Truly, Human Ingenuity Knows No Bounds
Everyone has their favorite or at least preferred controllers, but most of us agree that there are few things less intuitive than trying to beat a non-rhythm game with a Dance Dance Revolution pad. It’s hard enough to hit those arrows when the screen is prompting you. Replacing regular controller input with hopping frantically around the mat? That sounds like an invitation to break a leg, and not in the theater sense. But Twitch streamers have never been stopped by such obstacles, so we are proud and slightly intimidated to announce that streamer PeekingBoo has officially added Hades, this year’s beloved roguelike, to the list of games beaten using a dance pad. Congratulations, PeekingBoo! We have no idea how you managed it.
WOW I beat #HadesGame with dance pads!#Hades pic.twitter.com/rH87rmpoAb
— PeekingBoo (@PeekingBoo) December 22, 2020
This is far from the only game which people have challenged to (and triumphed over in) a dance-off. Back in 2018, a YouTuber thrashed the hardest boss in Dark Souls III with a dance pad, and we were all duly impressed and terrified. Ever since these mats were made available to gamers outside of arcades, people have been setting up crazy challenge runs simply to see if they can do it. We guess it just goes to show that there are very few limits to what a determined gamer can do.
PeekingBoo used a custom two-dance pad set-up and some simple button mapping to imitate the controls of Hades–the left pad simulated a joystick or d-pad, and the right pad had the four main combat buttons. It took him a bit to get used to this custom control scheme, but he went from struggling against the Hydra to slaying final boss Hades in under a week. Clearly, he got the hang of things!
Have you ever challenged a non-dance game with a dance pad? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.