So far, the review has been pretty glowing, but there is one major problem with this game, and that’s Quest Mode. You see Quest mode is the ‘main’ part of the game where you’ll travel throughout the country and be given challenges to complete for money, which allow you to move from state to state and unlock additional songs. Sounds great, right? The only problem is that the manual devotes a whopping ½ page to Quest mode and does not give you any sort of information on how to do complete quest mode. As an example, one of my challenges was to perform 10 ‘jump’ moves which involve hitting two arrows at the same time. The song I choose was Depeche Mode’s Precious…which I found out had very few jumps in the song. I then got the failed screen and annoying voice to keep going. My options were to press “B” to go to my stats or do nothing. If you press “B,” the challenge is over. If you don’t press anything, the system chooses a song at random and you’ll carry over from the previous song, which is nice. The problem is that on the ‘fanbase’ challenges there is no carry over. You have to get a certain number of points and if you select basic difficulty and hit every arrow “perfect,” you will not win, and the points don’t carry over to the next song. It’s downright insane.

Thankfully with the internet, there is a fantastic FAQ that goes over Quest mode and details things that you would not know if you only read the manual. As another example, the dancer you compete against in quest mode only has a face icon and a button that says “Fever.” Sometimes it lights up, other times it does not. The manual gives you zero idea of what it means, and thankfully that FAQ tells you it’s because the other dancer has ‘purchased’ the song and now has an advantage over you. If this FAQ wasn’t on the internet, you would be clueless. Even with this helpful guide the mode is very difficult and very annoying to play; this is in contrast to the Master mode in the DDR PS2 games which show all the challenges on screen at the same time and the difficulty level you need to obtain them. The Xbox 360 version of the game gives you zero guidance (either in game or in the manual) and quite honestly it affects the enjoyment of quest mode. The funny thing about this is that you can cheat during quest mode by altering the arrows of the songs, although again, this isn’t documented (for example you can speed up the arrows and require more jumps if you need to jump in a level).

Other modes are available, including a fun party mode (if you have 2 or more dance pads), challenge mode (for performing specific challenges such as “get 10 perfect arrows in a row”), training mode, and an edit mode which allows you to modify an existing routine or create a brand new one for a song that’s already available.

In addition to same console multiplayer there is also online multiplayer via Xbox Live, although finding an opponent can be difficult. When I was able to play I found the online multiplayer better than I expected – in a timing game such as this lag can kill you but all of my presses were recognized correctly.

The graphics are decent – honestly it’s tough to give an appraisal of the backgrounds when you’re trying to focus on the arrows. Some songs have the original music video behind the arrows in the background, which is a nice touch. It seems that there are less music videos than in the PS2 game however. The graphics do support 1080p, but again this isn’t a game to showcase the 360’s power on. The audio is great, as you would expect and all of the tracks are the real deal (even if they are remixed). The woman who gives you ‘encouragement’ gets annoying real quick. She seems the type to be very happy to go to work on a Monday morning and I would like to muzzle her, however my kids are huge fans so maybe it’s an age thing.

DDR Universe is a fun game and gives you a great workout. The price of $89 really isn’t that bad compared to a gym membership and I think you’ll probably use it more than the gym. If only the manual was a little clearer on Quest mode then I could wholeheartedly recommend the game. PS2 owners may want to hold off and see if a similar version gets released for their console so they don’t have to repurchase dance pads. If all you have is a 360, and you want to give the DDR series a shot, it’s still worth a try…and your fat stomach will also thank you for it.