Before I go into the different types of pads, you have to know where to even buy them. Of course you could always go the secondhand route with Ebay or Amazon, however I do not recommend buying used pads as you never know what kind of abuse the previous owner put on them. DP's require basic maintenance, and if the previous owners neglected to do so, you could be buying a broken pad. If you have to buy locally, you can sometimes find a modest selection at stores such as Fry's Electronics, but ordering online is your best bet. As for where to order, www.ddrgame.com is the absolute best site for buying DP's. They have a great selection of all different types of pads, they always ship in a timely manner, and their customer service is very quick to respond to any issues or questions you may have, and they even sell DDR Games, though admittedly, you can usually find those cheaper at used game stores. While I'm praising this company I would like to state that I am in no way affiliated with www.ddrgame.com, I do not get paid to recommend them, I do not get paid commission to sell pads, I'm not even getting paid to write this guide. I reccomend this site on nothing other then my positive experience as a repeat customer for several years.
Ok so we know where to buy, now its time to decide what to buy. There are 4 different types of pads you can buy. soft pads, hard pads, metal pads, and for the super extreme players you can opt to have your own arcade machine. Lets go over the differences:
Soft Pads:
Soft pads are the cheapest option you can buy. They usually come bundled with DDR games, and are fold-able for easy storage. If you never touched a DDR game in your life, this is a good place to start as you can find a pad for generally around 20$. While these pads are cheap, they aren't very comfortable to play with for long sessions. Another drawback is when you start playing at an intermediate level which will happen in about a month or two of playing, you're going to have to reposition the pad every song as these pads slide around quite a bit. And if you do make it to the expert levels of DDR this pad will likely break under that stress very quickly. I don't reccomend this pad to anyone planning to play DDR for more then a few months, but at a 20$ investment, its a good choice if you aren't sure if DDR is something you're going to be playing for a long time.
Hard Pads:Hard pads, like soft pads, are generally not too expensive, and are usually made of the same material. The key difference is these pads will have about an inch of foam padding making them not only more comfortable to play with for long sessions, but it also makes them more durable, and better suited for the more difficult songs. Hard pads also usually have a non-slip grip on the bottom that will make them not slide around as much on the intermediate songs, although you will still have to occasionally readjust them. These pads are my number one recommendation for anyone getting into DDR, as its perfect for beginners, but good enough to even handle a few expert level songs. The price range is usually 30-50$ but it is well worth the investment as these pads will last you much longer. I've had mine for close to 3 years now, and while I did take an extensive break from DDR, it still works just as it did years ago. If you want to be serious about your DDR game, start off with one of these.
Metal Pads:Metal pads are much more expensive, but have many benefits. For starters, these are the only pads you can wear shoes (although not recommended by the manufacturers). These pads are also much more durable, so if you play on the expert level, metal pads are the only pads strong enough to handle that frequently. Metal pads also require a fair bit of basic maintenance which will require you to be comfortable with opening the pad up and tweaking things inside. If that scares you, it shouldn't, its very basic. Usually all you'll need to do is clean, and re-foil metal pads about once a month or bi-monthly at most. Another huge benefit to metal pads is some models include back bars like you would see at an arcade. Back bars are necessary to complete the most difficult of songs, and are just nice to have in case you ever lose balance. If you're looking for a metal pad to start with, I recommend ddrgame's tournament model. It doesn't have a bar, but you can get a great bundle for 189$ that includes a gamecube adapter, and a copy of DDR Hottest Party 2 for Wii. In short, metal pads are great for the more serious players who want to get good scores, and play on the harder difficulties, but be prepared to spend around 200-500$ for a good one. There are also many DIY guides out there for building a metal pad which could make the cost much cheaper, but you'll have to have the skills to build one.
And lastly, for the most hardcore DDR players, you can always live big and buy your own arcade machine! Of course, you're going to be spending around 1-3,000$ You could buy one brand new for much more money from a dealership, but its better to find them on sites like craigslist. Sometimes you can find really great deals from arcades looking to sell old machines too, if you're in an area where you have local arcades it would be good to get to know the owners and let them know to contact you if they ever plan to sell an arcade machine. However if you are going to make this serious investment, educate yourself on more then just the basic maintenance, make sure you know how to fix problems yourself as you wont have access to the technicians that arcades have. You should also look for machines that are unofficial, as you can usually emulate whatever songs you like on those machines and even create your own steps, just make sure you don't use the machine commercially if you plan to do that for legal reasons.
I really hope this guide helps out, as always if anyone has any questions, feel free to leave a comment on the blog, I would be more then happy to help out a fellow DDR player!
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