Dance Dance Revolution just became a free browser game
Step to it
You feel it too, right? Stuck at home, by your lonesome, we're all just trying to resist that human desire to break out and dance to some high-energy beats. This week, an open alpha for Dance Dance Revolution V brought the arcade classic to PC, for free, through your browser. Blimey, that'll save you a few 50p coins.
It's hard enough to find a good dance machine in the UK as-is, never mind during a pandemic. But as Kotaku pointed out, the next in Konami's venerable dance 'em up can be played from the comfort of your home desk. DDR's official Twitter account made the unexpected announcement earlier this week (hastily translated from Japanese via Twitter's translate tool - sorry): "Dance Dance Revolution, a very popular arcade game, is now available on PC!"
アーケードで大人気の”DanceDanceRevolution”がPCに新登場！！
その名は”DanceDanceRevolution V”
アーケードで人気の15曲を携えて、期間限定無料プレーで配信中！
こぞってプレーにご参加いただければ幸いです。#DDRVhttps://t.co/RQHdbZ6QrF pic.twitter.com/AOnkZCywJO— DDRチーム【公式】 (@DDR_573) May 14, 2020
You will, unfortunately, need to set up a Konami account before busting a move. If you're a Chrome user, Google translate will get you through account creation easily enough - but to actually play the game, you've got to hit the untranslated orange button under the header at the game's page here. Konami also note that they haven't decided how long to keep the demo up, and may "irregularly" update the game based on player feedback
"But Nat," you're asking, "what's it like to play DDR on PC, anyway?" Honestly? It works. Of key importance for a rhythm game, DDRV runs extremely well on even my cheap old laptop. The open alpha currently flaunts a tracklist of 15 high-energy bops - and while you could, theoretically, plug in a USB dance-mat, the game works well enough with your bog-standard arrow keys. I don't know any of the tunes, mind, but then the only dance mat banger I mind ever playing is Video Killed The Radio Star.
Unfortunately, my laptop has a pretty tragic keyboard layout, where the up and down arrows use half-sized keys - not ideal for frantic button-mashing. Never mind that tapping keys on your lonesome just doesn't quite capture the energy of showing off in front of a bustling arcade.
But who's going out right now anyway? Go on, slick. Show us your moves.
