Dance Dance Revolution GB was the start of a DDR series for the Game Color. Instead of the usual dance pads, it came with a miniature finger pad that could be strapped onto the handheld.
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DDR on Gameboy? What were they thinking?!
It is what it is. DanceDanceRevolution in the palm of your hands, in all of its 8-bit chiptuney glory. But it feels so wrong for some reason. SO wrong!
I mean, it plays fine. There's nothing wrong with the timing of the inputs to the arrows. But something feels off. Could it be... Yes. I guess it's how they arranged the songs into chiptune version.
Don't get me wrong, though! beatmania GB series did a great job arranging existing songs into chiptunes just fine. The choice of wave instruments really captured the feel of their original counterparts. But DDR GB's music, on the other hand, doesn't have the same oomph like in beatmania GB (or even pop'n music GB series!)
I have a hunch that the conversion of music for DDR GB was handled by a different dev team.
Playing DDR on your Gameboy was still a neat idea, just that the arrangement of the music really ruined it for me.
It is what it is. DanceDanceRevolution in the palm of your hands, in all of its 8-bit chiptuney glory. But it feels so wrong for some reason. SO wrong!
I mean, it plays fine. There's nothing wrong with the timing of the inputs to the arrows. But something feels off. Could it be... Yes. I guess it's how they arranged the songs into chiptune version.
Don't get me wrong, though! beatmania GB series did a great job arranging existing songs into chiptunes just fine. The choice of wave instruments really captured the feel of their original counterparts. But DDR GB's music, on the other hand, doesn't have the same oomph like in beatmania GB (or even pop'n music GB series!)
I have a hunch that the conversion of music for DDR GB was handled by a different dev team.
Playing DDR on your Gameboy was still a neat idea, just that the arrangement of the music really ruined it for me.
I commend their efforts to try and convert DDR to the game boy color, but there's not a lot here. The setlist is comprised of various songs from DDRs 1 and 2 converted to work on the game boy color's sound chip, and honestly the music isn't bad. Sometimes it sounds a bit shrill, but for the most part my preexisting knowledge of the songs from the main games was able to fill in the blanks left by the chiptune covers. There are even more songs here than the first DDR game so that's also something.
My main problem here is the control scheme, but I can't really fault anything but the system that this is on for that. Due to the fact you can't push opposite cardinal directions on a D-pad plus the GBC only having 2 face buttons it do mean that A is right and B is up and u just gotta play it like that. They did make a finger-sized pad that can go over the GBC, bless their heart, but it still probably isn't the most optimal IMO. And yes, I was insane enough to try hooking this up to the gamecube game boy player to see if I could play it with a gamecube DDR pad. It unfortunately didn't work as the game still doesn't know how to detect both cardinal directions from the D-pad at the same time. Can't really fault them for that one ngl.
I guess the point of this is to practice the rhythmic patterns and maps for various DDR songs so that you can eventually execute at the arcade/home versions? There isn't a training mode and the resolution and scroll speed are pretty low without any way to change it, and you can't even use the note color choice to improve readability, so it's kinda lame in that regard too. The combo counter also renders above the notes which makes reading even harder.
overall yea I commend them for trying but there really don't be much reason to play this. perhaps it would be fun to emulate to adjust controls to match a dance pad to get some 8-bit DDR and perhaps the sequels make it a better practice tool, but overall this first entry is just a novelty and nothing much else
My main problem here is the control scheme, but I can't really fault anything but the system that this is on for that. Due to the fact you can't push opposite cardinal directions on a D-pad plus the GBC only having 2 face buttons it do mean that A is right and B is up and u just gotta play it like that. They did make a finger-sized pad that can go over the GBC, bless their heart, but it still probably isn't the most optimal IMO. And yes, I was insane enough to try hooking this up to the gamecube game boy player to see if I could play it with a gamecube DDR pad. It unfortunately didn't work as the game still doesn't know how to detect both cardinal directions from the D-pad at the same time. Can't really fault them for that one ngl.
I guess the point of this is to practice the rhythmic patterns and maps for various DDR songs so that you can eventually execute at the arcade/home versions? There isn't a training mode and the resolution and scroll speed are pretty low without any way to change it, and you can't even use the note color choice to improve readability, so it's kinda lame in that regard too. The combo counter also renders above the notes which makes reading even harder.
overall yea I commend them for trying but there really don't be much reason to play this. perhaps it would be fun to emulate to adjust controls to match a dance pad to get some 8-bit DDR and perhaps the sequels make it a better practice tool, but overall this first entry is just a novelty and nothing much else
peak rhythm gaming