At first I thought it was just cool... Now it is GOD. This program is hella better than DDR. (well in versatility, DDR is a cleaner and has "storymodes" as such) But you can play all DDR songs on this, you can CONVERT your own songs to dance steps in a few hours. (yeah it takes a while... but its a good thing to leave on over night!) www.stepmania.com is where you download the program. http://www.stepmaniawiki.com/wiki/Auto_Generate_Steps is where you download "Dancing Gorrila" that converts your songs to dance steps. And I saw in this thread: http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4642 ThatCrazyThang also has Stepmania! woot. Another thing to look out for is GuitarZero which is a take on Guitar Hero, you need a guitar to play it (or you can hack it so you can use keyboard) I haven't had too much of a look into it so I'm not sure if theres many songs already done for it. But it looks exactly the same, just makes your computer go real slow if its not a powerhouse. But you can change it so all the background is gone.
Stepmania is pretty cool, as long as you have decent pads and a good space to play in at home. No matter what, though, it can't be as good as the arcade experience. If you really like DDR, you should also look into In the Groove, and if you really want a challenge, look for Pump it Up, which uses the four corners and the center (instead of UDLR).
I'm trying to get a Metal Dance pad which makes it all the more like an Arcade (but I guess you still don't get all those flashing lights but I can buy lights if I really wanted to) I'm going to download all the ITG songs soon and I haven't had a look at Pump it Up yet.. There is Dance UK (I think its called?) that uses all corners... To be honest I'm too scared to try it because it sounds really difficult. XD
I've had stepmania for a while but I just use keyboard to play it. I'd much rather play at the arcade anyway, DDR and ITG are my favorites, I've never really liked pump it up, its just not really very fun for me.
Theres a Stepmania Pack around the net that has hundreds of songs, from DDR 1st all the way to Extreme, and it includes BG files for all the official songs. In addition, it has soo many user made songs.
