DDR coming to Wii

Written by Cheryl

http://wii.ign.com/articles/760/760878p1.html

Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party Hands-on

We go hands-on (and feet-on) with Wii's first DDR experience. New screens and video included.

February 2, 2007 - The words Konami and Dance Dance Revolution are synonymous with each other, so it was no surprise to us when Konami decided to further the franchise's success with the addition of Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party for Wii. We've had far-fetched dreams (delusions, mostly) about the possibility of Wii DDR, strapping a pair of Wii remotes to our feet, greasing up the hardwood floors of Matt Casamassina's beach house, and break-dancing in furious, heart pumping, multiplayer action. Hey; we already rearranged our family rooms to play Wii Sports, so why not bust a move with a little DDR too, right?

Well it's here, but it seems that someone over at Konami had nightmares about potential catastrophes that could result from a true, foot-controlled DDR game on Wii. Broken furniture, kicked cats, busted ankles, and the necessity for pack-in leg straps was too much to deal with, so Konami instead ventured down a new avenue of dancing. With Wii controllers in hand, players will make use of the classic dance mat in conjunction with new hand control, adding different upper-body actions to the original DDR gameplay. In an extremely smart move, Konami has made use of the GameCube port on the Wii, allowing for four dance mats, four Wii-mote/nunchuk sets, and the ability to use the original Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix pads that hardcore GCN owners may already own. In fact, at last night's event we were playing with an original Mario Mix pad, and though Konami continued to stress that Hottest Party is in its very early stages team members wanted to get the game on the floor and playable for Wii fans to check out.

Dude... I totally just got back from the hottest party...

As for the guts of the game, DDR Hottest Party is all about merging everything fans expect form a classic Dance Dance Revolution game, adding motion control on top of the already-successful formula. Players will step onto the mat, select their favorite songs, and dance by hitting the four arrow directions as they rise to the top of the screen. Though the demo shown was only single player and featured a short list of three songs (with our favorite being "Gonna Make You Sweat"), Konami boasts that DDR Hottest Party will feature songs that everyone in the family can jump right into, offering a huge mix of classic - and remixed - songs spanning four decades. Your mom may not be the biggest fan of DDR, but when a hip-hop remix of "Mr. Sandman" starts bumping in your living room you can expect heads to turn, clothes to fly, and mad dancing action a plenty. *Editor's Note: Mr. Sandman hasn't been confirmed, and IGN in no way is condoning any loss of clothes from any mother, anywhere. Also, the words "mad dancing" may not apply to many parents out there, so we apologize ahead of time for any childhood scarring that may occur.

And when it comes to game modes, Konami is working to deliver a very Wii-specific experience as well. In the new Friendly Sync multiplayer mode players will work together as a four-player team to co-op each of the game's songs as a team. If anyone misses the step or gesture, everyone misses it. We get why Konami would call it "Sync", but we're a bit confused as to how this extremely difficult mode can be considered "friendly" at all. This should be a classic for DDR fans that know the steps and want a real challenge. In addition, a second multiplayer co-op mode called Support Mode was mentioned, although there are no details to encompass the name. From what we can assume, Support Mode may require only one person in the team to hit the note or motion, allowing players to "support" a newbie dancer.

As for the classic Battle Mode gameplay, Konami has a few new ideas to go with the Wii controller as well, allowing players to gesture with the Wii remote to taunt, add possible improvisation to the steps, or actually send more arrows over to other competitors by gesturing in a throwing motion. As with everything else in Hottest Party, details and game modes are subject to change, as Konami looks to have started the game mere weeks (a month tops by our estimates) ago, so essentially Hottest Party currently consists of a motion demo and a whole lot of design ideas.

For hardcore single player fans, Konami also mentions that Hottest Party will contain all the expected modes of the other DDR games. Whether this means we'll get some of the more advanced song editors or WiiConnect24 support for new tracks is still to be determined, but you can fully expect two-mat play, an already confirmed workout mode, and newly added multiplayer mini-games to boot. From the looks of it Hottest Party may be one of - if not the best - DDR experience we've seen simply because of all the added modes for Wii co-op and competition.

New motion, new modes, same furious gameplay.

Where gameplay is concerned, Hottest Party is literally just scratching the surface in the Gamer's Day demo we played. The demo featured three songs, each with three difficulty selections, and only one player. As for the actual motion control, the game's arrow design now includes an icon that looks similar to a Wii-mote/nunchuk next to each other. When the icon raises to the top of the screen, players could gesture with either the nunchuk or the Wii remote to input the action. Motion control worked just fine in the demo, but it is obvious that this is extremely placeholder, as the motion control icons merely replaced where normal arrows would have been. In a four note run, for example, the song would normally show left, up, down, right, which forms across the screen from left to right (a common run in Dance Dance). For the demo, one of the arrows was replaced with the motion icon, which broke up classic foot steps entirely. It showed off tech, but it was very obvious that this was merely the first step for hand control.

So how will the final motion control for DDR Hottest Party actually work? Well, it's still being determined. Konami has made it abundantly clear that this is a new avenue for DDR, and that they're simply going to try things out until it feels right. Will this ultimately mean a new layout for the screen, allowing for a separate area for hand motions? Will these motions just replace arrows like we saw in the demo? Can characters really put their own motion and feel into the game and have it matter? We wouldn't be surprised to see the final versions of DDR Hottest Party looking significantly different from the demo at last night's event, and with the game still in the conceptual stage Konami seems to be pretty open to new ideas and styles for Hottest Party which designers will be exploring over the next few months.

It may only be in its preliminary stages, but DDR Hottest Party is already catching our interest quite nicely. Konami's demo was basic, but appreciated, showing off simple motion control, IR cursor usage for the interface screens, and a crisp, clean visual look on Wii. The team seems to have some solid ideas for game modes and gameplay elements, and from here it'll just be a matter of focusing on a few key areas for the game, adding in a solid mix of songs, and watching the Wii version of DDR fly off the shelves, which - looking at the support the system has, as well as the love for DDR Mario Mix - it will when it hits. We'll have much more on DDR Hottest Party as development continues, and you can expect a ton of new info on motion gameplay and game modes within the next few months, as DDR Hottest Party is slated for a late 2007 release.

Be sure to check out our screens below, as well as some off-screen footage of Hottest Party in action from Konami's Gamer Day event.