Dance Your Cares Away…
…Worries for another day
Let the music play
Down in Fraggle Rock!
Okay, so I promised a more fun update, with the plan being to get drunk and play Stepmania with a friend who will make sure I enjoy it. Unfortunately that’s been postponed, but it should hopefully happen shortly. In its place here are some lyrics from the old theme song for Captain Planet:
‘We’re the Planeteers,
You can be one too,
Cause saving our planet is the thing to do!
Looting and polluting
Is not the way,
Hear what Captain Planet has to say:
“The power is yours!”’
Can you imagine that show airing these days? 5 teenagers of different racial backgrounds hold rings for each element (the fifth element being Heart!), combining their powers to stop pollution and save the planet from the evil corporations and scientists! Maybe that was totally gnarly when we were kids, but these days Bush would accuse it of being hippies trying to brainwash our children. Terrorist hippies!
Also somewhat disturbing was finding the theme tune to Alvin and the Chipmunks. The lines go something along the ling of “So get set to have some fun, We’ll bring you action… and satisfaction… We’re the chipmunks, Coming on stronger than ever before!” As I was dancing to this, hearing that high-pitched chipmunk voice sing about coming on stronger and giving me satisfaction, I was extremely creeped out. Didn’t stop me getting an A though…
But anyway, enough of such tomfoolery! Back to the game itself, which has gripped and excited me so intensely that I’ve taken a whole six days to bother shoving out another article about it. To be honest there’s not a great amount to report. This game is really starting to bore me a fair amount now. I’ve usually been playing 30-60 minutes a day, and gradually trying to improve myself. I’ve gone through all my 3-foot songs and gotten A rankings in the vast majority. I managed to impress myself by trying out a 3-foot song I’ve never heard of before and cranking out an AA grade first go!
But 4-foot songs are still an uphill struggle. Today, after going through all the harder 3-foot songs, I gave 4-foot Billie Jean another few tries. First attempt – fail. Second attempt, struggling, but for once I actually managed a D! That’s the first time I’ve been happy with a D outside of cup sizes! After that I felt on a roll, I went another time and was doing amazingly well. I got the health meter up to full, stringing along a very good combo, and was hoping for an A when I started screwing up near the end – resulted in a C overall. After that I was just too tired to do well (I’d been dancing for a good 2 hours straight) so I gave up.
But tomorrow is another day… I am determined to get into the 4-foot songs and do better. I’m also still perplexed by the grade rankings you get at the end. An AA seems only possible if you never miss a single beat. An A only seems possible if you get your bar to full, whilst a B is if it’s nearly full. C and D are obviously lower down the line (which is actually rare to get – either you have the song covered well and you get an A or B, or you totally cock up and fail). However, there seems to be some other factor here since sometimes you get a B if your bar is full, and sometimes an A if it’s not quite full. I’m guessing it must be the number of perfect steps, or how high a combo you can get.
I’ve messed around with the settings a bit and managed to turn the stupid menu timer off (who the hell would want that on?) though I still can’t find a way to disable the way it forces you into a 3-stage mode of play. Interestingly I found an option to turn off the “Marvellous” rating for your steps. I can only assume this means that in terms of points Marvellous is exactly the same as Perfect – it’s only something added on for display. Looking at the post-song statistics I can sort of see why – on the songs I’m good at over 50% of my steps are Marvellous, with a further 25-30% Perfect. Without that extra high rating I’d simply be seeing the same Perfect score all the time. I figure there must be some damn amazing grade for getting the highest rating on every step – something I’ll have to experiment with some time on an easy song. But I really can’t see what the heck is the difference between Great and Marvellous – that split-second variation just really ain’t obvious.
The alterations I made to my pad are getting a little worn – the polystyrene on the left and right buttons has developed a groove in the middle making the buttons a little less responsive at times. I’ll have to look at reworking these with harder materials. Still a few slipping problems too, but not enough to interfere with play – the mat just needs a little adjustment in between stages sometimes. It will be interesting in future to see just how different the proper arcade machines are to my pathetic little patched up cheapo dance mat…
Positives: Well, I guess I’m still improving, albeit very slowly… I don’t feel like a complete pillock playing any more – just bored really.
Negatives: Forget embarrassment or shame, this game is just turning out really really dull. The initial joy from something new has quickly worn off and I’m left really struggling to want to play.
Overall so far: The thing I’ve never understood, and that I understand even less now, is that there are people who play this regularly, on a daily basis sometimes. There are forums with tens of thousands of users dedicated to Stepmania. Why? Just why…? To keep this up I’m going to have to try and add a bit of spice…
1 comment August 14th, 2006