Step Mania is an Open Source PC version of the popular rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution ( or DDR ) in which you use the directional buttons on the keyboard (or a USB dance pad that Step Mania supports) to push the arrows in the correct order and timing.
Step Mania does a very good job porting the game. Songs must be downloaded from the internet from sites like http://otakusdream.com/ and http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/Download_Songs. They are all user-made using the in-game tools. Song creators have the same options to make songs as the people who make real DDR songs, but user made ones are often of higher quality. Many Step Mania songs are only offered to higher skill levels (just Google it, there are people that are absolutely crazy with their keyboards), but there are still enough songs for newbies to get a hang of the game with and for pad play.
Step Mania is skinable, supports videos in songs, lyrics in songs, easter eggs in songs (they make the directional keys show up in funny ways on screen, or sometimes not at all), a song unlock mode, custom characters that dance to the songs while you play, local multiplayer play, game options including difficulty settings if the song allows it, special settings like unlimited play, slot-machine mode (the game can be used to run an actual DDR arcade system), and online multiplayer play with people who have the same songs as you (note you must have Step Mania version 4 to play online, which is in beta at the time of writing this post).
I really love this game. It has such low system requirements I play it on my higher-end netbook whenever I am bored in the car. The only problem is that the keys are small, so I change up down left right to WASD and it works fine. I get no lag that would effect gameplay, and, as long as the song is in beat, the game is always registering the keys correctly.
The game is so small you can have it and a few songs just to play once in a while on your computer without any hassle at all, and since it’s free there is no reason not to try it! You can get the Mac, Linux, and Windows versions at http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/Downloads
