iDance

I play iDance, a Stepmania/DDR spinoff at a local fitness facility, American Family, and I happened to run into someone I hadn't recalled seeing before who seemed pretty good. She's probably the best parent I've ever seen at rhythm dancing games. Something seemed peculiar, so she introduced herself and then I recalled awestruck that she was the mom of Amanda, the girl who used to manage the ITG and Stepmania machines at Virginia Center Commons.

Naturally, a parent enthusiastic enough to let her child be so active in such a widespread internet community should be decent at this game, so we played a few rounds and I noticed she had been taking note of the songs and charts she preferred which I thought was pretty cool. She said she had played here a few times in fall of last year, but it seems she's getting back into it. Being late May nearing Summer, I'll probably be going to the workout more and maybe have a buddy.

Awkward as it may seem, it's good company to have someone playing a game that's been on a decline over the past few years regardless of the age. Despite the age difference, she kept up well. We both come from using the bar, so the grades we get are unusually low on harder songs.

The grading system for iDance has a much wider scale which I personally favor. I also applaud the variety of charts and happen to have met a few of the musicians that contributed to the game.

Here's a sample of the song wheel in multiplayer mode.


The sensitivity and feedback just don't compare to ITG or DDR though. Logitech Wireless technology seriously doesn't cut it when it's a -cough- RHYTHM -cough- game... which brings me back to gameplay.

Song difficulty is scored on a scale of 1 to 25. I've found that 1-10 is for beginners, 11-15, is intermediate, 16-19 is difficult, 20-21 is more difficult, 22-23 is exhausting, and 24-25 is "Why would you put this in the game without a bar?" Yeah.

I also find it hard to judge difficulty, because the time frame is thick enough compensate for the wireless lag. There are basically 4 judgments you can receive on a note: Gold Star, Green Star, Blue Star, or a Black Star. This parallels to Perfect, Great, Good, or a Miss with the exception that a Blue Star retains your combo (correct me if I'm wrong). One more thing; Technically you can have up to 16 players, but my gym usually only has 2 or 3 pads out at a time.

I find that it's hard to get younger players to join in when you make the game look easy. I genuinely feel like this game needs a revival. There are way too many console war games these days. And parents think their kids are getting an exercise with the Wii? Jesus.

Anyway, I guess this wraps my day up... and quite a few days in the past week or two. If you find an iDance and like it, tell me what you think :)