General Description
The rules of this game is easy to learn, but it is tough if not impossible to master. The game is played with four buttons: left, right, down, up on a controller or a Dance Dance Revolution mat/pad. To play with the controller is no challenge, so I would suggest that you play with the Dance Dance Revolution mat/pad. On your side of the game screen, you will see these four directions indicated on the top section. While you play, flashing arrows will move slowly or sometimes quickly from the bottom of the column to the top where the arrows are. The goal is the hit the correct direction's button whenever the flashing arrows meet with the arrows at the top. You have to listen to the rhythm of the song because you can't always judge when to press the arrows by sight. On the top of your column, you will see a "dance meter" which increases if you dance well and decreases if you miss. If the bar empties, you lose.

Every time you press a directional button, the game will keep track of how close to the exact beat you were. You get a "Miss" or a "Boo" if you do poorly. A "Good" means you did it fairly well or average. A "Great" or "Perfect" is excellent or superior. Each of these possibilities earns more points than the one before it. The game also keeps track of a "combo" for you. A combo is how many "Greats" or "Perfects" you have gotten in a row. If you get a "Good" or worse, the combo ends. You will receive a score at the end of the level, depending on how well you did. The scoring is from "E", which is failing, "D", which is poor, "C", which is average, "B", which is above average, "A", which is great, "S", which is excellent, and "SS", which is superior. You get an "SS" if you did a combo for the entire level. It takes coordination as well as a sense of rhythm to play this game well, especially for the later levels. You will want to play this game again and again until you earn and "SS" on every level.

Arcade Mode

There are 3 difficulty choices: "Easy," "Normal," or "Hard." Normal Mode has the first set of the game's levels, while Hard Mode has the other half of the levels. (the tougher ones) You play a set of 3 stages in whichever you choose, and you choose which song you will play for each new stage. All of the game's songs/levels are found within these two main modes. If you choose Easy Mode, you will play 1 stage. (chosen from an assortment of levels from both Normal and Hard) On Easy Mode, you can not lose the stage, no matter how low your dance meter goes. Easy Mode is just for practice, and it does not let you set records or progress farther.

There are 5 variant choices: "Basic," "Another/Trick," "Maniac," "Double Basic," or "Double Another/Trick." Basic is the default set of steps/arrows for a level. This is the easiest choice of the bunch. Another/Trick is a bit harder and has more steps in it. Maniac is the hardest and has the most steps of all . Think of those as the easy, medium and hard variants of each level. Double Mode lets one person play with both controllers/mats. Double Another/Trick is the harder version of Double, which more steps in the song.

There are 5 effects choices: "Mirror," "Hidden," "Shuffle," Left," and "Right." In Mirror Mode, the steps in the level will be reversed to their opposite. In other words, left and right get switched, and up and down will get reversed as well. (Not at the top or anything) In Hidden Mode, the arrows disappear halfway up the screen, so you'll have to know the beats. In Shuffle Mode, the steps are all in messed up. Left and Right Modes allow you to do 90 degree stunts.

Each song in the game has a difficulty level associated with it, and each song has a different difficulty for each of its variants. You can see the difficulty level below each song disc that you can select. The difficulty level itself is indicated by how many "feet" markers you will see, as well as a title. Each level of difficulty has a title that indicates how tough it is. These difficult levels are in relation to the other levels in the particular game. A specific level's difficulty number can always change if it appears again in a later DDR game. These difficulty titles are listed in the table below, along with how many "footmarks" each represents.

There is also the list of each step rank you can get while playing the game. (along with the colors that represent them) This comes into play during the level, to tell how close you were to hitting a step(arrow) at the correct time. They are listed in order from best to worst. "Perfect" is right on the beat, and "Great" is extremely close. "Good" is close to the beat, and "Boo" is far off. "Miss" is what you get when you totally miss the beat or just don't even input anything at all for it. "Ouch" is if you press the steps when you aren't supposed to, or when you are far off. It's only in the first Dance Dance Revolution game in the arrange mode. Your "Grade" at the end of the level depends on how well you did with the steps. If you keep a combo going for every beat of the stage(start to finish) you will receive an "SS" rank. (though in the first Dance Dance Revolution game, "S" is the highest. The higher ranks are not present until later DDR games. Here are the tables of important info:

Arrange Mode

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