PS2 Champion Metal Arcade Dance Pad with Handle Bar

Many other reviews have mentioned the lack of sensitivity. As a 110 lb female, I genuinely struggle to play. I have to step right in the middle of the arrows with my body weight for the steps to register. Even on jump-freeze arrows, I have to keep my weight distributed evenly, or the step doesn't count. Playing at faster songs is nearly impossible, as I cannot tap the arrows. Navigating menus is annoying as well for this reason.I regret my decision to buy this model, since I am not as concerned about breaking it, and don't need a 300 lb rating. For me, waste of money. I still end up playing on my mats.

Excellent seller! This was a Christmas present for my daughter, unfortunately when it arrived. (2 weeks before Christmas) there was damage to the control box. It was completely cracked. I emailed the seller notifying them of the damage and without delay they sent me a replacement... just in time for Christmas! My daughter LOVES her present.. she's a huge DDR fan. This pad is perfect.. Looks great, easy to use and easy to set up. Very nice quality and I'm very pleased! Thank you so much.

To write this review I will need to state a few things. 1) I have been playing DDR since around 2005. 2) I have played on a variety of plastic, foam and metal pads. 3) I have done a lot of research on what pad to get. 4) Hand-built pads can be done but can be costly and not as well crafted as this. 5) I use it for both PS2 and PC (stepmania).[How well this pad works]On the PS2, this thing worked miracles. It is incredibly responsive, it feels solid and even people that I have played with that weighed as much as 180lbs were able to play with their shoes on without damaging it. This is of course with just a few weeks of use. There are LED's that come up and the pad does not look as ugly as it does on the image. It is actually chrome looking and not white plastic themed. The pad may feel small if you have big feet but I believe this is standard size (I hadn't played in over a year).[If you're going to play on the PC]I have purchased this pad along with a dilong ps2 adapter (or whatever the name is) and it was an awful experience. Thankfully, I have a PS2 and plenty of DDR games for it so it wasn't a dealbreaker for me, I just wanted to play DDR on the PC by using Step Mania. Upon investigation, the PS2 adapter that I needed was more expensive, in fact you can go to DDRGAME's website to find the right adapter to fit it. One of them is blue and comes with a driver CD for XP, Vista, win7, win98, winME, and windows 2000. Basically it supports all windows os since windows 98 x86 or 64bit. It doesn't seem to support linux or mac from the label on the disc but I'm sure it can be found.Once you connect and install the drivers, hold down up+start+select (start and select are the red buttons on the control box) and it'll turn the PS2 controller into a PAD controller. This is vitally important if you want to properly play the game because if it thinks it's a PS2 controller, it'll think that the arrows are part of a directional pad and therefore won't recognize two arrows pressed at once, and everything will just not work right.There will be some tuning up to do in order to get the response rate to be better, but once you figure it all out by doing a few google searches, all will be good. It should support two pads, but I haven't gotten there yet.[If you want to use it for more than just PS2/PC]This pad comes with a controller port, but not the kind that you get on a normal PC. So it's the exact same kind of connection that you see on both the Atari and the Sega Genesis. Many old computers came with this but you will need to have a special adapter card in order to connect this directly without the controller switch. Thankfully, this pad comes with that controller switch that leads to the PS2. As mentioned before, you can connect this to a PS2 to USB converter and it works fine. I believe there may be PS2 to Xbox or PS2 to PS3 adapter, I really haven't looked into that but what would be far simpler is to spend about $30 on a new controller switch for your desired system of choice. With this said, you can contact DDRGAME or go to their website and order one. So even though you're ordering it for the PS2, you're not limiting yourself to the PS2 for all eternity, you can forever switch it up however you like.[How does it compare to the official metal pads (and other similar)?]This stands up quite well, and in many cases it can be perceived as "better". The reason why I say "better" is because of how it is engineered. It's not made for a 600lb individual to jump on it as hard as they can, and because of this it doesn't need to be so bulky and industrial. On that note, you'll notice yourself flying through levels faster than on the official pads, I know I do.There are competitive models, some are older such as the famous Cobalt Flux Red Octane DDR Pad, which eventually became discontinued. This is impossible to find and buying it used is likely not going to be a good idea considering how these things wear down especially by those willing to invest a good $300-$600. Compared to the CF Red octane, it's seriously a hard competitor. They are both great, and I can't see any difference in how great they are. I believe the CF is easier to get started with Stepmania but overall, this is the modern equivalent.There are other competitive pads and I have not tested the ION however I have read reviews all over the internet including Youtube where people are completely dissatisfied with it. It may look cool on the picture, but I can almost guarantee you that this pad not only looks better but its functionality is reliable.Don't bother with the TX-1000 series, there is one particular model that might be okay from the TX-series but reliability and customer satisfaction is not well placed in their history.[Customer Service, is it good?]Well, I only had to call once and my experience was great. I called about the PS2 adapter and they explained to me what it was and they offered to test it out on the same model with same OS on step mania with that particular adapter and I agreed to it so they sent me that adapter that was fully tested by them. I was so happy to see that it worked great, and it made a great Christmas gift for someone special to me. The guy was ready to send me a replacement one, but I had ordered the adapter from their website, which if you plan on doing the PS2 to PC, order it from DDRGAME's website or search for their specific supported converter models here! I cannot stress this how this is vital to get this to work.[You already have that cheap blue dilong ps2 to pc converter, can you still use it?]Yes, in theory. I found a thread that can't be linked here on the the stepmania forums that explains step-by step on how to do this, however it's extremely taxing to find modern download links for the drivers, including multi-pad drivers. Just save yourself from the trouble and buy it from the manufacturer.[What alternatives on Amazon that can be considered?]That depends, if you want to get a great DDR pad and not have to worry about spending $100 on shipping for repair costs (for both ways) then just go with this pad. I can't vouch for any other pad, but I have tried some and none sold on amazon can compare to this kind of quality pad. If you want a plastic pad, the official ones are fine and if you want to improve it slightly, just wrap it with masking tape on plywood to create the hobo generation ddr pad. It works great and is a cheap alternative, however if you're serious about DDR like a lot of us are, then go with metal. It's one of those things that once you try it, the guilt of spending so much money on a peripheral will go away because it is entirely worth it.[What about overweight people?]Well, I don't mean to turn this into a Q&A but it was tested with the max player at 186lbs, so that should give you an idea on what it can properly support. I'd contact DDRGAME to get more details on that since 600lbs could mean 250lbs + jumping.[Bottom line]Get it! Get it! Get it! Have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Get two! It's really fun and there are literally thousands of songs and dozens of song packs available to download online with stepmania or whatever alteration of that game you decide to play. I personally love the anime packs. There is a good warranty, the customer service is great, and if you ask them to do help you out, they will help you out, even hook you up if you really need to. Like I said before, this is an expensive purchase and if you have any questions, contact them to get your questions answered. I know I wish I had done that before thinking that buying a random adapter would work, because it didn't.I hope you found this review helpful as I have done a lot of testing within the past few weeks to help others looking to get into DDR (again?). Keep DDR alive, DDR4ever! Dec 26:The DDR pad had finally started to warp. I'm not sure why, perhaps it was always warped but it was brought to my attention. I don't notice it when I play but heavier people can make it bend. Since it's not much of a problem yet, I won't do anything to it but will be talking to DDRGAME on what my options are. Worst case scenario, I can always drill the pad into plywood and add rubber at the bottom to keep it from sliding. It would be a strange fix but so far it only comes off the ground by about 3mm on one corner regardless where it's situated.

i don't know if "the gaming shop" just sent me a defective pad or if the pad just sucks THAT bad. this pad is horrible, period. the first thing i noticed was the extremely poor response from this pad. you can't just stomp anywhere (by stomp i mean literally stomp) on this pad and get response out of it. when i first began playing on it, i started seeing "good, boo, miss" when i should have been scoring perfects. calling this piece of garbage "a true arcade experience at home" is like calling michael jackson a straight male who never mollested any children. here's the bottom line.. this pad is absolutely rediculous, i'd rather play on my konami dance mat than this sorry excuse for a metal pad. i hope this helps some of you out, i really could have used some advice from others before buying this garbage