PIU > DDR

1. 5 steps
2. More variety of musical genres
3. Because of 5 steps, the sequences are much harder
4. Doing doubles (1 person on 2 pads) does not cost extra
5. Because of the 5 steps and the music choices, it's easier to freestyle

I've been playing PIU for about 6 years now. I competed in 2 tournaments, placed 3rd in one of them. I don't compete anymore because the type of people that play PIU or any other dance simulation game do not really know what dance is. They are the type that only became interested in dancing after playing PIU, and we all know that playing PIU straight up (or DDR for that matter) does not teach you how to dance. So, as a result, you have judges there that don't know anything about dance, and I got shafted in the last tourney. Not only the judges though, the audience as well.

If you search for "USPF 2007" on YouTube, you can see the horrid freestyles and the audience's reaction to them. They absolutely love the stupid stuff freestlyers do.

So now, I just play for fun. I'm trying to get better at Speed. I play Crazy mode most of the time, and I'm training to upgrade to Nightmare mode. Nightmare is 2 pads, but really hard steps. I only train once a week, so I need to start running to keep my stamina up. I tend to get really tired after 1 hr of playing, though there are times where I am exhausted after 15 minutes.

By the way, I've played DDR before I started PIU. It was an easy choice for me to see which is better.