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[SD-Ness]

So I just played DDR Max 2: Dance Dance Revolution (Xbox) at my friend's house. I love it...so I'm buying my own copy. What's the best pad/mat out there?

 

[demi]

RedOctane baby!

 

[KarishBHR]

BNS ignition is 50 bux cheaper then red octane, but they are the same mat!

Ive had mine for almost two years now, and its still great!

 

[demi]

I don't even play DDR, it was the first thing to come to mind.

 

[Dan]

Hmm, Red Octane's pad does indeed sound awesome... 100 bucks though...

I've played DDR a couple times over the past couple years, and every time I do I get really into it. I've been thinking about finally grabbing a PS2 or Xbox just for it. I hated the cheap pads though, but this one sounds like it solves a lot of the problems I had, so now I'm really tempted...

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

BNS ignition is 50 bux cheaper then red octane, but they are the same mat!

Ive had mine for almost two years now, and its still great!

Any links from you guys? I'm not sure exactly which pads are being talked about. RedOctane, for instance, has a slew of different pads, and I don't find one called "BNS Ignition", though I see various other BNS pads.

Anyone had any good experiences with $35-ish foam pads like these?:
http://www.estarland.com/index.asp?action=redir&page=Playstation&category=Accessory&product=17620
http://www.ddrnation.com/dx.htm

 

[Inumaru]

Cobalt Flux is the only way to go if you want the absolute best. I own two and wouldn't trade them for anything. They will never wear out, and your skills will quickly transfer to the arcade if you wanna play there, in my experience. Visit the ddrfreak.com or the cobaltflux.com forums for reviews of all the pads. Nothing else even comes close!!

 

[vireland]

I've got the Red Octane and the Level Six thick pads and the Level Six ones are better and slightly less expensive. They have small LED lights at the top of the unit that indicate when a button is being pressed, and they look closer to an OEM pad, just thicker and more heavy-duty.

http://www.levelsix.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=29

Do yourself a favor and get two levelsix pads for the price of one RedOctane pad. One note is that the LS pads do NOT seem to work with the original DDR for the XBOX using the PS2->XBX adapter. However, they work fine with DDR Ultramix for XBX. I'm not sure if they're off backorder or not. They got swamped at Xmas and shipped no new orders for about a month while they caught up. At $43.95, I can see why they are so popular.

 

[cvxfreak]

Best Pad/Mat

Why, Matlock of course!

Seriously, the official Konami ones are pretty good, so I'd go with those.

 

[miyuru]

Have you heard of Stepmania per chance?

 

[M3wThr33]

The metal ones on LikSang are what I lean toward. The TX2000+, I believe. I personally hate the Cobalt Flux. No buffer between steps, ambiguously universal, so no metal in the corners, it's too light and moves around with 200 lb players, etc.

 

[vireland]

Let's get back to reality. This was a casual player. They're not going to drop $300 on a pad for an improved experience, but they might drop $50 or $100. In that range, the $43.95 LevelSix bad is IT, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Inumaru]

The metal ones on LikSang are what I lean toward. The TX2000+, I believe. I personally hate the Cobalt Flux. No buffer between steps, ambiguously universal, so no metal in the corners, it's too light and moves around with 200 lb players, etc.

What do you mean by "ambiguously universal"? By the way, they are considerably heavier than every metal pad that I've ever seen at close to 45 lbs a piece. They come with grip tape-type stuff that you put on the bottom that helps keep them from slipping. I would say because of the weight and the grip tape they slip a lot less than other pads. Lock them together with the doubles bar and they won't go anywhere.

But yeah, the no metal, no "sunken" areas on each arrow is definitely a preference thing. Some people like it, some don't. It makes sliding really easy though, which is fun when you're playing at home.

 

[M3wThr33]

Ambiguous means all 9 of those are buttons. I don't need a technomotion or pump it up mat. I just want a 4 button pad with a metal corner and centers. And the last time I played with it, it kept moving as I stepped down. Maybe the botton didn't have the right adhesive applied, but I still prefer feeling step edges.

 

[mosaic]

I have a LevelSix Ignition mat with the thick padding inside. It's awesome, and I weigh well over 300 pounds. Ask anyone who's seen me, I am fat as heck.

I did add the chair mat mod though (basically, you cut up a smooth office-type chair mat and stick it into the pad between the padding and "buttons" to make it more rigid). Love it, love it.

 

[AzN_F15h]

i got this cheap 20 dollar DDR pad for ps2 that lights up n stuff. very good pad. and i modded it on a giant board of wood wrapped in a sheet of plastic floor covering. just do that w/ any cheap ddr pad and itll last you forever.

 

[teiresias]

I have a LevelSix Ignition mat with the thick padding inside. It's awesome, and I weigh well over 300 pounds. Ask anyone who's seen me, I am fat as heck.

I did add the chair mat mod though (basically, you cut up a smooth office-type chair mat and stick it into the pad between the padding and "buttons" to make it more rigid). Love it, love it.

Hmmm, maybe I should buy one of these. I like DDR, but the normal skinny pad I have always bounds up and is a pain in the butt to use (and the carpet is actually coming up where the pad was now. Maybe the thicker ones would help.

 

[Inumaru]

Ambiguous means all 9 of those are buttons. I don't need a technomotion or pump it up mat. I just want a 4 button pad with a metal corner and centers. And the last time I played with it, it kept moving as I stepped down. Maybe the botton didn't have the right adhesive applied, but I still prefer feeling step edges.

Just to clarify, you're right, all 9 are buttons, but the middle one is disabled by default, and you have to take apart the middle button to make it work, so there are really only 8 buttons normally. But the corners are going to be off when you're actually playing a song, you can do this in the options menu by turning "Dance Mode" to "On", so only 4 will be active in a song, just like every other pad.

Of the course, the step edges thing is a preference thing, as I mentioned before. Some like it, some don't.

 

[Mejilan]

Hmmm, well, Level Six mats are out of the question. They've been out of stock for roughly 6 months now, with only vague emails sent out to very disgruntled customers. Perhaps BNS...