Dance Dance Revolution celebrates 10th birthday

One of the most important titles in the history of casual gaming can stand up proud this week, with Konami's Dance Dance Revolution dance mat series reaching the ripe old age of ten.

Known as Dancing Stage in Europe, the series first arrived in Japanese arcades on November 21st 1998 and quickly went on to become a gaming sensation. Konami ditched the traditional joypad or joystick and introduced a pressure-sensitive dance mat that registers when a player's foot hits each of the four directional pads.

It didn't take long for the arcade craze to make the move to consoles, and the series arrived on Sony's pioneering PlayStation in Japan early in 1999, bringing with it the first iteration of the console dance mat.