Dance Dance Craze!

We have all been to the local mall, movie theater, or bowling ally and seen them. At the Arcade, with bright lights in their face music blaring and spectators watching they play. These are the faithful fans of Konami's widely popular and highly successful interactive game series Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). Though many knock offs have risen from the success of this game none can beat the original.

Konami gave us this wonderful game to make fools of ourselves in public, but for those of us wanting to experience the game, but not be laughed and ridiculed from now until doomsday (Yes... it has happened) Konami brought the franchise to our homes with DDR for the Playstation, Xbox and Gamecube home entertainment consuls. Now with their latest installment out, Dance Dance Revolution Super Nova, we look forward to a variety of new songs and innovations, and the game delivers.

DDR Super Nova has over seventy songs, a lot of them from current popular artist, such as Kelly Clarkson, David Bowie, Fall out boy and more. They also boast classics like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper and Video Killed the Radio Stars by the Buggles, though I think most of us have moved on. All your old DDR staples are there as well with new and fresh techno beats to move to, Naoki, Captain Jack and Paul Van Dyk make an appearance.

If you have played any games in the series or even seen someone play then you know the basics. The Arrows come up from the bottom, and you step on the corresponding arrow shown on your Dance pad. You can also use the controller to play, but hey, what's the fun in that? The game is fairly easy. I'm a DDR vet and was able to clear most of the songs on standard mode quite easily, but still as with all DDR games Heavy mode will still be a challenge.

The graphics don't look any better or worse, take that how you want to, and I did miss being able to choose my own character. The great thing however is the live action backgrounds that appear in the game, such as with Fall out Boys Dance Dance, and others. The sound quality of the game is good, and even better if you have a decent stereo system.

Workout mode returns with a bit of a makeover, but a new and interesting feature is Stellar Mode. It's like the story of the game, as you travel from planet to planet completing objectives in order to move on. Anything from completing four songs with AA or better, to only getting a D on a song, these missions kept me occupied for a long while.

The game overall is great. I enjoyed the new features and loved the wide variety of songs featured. This game was great and has excellent replay value. If you own any of the other DDR games in the series then DDR Super Nova will be a valued asset to your collection, and the price at your local gaming store will be more then affordable, so run out and get a copy, then close your blinds and make sure nobodies watching as you bust a move to this great game.