Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix

Mario’s hitting the dance floor! Make magic happen with the right moves!

JP release: 14th July 2005
NA release: 24th October 2005
EU release: 28th October 2005
Developer: Konami, Hudson Soft, Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: 77%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

Just like the N64, the GameCube also just got one Dance Dance Revolution game. And just like the Disney one on 64, it was based on a franchise instead of having a mixture of popular songs. This time, it was Nintendo’s own Mario. There are two things that baffle me about this. First is that Nintendo didn’t negotiate with Konami to have a traditional DDR game on the GameCube alongside this. The second is that it was called Dancing Stage Mario Mix in Europe. Dancing Stage was the name of the franchise over here, yet I’ve never heard of it and everyone knows DDR.

Unlike most DDR games, this one actually has a plot: Waluigi is the main villain and has stolen some magical macguffins which cause strange things to happen, and Mario (or Luigi) has to dance to set things right. Waluigi actually gets defeated early on and the rest is cleaning up his mess. No reward for guessing who randomly turns up at the end with no impact on the plot.

The main stages consist of traditional DDR gameplay: use a dance mat to hit arrows at the right time based on the screen. Easy mode in this is ridiculously easy (even for someone like me) while normal is doable for someone at my level of skill. Then there are a lot of higher difficulties and it gets absolutely insane, I can’t even fathom how anyone can hit the keys that quickly, but it’s obviously possible. In some levels, certain keys are more important to deal with bosses.

You’ll also encounter a fair few minigames, with simple stuff like whack-a-mole to dodging minigames and platforming minigames. They’re quite good fun on the dance mat and once you complete it in the story, you can play it separately as well. I do find it a bit odd that a party game like this only lets you play as just Mario or Luigi (even in the free play mode, but the music has some nice remixes of classical Mario tunes (and classical music) that keeps things upbeat.

Fun

It feels like a more complete package than most dance-mat titles, and one that’ll get the backsides of the Nintendo faithful shaking with joy.
Steven Bailey, NGC Magazine #113

Remake or remaster?

It would be nice to see this again, with more characters. Let Waluigi dance, dammit!

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to buy Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix