This looks familiar.
Posted on: March 6, 2008, at 02:41:54pm

Whee, I return to FFR after almost an eight-month hiatus. I never really expected to come back, or to be so impressed upon my return. Despite having remained true to formula over the time I've been gone, FFR has grown in maturity and replayability during that time. I remember when there were fewer than 200,000 registered accounts, and now it's up to 1.5 million. It's kinda cool.

I was never great shakes at FFR - I was amazed by mere FCs on the likes of Terror From Beyond or Euphoria, and PA seemed secondary. However, during my time off I spent a decent amount of class time (philosophy of religion is a pretty dead class anyway) playing StepMania. I loved adding songs and themes, and currently have more than 5,000 files queued for play (including, cough, every official DDR file...). When I bought my first pads (foam inserts off eBay) to play with SM, I was amazed - not only at how fun DDR games were, but how badly I sucked at them.

I was shortly thereafter blessed by meeting Milo234, one of the country's best DDR/ITG players, and joining his weekly ITG sessions on his personal dedicab. In only a few months I've worked my way up to pad 9's, cracking the first tens.

Now, during Spring Break, I come back to FFR on a whim. At first, I thought everything was broken. How did these songs get so easy? Since when could I full-combo CIA Rave?? (did it while logged out, and haven't been able to replicate it since, lol). But I realized it's just me.

A couple of my old friends still play FFR. Judging by their scores and those newfangled playback videos, they haven't improved as much during the time I was gone. ZerotheXHunter, I look forward to pwning you in challenges :-)