Konami has opened the doors for an public alpha test of Dance Dance Revolution V, a browser-based version of its iconic arcade dancing game—and it’s compatible with dance mat controllers, if you really want to live the arcade experience in your home.
To play Dance Dance Revolution V, you’ll need to register for a free Konami ID. Once you’re signed up, you simply need to visit the game’s website and click on the Game Start button (ゲームスタート) to play. It may take a while to load the first time you start up the game, but it should be pretty quick after that.
The game is all in Japanese, but that shouldn’t be an issue even if you can’t read the language—it’s not exactly a text-heavy game, after all. Arrow keys let you select a song and tap the arrows in-game, Enter is the confirm button, and holding Enter for a few moments is cancel. If you want to use a controller (dance mat or otherwise), you’ll need to plug it in before loading up the game. You may also need to assign buttons from the settings menu (spanner and screwdriver symbol) on the song select screen; the first option (コントローラー設定) is controller config, and then the first option within that (ボタン設定) is button config.
Dance Dance Revolution V is based on Dance Dance Revolution A20, which launched for arcade in 2019. Being an alpha test, the feature set is necessarily limited—you can only play single songs (no courses), and play data / high scores and saved. Fifteen fan-favourite songs from the arcade version are included in the Dance Dance Revolution V alpha test:
- HANDS UP IN THE AIR – U1
- RISING FIRE HAWK – L.E.D.-G
- Come to Life – ARM (IOSYS) feat. Nicole Curry
- Hopeful – 柊木りお featured by SOTAG
- Neutrino – HuΣeR
- Cosy Catastrophe – SYUNN
- Love You More – BEMANI Sound Team “Sota F.”
- Drop The Bounce – Hommarju
- District of Shadows – DJ Noriken
- Skywalking – Nhato
- F4SH10N – aran
- Our Soul – CaZ
- BLSTR – Ujico*
- Rampage Hero – DJ Shimamura
- ALPACORE – Cranky
You’ll need a compatible Windows PC to run the Dance Dance Revolution V, though the minimum specs aren’t too demanding: an HTML5-compatible browser like Chrome or Firefox; a 2.8GHz CPU; 2GB RAM; a 1GB graphics card; and DirectX 9.0C. This will be a limited-time test, but the end date is yet to be confirmed by Konami.
Dance Dance Revolution V is the latest addition to Konami’s “Konami Amusement Game Station” initiative, which aims to bring select arcade games to PC and smartphone and allow players to share their play data between different versions. Other games on the service include beatmania IIDX INFINITAS, Sound Voltex III: Gravity Wars, Mahjong Fight Club Grand Master, Quiz Magic Academy Xross Voyage, and Tenkaichi Shōgikai 2.
