D-Force Deluxe USB Dance Pad

This dance pad is one of the best dance pads i ever bought. I love playing DDR and Pump it up, unfortunately it's hard to find good quality pads, and get an arcade pad and adapt it to usb is expensive and takes time. Then, looking online for any alternatives, i did found this pad: i was curious, and tbh i wasnt expecting anything great, i decided to give it a chance anyway. Pros: 1.- never play with shoes: The materials will rip apart if you try to do it. Thanks to the foam pads you can play with socks just fine tho :). 2.- Dont stomp!: It's just not neccesary, by just tapping the arrows the arrow will register :D. I Loved the sencibility. 3.- Easy as hell to setup: just plug it to your pc and configure on stepmania. Easy as 1, 2 3. 4.- Pretty responsive and has last just fine: i remember buying a big, "metal" dance pad, which lasted 1 month. I have been playing everyday non stop for 3 hours per day (as part of my workout... which thanks to this i have already lost 40 punds! :D) and the pad works just fine. Obviously, i just have 1 1/2 month using it, the day it brokes i will update :D. 5.- Easy to carry and move: With my last "Metal" dance pad, it was just too heavy and hard to move around my home. This is just light and easy to move :D. 6.- The pad doesnt move around while playing: Well, it does, but just a bit, nothing to worry about, its not like you are going to do a jump and the pad is going to move all the way. I have been playing really hard songs and the pad will move just like 1 inch. Cons: The only con i could have with this pad, is that even as awesome as it is, still have it's limitations: When you step on the arrows, your feet will like "sink" on the foam if you are moving your feet fast. This obviously will make you move slower and miss some steps if you are playing really hard songs. Thats understandeable because this is a light foam dance pad and after you learn how to get around this problem, you will keep getting better and better playing. Please note, this doesnt happens on Easy to Hard songs, but can happen on Oni / Expert songs. And unfortunately people who are used to play on Arcades will dont like. Anyway, im glad i made this purchase, if you have years not playing or if you want to play again, OR if you have never played a DDR game before, look no more, this is the best pad you will find.

I haven't played DDR in years and wanted to get back into it. I looked all over for a dance pad I liked. I really don't like the soft dance pads (any brand) because they tend to slide all over the floor and feel entirely different than playing the actual arcade machine. However, the metal dance pads are SUPER expensive. This dance pad is a great way to get that arcade feel without spending hundreds. The foam is very thick, has lots of support, and feels a lot better than dancing on a soft pad. It does not slide at all (even on carpet). I use this dance pad with stepmania and it works just fine. I had to edit input (or something like that) so that the dance pad buttons would register. It was super easy (considering I had no clue what I was doing). Now all I have to do is plug it into my computer and starting playing! The buttons are very sensitive so you don't have to stomp on them. I haven't had any issues with buttons sticking or not registering. I got curious and took out the foam inserts to see what a soft pad made by dance pad mania would be like. I was impressed. Without the foam inserts, the pad still does not slide and works great! I still like the foam feel better but you may want to consider getting the soft pad if you are looking for an even cheaper option. Overall everything is great! PROS: great price, fast delivery, doesn't slide, foam inserts are thick and supportive, works with stepmania on pc, sensitive buttons, long USB cord, overall GREAT! CONS: You can feel the joints move where the foam inserts fit together which is a little bit annoying but doesn't really affect game play. I think one big foam insert would be a lot better than individual inserts but it's not that big of a deal. So, if you are thinking about getting the D-Force Deluxe USB Dance Pad GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ordered this pad after seeing recommendations on the Stepmania website along with the Dance Dance Revolution subreddit. It is a bit more expensive than other foam pads, but the reviews on Amazon were a little bit better, so I figured I'd spend the extra money. The first pad I received was in a big box with the mat and the foam pads. I took out the foam pads and assembled them together. They fit together pretty well for the most part, other than one piece of foam that seemed to have a small chip in it. I unzipped the mat and slid them in. I hooked it up to my computer, which Windows 10 automatically registered and found drivers for. I went in to the game pad options in Windows to see if it registered button presses. It didn't. I switched to another USB port. Nothing. Then another USB port - it worked. I went in to Stepmania and mapped the buttons. The pad worked well for about one song, and then started to drop inputs. Then it wouldn't register more than one hit at a time. Then it stopped working. I messaged their support through the manufacturers website (quite late at night) and got a nearly immediate response. They offered to ship me a new new one, free of charge. My new pad came in, I took the foam out of the old pad and slid it in to the new pad. I plugged it in to the computer and went in to the gamepad settings to confirm the button presses worked. It did! I moved it to every USB port and it worked in them too. I went in to Stepmania, mapped the buttons, and stepped all night with happiness. I haven't played DDR in 10 years and my skill isn't what it used to be. I'm also a lot heavier than I used to be. I had to hit the buttons a bit earlier than I remembered having to. Not sure if thats the mat or me, but it was something I got used to quickly. Either way, with the functioning mat, I would recommend it to anyone. If anything changes, I'll be sure to update this review. Regardless of the mat, the customer service is a 5/5, though.

My first purchase of this pad lasted for a few years. Eventually, I had issues with step registration on the down arrow, generally when standing on another arrow at the same time. My next 2 pads lasted maybe 2 months before I started having this same issue. It is quite frustrating to see your scores going down due to this issue. So, I think I got lucky on that first one, and I generally think these pads are not going to last you long. These are not designed in a way where you could easily DIY repair them either, I think you would have to cut and re-stitch them, assuming you were even able to diagnose and repair the problem. From this, I gave up on stepmania / DDR as a workout activity because it seems that now the only robust alternatives are very expensive or hard to find metal pads. None of the soft pads currently available seem to last reliably. I would recommend giving up on this activity unless you want to invest in a metal pad. Personally, I switched to Youtube HIIT workouts. Current high level DDR play is unappealing to me anyway, as it seems to be about holding yourself up with a bar and pressing keys with heel and toe using as small movement as possible rather than what I enjoyed, which was using the whole body without support. Who knows though, I never tried that and maybe it's fun in a different way. Regardless, you're definitely not going to be doing that with these pads. If you want good reliable pad recommendations head to the DDR subreddit. Making matters worse, the material these pads are made from seems difficult to recycle properly. It is quite wasteful to go through these regularly.

My daughter seems to really enjoy music and rhythm, and it reminded me of Dance Dance Revolution. So, I figured I would go down the bunny trail of getting a DDR sim setup that we could play together. This pad seemed to be the sweet spot between price, quality, and ease of storage. It shipped in a surprisingly small box. The foam is nice and firm, and was easy to assemble into the pad. You won't mistake it for a metal pad, but you also don't need the large storage space a metal pad requires, so it's a nice middle of the road choice. It DID take a couple minutes to find an appropriate adapter to make it work with our M3 Macbook Air (USB-C) but once we found the right adapter, it was relatively quick to get set up in Outfox. Timing seems to be excellent, especially once it is calibrated. So far it has dealt with me having a relatively gentle touch (experienced old school DDR player), and my daughter stomping all over it (brand new player who doesn't realize you don't have to put your foot THROUGH the pad, haha). On a carpet it doesn't "walk around" too much like one without padding. Metal pads won't walk at all, but this is less than a third of the price. For the price I think it an excellent balanced option. If she ends up wanting to do doubles I'll certainly be getting another one.

This pad is more than ok... but ultimately not what I'm looking for. UPDATE 3: Just discovered today that you can dance better on this pad while holding onto a desk or bar, lightening the weight of your body against the pad sensors. This greatly increases accuracy of steps, allowing you to pass harder songs. Let me explain: When it first arrived a month ago, It worked great with 300+ combos and such! But after just a month of heavy use on Stepmania (400+ taps per song, 9-foot difficulty minimum) it's starting to show its limitations.... especially these: -losing combo during 16th-note bursts of more than 3 or 4 notes (yellow arrows) -losing combo during 3 or more doubles jumps in a row (red and blue) -the down arrow is BOTH ghost-stepping AND not registering when I tap -other annoying errors Some of these errors may be attributed to sloppy dancing on my part, but not in most cases. I loved D-Force's quick delivery, and their pad is still working fine. But for me, I need something more reliable, hardy and accurate to continue enjoying the game, so I'm buying an Omega GX. I chose the D-Force Foam pad after hours of research, and I'd highly reccommend it to intermediate to advanced players... it's in the same league as my old Red Octane Ignition soft pads (the Ignitions seemed to have lasted longer, though, without these problems... but even they broke too, pretty severely at that).

After having bought a few dance pads (1 from Amazon and others from eBay) over the course of months, I finally came across this dance pad version. Other versions I had bought had problems with durability (fell a part from the box), poor button mapping, poor sensitivity, and would not work with my PC (My PC would only see it as a PS3 controller or unknown USB. Axis re-mapping did not work with the other brands and available drivers for PS3 controllers are old and lacking). I was able to plug the D-Force pad into my computer and have it recognized within seconds as a USB dance pad! Seconds later was able to play Stepmania! The button mapping was perfect and had no problems with buttons activating without input or hitting the wrong step. I'd also like to say that I really like the surface of this dance pad on both the top and bottom. I haven't had any noticeable slipping and the surface on the top has a great feel. The cord was also amply long to plug into my computer that sits on top of my desk. I've been playing DDR since 2002 and have played Stepmania for quite a while as well. This is an excellent dance pad that has been well worth the money paid for it.

Unpacked this pad and it worked fine right out of the box. Painless plug-and-play connection; worked fine with Stepmania. My whole issue is with the extra foam that D-Force uses to raise the arrows up. When I first unpacked and put together the pad, I found that the pad felt strange under my feet. The up, right, and left arrows felt correct, with a slight additional bump separating each arrow from the rest of the pad. However, the left arrow felt strange, as if there was an additional lump between the arrow and the center of the pad. I was able to play the game on heavy for the most part, but the strange texture kept me from playing at my best. I especially noticed that I had trouble hitting doubles involving the left arrow since the bump would cause my foot to hit that arrow slightly sooner. The manual suggests that most issues like this are resolved by laying the pad flat for an extended period of time, so I followed those instructions and stored the pad under my couch. The next day, the bump remained and I still ran into issues while playing. At this point, I had given up on using this pad seriously, so I cut open the top just to see what was going on. Under each arrow, there is a thin pad of white foam (note the image). The only thing holding these pads in place is some sort of sticky substance that covers the inside. There was nothing that prevented these foam pads from moving around in storage/shipping, so the clump I felt under the left arrow was the white pad that had shifted towards the center, overlapping with the center and down arrow. I believe it's this same poor packing that has caused other complaints about this pad, most notably people claiming that the arrows have "shifted" towards the center over time. If you want to use this pad, keep in mind that at some point you might need to cut open the top surface and realign the white foam, or remove those pads all for yourself. Unfortunately I destroyed the bottom sensor during my troubleshooting, so this dance pad is going into the trash. I don't plan on purchasing another one, as a $85(!!!!) pad should have a much more stable build quality than this.