So, my first time playing DDR on pad...

[algam86]

I can barely feel my legs. I think I stepped on those arcade pads a little too hard...

Anyway, a few things I've discovered...

1. I like soft pads better than hard pads. There's less...pain.:disgust:

2. I hate arcade pads. Those arrows are dipped in just enough to make me miss a lot more notes than I should've...I kept stepping on the outer edge and missing.:angry:

3. Five-footers are a lot harder on pad than keyboard.

4. Noobs should never try extra stages...My friend playing with me got one...Failed it, of course. He got a AA.

5. Don't eat movie popcorn before playing. My stomach was killing me after we finished.

6. Take off all excess clothing. By the end of that Extra Stage (Butterfly. :thumbsdn:), I was hot!

7. Bar raping (holding onto the bar behind you while you play) is fun. Really. But it didn't help me.

8. Pads are more expensive than I thought...I figured 20 bucks. My friends' was a hundred.

9. Apparently, first-timers getting an A on a four-footer and a D on a fiver isn't bad at all. I thought it was terrible.

In that post, I made...about 20 typos. Just wanted to talk about that for a second.

[Archibaldo]

I remember when I went on my class trip to Toronto, there was a DDR machine and I sucked at it. However there was this one kid who must have played alot because he was able to do the most difficult setting with out looking at the screen and get close to perfect.

[Aegix Drakan]

(pats Algam on the shoulder)

I know the feeling. you'll get better at DDR soon enough. I did.
Still need to as a matter of fact. (I'm still trying to get to standard. :mad: stupid super easy Mario mix!!! Very hard mode isn't even standard!!!)

BTW, obviously the keyboard is easier to use than the pad! feet are heavier than your average finger...

[ShadowTiger]

Dude. If you can get a Triple AAA On NeoMAX, ( This Song (http://www.gerudo.net/bh4/music/neoMAX.mp3) ) Then you're automatically "The Shit." Nothing much else would pose a problem for you, and you are almost able to translate your knowledge of the screen onto the pad as if by instinct. It definitely helps. I Dance to Stepmania without a pad, and I can hit almost all the notes on most seven footers at this point, with at least what I hope is a 90% accuracy.

Metal pads are pretty nice, IMHO. They break far less than Plastic Pads, which are prone to breaking at the drop of a hat. My primary plastic pad has such a sensitive left pad, that even if I'm standing in the center, it's rapidly tapping away. I've always wanted to do more advanced tricks on the metal pads. But yeah, I really do dislike how the metal pads' arrows kinda decend somewhat into the pad when you step on them. It makes a lot of moves that much more difficult, and you don't have as much freedom of mobility as with the plastic pads. =/

[algam86]

Are you talking about on pad, or on keyboard? Pad is impossible at the moment, and I'm not that good on keyboard. Plus, there are, like, eight different NeoMAX stepfiles...Playing on keyboard does help, I suppose, in reading the notes. It definitely doesn't help your footwork, though.:disgust: I can get an A, though, on keyboard.

I'm pretty sure I could work with either kind of pad. My friend has a soft pad, and I'm pretty sure after three songs, the Up arrow shifted down and crashed into the Down arrow. I stepped straight in the middle of the pad...Boom. Up arrow tapped. (I almost crashed into a ceiling light about an inch above my head on some jumps, too, but that's another story.) If the arcade arrows didn't have that dip (what is that for, anyway?), I probably would've done a lot better. Guess I'll just have to keep trying.

[Yoshiman]

A tip for playing on the pads: Don't do the steps flat-footed. Always try to keep your heels off the ground. You don't get tired nearly as fast, and you'll be able to hit the buttons on the arcade version easier (especially if you have bigger feet like me).

And yes, the pads you buy do tend to act odd after a while of use. My first one is pretty much unusable since the up arrow seems to have slid into the middle. You can but them for around $20 at a Gamestop, though.