A while ago I came across a news story about Dance Dance Revolution, a video game where players dance to music, following steps prescribed by the game on a dance pad, a game controller in the form of a mat, where buttons are activated completely by one’s feet. The story told how the DDR line of games is becoming a popular way, not only to have fun, but also to get fit and lose weight. I forwarded the the story to my wife, Mandy, and ever since she has been looking for the game.
She has been looking without success. It seems that Konami refuses to publish enough copies of the games to meet demand for reasons beyond my understanding. None of the regular retailers from whom somebody might expect to buy the game in Canada, such as Future Shop, Best Buy, or even Amazon, carry it. Even the big American retailers don’t have it.
Thankfully there is at least one retailer that I found through the Amazon Marketplace who can get new copies and is willing to ship them to Canada: gamesquest_direct. I ordered a copy of DDR Max 2: Dance Dance Revolution as a Christmas gift for Mandy.
I played it for the first time this morning. Having read the reviews on Amazon, I was expecting the game to offer a mild aerobic workout, but what I got was far from mild. It was intense! After a few minutes of play, I was sweating harder than I usually do at the gym. And this was at the beginner level!
For anybody looking for a relatively cheap and fun workout solution, compared to the likes of $1000 elliptical trainers and $40/month gym memberships, I can’t recommend DDR highly enough, if you can find it.
Ken Dyck 