Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix

Dance Dance Revolution, sold in Europe as Dancing Stage, is Konami’s long-running series of games played with your feet. In January 2005 Konami and Nintendo announced that they were making a DDR game together, with Mario in the lead and the Mushroom Kingdom as the dance floor. The result is a gentle, generous introduction to dance games, shipped in a big box with its own mat.

The rules are pure DDR. Arrows rise up the screen towards a row of outlines at the top, and you stamp on the matching arrow of the mat as each one arrives. Hit it on the beat for a Perfect, close for a Great; miss too many and the ten-star dance meter drains away. Higher difficulties add half-beat steps, jumps on two arrows at once, staircases and drills.

Then it adds Mario. A full Story Mode sends Mario and Toad across five worlds after the scattered Music Keys, with a boss dance-off at the end of each, coins to spend in Lakitu’s shop and minigames between songs. Mush Mode replaces some arrows with Mario enemies that need stamping, kicking back or avoiding, and the soundtrack is made of 29 remixes of Nintendo tunes and public-domain classics.

Reviewers liked the charm and found it easy; Metacritic settled on 69. It has had no re-release, so the GameCube bundle with its Action Pad remains the way to play it.

The questions people ask most about Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix.

The instruction booklet sets it up in a line: someone has stolen the Music Keys, their power is causing floods and whirlpools all over the Mushroom Kingdom, and only dancing can fix it. The game fills in the rest. Waluigi has broken into Truffle Towers, the four keys have scattered, and Toad, who cannot dance a step, recruits Mario (or Luigi) to get them back.

Story Mode runs through five worlds of two to four stages each, every one a song, with boss dance-offs, minigames and Lakitu’s shop along the way. Finish it and Story Mode EX opens: the same journey with harder settings, a few songs swapped for new ones and four bonus songs for sale.

World 1: Truffle Towers

Mario and Toad cross a river swollen with music by boat and climb a beanstalk to Truffle Towers, only to find it locked. Waluigi lobs a Bob-omb, Mario tumbles down a Warp Pipe into a cave full of Goombas; his dancing makes the mushroom under his feet grow, and he escapes.

Lakitu has the key to the tower and will hand it over if Mario clears the Koopa Troopas out of his garden (Garden Boogie, to Bizet’s Carmen). Inside, Waluigi agrees to give up his key only if he loses a dance-off. He does, to a remix of Wrecking Crew, and vanishes.

World 2: out to sea

Aboard the SS Brass the pair are spun round by a Tweester cyclone, which also twists Toadette’s seaside hotel into a corkscrew. She is not amused, and Mario puts it right by dancing to Jump! Jump! Jump!

A whirlpool blocks the way until a pirate Lakitu, owner of the Pirate’s Plunder shop, parts with his Boogie Booster after losing a duel (Fishing Frenzy, or Pirate Dance in EX). The boosted SS Brass reaches an underwater temple, where a Big Blooper guards the second key and falls in a dance-off; World 2’s last stage, Blooper Bop, remixes the Super Mario Bros. underwater theme.

World 3: Wario’s carnival

Two Hammer Bros. guard the gates of Wario’s carnival and demand a dance-off of their own. Inside, Wario is riding the roller coaster with the third key; after a chase round a park that also holds a Boo-filled Ghost House, Mario corners him by the Ferris wheel.

Wario explains that he plans to wish for a game of his own, DDR: Wario Mix (Dancing Stage: Wario Mix in Europe), and challenges Mario to Starring Wario!, a remix of Wario World. He loses, hands over the key and promises to take it back later.

World 4: the frozen mountain

The last key is frozen inside a giant Freezie at the top of a snowy mountain. The path is too slippery for Toad, so they go underground through a Warp Pipe and warm up in a log cabin on the way. At the summit the Freezie will not budge, so Mario dances to Deep Freeze (a remix of Dr. Mario’s Fever) while Fire Flowers melt it. Key in hand, they sledge back down ahead of an avalanche.

World 5: Bowser’s Castle

Back at Truffle Towers, Bowser swoops in and steals all four keys. The SS Brass sails to his volcanic castle through a barrage of Bullet Bills, and the keys are snatched back before he can use them. The world’s first stage, Always Smiling (to Strauss), is the one song with Bullet Bills in Mush Mode.

Bowser demands one last dance-off to a remix of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!’s Bowser’s Castle. In Mush Mode, Rocket Parts build rockets that blast him away. Beaten, he admits he only wanted the keys to cure his tone-deafness. Mario uses them to turn the land around the castle green, and Toad suggests everyone dance.

Story Mode EX and the bonus songs

Story Mode EX replays the journey with Hard difficulty available and a few songs swapped: Pipe Pop, Pirate Dance, Step by Step, Moustache, Barrel, and Gorilla, Ms. Mowz’s Song and Midnight Drive take the place of the regular versions’ picks. Lakitu’s shops in Worlds 1 to 4 also stock one bonus song each: Choir on the Green, Hop, Mario!, Where’s the Exit? and Piroli.

Every song in DDR: Mario Mix

All 29 songs, in story order, with the tune each one remixes. EX songs replace the song before them in Story Mode EX; the last five are the tutorial-style song and the four shop bonuses.

1. 
   Here We Go!1-1 · Super Mario Bros., Ground BGM (Koji Kondo)The famous overworld theme, and the first song of Story Mode.
2. 
   Underground Mozart1-2 · Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, via Mario Bros.Laced with Mario Bros. sound effects.
3. 
   Pipe Pop1-2EX · Mozart, Turkish MarchReplaces Underground Mozart in Story Mode EX.
4. 
   Garden Boogie1-3 · Bizet, Carmen: PreludeClearing Koopa Troopas out of Lakitu’s garden.
5. 
   Destruction Dance1-4 · Wrecking Crew, Bonus Phase (Hirokazu Tanaka)The Waluigi dance-off.
6. 
   Jump! Jump! Jump!2-1 · Super Mario Bros. 3, Athletic BGM (Koji Kondo)Fixing Toadette’s hotel.
7. 
   Fishing Frenzy2-2 · Necke, Csikós Post, via Yoshi’s CookieThe duel with the pirate Lakitu.
8. 
   Pirate Dance2-2EX · Super Mario World, Ground BGM (Koji Kondo)The pirate duel in Story Mode EX.
9. 
   In the Whirlpool2-3 · Elgar, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1Elgar’s march, reborn as a dance track.
10. 
    Step by Step2-3EX · Super Mario World, Bonus Game BGM (Koji Kondo)Replaces In the Whirlpool in EX.
11. 
    Blooper Bop2-4 · Super Mario Bros., Underwater BGM (Koji Kondo)The Super Mario Bros. underwater theme, for World 2’s last stage.
12. 
    Hammer Dance3-1 · Super Mario Bros. 3, Ground BGM (Koji Kondo)The Hammer Bros. at the carnival gates.
13. 
    Rollercoasting3-2 · Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Luigi CircuitThe Double Dash circuit theme, remixed for the carnival.
14. 
    Boo Boogie3-3 · Super Mario Bros. 2, Ground BGM (Koji Kondo)Samples and arranges the Super Mario Bros. 2 overworld theme.
15. 
    Moustache, Barrel, and Gorilla3-3EX · Donkey Kong (Yukio Kaneoka)Built from the NES Donkey Kong jingles and sound effects.
16. 
    Starring Wario!3-4 · Wario World, Greenhorn ForestWario’s dance-off.
17. 
    Frozen Pipes4-1 · Stephen Foster, Old Folks at HomeIts Mush Mode Cheep Cheeps switch arrows halfway up the screen.
18. 
    Cabin Fever4-2 · Mario Party 5, Lots of Toys (Aya Tanaka)Its intro and ending differ between the Japanese and Western versions.
19. 
    Ms. Mowz’s Song4-2EX · Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Ms. Mowz and X-Naut FortressReplaces Cabin Fever in EX.
20. 
    Deep Freeze4-3 · Dr. Mario, Fever (Hirokazu Tanaka)Melting the giant Freezie.
21. 
    Rendezvous on Ice4-4 · Waldteufel, Les PatineursWaldteufel’s waltz, on the snow world’s last regular stage.
22. 
    Midnight Drive4-4EX · Mario Kart 64, title theme (Kenta Nagata)Replaces Rendezvous on Ice in EX.
23. 
    Always Smiling5-1 · Johann Strauss II, Tritsch-Tratsch-PolkaStamping Bullet Bills back into their launchers.
24. 
    Bowser’s Castle5-2 · Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Bowser’s CastleThe final boss, with the most steps in the game on Super Hard (337).
25. 
    Up, Down, Left, RightNo stage · Twinkle, Twinkle, Little StarThe nursery-rhyme song, played outside the story.
26. 
    Choir on the GreenBonus · World 1 shop in EX · Aj lučka, lučka širokáBought with coins in Story Mode EX.
27. 
    Hop, Mario!Bonus · World 2 shop in EX · Super Mario World, Title BGMBought with coins in Story Mode EX.
28. 
    Where’s the Exit?Bonus · World 3 shop in EX · Super Mario Bros., Underground BGMBought with coins in Story Mode EX.
29. 
    PiroliBonus · World 4 shop in EX · Famicom Disk System theme (Koji Kondo)Koji Kondo’s Famicom Disk System theme as a dance track.

Composers named are those of the original tunes; the remixes are credited to the game’s sound team under sound director U1-ASAMi.

Pick Mario or Luigi (they dance identically), pick a song and a difficulty, and stand in the middle of the mat. Arrows scroll up the screen towards the step zone; step on the right one as it reaches the top. With a controller, the stick or D-pad works, or the face buttons: Y up, A down, B left and X right.

Steps, the dance meter and grades

Every step is judged. A Perfect! lands right on the mark and earns full points; a Great! is nearly there and earns half; Early or Late earns nothing but costs nothing; a Miss drains the meter. Perfects and Greats build a combo, and the announcer chimes in when it reaches 100.

The dance meter has ten stars and starts at five. Good steps fill it, misses empty it, and below two and a half stars it starts flashing a warning. Run it dry and the song ends in failure, which in Story Mode also costs a life. A cleared song is graded A to F in the West; the Japanese version runs AA to D instead.

Five difficulties

Easy uses only the left and right arrows. Normal brings in all four, Hard can reach around 200 steps in a song, Very Hard starts moving you off the centre of the mat, and Super Hard throws in off-beat steps, with Bowser’s Castle topping out at 337. Story Mode starts you on Easy or Normal; Story Mode EX opens Hard, and clearing EX opens Very Hard.

There is no official rating chart, and the whole game is gentler than mainline DDR: roughly, Normal sits at DDR’s Beginner and Hard at Light. Nintendo World Report made the same point, warning experts that the ceiling is lower than in most DDR games.

Mush Mode

This is the twist that makes it a Mario game. In Mush Mode, enemies and items replace some arrows or attack the screen. Goombas are stamped like normal steps; Koopa Troopas need one step to knock them into their shells and another to kick the shell back down the screen (only with a Perfect) to destroy an incoming arrow. Spinies must be left alone. Miss a mini-Blooper and ink smothers the bottom of the screen; slip up with Boos around and a Giant Boo rises to hide the arrows.

Some songs have their own gimmick: hammers in Hammer Dance, a Freezie that a Fire Flower step can melt in Deep Freeze, Bullet Bills to stamp back into their launchers in Always Smiling, and Rocket Parts in Bowser’s Castle that build a rocket to fire at Bowser. Coin Switches turn every arrow into a coin for a few seconds. Mush Mode is compulsory in Story Mode at first, can be switched off in the options, and is optional in Free Mode.

The Action Pad

The game came bundled with the Action Pad, a Mario-decorated soft mat that plugs into a GameCube controller socket. Two versions of the mat exist. Nintendo World Report found it light and responsive, though the buttons were hard to feel through the cover, and noted that PlayStation 2 mats also work through a converter. According to Wikipedia, spare pads were sold through Nintendo’s online store, and a second one is needed for two players on mats.

Free Mode, dance-offs, Workout and minigames

Songs cleared in Story Mode open up in Free Mode, playable at any difficulty with Mush Mode on or off. Two players can go head to head as Mario and Luigi in a dance-off on any song. Workout records the calories burned for each registered player once you enter a name and weight, a feature Nintendo’s own European page mentions.

Twelve minigames sit between Story Mode songs and earn coins: Whack-a-Goomba, Flagpole Leap, Banana Storm (catching Ukiki’s bananas), Punch Up, Chain-Chomp Chase, Avalanche!, Hidden Treasure, Block Treasure, Coin Collection and Whee!, plus Note Pickup and Fire Up the SS Brass, which are only in the Minigame mode. Each unlocks there once played.

Lakitu’s shop

Lakitu runs a shop in every world from stage 1-3 on. You can carry three items at once, and all but the 1-Up must be used before a song.

• 
  1-Up Mushroom100 coins. An extra life; also won in some minigames.
• 
  Mystery Drink10 coins. Raises or lowers the dance meter at random.
• 
  Max Drink50 coins. Raises the dance meter’s maximum.
• 
  Small Heart70 coins. Refills half the meter when it empties.
• 
  Big Heart170 coins. Refills the whole meter when it empties.
• 
  Lucky Clover50 coins. Stops the meter falling four times.
• 
  Music Wand200 coins. Drops the difficulty by one level.

Its artwork and moves have had a surprisingly long life in later Nintendo games.

Super Smash Bros. UltimateNintendo SwitchMario’s down smash became the breakdance kick he performs in this game.

Super Smash Bros. BrawlWiiBowser’s artwork from DDR: Mario Mix is one of the stickers.

Mario Super SluggersWiiBaby Mario and Baby Luigi’s artwork imitates this game’s Mario and Luigi poses.

Mario Sports SuperstarsNintendo 3DSBowser’s amiibo card reuses his DDR artwork.

Mario vs. Donkey KongNintendo Switch remakeMario’s official artwork reworks his standing pose from this game.

Mario Party modelsRecycled assetsMany character models, poses and animations come from Mario Party 4, 5 and 6; the Big Blooper is the Mario Party 6 model.

Two dancers, one narrator and a parade of rivals, many of them built from Mario Party models.

Character	Who they are	In this game	Abilities & notes
MarioPlayer 1	The default dancer, voiced as usual by Charles Martinet.	Dances every song of Story Mode unless you pick Luigi; Player 1 in dance-offs.	Playable from the start
LuigiPlayer 2	Mario’s brother, also voiced by Martinet.	Can take Mario’s place in Story Mode and is Player 2 in dance-offs. He plays identically to Mario.	Playable from the start
ToadNarrator and sidekick	The Truffle Towers witness, voiced by Jen Taylor.	Fetches Mario, narrates the story and runs the menus. He cannot dance, so it is all down to the brothers.	Non-playable
WaluigiWorld 1 boss	The thief who sets everything off.	Breaks into Truffle Towers, keeps one Music Key and loses it in the Destruction Dance dance-off.	Song: Destruction Dance (1-4)
LakituShopkeeper	The cloud-rider, running a shop in every world.	Holds the Truffle Towers key until Mario clears his garden of Koopa Troopas; sells items and bonus songs.	Song: Garden Boogie (1-3)
ToadetteHotel owner	Owner of a seaside hotel in World 2.	Scolds Mario after the cyclone turns her hotel into a corkscrew, and has him dance to fix it. Calls the keys “shiny globes” in American English and “shiny keys” in British English.	Song: Jump! Jump! Jump! (2-1)
Pirate LakituWorld 2 rival	Owner of the Pirate’s Plunder shop.	Holds the Boogie Booster the SS Brass needs to beat the whirlpool, and gives it up after a duel.	Song: Fishing Frenzy (2-2), Pirate Dance in EX
Big BlooperWorld 2 boss	A giant squid guarding the underwater temple; its model comes from Mario Party 6.	Guards the second Music Key. In Mush Mode its tentacles shoot up the screen.	World 2’s last stage: Blooper Bop (2-4)
Hammer Bros.World 3 gatekeepers	A pair guarding Wario’s carnival.	Block the carnival entrance until Mario out-dances them, then turn up again with Wario later.	Song: Hammer Dance (3-1)
WarioWorld 3 boss	Owner of the carnival.	Wants the keys so he can wish himself a game of his own, DDR: Wario Mix. Loses the dance-off and vows to get the key back.	Song: Starring Wario! (3-4)
FreezieWorld 4 boss	A giant ice block at the mountain’s summit.	Holds the last key inside and stays silent until Toad suggests dancing it into a puddle.	Song: Deep Freeze (4-3)
BowserFinal boss	The Koopa King, voiced by Scott Burns.	Steals all four keys from Truffle Towers, loses the final dance-off to a volley of rockets and confesses he only wanted to fix his tone-deafness.	Song: Bowser’s Castle (5-2)

Mush Mode enemies and gimmicks

Every Mush Mode element, with what it does. Goombas, Piranha Plants, Shy Guys, Ukiki, Chain-Chomps, Mr. Blizzards, penguins and a Banzai Bill also dance in the backgrounds.

• 
  GoombaMany songsStep on it like a normal arrow.
• 
  Koopa TroopaMany songsOne step to shell it, a Perfect second step to kick it back down and destroy an arrow.
• 
  Bob-omb and PodobooMany songsMiss a Podoboo and a Bob-omb blast takes a big bite out of the meter; in dance-offs Podoboos bounce to the other player.
• 
  Cheep CheepMany songsCurves in from the side, leaving less time to read it.
• 
  SpinyMany songsDo not step on it; red ones move faster than green.
• 
  BlooperBlooper Bop and othersMiss a mini-Blooper and ink covers the bottom of the screen; the Big Blooper sends tentacles up it.
• 
  Hammer Bros.Hammer Dance onlyHammers that explode and sap the meter if missed.
• 
  Coin SwitchMany songsTurns every arrow into a coin for a few seconds; better steps keep it going longer.
• 
  BooBoo Boogie and othersA Giant Boo rises as you miss steps and hides the arrows; stamping mini-Boos pushes it back.
• 
  Cheep Cheep (Frozen Pipes)Frozen PipesPops up and changes an arrow’s direction halfway up the screen.
• 
  FreezieDeep Freeze onlyCovers the whole screen; Fire Flower steps fire fireballs to melt it.
• 
  Ice SpinyWorld 4Works just like a Spiny, but without the colour clue.
• 
  Bullet BillAlways Smiling onlyStamp them back into the launchers; three hits destroy a launcher.
• 
  Rocket PartsBowser’s Castle onlyThree in a row fire a rocket at Bowser; land too few and the song is failed.

The people who made it

A Konami and Nintendo co-production. The staff, as credited:

Few behind-the-scenes details have been published; the announcement and the credits tell most of the story.

Konami and Nintendo, together

Konami announced the project in Japan in January 2005 under a headline saying that it and Nintendo were jointly developing Dance Dance Revolution with Mario. GameSpot’s report described a new DDR for the GameCube starring Mushroom Kingdom characters, with backdrops in the style of the 3D Mario games, a normal dance mode and original minigames, due in Japan that summer and shown to the public at the Next Generation World Hobby Fair from 16 January. No Western release had been confirmed at that point.

Nintendo SPD Group No. 2 worked alongside Konami, and the credits name Hitoshi Yamagami and Hirotaka Ishikawa as producers and Satoru Iwata among the executive producers. Hudson appears only in the special thanks. Much of the cast came ready-made: models, poses and animations were recycled from Mario Party 4, 5 and 6.

Release and the bundle

The game reached Japan on 14 July 2005, North America on 24 October, Europe on 28 October under Konami’s European brand as Dancing Stage: Mario Mix, and Australia on 24 November. It shipped with the Action Pad in the box, which, as Nintendo World Report pointed out in its import review, made it an expensive thing to ship.

DDR: Mario Mix has no button codes; everything is unlocked by playing.

Story Mode EX

Finish Story Mode once to open Story Mode EX, which adds Hard difficulty and swaps in six new songs. Clear EX to open Very Hard.

Bonus songs

In Story Mode EX, save coins for Lakitu’s shops: Choir on the Green (World 1), Hop, Mario! (World 2), Where’s the Exit? (World 3) and Piroli (World 4).

Minigame mode

Every minigame you play in Story Mode is added to the Minigame mode, which also holds two exclusives: Note Pickup and Fire Up the SS Brass.

Make it easier

A Music Wand drops the difficulty one level; a Lucky Clover protects the meter four times; hearts refill it when it runs out. Mush Mode can be switched off in the options.

Hidden Treasure odds

One chest holds a single coin; the other holds 100 coins or a 1-Up Mushroom. Chain-Chomp Chase and Avalanche! pay 100 coins for success but take 100 for failure.

Our older cheats page is linked below.

The E3 2005 trailer and a complete longplay.

• Pressing Start on the title screen gets a “Let’s DDR!” in Japan and a “Let’s Dance!” everywhere else.

• 

  Wario’s plan is to wish for his own game, called DDR: Wario Mix in American English and Dancing Stage: Wario Mix in Europe.
• Toadette calls the Music Keys “shiny globes” in American English but “shiny keys” in British English.
• Underground Mozart remixes Eine kleine Nachtmusik as heard in Mario Bros., and samples that game’s sound effects.
• Piroli is a remix of Koji Kondo’s theme for the Famicom Disk System.
• Charles Martinet voices four characters here: Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi.

• 

  Bowser’s whole motive is that he is tone-deaf.
• Bowser’s Castle on Super Hard has 337 steps, the most in the game.
• Mario’s breakdance kick from this game became his down smash in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• The Japanese song grades run from AA to D; the Western versions use A to F.
• Cabin Fever has a different intro and ending in the Japanese version.
• Nintendo World Report’s review noted that PlayStation 2 dance mats work through a converter, though without the Z button.

• 

  The Big Blooper boss is the model from Mario Party 6.

The game was sold mainly as a big-box bundle with the Action Pad; game-only boxes exist for several regions.

More from the dance floor.

Artwork, logos and promotional material.

Mario has not had another dance game since, but this one has quietly fed later games ever since.

Release history

• Announcement January 2005Konami and Nintendo reveal Dance Dance Revolution with Mario; shown at the Next Generation World Hobby Fair from 16 January.
• E3 2005A trailer is shown at E3.
• GameCube (Japan) 14 July 2005Dance Dance Revolution with Mario.
• GameCube (North America) 24 October 2005Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, bundled with the Action Pad.
• GameCube (Europe) 28 October 2005Dancing Stage: Mario Mix.
• GameCube (Australia) 24 November 2005As in Europe.

Where it turns up later

It has had no re-release of any kind. Its influence shows up elsewhere: Bowser’s artwork became a Brawl sticker and a Mario Sports Superstars amiibo card, Mario’s standing pose was updated for the Switch Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and his breakdance kick is now a Smash move.

Reviews and scores

Mixed to positive: reviewers enjoyed the charm and the soundtrack but warned DDR veterans that it is easy and short. Metacritic gives 69 and GameRankings about 72%. Nintendo has not published a sales figure.

Nintendo World Report reviewed the Japanese release in August 2005 and liked almost everything except the Story Mode’s text and having to play it twice to open every song; it praised the catchy soundtrack and the light, responsive mat. Cubed3’s Adam Riley gave the European version 8/10, estimated the story at about three hours and called it a good first dance game, while noting that the odd problem comes when you have to deal with more than plain arrows.

IGN’s Matt Casamassina enjoyed the Nintendo take on the formula but wanted more songs. Eurogamer’s Kristan Reed rated it the best Dancing Stage on any system, and GameSpot’s Avery Score recommended it for children and beginners rather than seasoned dancers. Wikipedia’s summary of the reviews, including the lower marks from GameSpy and Game Informer, finds the same two complaints throughout: the low difficulty and the short Story Mode.

Honours

Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix has yet to receive a community review on Super Luigi Bros.

If you’ve played Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix and would like to submit a review, please get in touch.

Sub-pages and cheats for Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix.

Box art, desktop wallpaper and screenshots for Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix.

Every fact on this page was checked against the 22 sources listed here.