Customer Reviews

Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party - Software Only

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're deciding between buying DDR Hottest Party (HP) and DDR Hottest Party 2 (HP2), I highly recommend purchasing Hottest Party 2. I own both and recently purchased HP for additional songs to dance to. Also, it was the only other DDR out there for the Nintendo Wii.

In my opinion, HP has a better soundtrack than HP2. It has a lot of contemporary songs and many more fast tracks than HP2. But that's the only positive I really have to say about Hottest Party.

Hottest Party lacks a number of really nice options Hottest Party 2 has. You can't turn off steps less than 1/4 beat in anything but Workout Mode. In Hottest Party 2, you can turn them off in all modes (Groove Arena, Free Play, etc.). That's okay for very experienced DDR players and kids, but not so much for so less agile adults like myself (I'm 26, not THAT old) who will have a very tough time playing any level other than Beginner and Basic. HP also only saves your option selections for the duration of play. Once you turn your Wii off, HP will go back to all your default options...at least, in one of the options menus. That's another major issue - there's some options you can only access from the main menu, not the options button present in Groove Circuit or Free Play. So really, you need to go through 2 separate options menus each time you play to get it "just right."

There is also the issue with the game's sensitivity to the dance pad. I used the SAME PAD that came with Hottest Party 2. I've never had any issues with HP2 not registering my steps on the pad. But using this very same pad with Hottest Party made me realize the GAME does not register my steps very well since obviously, the pad works just fine on HP2.

So, my final thoughts are that HP might be a good investment for an experienced DDR player who actually knows how to hit 1/8 and 1/16 beats. But even then, you'll be frustrated by the 10 minutes it will take you to set up your options each time and the lack of communication between the dance pad and the game (you'll be screaming, "WHAT?! I TOTALLY GOT THAT!"). Get Hottest Party 2 - it may not have your favorite songs, but it's fun and better designed!

My wife and I got this game a few weeks now, and I think I lost about 5 pounds in the first week.
This game might just be able to help me with my rhythm.
It is great fun, and just the kind of workout I needed. It even keeps track of your burned calories.
Very addictive.

I just wish I could get the original dance pad as the second one, the one I did get is not as good and does not seem to react as well.

I have this game for 4 weeks now and fun game. You will have to buy the dance pad unless you buy the bundle. I purchased the game and got premium pad from somewhere else. This game was a major hit for my new year party. Kids started playing this and soon all adults threw the kids out and started dancing.
Just make sure you buy pad too once you get this game.

I love DDR and own all of the games for playstation. When I heard it was coming out on the Wii I was very excited! It's just as fun as the playstation games, and it has options to make it more challenging. I really like the fact that you have the choice of turning on and off all options. Sometimes I don't feel like playing with the Wii remotes and it's very simple to just turn off that option to make it more like the original DDR games.

There were only two small things I did not like about the game.
First, the sensitivity of the Wii remote seems fairly poor. When you're playing a difficult level and you have to hit the arrows using the remote it does not always respond if you're moving too fast. It's frustrating to get docked points when you know you moved your arms, but the sensors didn't seem to pick it up.
Second, I was not able to use my metal pads with the Wii. I own a pair of metal pads that are meant to be used with the Playstation DDR games. I purchased a PS2 to Gamecube adapter, hoping that I would be able to use my metal pads with the Wii game. Unfortunately, this did not work, so i had to go out and purchase the plastic pad. It's very difficult to play harder levels with a plastic pad because it slides around a lot and your feet slip on it as well.

Overall, this is an excellent game for anyone who plays DDR or wants to learn, and the added features for the Wii are very fun and creative!

I love this new version for the WII. I am not the most rythmic person on earth but I truly enjoy this game. I owned previous versions on the XBOX and believe this is the best yet. The full body interaction with the controllers is a nice addition though a little difficult to get use to the timing on. This game is a great workout and fun for the entire family.

I got DDR Hottest Party and a Wii for Christmas. Started doing an hour a day religiously after new years and I am down 7 lbs in less than a month! I went from failing beginner to finding basic too easy and am now pouring sweat and having my heart pound on the difficult setting. It totally tricks you into toning and burning calories. My legs and butt are totally toned now! I can't rave about this enough!

I LOVE this game. It's a huge party hit for all ages. I love the songs, and love how active it makes you!

I would say there are only a couple of downfalls. First, I wish there were more songs. I'm am already starting to get sick of the mix. Second, the dance pads are good, but not great at recording your moves. And lastly, when creating the dances, they definitely did not consider the rhythm of the music for some of the moves. It can be frustrating, but good for people who don't have rhythm!

Overall, a great purchase!

I use only the workout mode of the game, so my view is limited to that. Also, I own DDR Hottest Party 2, so I have to compare the two.

The game's difficulty rating is about half a level harder than DDRHP2. But, there seems to be a fuller range of difficulty for beginners and experts; those in the middle have about the same range as in DDRHP2.

The songs are roughly as good, but definitely with the "dance mix" genre in mind than with DDRHP2: harder to hear the singing and a very fast, scruffy beat (regardless of what beat you have to dance to), but easy enough to get used to after hearing them a couple times (or less).

Graphics are, eh, okay. Not what you're buying it for anyway, but definitely could be better (as they are in DDRHP2).

Very annoyingly, when setting your workout goal, you can only increase the goal by 1 point at a time. The numbers do tick over rather quickly, but it takes a while to get to any decently high numbers. You end up holding the button, just standing there, for a minute or two. (DDRHP2 goes up ten points at a time btw.) Hello, awkward pause... If there is a way around this, please let me know.

The most tangible differences and sometimes feature of DDRHP (especially compared to DDRHP2) are the pauses that pop up between songs, before songs, and, yes, during songs. The "during song" pauses ARE deliberate and part of the difficulty, but you really need to know the songs pretty well before you can handle them. Prepare to pause too early, too late, and/or too awkwardly to start moving again when the arrows start moving. The before and after pauses are just awkward loading points where they don't bother having any sound to cover it up a bit. You get used to it, but it stays a bit awkward in "the room goes silent" sort of way.

Overall, it's good to workout to, but DDRHP2 is better. It is a nice change of pace from DDRHP2 though and the range of song difficulty almost makes up for the awkward pauses and scruffy music. Almost.

Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party - Software Only
Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 with Dance Mat

I actually purchased this after using Hottest Party 2 which I enjoy very much, especially for the exercise value. I really like the music in Hottest Party 1 but man-o-man it has a lot of glitches. I never ever turn off the hand gestures in HP2 because I enjoy them and they are beneficial to keeping my arms firm, but in HP they are so off that I find I always end up turning them off out of frustration. I keep the other gestures on but they are not as good as the HP2. They almost look silly in comparison (as do the dancers) One other thing I don't like in the HP is that you can't turn the Cuts on in free play, while I find the "stutter steps" fun for a while, they really bother my knees and ankles so I like to turn them off sometimes but end up having to be in workout mode to do it on HP which I don't really care for because you don't see a recap of how you did after the song to make improvements. But really I just bought it to have more songs and I am having some fun with it. Looking forward for HP3, can exercise for many hours without wanting to stop :)

My daughter loves this. The one we bought came with a mat. Although we initially had some trouble getting it to recognize her steps, she liked it so much we also bought "Hottest Party 2" and an extra mat so that another person can use it at the same time and "challenge" her.

I tried using it and it's hard to keep up with it. It's heavily choreographed and goes surprisingly fast, so I would recommend it for the younger set or for older, very fit folks.