Activision Plans to Reinvent the Wheel and Trademark Dance Hero

Dance Dance Revolution was just about everyone’s first foray into rhythm gaming. Whether you care to admit it or not, you’ve probably given DDR a chance at some point in your life even if it was just one run of “Burning Heat” on easy. Most of us musically-inclined gamers moved on from DDR once a fun alternative sprouted up with the advent of a guitar controller, but it looks like Activision is intrigued by the idea of people sliding around their living rooms in their socks all over again and have trademarked the name Dance Hero.

Kotaku broke the news regarding the trademark, and Activision hasn’t announced the game officially yet; as far as we know, it might not even be in development at this point. But seeing how “insiders” claim they handled the recent DJ Hero trademark, Dance Hero is probably at least being designed at this point.

I admit, in my college days, I had played DDR quite a bit, but I can’t help but look back on those memories and wonder why. My friends and I played DDR as a way of having fun and being shameless in a large group. Well, Rock Band and Guitar Hero allow us to continue that without sweating profusely and smelling like feet halfway through the evening. While hardcore DDR fans might really look forward to a new dance game, a big portion of the former DDR market has moved on.

Also, DDR has been madly successful for a decade now, and competing against such a force in a genre they created seems a bit foolish, but who knows? Maybe Activision has a big idea that can actually revolutionize the dancing sub-genre of music games. If they are simply going to make their own dance pad though, the only way people would probably buy it is if it could interface with the next Guitar Hero game so the band could have backup dancers. As if we didn’t already have enough fun laughing at our drunk friends trying to sing.

We’ll keep an eye out for any future word on Dance Hero and make sure to keep you posted.