Basics

- Dance Dance Revolution is a music-dancing game all about timing and rhythm.
- Arrows scroll from the bottom of the screen towards the top.
- You must press the corresponding keys when the rising arrows converge with the arrows near the top.
- When there is a freeze arrow (a long green arrow), hold down the key input and release at the end of the arrow.
- If you release the input before the freeze arrow is complete, you will receive an NG (no good) rating for that arrow.
- Timing is key, the better your timing, the better your score and the more Dance Gauge and Dance Power you earn.
- Each step is judged based on how well you are able to time the key press.
- Hitting steps as Great and Perfect will earn the most points and increase the Dance Gauge fastest.
- The Dance Gauge will deplete for Almost and Missed arrows.
- The game is over when the Dance Gauge is completely depleted.
- After each song you will be graded from E(worst) to SS(best).
- The Groove Gauge during the Song Select screen helps identify characteristics of a certain song:
Stream - the overall density of the steps in the song.
Voltage - the measure of the peak density of the steps (the highest density of arrows that ever appear on the screen at once).
Air - the amount of jump steps within the song.
Freeze - the number of freezes (requiring the player to hold a note after it has been pressed initially) in the song (but not the length of the freezes).
Chaos - the number of steps in the song that do not occur on quarter or eighth notes.