Customer Reviews

PS2 USB Energy HD 1" Foam Deluxe Dance Pad 3 in 1

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Purchased mine from amazon in December 2007... It still works just fine.

Pros:
-Great quality (obviously 2 years and it still works)
-Does exactly what it advertises
-Mega simple to use
-*Proven*Works VERY WELL with step mania and FFR (but beware of some lagging issues when using vista)
-*Proven*Works with DDR on ps2 and X-box

Cons:
-$$$ when i bought it, it was $84

Aside from that, there are no other cons with this product. It's awesome and if you're looking, you should probably buy it.
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*Update* 4/3/2011
Positive: Product is still in excellent condition and works fine with windows 7.(Even after 4 years!) I cannot confirm if this product is compatible with next gen systems.
Negative: I can see that support for these thick old foam insert pads is starting to get phased out. Dance-pads are a bad investment if you aren't already an avid Dance pad user. Basically if you even sorta think its going to collect dust, you shouldn't buy it.

The pad is great. It works with my dell pc running windows xp. I put the foam in, zipped it up, and plugged in the usb cord that came with it and it was working in 5 minutes with stepmania. 1 week of strenuous use and still perfect recognition of steps. No lags whatsoever. If you want cheap and best, this is it. "

I play DDR 6 days a week for about 40 mins each day and I consistently do the songs on difficult - so if anyone uses a mat quite a bit it is me. I had high hopes for this mat, given that I had only used the much cheaper models ands brands before. However, after only 4 months of use, the raised inserts that help you to know where the arrows are have started to shift. This obviously is very frustrating when you are trying to dance. Also, the material on the top of the pad is very stiff, so it has started to crack because of course it isn't perfectly smooth, so it has gotten creases and then cracked. Given the cost of this mat I wouldn't recommend it, if you are an avid user.

My old dance pads were wearing out, so I did some research and found these. Everyone said they were the best soft pads, and for once, everyone was right!

The foam on the bottom *really is* non-stick on carpet. I don't know if it would be on hardwood, though. The 1" inserts are a little difficult to put in, but if you're patient, they fit. Just be careful not to get anxious and rip the bottom foam trying to push the insert in farther. The insert makes jumping a lot easier on the knees. I do worry about wearing "dips" in the foam, but since it's replaceable, I'll just make sure to keep this company's address on Favorites.

Putting the unit together took me about 20 minutes, but I was being VERY careful not to tear or bend anything. The unit itself unzips all the way around, you construct the foam insert puzzle pieces, stick it in and zip it up. It takes a bit of maneuvering to get it to fit, but I think the tight pull on both sides helps with the accuracy and stability. Once you zip up the foam, it's literally plug and play.

I couldn't believe the accuracy of this thing! I've been struggling on Light Mode to get mere A's, and with this I could hit AA within one to two tries on a song. It won't be long until I"m trying a few of the harder settings...maybe even Oni mode, which up until this point has been impossible to try. The raised arrows and the different "feel" under your feet between the arrows and the shape buttons helps, too.

Short of shucking out several hundred dollars for a metal dance pad, I think this is the best value. We'll see how it performs after six months of abuse from a 200 pound woman.

I've been using RedOctane pads for about three years now, but when I needed a new one recently, I found they no longer made dance pads. I tried this one as an alternative, and it's decidely mediocre. I regularly play songs up to 200 BPM or so, generally playing 7-9 step songs. With that as a background, here's how I felt about the pad.

The good:
* Fantastic foam insert; solid but not hard.
* Doesn't slip much, even on the carpeted floor that I play on.
* Very responsive sensors; if you hit the step at the right time, expect to get the best rating.
* Works well with Stepmania.

The bad:
* Smaller sensors than RedOctane pads; probably sufficient for most purposes but more restricting than I'm used to.
* The padding that raises the arrows is inside the top of the pad, and is not at all secure. At the time of this writing, three of the raised sections have migrated halfway to the center of the pad, making it very annoying to play on.
* Sometimes the pad just simply stops working for a second or two, and I'll miss several in a row (not even Bads or Poors, but complete misses).

This isn't a bad pad by any means, but I'm not sure it's the best for the level that I'm used to playing at. I'm actually going to try to return the pad because it just doesn't work well enough for me.

This is the best mat ever.
I had the normal version of this mat and i liked it but now this one is so much better. I play on stepmania. I used to only be able to do lv 5 songs but now i can ace lv 8 songs. this mat doesn't slide and is easy to transport. The foam is a little hard to get in but once its in it works great. The buttons are raised and harder so you can feel where they are so you don't have to look down. All i can say is if you don't want to break your budget and you want to be able to travel with it get this mat!

- Foam insert was 1/4" too small on all sides when fully zipped in.
- Pad bunched up when playing causing random arrows to trigger that weren't from the player (~7 per song) as well as arrows that didn't register from the player (~4 times per song).
- Tried placing the foam insert from an old MyMyBox Blueshark foam pad (got a good 4 years out of it) into the new DDRGame Energy pad. The fit was nice and tight (as it should be with these kind of foam pads) but even though the pad wasn't bunching up anymore, the problem of random arrows and missed steps persisted.
- Repackaged the pad and ready to return tomorrow morning.

With MyMyBox out of business it seemed that the only option for a dense foam pad was the DDRGame Energy pad. Unfortunately the build quality and performance is less than that of the standard $20 soft pads I'm sure we all started on.

I've given up taking gambles with companies like DDRGame in search for the next foam pad that will last me another 4 years, so I caved in and bought a Cobaltflux. It's 2011 and if you're still avidly playing DDR and need a new pad, do yourself a favor and do the same.

This mat looks like it's high quality and there are aspects that i like, but beware of the raised arrows as they don't stay in place but slip around. a few months after getting mine i had to cut open the lining of the mat and pull the raised arrows out because they were messing me up. also, the the place where the cord inserts into the mat has torn and there are exposed wires. last, the mat messes up after playing for awhile and the right arrow sticks so that it scrolls non-stop through the songs in the menu screen when I'm not even touching the mat.

if you rarely play ddr, but want a nice mat for when you do, then this mat will work, but if you play a lot then i suggest looking into another one...and i would suggest trying one without raised arrows...

I'm new to DDR I've heard about like many others and thought about investing in one the help keep me active. I was unsure about which dancing pads to get as I did not want to go super cheap nor expensive, since I wasn't sure how I would like the game. Needless to say I love DDR and I'm glad I brought this pad. It fit perfectly within my budget and has a somewhat "sturdy" feel to it. Although it does tend to creep across the carpet on heavy songs. Other than that its great, highly sensitive and responsive. Would recommend for those wanting to get their feet wet with DDR without spending to much $$$$$

First I will start off by saying I've had this pad for only 3 days now. I have played with it non-stop and I absolutely LOVE it to death.

Now, a couple of things I wanted to address here.

First, like another reviewer said, there is a strong plastic smell from this pad, so let it air out awhile before you use it unless you like a plastic smelling environment.

Second, I have only played stepmania with this pad. It seems like certain times when I step down on the correct arrow, it doesn't register. I think it's because I stepped in the wrong spot cause I don't look down usually, but I'm not exactly sure. I've messed up on a few songs even though I know I thought I hit the arrows right.

Third, and I don't even really think I should mention this, if you're playing with the marvelous step timing on, then you might notice a .001 second lag on this pad, because for the most part, i usually have to step a 1/100th of a second before the arrow comes up to get a marvelous step. But other times it's synced well (it could also depend on how well the song is synced)

It is kind of frustrating to get the foam padding in this pad, but that's because I've never dealt with foam pads before. I can tell you that if you pull too hard trying to force the pad around the foam to zip it up, the pad will rip. (it ripped a tiny bit on me)

In terms of stability, the pad is a little bit different than what you typically see. The arrow buttons have their own curved area so you know where you are stepping which helps, but it also feels like you have to step out farther compared to the arcade pad. Also, this pad hardly moves at all. Only when I'm playing INSANELY hard songs will this pad jiggle. But for the most part, it's very sturdy.

I've heard Ignition pads fail quickly. This pad has worked great for me so far overall, with a couple of flaws but I'll get used to it.

Worth the money? Yes.

Easy to assemble? Meh, not exactly.

Fun to use? YEP!