Well now, apart from the die hard rhythm game fanatics that I surround myself with with, I barely hear anyone talk about DDR. It's popularity, at least in the UK, started waning when Guitar Hero started to rise up and then after the western rhythm game fad died out I didn't hear anyone talk about it again.
But then I moved to Japan where every arcade has entire fucking sections of their gaming areas dedicated to rhythm games. DDR, Drummania, Guitar Freaks, Voltex, Mai Mai, Groove Coaster, Pop n', HOLY SHIT, so many fucking god damn rhythm games. Here in Japan, DDR is very very far from being forgotten and still requires a short queue up if you want to get a turn.
That said, DDR seems to have done away with all the individual titling that other Bemani games tend to follow. For example Beatmania has a new fucking iteration like every goddamn year and Jubeat seems to have some new random ass word added to the title every time I enter a game centre. Seriously, the last version of Jubeat was called "copious", I mean what kind of fucking name is that?! Anyway, like I said DDR doesn't do that shit.
That doesn't mean that DDR isn't being updated but the versions that I see in arcades now seem to be a big compilation edition that just has everything on it. Basically every song from every version of DDR is on there along with a great deal of the songs from every other Bemani game under the sun. Having Konami's E-Amusement pass also unlocks more tracks as you level up and there's some thing involving medals and "boss songs" that I'm collecting as I play but I always skip through it too fast to know what the fuck is going on.
So yeah, DDR, the big old fucking granddad of rhythm games is far from a forgotten old fossil. Still going strong and still enjoyed by many around the world. I just wish I wasn't so out of shape so I could do all those expert tracks that I spent so much time practicing in my teenage years.
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