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Tuna Fish RIot's Stepmania (PC)
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| [February 9, 2007 07:12:43 PM]
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For my second session with Stepmania, I broke out of my normal routine and downloaded two new mixes. These were called Pop*Candy and Pop*Candy 2, where the asterisk is actually a star.
I tried going through every song, one by one, but eventually I gave up on that and just played the ones I found to be interesting from what I hear in the preview. The songs were nice, and in a way resembles candy and happiness. A few tunes were catchy, but I don't think they were good enough to go on my list of routine songs.
Sadly, after 15 minutes, I went back to playing my routine songs. I spend a lot of time just looking at the huge playlist and deciding what to play. I think I need a break from Stepmania now.
It's time for my technical review. First off, the whole system is perfect if you are comparing to the arcade version. Same graphics, same sound effects, same modes. In fact, Stepmania is designed to be used as arcade software if you're interested in building an actually dancing stage, then you can. It's kind of sad, but Stepmania is better than the arcade DDR. This is because Stepmania has everything DDR has plus more customization and it's free to play. Unlike playing DDR at the arcade, you can have thousands of songs at your disposal. If Konami ever released a new DDR game, people can just rip the songs out and make simfiles to upload into Stepmania. Playing at the arcade has two advantages though. One, you get videos for all the songs you play. They're not all that great and you probably won't really notice them when your eyes are focused on the arrows, but it's a nice exclusive feature. Secondly, you get to play in front of people. That can be either good or bad, depending how good you are. With Stepmania, if you practice with a dance pad, you can become a professional player AND THEN go to the arcade to show off.
Frankly, I get bored of playing Stepmania with my fingers. I bought an adapter so that I can hook up a dance pad to my PC and play, but didn't bring it to campus this quarter so I'll have to wait until the next time I come home to fetch it.
I think that wraps things up for what I want to say about this game/program. If anyone knows where I can download good song packs (not individual songs), then please tell me. I need new stuff.
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| [February 9, 2007 04:58:58 PM]
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People usually listen to music in a passive state while doing other activities. I guess when you are really bored and not in a mood to do anything, you play Stepmania. It's the game where you take "doing nothing" to a whole new level. As you listen to music, you press the arrow keys to the beat, obtaining a higher score depending on how accurate you are.
Long ago, I downloaded a huge pack of songs off some torrent website that contained every DDR mix that you can possibly name. With these 1000-2000+ songs, I can last myself a lifetime. If that still isn't enough for you, you can find other various packs online that are fan-made. New songs always emerge, so Step-mania doesn't get old... That is, until you no longer receive joy from perfecting three-finger DDR.
Stepmania is a very interesting tool. You can customize it to your liking and it's so easy to use. I just downloaded a new skin/theme called "Pop*Candy" today and it gives Stepmania a fresh new look after seeing the same old skin for a long time.
Gameplay is always a constant "good." I find myself hand-picking a group of songs that I consider my favorite and only play those. On the console versions of DDR, I play through every song and try to pass them all at every difficulty, but with Stepmania, there are simply too many.
That's all I have to say for now. I'll do my second gamelog for this week in a bit later on, and tell you what it's like to play a second hour of Stepmania. I'm already tired of it and when through my usual songs. Also, I will expand into a further technical review of the game/system.
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Tuna Fish RIot's Stepmania (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 9 February, 2007
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