Three titles from the groundbreaking rhythm game franchise and tons of design details packed into a cool little package.

In September of 1998, Konami released the original Dance Dance Revolution in Japanese arcades. Coming at the perfect time to ride the surging wave of dance music popularity, DDR quickly became a pop culture phenomenon in Japan, then headed overseas to play a major role in popularizing the music rhythm game genre around the world.

And to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the game that left such a huge mark on gaming history, there’s now a mini-sized Dance Dance Revolution machine.

OK, so it’s actually pretty big by “mini console” standards, as it’s much larger than, say, a Super NES Classic Edition. Zuiki, the Yokohama-based company that’s created the Dance Dance Revolution Classic Mini, says it’s a one-fifth-scale replica of the full-sized two-person arcade unit. That means it’s large enough to be a cool-looking decoration, but also compact enough that you can move it around and set it up wherever you want to play.

Loaded into the unit are three titles from the franchise, the original Dance Dance Revolution and its follow-ups Dance Dance Revolution 2nd Mix and Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix. (Zuiki says a full list of included songs is coming soon).

Since you can’t shrink your feet down to one-fifth size, the “floor” of the Dance Dance Revolution Classic Mini is a pair of, ironically, jumbo-sized gamepads.

You can play with the pads flat on a table or held in your hands, and the back railings cleverly hide start and menu navigation buttons underneath them, as shown in the preview video here.

If you’ve got a Dance Dance Revolution Controller from Konami Amusement (the one here), though, the Dance Dance Revolution Classic Mini has support for it too.

You can play the Dance Dance Revolution Classic Mini either through its LCD screen or by hooking it up to your TV with an HDMI cable. To recreate the arcade atmosphere, the unit’s lights flash in time to the music, and the console comes with all sorts of little signs and stickers like the ones that explained to first timers how to play the innovative game.

▼ Different stickers let you deck yours out in either original, 2nd Mix, or 3rd Mix style.

Zuiki will be offering the Dance Dance Revolution Classic Mini through a campaign on crowdfunding site Kibidango. Exact reward tier details haven’t been released yet, but Zuiki says the price for the console will be 43,780 yen (US$292), and that it hopes to find 700 takers to meet its crowdfunding goal of “roughly 30 million yen.” The campaign site can be found here, and it’s set to kick off at 7 p.m. on October 10 and run through November 27, with the consoles shipping next summer. And if you need your dancing game fix before then, there’s always that hotel in Japan where you can play Dance Dance Revolution while dressed in a full suit of samurai armor.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Kibidango/株式会社瑞起
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