In the Groove

In the Groove (or ITG, as it's also known) is a video game unlike other video games.

Instead of a controller where you sit on your ass and mash buttons, in ITG you stand on a panel with four arrows and follow the arrow that show up on the screen, by stepping on the matching arrows. Mind-numbingly easy on the lower levels, but insanely hard in the later ones. Late-teens seem to catch on better than adults for some reason, and a very common sight in arcades is 30-somethings being put to shame by dexterous seventeen-year-olds.

In case you haven't noticed, most of the lead is right from the Dance Dance Revolution page. This is because the two games are just that similar, with ITG essentially being an American-made DDR. However, this doesn't mean the series didn't innovate or have some neat features, like Mines (don't step on them!), charts containing sections that require hitting or holding more than 2 panels at once (intended for use with your hands), and Rolls (Freeze Arrows you have to keep hitting). The game also popularized the concept of "crazy-hard" songs to the 4-panel scene, with the normal difficulty scale ranging from 1-12 "block" (compared to DDR's 1-10 at the time), with an additional 13th level for the hardest of the hard. And just look at the cabinet!

There's a lot going on graphically as well. The arrows here are IN 3D and are coloured similarly to DDR's "solo" arrows (on beat arrows are red, off-beat are blue, 16ths are green\yellow, etc), but with more solid colour. The default "hallway" perspective makes the arrows come closer to you (IN 3D) as they approach the step zone, though this can be changed to the more conventional "overhead" perspective. If one chooses to turn some mods on (or is playing certain courses), the arrows will weave, spin, and bounce all over the place and yet still somehow be possible to read.

In the Groove was based on the open source rhythm game engine StepMania, and this fact is utilized today for "hacking" of many of the machines, adding new songs or themes.

The game was developed by Roxor Games (and ITG2 was co-published with Andamiro), however due to a lawsuit Konami now owns the rights to the game. Most of the original team went on to form a new team to create a Spiritual Successor as a Pump It Up spinoff.

Tropes used in In the Groove include:

Announcer Chatter: In comparison to DDR, averted. No announcer at all.
Button Mashing: Rolls.
Critical Annoyance: No sharks here, but the background behind the arrows flashes red when a player is failing, and then just goes dark after failure.
Damn You, Muscle Memory!
Dance Sensation: Quite a bit
Difficulty Spike: A lot of people find Fly With Me's Expert chart more annoying than hard. Does a 9 footer really need all those jumps?
- Then there's Disconnected Disco. The Expert Double chart is just a contortionist's dream.
Double Play: Has a separate set of high scores for every song and course, and a separate set of completion tracker. Not played as much as Single style. And just as stupid at times. With a few exceptions almost every official double chart in the series were written by M. Emirizan. The library of custom double stepcharts is very limited compared to custom singles.
Easier Than Easy: Novice Mode, which provides similar assists to DDR's Beginner Mode (but with no 3D characters promoting improper foot placement, and forced consistent speed for all songs)
Cute Kitten: Little Kitty Mine Mine~
Exergaming: Plenty of opportunities to get a workout with these songs. Then, there was also a special version of ITG2 built mainly for fitness centers ... WITH MASS MULTIPLAYER ACTION!
Fake Difficulty: Some fans felt this way about the introduction of "stretch jumps" in Double mode, where you would need to hit the same direction on both pads at once. The game was generally tasteful with hands and mines, but not all fan-made charts were.
Fan Nickname: Just ITG.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: "High" on Expert Double has 420 steps.
Guide Dang It: Averted, somehow. When obtuse and baroque hints to unlock songs and charts were released, the fanbase quickly figured them out.
Have a Nice Death: LIFE DEPLETED. ROUND FAILED.
100% Completion: Getting a