Hi, this is cfgt of Random Ideas.

No doubt this is beyond my usual convention of spamming you with short paragraphs of words, but I'd thought it be fun to blog in a more multimedia form for once.

Today, as I intended to begin with, I wish to review the 3in1 Deluxe Ignition Pad from Mayflash which you can purchase off Play-Asia.

http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-190f-71-1i-49-en-84-j-70-166b.html

It looks something like this. It's nice and shiny, with a silvery colour to it, which looks pretty cool.

First, I'd like to clarify this - the pad is one inch in height, not the foam. It is with the foam inside that the pad becomes an inch in height. The foam itself is quite solid and won't reshape easily under weight. I weigh over a 100 kilograms (yes, I know what you're thinking, an overweight guy playing DDR, how hilarious, har har, no, it's not funny), and the foam held well (at least for the few weeks of I should tell you pretty heavy use).

Each direction pad has a hard flat piece of plastic in the rough shape of the arrow plate. While I'd think this would help some people, I have gotten past that need, having used the flat no feel pad to begin with. That being said, the feel is definitely an improvement. Feeling the plastic piece sink in slightly after you've stepped on it certainly feels much better than stepping on the floor and not knowing much about what you did step on.

I've tested the pad on an Xbox and my Mac, although I'm quite sure it wouldn't give you problem on a PS2 either.

The pad is nice and responsive and due to the slightly more solid build, I have no doubt it'll outlast my previous much cheaper pad. As for slipping, the pad still certainly moves around. While the foam absorbs most of the shock, it will still slide around significantly, especially in the forward direction, since the control box creates a weak spot in the grip with the carpet surface. However, it should be noted that this is not from my own experience, but from my observation.

Playing with the thinner more slip prone pad teaches you several things - and among them is how to step on the pad with minimal movement of the pad. Otherwise, you can't do the marathon songs - because by the end of those marathon songs, the pad would have rotated 45 degrees and moved 20 cm to the left. My neighbour, who has a much more jumpy play style, causes the pad to move much more than my own more relaxed play style.

I believe the pad is a solid purchase if you play often. It isn't foldable like the cheaper, thinner one, but it feels much better and the multiplatform capability (no Gamecube though) is something worth paying for. At the very least, it should outlast the thinner one - unless you play like a idiot putting the sensors at risk of tearing. I know one such idiot which managed to jump around until the top layer of the thin pad slipped around independently of the bottom one. While the thick one isn't susceptible to that, it most certainly won't survive very one if someone plays like that.