Early last week a Konami representative asked me if I wanted to do an interview about the 10th anniversary of "Dance Dance Revolution." And before I could fully process the notion that the game was launched in Japanese arcades in late 1998 and wasn't released for consoles in North America until 2001, I had agreed to an e-mail chat.
I wanted to know about where the series was going, how the game's creators feel about the latest fitness gaming sensation, "Wii Fit," and whether the Wii Balance Board suits the "DDR" series:
Warning: Konami wasn't very forthcoming with answers.
Multiplayer: DDR is approaching its 10th anniversary, dating back to the arcade version that was released in Japan in 1998. What do you think was different about DDR then and DDR now?
Hiro Chiwata, producer, " Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3":
Past --> It was thought to be very unique and everybody was interested in playing "Dance Dance Revolution" when they first saw it, but there was slight intimidation due to the new type of gameplay. At that time, we did not even imagine the fitness benefit and other advanced/expanded ideas. However, the reason is clear. "Dance Dance Revolution" is simple, easy to understand game play and extremely fun to play so it was easy to agree on proceeding with developing the product. We were glad to see people’s positive reaction. It was really a revolution!
Now --> It is straightforward enough for casual users to jump into the "Dance Dance Revolution" world, but also challenging enough for the hard-core fans.
Future --> There have been so many discoveries in how to change and improve upon the existing "Dance Dance Revolution" functionalities. We found that we can keep making new "Dance Dance Revolution" games with exciting new features, modes and characters, appealing to all people. Now we understand that people can have fun playing, and have the health benefits.
Multiplayer: So much has been done with DDR. How do you identify ways to advance the series? What are the goals for DDR in the future?
Chiwata: We just have reached the first "Dance Dance Revolution" milestone, its 10th year anniversary! "Dance Dance Revolution" will keep growing and changing but the heart of it will not change. When online gaming became popular, "Dance Dance Revolution" supported it, when we had handheld remote controllers, we implemented it. "Dance Dance Revolution" has, and always will keep up with the ever changing world of videogames!
Ultimately we don’t see the series ending anytime soon, we will continue to make "Dance Dance Revolution" games that everybody loves.
Multiplayer: These days, "Wii Fit" gets a lot of press for promoting fitness through gaming. Have you tried "Wii Fit"? How do you think "Wii Fit" and "DDR" compare as fitness tools?
Chiwata: "Wii Fit" is certainly an interesting game concept, but I believe that "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Wii Fit" will never directly compete. We focus on making "Dance Dance Revolution" fun to play as our first priority and of course the exercise aspects naturally follow.
Multiplayer: Would you like to make a "DDR" using the Wii Balance board? What direction could that take the series in?
Chiwata: It is interesting and worth researching and we may want to utilize it in the future of "DanceDanceRevolution." You never know what the future holds for "Dance Dance Revolution"!
Multiplayer: Konami recently announced "Rock Revolution," which sports the multi-instrument set-up of "Rock Band" and the new "Guitar Hero World Tour." Obviously the new game also harkens back to Konami's own Bemani games. But what none of these instrument-based games have done, to my knowledge, is integrated dancing -- "DDR" or otherwise -- into their set-ups. Do you think it would make sense to combine "DDR" with "Rock Revolution" as one ultimate rhythm game? Or do you think an overlap wouldn't work?
Chiwata: That certainly sounds interesting...anything is possible!
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