ITG features the same basic gameplay premise as DDR: arrows scroll toward targets, and when the two line up, players must hit the corresponding arrow (or arrows) on their dancepad. It's a simple concept that has hooked gamers across the nation, and will continue to do so for some time to come, especially considering the dance sim weight loss craze that has been happening as of late. But now that we know what makes ITG similar to DDR, what makes it stand out?

The feature that was given the most attention pre-home version release was the huge amount of modifiers that ITG offers. Modifiers are options that can be enabled after choosing a song which affect gameplay in many ways (primarily visually). Modifiers can cause arrows to spin, or to scroll down instead of up, or add steps, etc. To be honest, there's no real reason to actually use most of the modifiers during dance mode (the main gameplay mode), aside from creating a personal challenge for yourself. Where really modifiers come into play is marathon mode, where you dance to four (or sometimes five) songs back to back, with various modifiers being enabled and disabled mid-song. Although a lot of the marathon courses aren't beginner friendly, players will find themselves motivated to improve just so they can make it through that last song.

Battle is another mode that makes use of modifiers, though it's not nearly as entertaining as Marathon. In Battle mode, players face off on a shared meter that acts like tug-of-war above all else. Your overall percentage means nothing here -- it's all about winning the meter battle. As the song goes on, players will up another meter: the attack bar. When a player's attack bar reaches its peak, it resets, and the opposing player is forced to deal with a modifier. Modifiers increase in difficulty as the meter is refilled, making things near impossible to read at times. Looking at the other player's side of the screen isn't an option here either, as the stepchart's arrows are all turned left for player one and right for player two.

Songs are a subjective affair -- some like 'em, some don't. I'm not really going to say much on the subject aside from the fact that I like the songs, though I was disappointed with the ITG2 previews (SPOILERS AHEAD: okay, only one in particular: Wake Up. The song doesn't appeal to me, and the steps don't do anything to save it).

Now let's talk about the home version specifically. Only three words are needed to aptly sum up my feelings of In the Groove's first home release: "Flawed, but fun" (or as someone put it on DDR Freak, "Like wife, flawed but lovable").

The interface has seen some improvements; namely, it looks cleaner, darker, and uses a less annoying font throughout the various screens. The clean interface makes the "YES" and "NO" boxes featured on the Save screen look poor by comparison though. Featuring pixelated edges, they could stand some cleaning up for the next home version.

All of the songs from the arcade version of ITG here, including four songs from ITG2. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cases of awkward song censoring, though players not familiar with the uncut versions of these songs may not be bothered by them. Some censor jobs are just sloppy, however; for example, in Land of the Rising Sun, an entire line is replaced by another that is repeated just a few moments later, which sounds very weird. Even untainted ears would probably wonder what the heck happened there. Hopefully something else that will be handled better with the next home release.

Workout Mode, to me, was a bit of a disappointment. Although the random endless features are nifty, you can't really keep track of your overall, day-to-day progress. Also, the calorie counter is very broken -- I managed to burn 100 calories on a song that was only rated an 8! Gross miscalculations aside, what I would like to see in the future is for players to be able to have their own profiles that automatically track calories in normal gameplay mode (ala the arcade version of ITG), and have Workout Mode become Workout Center instead, where all kinds of useful stats would be displayed. Take it one step further and have the ability to set long-term weight loss goals, and have the game setup courses based on your current weight and your intended goals (ie: heavier players burn more calories because of the amount of mass they're moving around, therefore, setup a course of easier songs). It would be sort of like Yourself!Fitness, except fun.

The last major annoyance in the home version of ITG is the load times. Fortunately, I don't have much to say about these anymore, since I load the game from the PS2 hard drive instead (hello halved loading times!).

All-in-all, ITG for the PS2 is by no means the epitome of perfection. However, it is fun, and much like its arcade incarnation, it serves as an excellent building block for the future, and is a lot of fun to play. Despite that, considering how improved ITG2 is over ITG1, I'm hoping Roxor and RO won't wait until ITG3 hits arcades to bring it home. Please?