You either love it or hate it, but no one can deny that Konami's Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series has produced one of the most interesting video game phenomenons in recent years.

Whether it's used as a dieting tool, the centerpiece of a complex dance routine, the source of amusement during an party or simply as a hugely entertaining interactive video game, DDR means something different to each of its fans and judging from the sales and continued cult-like popularity, is a series that won't be disappearing off the map anytime soon.

"It began when we first thought of the stage portion," said Yasumi Takase, Director of the DDR series at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. "We then began to think that we wanted to make a dance game. This was the beginning."

Dance Dance Revolution premiered in Japan in 1998 - it wouldn't find a home in the United States until three years later in 2001, when Japan would already be on the fifth installment in the series. When it was released, there was nothing else like it on the market in arcades or on home consoles.

The Japanese latched onto the concept extremely quickly, and it wasn't long before Konami decided it needed to capitalize on the newfound popularity with more arcade machines featuring new songs to keep players coming back.

"In reality, the market accepted the game amazingly faster and more favorably than we had anticipated," he said. "We witnessed the emergence of the DDR mania right away. It was also around the time that the internet began to be popular among homes allowing the fans to have close communication with each other. This really helped create the fan base and community for the game."

The hot spot for DDR fans in the United States is DDR Freak (www.ddrfreak.com), primarily maintained by webmaster Jason Ko. Founded on March 12, 2000 as a group for northern California DDR players, the gathering grounded a web presence that has turned into the place to go for the latest updates on the DDR games, tournaments and culture.

For insight into the dedication the community-like atmosphere of DDR fans, delving into the underground world of DDR Freak's message boards is the place to go. Discussion topics range from how to increase your stamina when playing, guidelines on where to pick up the best DDR-related ring tones and stories on how players have evolved in their style and skill.

"As for girls playing, I'm one and I play standard/heavy... recently I've been moving more up to heavy," said user 'Lyra' in a discussion of female DDR players. " […] I've noticed that we do tend to have a lot more guy players than girls, the only girls we ever get are people who either try it out once, or sluts who are trying to get a guy."

As popular as the arcade version of DDR became, it was when the game was aimed for a home format that its mainstream acceptance moved into overdrive.

"Soon after the shipment of the DDR arcade, the home version project began," said Takase. "We knew that having the dance pad was a must in this game."

Though many are afraid of embarrassing themselves when playing DDR, that idea was not really a concern for the team at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) when approaching the home version.

"For the arcade version, our concern was whether or not people would be brave enough to dance in front of other people (in general, Japanese people tend to be more shy than Americans)," he said. "For the home version, our concern was whether or not people would be able to dance at home (in general, Japanese houses/apartments are small)."

Obviously, the concern didn't really manifest itself; the DDR series now has had nearly 50 different releases, all territories figured in. In addition to the regular sequels with new tracks, there have been several "special" releases, such as DDR Disney Mix, which featured mostly remixed Disney tracks, including "It's a Small World After All."

Even though the team at KCET has been involved in developing DDR titles for years, unsurprisingly, that doesn't mean they can actually dance in real-life.

"There are both good dancers and not so good dancers in the team," he said. "If I count, I guess there are more not so good dancers than good dancers... (laughs)"

In fact, not only does most of the team avoid shuffling their feet in reality, but their in-game skills aren't necessarily completely up to par, either!

"There are both good players and not so good players in the team," he said. "However, even when I say "good," they still cannot beat the DDR maniacs [sic]. They are *too* good…"

In less than two weeks, the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2004 in Los Angeles, California will kick off, and Dance Dance Revolution, as usual, is expected to have an impressive presence with the rumored announcement of several new titles and special features.

"It is still a secret for what is in store for the series' future, but there will definitely be some surprises for DDR fans at the upcoming E3 show," said Takase. "As long as there are DDR fans, this game will continue to grow and prosper. Please keep supporting us!"

DDR Extreme for the PlayStation 2 has already been announced and a recent report in Electronic Gaming Monthly states a follow-up to last year's DDR Ultramix on the Xbox is in the works. A domestic release of the long-running Guitar Freaks series, another music title involving manipulation of a simplified guitar controller, would be welcomed, but is highly unlikely.

With DDR Ultramix, Konami's Hawaii-based studio introduced the first major steps toward incorporating online features into the series. Gamers could compete against each other on Xbox Live and downloadable song packs have been released in the months since release.

" […] The online capability of DDR will keep on going," he said. "I anticipate future DDR titles will be supporting online options again."

Current rumors suggest DDR Extreme will contain online features in its US release, but we'll have to wait until E3 to find out.

One feature that has been constantly suggested by fans is the ability to implement songs from users' own CD collections into the game. Goo! Goo! Soundy, another Konami music game released only in Japan on the PlayStation, attempted this feat, even going as far as analyzing the selections and coming up with steps on its own. Unfortunately, the feature didn't work too well and hasn't been seen since.

"We have thought about this and there are some points we have materialized. For the titles we released in Japan, there are some titles which you can play with certain limited music CDs. There are many hurdles to play with personal music CDs," he said. "The biggest issue with this is that "it is not fun." Having access to your personal music CDs is great, but coming up with your own step data for these songs is not so easy unless you are an expert player. It was just very difficult to clear that fundamental issue and know that this feature was designed in a way that everyone who played the game would enjoy it."

It doesn't look like we'll be ripping CDs in to a DDR title anytime soon, but the team is still looking out for its fans, especially when it comes to picking and choosing songs that appear on every version of DDR that shows up in every market in the world.

"We make the selection by going through several discussions with marketing staff members of the territories [sic]," he said. "We try to include as broad of music genres as possible."

You might have thought that including well-known licensed artists in the games was simply a ploy to attract mainstream music listeners - but, actually, that's only part of the story.

"Licensed tracks are important because the players already know the song. For example, it is a nice opportunity for people who play DDR for the first time because they can begin playing with something they already know the basic rhythm," he said. "We try to maintain a certain volume of licensed tracks in each series for people to enjoy the game."

A stark criticism for DDR Ultramix was its lack of a varied song selection. While this problem might have been remedied in the subsequent online song packs, its initial release didn't jive well with rabid fans. Making sure that doesn't happen very often is a key part of KCET's responsibility.

"For tracks to be included in DDR, good tunes do not necessarily mean fun tunes," he said. "What is the most important element is that it is a fun tune to play around. Because of this, we go through deep discussions with marketing staff members from each territory."

The amount of interest in the series guarantees that we will be seeing further installments for some time. The KCET team feels that expanding DDR's appeal is crucial to the continued popularity; there are many people who still have not seen or played DDR before, and it is KCET's job to find a way to attract them.

Though the DDR series consumes much of Takase's time, that doesn't mean he avoids dreaming about the possibilities of expanding the music genre in new directions. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, he isn't too keen on sharing those thoughts just yet!

"Music games still have a lot of possibilities, so I don't know what is the ideal format or the ideal game," he said. "I am just trying to find this out somehow by going through so many tries. Please pray for me that when I finally get to find the ideal concept, I would not have to worry about the project budget at all."

We, along with the rest of the gaming world, will be praying for you, Mr. Takase.

Thanks to Gregory Glanzmann's web site, Console Gold, and NCS for providing images for this feature. Also, thanks to Peter Nguyen of Konami for setting up the interview and Mr. Takase for his valuable time.