PS3/PS2 Tournament Metal Arcade Dance Pad

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List Price: $199.99
Sale Price: $167.42
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Ive been playing ddr for over 8 years and ive had other ddr mats. I bought two of this "newer" kind at 85 dollars a piece including shipping.

Let me explain how these work: Theres metal tape on the bottom of the arrows and when you press down on the arrows the metal tape activates the circuit pad down under. Also it is important to know that all these pads have a metal frame but inside the frame is wood.

Often over the care and maitenance of these pads youll have to take off the arrows (by unscrewing them) and clean the circuit pad because metal tape will get stuck to it. Also you may have to replace metal tape if the pad lasts long enough.

Now for the design flaws: The arrows are screwed directly into the wood; this means each time you unscrew and screw in the arrows your making the wooden holes weaker!

Second major flaw: The wires of the metal pad run over the frame instead of under. This means every time you press down (on the up arrow) its pressing against the wires this looks like a recipe to disconnect a wire.

So who should get this?

Well, with the cheap plastic / styrofoam pads you can play steps up to about 7(on the 10 step scale) on "hard." and these pads usually last FAR longer than the metal pads.

Get this metal pad if you just HAVE to play over 7 steps and dont have a DDR machine in the arcade. The machines in the arcade are usually about 1 dollar for 3 songs. This means for eqiuvalent use on this pad you have to get about 300 songs worth; this may not seem like alot but these pads go quick on the hard songs.

Im going to keep track of how long these pads last; i bought two. Ill update when they break.

Lastly, I wouldnt pay much more than 100 including shipping on mats like these UNLESS your a very heavy player and you can get a good warrenty. Its more than possible to break one of these pads in a couple days.

*12-10-09 UPDATE*

Well... sad to say the first mat had less than 50 uses on various difficulties before ALL FOUR arrows had some kind of crack in them. And no, I don't wear shoes when using the pad. This isn't a matter of ignorance, its a matter of neglecting quality control. Other metal DDR pads I've owned in the past have never had an arrow crack.

So lets review the cons of owning this pad

-Most distributors sell this pad for well over 100 dollars

-Its screwed into wood therefore making it impossible to replace broken arrows without damaging the pad

-The arrows will be damaged. Fast

Sure, this pad is usable after the arrows crack, but the accuracy is going to be whack which is why most people will buy this to begin with. Most of the pads on amazon at the time of me writing this review are around $150 divide this by 50 uses and your getting a functional use of about 3 dollars per song!

My advice? Get one of the plastic / Styrofoam pads. Their far cheaper, more effective, and last longer. If needed, they can also be modded.

Don't get this piece of junk unless your looking for some eye candy.

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Do not buy this dance pad. This is coming from someone who has gone through THREE of these pads. They don't last very long at all and that's unacceptable considering the steep price of this product. The design is VERY poor and cheaply put together.

The worst quality of this pad is definitely the arrow panels. They are plastic and they break very easily, and being used for a game that requires a lot of force and stepping, they should be using something of higher quality besides plastic. Within 2 weeks of use the arrows already begin to crack and gradually get worse from there.

I figured "Well since I just got this a few weeks ago and the arrow panels are already cracking, maybe I can call customer support and have them send me some spare arrow panels to replace the broken ones." Not the case. They told me I'd have to purchase the spare arrow panels at about $20 PER ARROW PANEL!! That's $80 for all 4 arrows...and as I stated they're cheap plastic panels that would just break apart a few weeks later after being replaced. So not only is the pad expensive and a poorly made product, you'd end up spending a ton more money on it just trying to keep it usable.

Another bad quality about the pad is the wiring. The wires are placed directly below the arrow panels so every time you make a step on the dance pad you're putting strain on the wires. After enough strain the wire will cease to work all together making an entire arrow panel unusable. Even if one arrow panel stops working, the pad is no good for this game.

Trust me and invest in a $300 pad, the ones made of pure metal. Those panels aren't cheap and should last MUCH longer.

I'm serious, avoid this pad. You'll regret buying it within a month of buying.

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This is my first metal DDR pad. It was a wonderful step up from the cheap plastic pads. Great sensitivity, very stable. My only problem with this product is that the arrows cracked the second day I had the pad. I'm a excessive DDR player, playing at least an hour and a half a day. I was expecting the arrows to crack at some point, but not two days in. I'm really glad I bought this product. But if you play as much as I do I recommend that you just save up for a full metal pad, so you don't have to deal with cracking.

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I have had a lot of frustration with this product up until recently and this is why.

I purchased these Dance Pads believing they would work with the PS3 straight away (due to the title saying PS3/PS2 Dance Mats!) well I can safely say they definitely did not work straight away.

It wasn't until I opened the product did I see that my mats were for the PS2 they could not physically connect to the PS3 at all. So it turns out YOU NEED A PS2 to PS3 DDR Dance Pad Converter in order to play with this product. If you buy this for your PS3 IT IS ABSOLUTELY 100% NECESSARY that you also buy an adapter for each pad you buy.

Once I got it working it was worth it at least! Without the initial hassles I would probably rate this product 5 stars because once they are working they are a lot of fun! The first thing I noticed was the pads size. It is a perfect size. It is actually a bit bigger than most Arcade Versions of DDR, but still small enough not to take up too much space in your house.

The quality of the pads are very good. I was quite cautious to use it at first but I have been dancing on it for hours and its fine so far. Apparently this version of the mat has been tested to withstand enough pressure to ensure they last long.

The pads seem to be very tough and made out of a good quality metal. The bottom is non-slip too for easy use on tiles.

They light up as well which is an added bonus.

One weird thing is that the X and O buttons are on the wrong sides to where they would usually be (in Australia anyway) but that doesn't really matter.

I would definitely recommend buying the pads to enhance your game play experience with DDR!

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The pad came in wonderful condition. Had to tighten the screws but that's normal. The pad works fantastically; however the back arrow button does feels a little weak but hasn't broken. I have beaten most of my high scores already and can play on Heavy Mode now with ease; where with the dinky little cloth-type pads I could only play a few Heavy songs without sliding all over the place like the floor was coated in grease. I'd certainly recommend this pad to my fellow DDRians. :P Happy dancing to the beat of your favorite song!