Some of you may be aware that, a while back, I got totally hooked on the video game Dance Dance Revolution -- or, as I like to call it, Crack for Twelve-Year-Old Asian Girls. I thought the game was ridiculous until I actually played it at my parents' house some time ago. Next thing I knew, I had my own copy of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova for the Playstation 2, and was spazzing the night away myself.
Until my dance pad, the flimsy one that came bundled with the game, crapped out on me a couple of months ago. The down arrow just stopped working. So I headed out to Best Buy and bought the only dance pad they had, the React Universal Dance Pad. It was one of those soft pads with the foam inserts. It was all right, but not as sensitive as it could have been, and it was hard to keep it from sliding all over my floor.
I did a little research, and found that there is, in fact, one dance pad that everyone seems to agree is the best there is: the Cobalt Flux. It's a metal pad, not unlike what you'd play on in an arcade, and while it cost a hefty chunk of change -- three hundred big ones -- everyone says it's worth every penny. So, I decided I liked playing this game enough to invest in one.
It took them a solid month to get the pad to me. Why? Because they carefully build each one by hand, and then test the ever-loving crap out of it. And they're sturdy, too. Don't believe it? Watch what this crazy son of a bitch did to his. This thing will be the only thing left intact if the terrorists strike.
So, today, it finally arrived. I unpacked it, and, like all things packed in styrofoam, it was covered in the stuff. A little vacuuming helped that. About the first thing I noticed about the pad is that the sumbitch is heavy. I mean, I knew it was going to be -- the box says it's 45 pounds -- but I didn't really understand until I hefted the pad out of its packaging. Cleaned it up, slapped the four pieces of 3M Safety-Walk grip tape it came with on the bottom, plugged it in, and I was ready to rock and roll. And, by "rock and roll," I mean spaz out like an epileptic coke addict.
It's going to take time for me to get used to it -- it's way more sensitive than the soft pads were, and I'm not used to playing with my shoes on. But already, I can tell that this pad is really, really good. I never understood how people could play some of the harder songs and difficulty levels; it just seemed like you'd have to move your feet impossibly fast. After playing a few songs with the Cobalt Flux, it doesn't seem nearly so impossible. Once I grow accustomed to the pad, I get the feeling my game is going to improve like crazy.
Also, it doesn't slip, even just laying on top of my rug! I'm shocked and delighted. I assume the bugger's just too heavy to slip.
So, anyway, if you couldn't tell, the Cobalt Flux rates an AAA for me so far. If you're a DDR nerd like me, you won't go wrong with this guy.
Some pictures for you:
See if you can identify all the various pieces of evidence of my ridiculous geekdom in this photo.
Styrofoamy.
The control box...uh...box.
The pad comes with this thin white film protecting all the buttons. Kind of a pain to peel off, but the buttons sure are purty underneath.
The control box, which houses all the electronics that translate arrow presses on the pad into controller button presses. It's separate so that if it fails, you can just replace the control box instead of the whole damn pad.
And, finally, the Cobalt Flux in its unpacked, gleaming glory.
