Dance Dance Revolution Pad Recommendation

[Bond]

For those of you who own DDR (and obviously a pad) could you make some suggestions as to which one I should buy?

[Jason1]

Well from my admitedly limited experience playing at a friends house from time to time, Id say youve gotta go with as much padding on that thing as you can. My friend had 2, one with padding and one without. The one without felt like you were doing it on cement, it was just really stressful on your feet. The one with the padding on the other hand was much more comfortable to play on.

[Dyne]

Now, the first question you should really be asking is what surface are you playing on. Is it in the basement? Is it a 2nd floor? Are you in an apartment?

I know for a fact that RedOctane pads are the best you can buy, but they're moderately expensive, so I can't recommend those. I'd just recommend you'd buy a cheaper (but not the cheapest) plastic mat. My MadCatz pads have held up for a long time. I swapped my other for a new one because of my warranty at EB, and I got the new model. The new black model is a lot more responsive.

Anyways, plastic mats favourably aren't good on carpets. They're better on thin carpets with a cement underlying, like a basement. They'll move around if you're not careful. Same goes for wood floors on second levels of houses; they like to slide on those too. If you're playing on anything but solid ground with some good carpet, I'd recommend either taking a huge piece of plywood and securing the pad on it, or buying one of the good quality ones (but not the most expensive.)

[Bond]

The pad would be in my basement which has thin carpet and cement underlying. I did see those RedOctange ones, but like you said, I'm not going to spend $100 dollars on one. I was looking at these two:

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=801960 - $50

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=801818 - $20

From your experience is the first worth the extra $30?

[Dyne]

Depends how much dancing you're going to be doing. I bought mine for about $32 and I think it's great quality. I used it as part of my warm-up routine for months on end and it held up.

I'd get the cheaper one with a warranty. Then you can replace it once it starts tearing, etc.

And play with socks on those pads. Bare feet and shoes both hurt it. Plus, socks allow you to slide to steps, which saves a lot of effort. Also, try not to fold the pad up like it came packaged. Just throw it across a table or something when you're not using it; this saves a lot of stress on the receptors. You could also hang it up somewhere non-chalant.

[GameMaster]

My two friends both use Ignition (http://tinyurl.com/9y2oe) pads and from personal experience, I'd say they're great:

[Bond]

I went to four stores looking for DDR and a pad and couldn't find either at even one store. Guess I'll have to order online.

[Dyne]

I saw DDR Ultramix and Xbox pads at a bunch of Fred Meyers I went into when I went to the states.

You don't have a PS2, do you? They issued reprints of Max1 and Extreme so those are easy to find.

[Bond]

Nope, Xbox and GameCube. I just ordered Ultramix and a pad online with free shipping. Good enough.

[GameMaster]

Be sure to give us impressions when you get your product.

[Vampyr]

My konami plastic mat has never failed me yet.