Misguided Device
Lately I've had this itch. A need for a really good game. No computer games have really piqued my interest, so I turned to the classics. Both Nintendo and Super Nintendo churned out some timeless games that are always fun... Hell, even Sega Genisis was good for a few. So, I fired up my emulators and started going through my list of ROMs. I
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The DDR mat.
Unlike any other controller besides the ill-fated NES Power Pad, the DDR mat has a very simple layout (4 to 6 arrow buttons, plus the essential start and select) almost echoing a blown-up version of a NES controller that dropped its A and B buttons. Power Pad aside, this is the only controller designed for the feet. This offers a unique feel. While used pretty much exclusively for the Dance Dance Revolution line, and more recently, its PC port, Stepmania, it is often not even viewed as a controller. Many see it as a dancing mat, just a place to do the dance with guidelines of where to place your feet, as in old movies where they teach people how to dance with black numbered footprints. However, it becomes deeper when seen as the video game analog of the piano from the movie "Big"; you become a thumb, it is the direction pad of the NES controller.
Imagine that you are a thumb. Your owner is playing Super Mario Bros 3. You know nothing more than the signals sent by the brain of when to push a button. This is what DDR really is. You're a thumb performing an essential video game function of a larger being. The music is just a guideline.
Why didn't the Power Pad work the same way? 20 buttons made it too unmanagable, and games like that Olympics one just had you press buttons with your heels rapidly, something your HANDS are supposed to do, not your feet. There was no inspiration, just a grid of numbers and some guy who can't do the long jump. Where's the fun in that?
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