In the Groove

"In The Groove is perfect for people who have mastered other dance games"

Genre: Dancing / Simulator

I've played DDR, how different is ITG?
ITG is perfect for hard core dance game players. If you have played ddr for a long time, and you have passed just about everything on every difficulty, ITG added a new difficulty to challenge even the expert players. To give an example of just how hard the new difficulty is: the easiest song on the "expert" difficulty is a nine footer! They even have a song that has almost 900 steps! (about 200 more than Paranoia Survivor Max Oni!) Also, ITG added "mines" that are round silver and red round things that move up the screen instead of an arrow, if you hit the step while the mine is over it, BAM! It's worse than a miss. Also, they have some songs that will have four arrows up at once (making you use your hands) These arrow patterns are called "hands"

What is ITG? How do you play?
If you have never played DDR (Dance Dance Revolution or PIU (Pump it Up), you might be wondering what ITG (In The Groove) is, and how you play it. ITG is a game that you must use you feet to play. To play the way ITG was meant to be played, you will need to get an ITG controller (a ddr controller will also work.) The ITG (or DDR) controller is a mat, that you lay on the ground. It has four arrows on it, they will correspond with four arrows that will appear on the top of the screen when the game begins. Arrows from the bottom of the screen will scroll to the top four, when the scrolling arrows overlap the ones at the top, you must hit the corresponding arrow on the controller (the arrows are: left, down, up, and right) Some arrows will make you hold your foot on the panel (this is called a hold arrow) Sometimes, a "mine" will come up, when a "mine" is coming, you must not be on the arrow it is going to hit, if it touches the top arrow with you on it, it will explode and take away from your life bar. When you fail to hit an arrow when it comes over the top arrow, your life bar will go down, when you hit them at the right times, it will go up. Also, the mines will take away from your life bar if you hit it.

Game Play: 10/10
ITG for the PS2 is a port or the arcade version of ITG, not an exact port though, they left out some songs from the arcade. and changed the menus and such. Though it still has plenty of songs (over 70). ITG has some very interesting things about it. Not only must you hit the arrows as they come up, but you must avoid "mines" (see opening for more details) In The Groove also added something that DDR has never done. ITG also added "hands" when a "hand" arrow set comes up, not one arrow will come appear in one row, not two arrows, but three or four arrows in one row! This will make you use your feet and hands to hit the arrows. Some songs will have multi arrow holds, making you do some odd moves (it can feel like your playing twister on a couple of songs)

Difficulty Settings:
ITG has difficulty settings that are perfect for players of any skill level. New players can play on "Novice" Novice has very few steps, to let new players get the hand of the basics. Then there is "Easy" for once you understand the basics but still can't handle many arrows at once. Above easy, is "Medium" Medium has more complex arrow patters, though they don't get to crazy, it's enough to get you ready for the harder songs. Now as you may have guessed, about Medium is... "Hard" Mode! Hard mode has very complicated step patterns that will challenge advanced players. In Hard mode you will face songs with tons of mines, a few hands, and tons and tons of arrows. You might wonder if there is anything above hard mode. Well, there is one more difficulty, above even hard mode. "Expert" has insane step patterns that even veterans will be challenged with. The average song on "expert" contains ultra complex step patterns. You will also need tons of stamina to keep up. Expert is for Experts only!

Modifiers: 10/10 ;)
ITG also has tons of "modifiers" that you can use. The "modifiers" allow you to change things in the game. Such as change how fast the arrows scroll, make the arrows come from BEHIND the four top arrows and then come back around from the bottom. You can also, add mines hold arrows, add multi arrow rows (to make you play twister ;). You are able to make the arrows spin around as they come up. If you are having a hard time with a song, you can turn off hold arrows, turn off mines, and even get rid of a lot of normal arrows to make the song easier. And there are still lots and lots of modifiers that I haven't talked about.

Song selection (variety) : 7/10
The one thing keeping ITG from getting a nine or a ten in it's grading, is the fact that most of the songs are trance or techno, though there are some Rock, Pop, and other music genres in it, there are few of them. This cuts the appeal down to a select few. And also keeps most people from liking it as much as they could.

Graphics: 8/10
ITG has some very nice back grounds at times. Though it is mostly random, it is very flashy and interesting. Such as the background of the song "Zodiac" the camera is moving through deep space that has the stars numbered and such, the lines and stars make it seem very mind boggling. Also, the FPS (Frames Per Second) is high. Meaning the arrows scroll smoothly and the backgrounds rarely skip. And, the menus are easy to navigate.

Overview: 8/10
ITG may not be the first of it's kind. But it adds plenty of new features to the genre, such as mines and hands. And the new level of difficulty is satisfying to those who have mastered other dance games. Sadly, there are not to many types of songs to choose from. Most of the songs are techno and Trance. The modifiers are also nicely done, and have a huge variety. ITG for the PS2 may not be a perfect game, but it's very well done, though many people will love it, and feel it is worthy of a nine or ten (like me) but the lack of song variety makes the appeal to limited to get a super high grade. I give ITG for the PS2 an eight, out of ten.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/05