Tokyo Stories

While I was browsing iTunes via iPod Touch, I realized the old arcade game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) from Konami has ranked high as its popular downloads. It has been eleven years since they placed their first arcade game machine, and it seems like a long time since the game created a big hit in Japan.

The concept of the game is still the same in principle: arrows appear from the bottom of the screen scrolling upwards, and users are supposed to press when the arrow comes at the indicator placed at the top. With iPhone version, the game provides two modes called Game Mode and Shake Mode.

Game Mode, which users tap the keys appeared on screen, seem old-fashioned: The fact that the buttons appear properly facing four different directions while the indicator on top showing when to press these buttons placed horizontal, seems like a big compromise, now that we have Nintendo Wii and many other consoles enabling more intuitive controls and feedback.

Shake Mode, was more interesting, as it utilized the accelerometer on the device instead. In principle you simply need to tilt the device towards to instead of the buttons. And in cases when user need to press two buttons at once, since obviously you cannot tilt the device to two directions like left and right at the same time, you simply need to jump instead.

The software is quite expensive, costing about 800 yen (6 Euros), and for me most of those dance tracks are musically unbearable. But I believe the game still has its appeal to male in 30s, who owns iPhone or iPod Touch and have earlier enjoyed the game while it was at its hype. And let's not forget, iPhone did not come out as a gaming device; Yet it enables games to run smoothly and detects tilts and shakes promptly for such a timing-crucial-game.