Red Octane, the most widely known dance pad makers on the market, has tried their hand at publishing for the Playstation2 and there couldn’t be a more appropriate title for their first. In The Groove gives rhythm gamers a new title other than the DDR series to dance to, and with the lack of those titles on American consoles it’s a welcome addition to the family.

In The Groove is a rhythm game where instead of pressing buttons on a controller, players step on buttons laid out on a pad on the floor. The game can be played with a controller, but the true intention of the game is to use the pad and actually dance to the music. You are told what button to press and when by arrows that float to the top of the screen. These arrows correspond to the arrows on the dance pad, and when they reach the top of the screen you must step on that arrow at that moment. Of course this explanation is for anyone unfamiliar with a Dance Dance game; for those of you that are this should feel very familiar.

Now before I get started, allow me to share my level of Dance Dance skill. This may help relate you to my skill level and in turn help you understand my review and your position on certain aspects of In The Groove. In a DDR title, I will usually skip straight to the Standard difficulty as I find Light to be too easy and somewhat boring. I can complete most songs up to a seven in difficulty on Standard with ease, and even some Heavy songs. The game becomes difficult on Standard songs past seven feet or Heavy songs past five or six feet. These are all rough estimates since it depends on the song, but with this you should get some idea of the difficulty level present in In The Groove.

Right away you may not notice the differences between In The Groove and the DDR series, but as you play they start popping up all over. The most noticeable and useful differences take place right on the dance screen. In The Groove features a progress bar along the top of the screen. This bar features the song’s title, level of difficulty and rating, and how far along you are in the song. Right below this bar is a percentage showing how many steps you’ve successfully hit. Also, I noticed eighth notes are colored blue versus the typical orange color which can either help beginners or throw off veterans. Along the side is your life bar, and it begins each song half-full. As you miss steps it drains, and as you hit them it fills. An empty life bar equals a game over.

In The Groove also features an incredibly deep and intricate options menu. Just about every aspect you could dream of can be altered here. The timing of steps can be adjusted, the perspective of the arrows can be shifted, the order to sort songs on the selection screen can be changed, the speed your life bar drains and fills, and more.

Not only that, but before each song you can access a special arrow modifier screen where you can change tons of things. You can change the speed of the arrows, the look of the arrows, and the direction the arrows scroll. On top of that, if you’re looking for something really interesting, there are modifiers that will cause the arrows to go invisible, spin, change their speed, or even cause the contact arrows (where you’re supposed to activate the scrolling arrows) to move up and down separately. All these options are a lot of fun, and can make boring or slow songs very interesting.

In The Groove also introduces hand plants and mines into play. Sometimes you’ll get more than two arrows at a time, which require you to drop down and use your hands along with your feet to hit them all. Mines can also show up in place of an arrow, and if hit they will knock down your life bar and your score.

In The Groove is split into five modes: Dance, Battle, Marathon, Fitness, and Practice. Each mode pretty much plays identical to each other, but there are still differences residing in how the songs are laid out and which ones you play in what order.

Dance Mode is basically the arcade mode; you select the number of players, the difficulty, and then you play songs one at a time. After each song you are taken back to the selection screen to choose another one. In this mode you can change how many songs you want to play per game so that it will score your performance across the entire round, or you can set it to “Event” which will allow an unlimited number of songs but won’t record a name for the high scores. There is also a Random and Chance selection within the songs that will choose a song for you if you’re not sure which one to play.

Battle Mode can be played with one or two players and is designed as a versus mode. Both players dance, and as one starts to do better random modifiers are applied to the other player’s arrows. These modifiers come from the arrow modifier select screen, and can feature any offered in the game.

Marathon Mode is a mode where players pick from pre-made playlists that feature multiple songs. Once they’ve begun players must play all the songs in a row without stopping.

Fitness Mode is a workout mode that allows players to set an amount of calories they’d like to burn or amount of time they’d like to workout. The game keeps track of these stats and ends when the goal is complete. In this mode you can select individual songs one at a time, from Marathon Mode playlists, or an endless stream of randomly selected songs until the goal is met.

And lastly there is a Practice Mode, a mode for players to brush up on their skill of a particular song. Practice Mode allows you to fast forward, rewind, slow down, and skip measures of your favorite song to make sure you master every bit of it. This is a very nice mode if you’re having a hard time with a particular part of a song.

In The Groove starts off with a pretty large list of music, all new compared to DDR titles. This is extremely nice for those of us that are tired of hearing the same music in every game among the handful of new songs. There isn’t a whole lot of variety in the song selection, however, and is ruled by bouncy pop music. The next prominent genre seemed to be trance, and then the rest was a melding pot of rock, j-pop, and other techno spin-off genres. As far as my preferences go, I had a hard time finding songs I really wanted to play.

Each song is rated with a difficulty level and then a numerical value that represents how difficult it is within that difficulty. The difficulties include Novice, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert, and the number scale goes from 1 to 12.

My biggest problem with In The Groove is its difficulty. Now, before you get mad at me because that’s the umpteenth time you’ve read that in a review let me clarify; it isn’t the difficulty itself that bothers me, but the progression of difficulty in the game. For my skill level there are very few songs for me to play. Anything less than a Medium 5 is so slow it’s boring, but any higher than a Medium 7 and I can’t keep up. I was able to pull off a Hard 5, but anything higher and I was lost. So my sweet spot was anywhere between a Medium 5 and 7, and a Hard 5 or lower. Too bad for me that there were very few songs that fit this bill and actually appealed to me.

In the end I think In The Groove is a perfect dance game for players just starting out or for very skilled DDR fans that are looking for a change of pace. It’s not too nice to guys like me, or girls, that are middle of the road. Other than my personal complaints, In The Groove is a well-made game that deserves its place among the small family of American console rhythm games.

Gameplay: 7.0
Sometimes in certain songs the steps felt somewhat unnatural, and the difficulty progression is very steep, but the addition of modifiers and a totally new song list is a bonus for dance game fans.

Graphics: 8.0 
Not much to praise or put-down in this area. The arrows are very crisp, and allow the player to change the brightness of the background helps even further to see the arrows. The visualizations are simple, but you never notice them when you actually play.

Sound: 7.5
This is all up to personal opinion, so I’ll just score it on its variety. There were a good number of genres covered, but the bubblegum pop was too overpowering. Next time there needs to be some balancing of genres.

Difficulty: Easy/Hard
There’s very little middle-ground here; songs are either way too easy or way too hard. So if you’re a beginner or an expert then you won’t have many troubles.

Concept: 9.0
I’m glad to see a dance game other than DDR come to American consoles, and I hope In The Groove starts a trend of rhythm game releases.

Multiplayer: 8.0
Playing with a friend in Battle Mode can keep you distracted enough to drown out the song you’re playing, so your playing field opens immensely. Also, modifiers greatly increase your drive to do better than your opponent, and seeing them mess up on a modifier you sent their way is priceless.

Overall: 7.6
In The Groove is a solid dance game with expansive options and challenging steps. The all-new song list is a welcome change to the DDR soundtracks that feature a lot of repeat tracks, and it is also quite varied. The only problem is the steep difficulty curve; easy songs are too easy and the hard songs are too chaotic. Average DDR players may quickly bore of In The Grove, but beginners and experts should find countless hours of enjoyment.