The rhythm game sensation Dance Dance Revolution (or DDR) is now at Pinball Land!
Dance Dance Revolution is a rhythm-based arcade game that gave rise to the entire music game genre. It was originally released in Japan in 1998 by Konami and was later released in North America the following year. It took the world by storm, revitalizing arcades and transforming them into all-ages dance clubs.
We are thrilled to be able to offer our players a Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (8th Mix) in an original Japanese cabinet complete with rebuilt stages featuring all-new super-responsive sensors and modern LED lighting. Whether you’re a seasoned DDR player or if you’ve always wanted to give it a try, Pinball Land’s machine is the one you want to play on.
The object of DDR is to step on the correct arrow tiles on the stage when the scrolling arrows on the screen get to the top. The dance sequences are all expertly choreographed to match the rhythm of the music, so feel the beat and move your feet! There’s even a bar behind each stage you can hang onto if it gets too intense.
Step on the arrow panel when the corresponding scrolling arrow on the screen lines up with the outlines at the top!
If you’ve never played DDR before, feel free to ask the friendly staff at Pinball Land to help you get started. Some of the introductory screens are written entirely in Japanese and it can be a bit intimidating and confusing starting a game the first time. Also, don’t worry about it being too hard! You can adjust the difficulty all the way from “Beginner” to “Heavy” and everywhere in-between for players of all skill levels.
Some of the screens that display before your game begins are half-Japanese and quite confusing! Just press the Start Button to skip them.
Dance Dance Revolution is so much fun it may be the only game you play during your visit to Pinball Land! We have so many other fantastic games from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, but DDR is in a league of its own. There’s nothing quite like it, and there’s no substitution for playing on a real machine. They released several home versions of DDR over the years, however the pads do not compare to the feel and responsiveness of a real arcade machine.
Here’s a fun story and a look “behind the scenes” of Pinball Land. The particular Dance Dance Revolution machine located at Pinball Land is actually the exact same machine I first played at Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor, MI when they originally imported it from Japan in 1998 ahead of the North American release. How can I tell? Well, I will tell you.
I purchased the DDR machine as a “working project” – functional, but it needed a lot of work. Just how I like to buy ’em! As a bonus, it was my ideal machine: the original Japanese-style cabinet. It even has the Playstation memory card slots, something you don’t see too often.
While I was dismantling the game to clean it up, I found all sorts of typical debris inside the cabinet: broken glass, candy wrappers, lollipop sticks, tokens, and even some redemption tickets that somehow worked their way through the cracks of the game. Tickets from where? Why, from Pinball Pete’s of all places. Wait just a minute….
Now, before I got too excited, I remembered there are two Pinball Pete’s locations, one in Lansing and, the one I played at, in Ann Arbor. To get to the bottom of this mystery, I contacted the vendor I bought the game from and he told me it came from another vendor who sold games mostly out of Metro Detroit and, you guessed it, Ann Arbor. That means my DDR was indeed MY DDR from Pinball Pete’s!
Arcade collectors often fantasize about obtaining the same games they grew up playing, and somehow by sheer chance, I ended up owning the very machine that started an obsession for my friends and I. It is my absolute pleasure to be able to now operate that same machine at Pinball Land to get a whole new generation to join the Dance Dance Revolution!
Play DDR at Pinball Land, located at 114 Courtland, Rockford, MI 49341.
