I picked up one of these pads at a small shop in San Francisco for $150, after doing some research online for the best DDR pad.

These pads cost around $320 new, on the official site. There are no mechanical parts, just plywood, polycarbonate plastic and galvanized steel. Each arrow on the pad is metal underneath. When you step on it, it bends the metal down about a millimeter and it makes contact with another metal sheet, causing a button press.

It's very durable and heavy, and won't move around very much on the carpet. There are grip pads on the bottom for if you are playing on a hard floor. It comes with a control box that can connect to PC, PS2, XBOX and Wii. The only mechanical part is the control box, which you can get on eBay for around $30. It comes with the pad if you buy it new.

If the pad gets wet, it doesn't matter, you can unscrew it and clean it really easy. The control box is not built in, that way if it is ever damaged, you can replace it without replacing the whole pad.

Some people don't like the pad because it is perfectly flat on top and your feet can get lost if you can't feel which arrow you are standing on. But if you are used to playing, you should have no problem with it.

I was very skeptical when getting this pad, but now that I've used it, I wouldn't play on anything else. I'm currently using it to play StepMania on the PC. All you have to do is map the arrows, which is pretty easy. You can find every DDR mix and songs for download on the web, as well as other free user created songs.

Pick one up if you like DDR!