Sara Ryan

For the love of DDR

I have given in and purchased a PlayStation 2.
So far I am pretty good at DDR Extreme 2, but only if I stay at Beginner. Moving up to Light, let alone Standard or Heavy, will take some serious hours of practice, I suspect.

What other games should I have?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21, 2006 and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

28 Responses to “For the love of DDR”

sarazarr Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 9:28 am. |

Get The Sims 2, but only if you’re in need of a habit that takes you away from eating, sleeping, bathing, and writing.
omgimnaked Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 9:34 am. |

God, I want DDR so bad. I can’t find it anywhere around here but anyway…

I bought a PS2 yesterday, as a matter of fact, and I bought We Love Katamari with it, and it’s very addictive/fun.

Also: Yes, beginner takes a while to get past, but if you play the tournament-style thing, it kind of eases you into doing light mode.
zoe_trope Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 9:44 am. |

Burnout III is one of my favorites, if you like racing/crash games.
tmcm Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:13 am. |

Guitar Hero is a blast. I’m getting DDR soon… I’m not sure which DDR to get though.
robinwasserman Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:14 am. |

How lame/aged/out of it will I sound if I admit that this just makes me long for Super Mario Brothers 3? And Tetris. Eh, who cares, I’m admitting it anyway.
bgliterary Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:19 am. |

I second Guitar Hero…best.game.ever.
mudron Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:30 am. |

Depends on the kind of game you’re looking for (puzzle games, rythym/music games, action games, RPGs, etc), but two crowd-pleasers are:

“Katamari Damacy” is a very funny game (and cheap, too) about rolling up everyday objects into balls which then get flung into the sky to make stars. Good party game.

“Shadow of the Colossus” is a brooding, melancholy game about single-handedly trying to slay 16 gigantic god-monsters made out of stone and dirt.
tmcm Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 10:32 am. |

Have you heard much about guitar hero 2? it’s out soon. Is it good? what songs?
jactitation Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:06 am. |

You need me to play with!
saintsegar Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:33 am. |

Shoot, now I’ve got to get one (like I’ve been wanting to). I can tell you I sat mesmerized crusing through Carla McNeil’s copy of “Grand Theft Auto” when we visited her a few years ago. You don’t have to machine gun any cops or rape any hookers or anything, just turn the radio on and drive around town. I jumped across two parking garages once just as the chorus to “Sister Christian” kicked in, my car silhouetted against the setting sun, and I about passed out from the beauty of it all. (Naturally, Sophia wasn’t paying attention at the time…)
wildiris Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:59 am. |

That game had THE best soundtrack - very entertaining!
indy1725 Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 12:04 pm. |

i’d second ‘We ♥ Katamari’, it’s just plain fun - and it has 2-player mode. My favorites for ps2 so far are that, and Shadow of the Colossus (when I want to give myself a tension stomach-ache). You’ve reminded me that I need to break out my DDR pads and Dance, Dance, Dance!
wildiris Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 12:09 pm. |

This is SO totally worth the $80. It truly rocks. GH2 will feature new and classic bands, and offer a two player mode with choice of rhythm, bass and lead. It’s due out in November 2007.

More at http://www.guitarherogame.com/ - no bands/songs have been announced yet that I know of…
juliadurango Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 12:13 pm. |

Yes!!! And if you have the cashola, buy two guitar controllers so you can play at the same time.
signifier Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 12:15 pm. |

You can borrow our copy of Katamari Damacy if you like, but count on spending every spare moment for a few weeks obsessing over it… I probably had some dreams about it. I like We Love Katamari too–there’s probably more variety–but Damacy’s really the place to start. What an amazing game.
wildiris Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 12:15 pm. |

Katamari Damacy (or We Love Katamari)
Namco Museum

A few tips for DDR -
Focus on getting all Perfects.

If beginner is easy but you are not ready for Light, move your whole body - take a whole step to the left, instead of tapping on the left arrow.

Hook up two pads and play doubles.

Turn your body so you are not always facing front.

Keep the level on beginning, but increase your speed setting.

Play a level higher in practice mode.
bgliterary Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 12:24 pm. |

Actually, some songs have been announced, and I’m rather underwhelmed so far, but I’m sure there will be plenty I like in the final game.

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/721/721965p1.html
intothebassment Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 1:34 pm. |

While I do love a good round of DDR (I’m not very good, but its very very fun), I was actually commenting because I just wanted to let you know that Empress was challenged for being on my old high school’s summer reading list, along with books by Alex Sanchez and Brent Hartinger. Everyone is pretty angry about it (we certainly don’t think it should be taken off!!), so I just wanted to let you know about it.
jennysmells Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 3:23 pm. |

I originally bought my PS2 for DDR, but I have since discovered the Prince of Persia franchise (or, should I say, re-discovered, since my neighbor used to play it on his old computer ten years ago) and while I don’t particularly care for the second game in the trilogy and have yet to get to the third, the first game (PoP: Sands of Time) is WONDERFUL. It’s entertaining and doesn’t take that long to beat if you’re familiar with games in general. And if you’re not, well, it’s still pretty fun.
capn_jil Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 7:23 pm. |

Katamari Damacy is fucking necessary. You might enjoy Grand Theft Auto - get Vice City, it’s only like ten bucks and you can drive motorcycles into/off of things while listening to Gary Numan’s “Cars”.

Uh… hm.

Hm. I really like Def Jam: Fight for NY aka Rapper Princess Dress-Up, as do most Reedies, but your mileage may vary. Battle as Snoop Dogg! Kick guys’ asses for the sole purpose of buying bigger and gaudier jewelry! No I am not kidding!!!
kiramekihoshi Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 8:00 pm. |

Welcome to the dark side!! >:D *gives cookies*

I third the Katamari games, you’ll love them. And I second Prince of Persia, if you have good hand-eye coordination.

I’m more of a ‘I-hit-the-button-now-go-kill-for-me’ type of person, so I like games like Final Fantasy more.

And Disgaea is the BEST tactics game.. if you have money to spend ^^;
thisisnotanlj Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:04 pm. |

dude, pre-DDR, i was strictly a ms. pac-man gal. and tetris, yes. also myst, because i was that kinda geek.
thisisnotanlj Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:04 pm. |

come visit then!
thisisnotanlj Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:06 pm. |

ain’t it always the way? well, whatever we’ve got, y’all can play when you come for stumptown and the pre-stumptown gig!
thisisnotanlj Says:
Monday, August 21, 2006 at 11:08 pm. |

thanks for the heads up! would you email me at sryan at sara ryan dot com and let me know the name of the high school and if there’s anything i can do? much appreciated!
nevikmoore Says:
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 at 1:54 am. |

Now you know another way to up your comment ante.
invertedreptile Says:
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 at 3:28 pm. |

Yo, Sara. Its been a while, but i was wondering if you might have a few minutes to give a young writer at loose ends a little advice on how i might get the rest of my life jumpstarted, as i’ve finally, thank the gods, started writing again, and hope to be able to do something with the results. i’ve mislaid your email adress somewhere in my most recent email switch.

and of course id love to get back in touch with you and steve. those were some fun times.

lizard
erce Says:
Thursday, August 24, 2006 at 4:23 pm. |

Katamari Damacy and I -heart- Katamari are going to suck your life away, and you’ll like it.

My son is hooked on Lego Star Wars right now - very cute/cool game

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are amazing.