What is DDR?

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a music video game that you play with your feet. Music plays, arrows march up the screen in time with the music, and the goal is to step on the right arrows at the exact right time. It starts out simple and slow, but as the difficulty increases, it starts to look less like dancing and more like an Old West shootout where the bad guy is shooting at the deputy’s feet and the deputy is frenetically hopping around for a minute and a half.

Why do I love DDR?

It’s the only form of exercise that’s actually fun for me. I love the music, I love the movement, and I love the competitive aspect. I used to be really good; I won statewide competitions in 3 states. I’ve fallen out of practice the past few years, but I’m still pretty good.

So what is AAAing a cata?

DDR songs have a difficulty level between 1 and 10. I’m currently focusing on difficulty 9 songs, which are called “catas” (short for “catastrophic”).

On each song, you get a grade depending on how accurately you step on the arrows. Your grade can be failure, C, B, A, AA, AAA, or AAAA. AAA, also known as “perfect combo”, is when you hit every step within 45 milliseconds (about a twentieth of a second) of exact timing.

My current project is to AAA every cata. Here’s my list so far:

1. 2008-07-18 No Limit
2. 200?-??-?? Freedom
3. 200?-??-?? Hypnotic Crisis
4. 200?-??-?? My Summer Love
5. 2009-09-06 Resurrection
6. 2009-12-05 This Is My DJ
7. 2010-08-02 We Belong To The Sea
8. 2011-01-24 Oasis
9. 2011-02-15 Frozen Ray
10. 2011-04-09 Kiss Me Red (Interlude)
11. 2011-04-30 Not Available
12. 2011-06-27 Flying High
13. 2011-06-27 Furi Furi ’60
14. 2011-07-10 Got To Be Real (Love to Infinity Mix)
15. 2011-07-25 Gotta Let You Go
16. 2011-07-30 Birdie
17. 2011-09-25 Dreaming
18. 2011-11-25 Baby Boy
19. 2012-01-23 Spacy Crazy Girl
20. 2012-01-28 Psalm Pilot
21. 2012-03-18 Viva L’Amor
22. 2012-04-30 Let Mom Sleep
23. 2012-05-21 Orion.78
24. 2012-06-16 Freedom (the other one)
25. 2012-09-17 Irresistablement
26. 2012-11-06 Road To You
27. 2012-11-10 Star Festival Story
28. 2012-11-10 #56
29. 2012-11-12 Little Kitty Mine
30. 2012-11-13 Visible Noise
31. 2013-06-18 Remember December
32. 2013-06-29 Must Be Dreaming
33. 2013-07-25 Euphoria
34. 2013-07-25 Disconnected Hyper
35. 2013-08-09 Silvan Tales
36. 2013-08-09 Stoic (for EXTREME)
37. 2013-08-11 Tears
38. 2013-08-12 Colors (for EXTREME)
39. 2013-08-12 Collapsed Heaven
40. 2013-08-15 sync (for EXTREME)
41. 2013-08-19 The Message
42. 2013-08-24 We Know What To Do
43. 2013-10-28 Whenever, Wherever (The Last Unicorn Radio Mix)
44. 2014-01-08 Trip Machine Survivor
45. 2014-03-01 Godspel ver2.0
46. 2014-03-15 Electro Tuned
47. 2014-04-15 Xenon
48. 2014-04-23 Broken My Heart
49. 2014-04-24 B4U Glorious Style
50. 2014-05-08 A
51. 2014-09-07 Furuhata’s Theme
52. 2014-09-10 Happy Theme
53. 2014-09-11 Highly Strung
54. 2014-09-12 Ray at midsummer
55. 2014-09-14 Bumble Bee
56. 2014-09-16 Da Roots
57. 2014-12-04 Kiss Me Red
58. 2014-12-09 Naughty Girl
59. 2015-01-17 Afronova Primeval
60. 2016-05-04 Bubble Bobble
61. 2016-05-?? Sonic Carnival Zone Act 1
62. 2017-01-28 Panic Puppet Zone
63. 2017-02-01 Ghosts N Stuff
64. 2017-02-13 Labyrinth Zone
65. 2017-03-07 Creed by Sanxion 7

I’m also working on building my stamina back up by playing a lot of difficult songs in a row. My current stamina goal is 100 random endless catas, and my current record is:

• 85 random endless catas (2:35:36) on 2013-07-13

“random” means random, and “endless” means no breaks between the songs. Man, you really appreciate those breaks once they’re gone!