Dance Dance Revolution - Gameplay

Gameplay

The core gameplay involves the player stepping his or her feet to correspond with the arrows that appears on screen and the beat. During normal gameplay, arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over a set of stationary arrows near the top (referred to as the "guide arrows" or "receptors", officially known as the Step Zone). When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform, and the player is given a judgment for their accuracy of every streaked notes (From highest to lowest: Marvelous, Perfect, Great, Good, Almost, Miss).

Additional arrow types are added in later mixes. For instance, Freeze Arrows (introduced in DDRMAX) which is a long green arrow that must be held down until the tail of it reaches the Step Zone, that is given an "O.K.!" judgment if it succeed or "N.G." if fails to do so, or Shock Arrows (introduced in DDRX), walls of arrows with lightning effects which must be avoided, which are scored in the same way as Freezes (O.K./N.G.); if they are stepped on, a N.G. is awarded, the lifebar decreases, and the steps become hidden for a short period of time. Until Dance Dance Revolution X, the N.G. judgement does not break the combo streak even though it does decrease the dance meter.

Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills the "Dance Gauge", or life bar, while failure to do so drains it. If the Dance Gauge is fully depleted during gameplay, the player fails the song, usually resulting in a game over. Otherwise, the player is taken to the Results Screen, which rates the player's performance with a letter grade and a numerical score, among other statistics. The player may then be given a chance to play again, depending on the settings of the particular machine (the limit is usually 3-5 songs per game). Not only one-player mode, Dance Dance Revolution provides two-player mode (Versus Mode) and Double Mode, which is played by one player but using two pads. Earlier versions also offer Unison/Couple Mode, in which two players must cooperate to play the song.