I Sucked So Badly

[BigBlack81]

This is not going to be your basic whine thread, seeing as I do have some questions to ask of my fellow DDR freaks. I went to my local arcade last night after about a month of not playing and I found out that I sucked. I couldn't A a single song till the very end and I'm only playing songs between 3-5 steps in difficulty. I played my beloved 5th mix most of the night and didn't feel loose at all. At most, my nightly average was between a low B and a High to Mid C. But the worst part of it was that most of the songs I should have been kicking booty on I wasn't. One of my big messups are the side to side combos and the transition from quarter note to eight note transitions.

I'm wondering a couple things:

1. How long, from starting, did it take for most of you to move from the beginner basic range up to trick level stuff?

2. What was the hardest thing to learn going from a beginner to a trick level player?

3. What songs and/or steps are essential for a beginner to learn?

4. Is playing at home a good substitute for playing at an arcade if you can't get to your local arcade as much as you would like?

5. What tips does anyone have on reading arrows and how important is that to how your playing increases?

Also, I was playing the 5th mix all night but then switched over to the MAX machine that was there as well. I got hooked! Though I lost a song in the mix (4 for a dollar on MAX as opposed to 5 for a dollar on my 5th mix), I love the freeze arrows and the ambitious song selection. I also thought I could concentrate better on reading the arrows without the dancers behind the scene. Any comments?
_________________

"...Take my heart and keep alive
Maybe one day you'll be mine
So baby, never gonna make you stop
So don't refuse my love!..."

[Phrekwenci]

[BigBlack81]

[tac-tics]

1) I was probably in beginner mode for two or three weeks.

2) Eigthnotes. Especially long streams of them. Second most difficult to get is tricky jump+freeze arrows where only one arrow is frozen and the other keeps going =-|

3) Hrmm Beginner level songs? I don't know >.< All I remember when I was still on light was I played a LOT of Candy (STAR).

4) Definitely. All practice goes towards mastery of the game. Actually, I think the home-pad helped because it forces you to accept more bogus misses (home pads suck -_- ). When you can pass a song with the soft-pad handicap, you can pass it with a higher score at the arcade (~yay~)

5) For arrow reading --> download DWI.
Yeah, it's with your fingers instead of your feet (wow, just like every other game in the world =-) But it really helps with pattern recognition. And if you can follow the steps in your mind, your feet are soon to follow. Also, since there's nearly 0 physical activity involved, you could play it for hours on end withtout fatigue.

hope this helped
_________________