Dance Station 3D

iwrestledamudkiponce · Trick Member Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Location: California

I was looking through channelbeat.com looking for prices of DDR machines, and I came across the game Dance Station 3D.

Baka of the Orochi · Trick Member Joined: 26 Jan 2002 Location: Chicago area

It's called "Dance Station 3DDX."

We had one at the Namco store I used to work at, it SUCKED.

It's KIND of a mix between Pump and Para Para, but it's executed poorly, and the hardware is trash. The sensors are IMPOSSIBLE to get to work 100% and properly, the pads are meh, feels like I'm playing on floor paneling (it's a different floor panel setup than DDR or PIU).

There is a regular "Dance Station" game made by the same company, but that's closer to Pump, and it still sucks. WAY too easy, even the hardest song is ridiculous easy.

Even if the machine was selling for $100, it's not even worth it.
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Agent J · Trick Member Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Location: Dimension X

Indeed, I've played 3DDX myself (possibly at the arcade Baka of the Orochi was talking about o_o) and to say it's awful is an understatement. I thought it would be neat to play a dance game with both my hands and feet, but there are some fundamental problems with this game, as Baka mentioned. The hand sensors constantly misfire due to poor construction. Meanwhile, the pads... gah. First of all, the foot panels are huge. They're rectangular, and there's nothing separating them like PIU or DDR. Channelbeat's description is a bit off, too. There are only 4 panels on the platform: UL, UR, DL, DR. The middle is a raised plasticky portion with no button. Finally, the panels seem like they're mounted on springs, significantly depressing when stepped on and audibly springing back up when you take your foot off. The music selection is small and comprised mostly K-Pop, with at least a couple of songs ripped out of Pump it Up, but there's an odd version of Smile.dk's Butterfly on there, sounds like a poorly-done cover to avoid licensing issues. At my skill level when I found the game, the easy mode was too easy but the hard mode was too hard, but I was quite a noob back then. =P

In short, I think 3DDX was an interesting idea, but it was killed by poor execution like so many other good ideas.