Let me start this piece by saying that I am a large man. I’m about six feet tall and weigh just under 300 pounds. Because of this, I’m sure I look like Star Wars Kid when I’m dancing around on the pad. But hey, that’s why I have [i]Dance Dance Revolution[/i] to play in the privacy of my own home.

With my vital statistics being mentioned, I am amazed with this pad. It has held up pretty well, even with my weight. At one point I did think that I had worn the pad out, but in all actuality, it was because of my play style. I only wear size 12’s, but in beginner mode of DDR Extreme, I danced very flat footed. Once you kick it up to light mode, you’ll be dancing on your toes instead. The reason that was a problem? I was hitting buttons when I thought I was standing in the middle, and I was mad at the dancepad. Turned out that it was merely the way I was playing.

So, onto the point of all of this. This is a pretty solid dancepad (from a performance standpoint, not a literal one). It’s nice and cushy and about an inch or so thick, which keeps the knees and feet from getting sore when dancing. It’s quite responsive, and quite sensitive. It’s also quite affordable. While you can pay $99 for it at Gamestop and other outlets, you can find it on ebay for $30-40, which is quite a deal, especially when you want two pads for head to head dancing.

Another plus to this pad is that for the most part, it doesn’t move around on the floor. I don’t think I’d recommend it for [i]DDR[/i] experts, but for beginners like myself, it more than serves its purpose. On top of that, the price was just too good to complain about. The one minor problem I had was operator error, and once I figured that out, I was quite pleased with the Ignition 3.0 dancepads.

If you’re thinking about getting into [i]DDR[/i], whether it be for fun or for exercise, this is a good dancepad to start with. It’s affordable, performs well, and there’s no sense in spending $300 on a super heavy duty solid dance pad if you’re not sure that you’re going to really get into DDR or not.

For the money, the Red Octane Ignition 3.0 dancepad is a great buy, and I would only recommend against it if you are a [i]DDR[/i] freak who can get good grades on the harder difficulties in the game. At that point, you might need a solid dancepad that won’t move on the floor at all.