playing of course, but this is a good way to set a nightly workout goal without having to look at a clock.
While I see a lot of these reviews are from dancers or kids that move like lightning, for the rest of us more "average" people this game is going to be a challenge... BUT DON'T GIVE UP!!! You are likely to hate this game for the first hour, but once you get the hang of it you'll be hooked.
To give it a fair chance there are a couple things you should know. One is the ***"HAND MARKER"*** option, which means using the wii remote/chuck in addition to moving your feet on the pad. If you've never played DDR before I HIGHLY recommend you turn this option off (just scroll up to the "options" button when you're on the songs dispay menu right before starting a stage.) This will allow you a chance to get a feel for the foot controls before adding the extra confusion of hand movements.
While you're on the menus you need to keep your feet at the center of the pad to avoid crazy menu glitches, just use the wii remote to select buttons. Otherwise you get endless scrolling from the game thinking you're trying to use your feet to select options.
However, once you start a game... NEVER keep your feet in the center! That was my biggest mistake when starting. You end up doing so much more work. Little did I know that there is NO PENALTY for keeping your feet on the arrows (or even stepping more than you need to, if it helps you keep the beat.) You only get a bad score when you MISS the arrow.
The game arrows are nicely programmed to help you move onto the next arrow spot in a natural sort of movement. For instance, you get a left arrow, keep your foot there because most likely you're about to hit that same spot again or move that foot to the back arrow. In general it feels more natural if you try to use your left foot for left and back markers, and use your right foot to hit right and forward markers. Start with the "Lessons from a DJ" song, it's basically a slower paced instructional intro song.
Even if you're not a fan of the music, it will probably grow on you or fade into the background as you focus on getting the hang of the beat. The graphics are pretty silly, but odds are you'll be looking at the arrows so much you won't notice that either. Overall, I'd say this game is a winner for beginners with patience and willingness to practice.
The game pad is easy to use and very responsive. The mat can be folded along it's creases (two folds between the arrow squares) which fits nicely underneath a computer desk. I use mine on the carpet and have had no problems. It moves slightly after a song or two, but you can just nudge it back into alignment with your TV those few inches.
