How to buy DDR Hottest Party 2 for the Wii
How I did it: Back in the spring of '08 I got DDR Hottest Party for the Nintendo Wii. After spending the whole summer learning all the songs in Workout Mode, memorizing the steps, and unlocking as much as I could - I ended up losing 15 pounds (woohoo!!) Decided to reward myself by purchasing DDR Hottest Party 2. It was $69.99 CDN at Best Buy and came with both the game and the mat.
For those new to DDR, here is a quick summary on Wikipedia: Dance Dance Revolution
This sequel has many improvements over the original Hottest Party. For instance, the graphics are slicker (more disco, less Kool-aid), and the menus are more intuitive and easier to scroll through. The announcer's role is minimized, so you don't get verbally berated every time you get a D or E on a song. Also, the game remembers your preferences, so, for instance, if you don't like Hand Markers or Freeze Arrows, you don't have to turn them off every single time you start up the game.
Bonus: there is now a Training mode, where you can select a few bars of a song and practice the steps over and over. For someone like me, who can almost make it through an entire dance routine and then completely lose the beat at the very end, the Training mode is a godsend. Now you won't have to play the whole track just to get to the tricky part.
If you've ever wanted to learn the dance moves that go along with the songs, you can do that here as well. There is apparently a sort of camera mode where you can zoom in on one particular cartoon dancer so you can study and copy their moves. For DDR players who perform in public at the arcade, this could very well inspire you to invent your own dance grooves and boost your style points.
The only downside so far is that I am not crazy about the soundtrack. While there are a few modern songs such as "Umbrella" and "D.A.N.C.E.", most of the songs are from the 80s and the cover versions are pretty meh. Fortunately, there are still over 20 J-pop songs left to unlock, so maybe some of these will be more danceable.
Overall this is a decent sequel that promises to help any gamer improve their DDR skills. 8.5/10
Lessons & tips: If you are interested in DDR Hottest Party 2, I would encourage you to review the soundtrack at Wikipedia first and see if the songs interest you.
Price-wise I found that the game was the same price virtually everywhere I went (Best Buy / Future Shop / EB) so it was not really worth shopping around. But check online just in case.
Resources:
Wikipedia: DDR Hottest Party 2
BestBuy.ca
