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Beatmania US controller

T

Tain

Member
I think this is new. If not, sorry.

012706beatmaniacontroller0sf.jpg


All signs point to this controller being an improvement over the Japanese one, stickykeys gone and all.

So, I'll be showing my support for BM US by picking up two of these bad boys. Still kinda hoping the US release doesn't suck, but I don't know if I'll pick it up or not.
 
sl1p said:
I'm not even coming from your average Bemani fans "I ONLY ACCEPT JAPANESE BEMANI DONT BUY THIS CRAP" place. I'm coming from a "This is a terrible game on it's own" kind of place. It's just an absolutely pitiful attempt.

Beyond the ridiculous song list split, the need to unlock anothers (Yes. UNLOCK anothers) and overall bad design, the difficulty progression is hilarious. They expect you to go from passing "Bad Boy Bass" Another, which is extremely easy, to beating "V", "Colors", "Holic" and "Nemesis" another, which are 4 of the all time hardest songs in Beatmania history. It just gives you the feeling that Konami had no idea what they were doing when slapping this beast together.

And then you find out that 5-Key songs don't have anothers. Sorry "Ska a GoGo".

But if they sell the controller seperately, everyone should totally jump on that and import IIDX Red. The controller is great. It feels as if someone took the Japanese controller, did all the typical modifications on it and actually did them well.
Click to expand...
While I'm here...

I agree that the BMUS tracklist is pretty awful but what would be a better one? I'm curious to see what the more experienced people think would be a better song selection to introduce the series.
 
If you're a complete Beatmania/IIDX newbie, you have nothing to compare it to, so you're not going to know the difference. If you've played any of the imports or arcade versions, you'll probably want to steer clear, like Sl1p suggests.

While I think Konami US could've done a much better job of introducing Beatmania to the home crowd here in the US (I still have fond memories of the arcade CM2 machine), the fact that we're getting it at all is somewhat positive... or is it too little too late?

Well, if anything, the controller will be a Must Buy for me.
 
ghibli99 said:
If you're a complete Beatmania/IIDX newbie, you have nothing to compare it to, so you're not going to know the difference. If you've played any of the imports or arcade versions, you'll probably want to steer clear, like Sl1p suggests.
Click to expand...

That would be true if there weren't so many awesome music games here in the States these days like Guitar Hero =|
 
I'll buy the package for the controller, and throw away the game. IIDX 11th Style Red is coming out soon, so this controller would be perfect for it. I needed something to replace my older IIDX controller anyway.
 
Sl1p said:
Oh, PS: The US controller, in all seriousness, rules.
Click to expand...
I remember this being posted a while back...

The upcoming March USA release of everyone's favorite bemani game, BEATMANIA now has a price to go with it. It will be offered in 2 flavors, a $49.99 version with the turntable controller or a $39.99 version without the controller. Beatmania is set to hit stores March 15th.
Click to expand...
...even though EB has it listed for like $65. :( It was hard for me to believe that they would've priced the bundle at the $50 pricepoint, but I held out and was hopeful. Oh well! Hopefully this changes and they offer the controller separately, at the *very* least, through here.
 
Meh, I'm still buying the game w/ the controller just to support it. Of course, I don't want to support shitty efforts, but I've got to decide between that or possibly never having another US release... :(
 
ghibli99 said:
is it too little too late?
Click to expand...
I definitely think it is.

Too little - the first J release of IIDX (3rd Style) provided more than eighty songs and gave the home series a great start; the only thing it was arguably missing was a few licenced and other songs from 2nd and the original (and some of those were, as stated, 7key versions of ancient 5key songs, so it was irrelevant). Other than that it was basically as good of a home version of an arcade game as you could ask for.

BMUS is coming now with a mere twenty five or so actual IIDX songs and is otherwise trying to mesh long obsolete and antiquated songs and gameplay concepts (Free Zones went away for a reason) for no logical reason that I can see. What's even funnier is that with BMUS, Konami has the opportunity to actually put in 5key songs that have no JPS1-version equivalent (7th Mix and The Final) but they absolutely refuse to do this.

Too late - IIDX 3rd Style came out five years ago. Five years. The PS3 is going to be out in less than a year. Konami is asking quite a bit for people to justify getting a proprietary game and controller when a new system is visibly coming down the road.

Also, when 3rd Style came out, the IIDX series in general wasn't too far beyond the home version, and so the difficulty gap between the two wasn't very pronounced. People who get BMUS first and try J 10th or RED later will have prison rape flashbacks when they fail 90% of everything they play. This wouldn't happen if Konami would have tried to make this release more analogous to the series's arcade progression.
 
3rd Style, to this day is still an awesome game.

Love or Truth
Been So Long
Calcutta
S.O.S
S.O.S (The Tiger Took My Family)
DREAM
End of the Century
Get On Beat
Holic
Macho Gang
Make Your Move
Presto
R5 (BEST. ANOTHER. EVER.)
Schlagwerk (THISISFUCKEDUP)
Take On Me
The Safari
 
Sl1p said:
3rd Style, to this day is still an awesome game.

Love or Truth
Been So Long
Calcutta
S.O.S
S.O.S (The Tiger Took My Family)
DREAM
End of the Century
Get On Beat
Holic
Macho Gang
Make Your Move
Presto
R5 (BEST. ANOTHER. EVER.)
Schlagwerk (THISISFUCKEDUP)
Take On Me
The Safari

DAMN. 3rd Style was / still is amazing. Beatmania USA sucks compared to a 5 year old game :(
Click to expand...
Word. As dog$ mentioned, I was a little upset that those Silva songs (Morning Prayer & Almost Love) never made it into the home release, due to copyright/licensing issues, no doubt, but it was a small price to pay for such a strong start for the series at home.

And hell yeah on R5-A and S.O.S. Hi-Speed... I'll throw Era (Nostal Mix) and Reincarnation on that list, too. Schlagwerk-A had some fun patterns, too. Dynamite Rave, Can't Stop Fallin' In Love, etc. The list goes on and on.
 
I preordered this at $50 and will play it and have fun with it for a while, then start importing.

Which ones are rare? I've seen some of the early ones going for $60-70 on ebay, is that an average price?(ie, I don't know if they sold at that price or not)

Also, were there Chinese or Asian version of any of them made? I try to get all Japanese imports if at all possible.
 
Why would they do anything different than what they did with DDR at first? The first DDR Konami shat out onto America was extremely gimpified. But what it might have come down to is that Japanese team not being able to be bothered creating a good US version, and lazy Konami USA being OK with it. They have to know that it sucks -- they have Bemani fans over at KUSA, don't they? :P
 
They can't be bothered to work hard if they know it won't sell well. Being something like this has a stigma already in the states. If it catches on, eventually it'll be better, like Ex2.
 
Which ones are rare? I've seen some of the early ones going for $60-70 on ebay, is that an average price?(ie, I don't know if they sold at that price or not)
Click to expand...

4th is known for being the big rare one, I think. I don't know how true that is anymore. But yeah, $60-$70 is pretty normal.

Also, were there Chinese or Asian version of any of them made? I try to get all Japanese imports if at all possible.
Click to expand...

I think my 6th Style is Asian. Not sure why it'd matter, though.
 
SuperPac said:
Why would they do anything different than what they did with DDR at first? The first DDR Konami shat out onto America was extremely gimpified. But what it might have come down to is that Japanese team not being able to be bothered creating a good US version, and lazy Konami USA being OK with it. They have to know that it sucks -- they have Bemani fans over at KUSA, don't they? :P
Click to expand...

Why would they do anything different than they did with DDR at first? Because people are a lot more keen to music games now then back in 1999 when KOA dropped DDR 1.5 in the arcades. The lack of quality here is unacceptable.

Also, for as gimped as DDR 1.5 was, it was still using songs from the most recent Japanese mix at the time, 2nd Mix. So even for it's lack of songs, not many complained.

And yeah, KoA has some awesome people behind the scenes, but the majority of them work on DDR.
 
Just noticed that they rounded off the turntable end of the controller. Minor point, but it makes the controller look a little more streamlined.
 
That US IIDX controller looks pretty good, but eh... I can't bring myself to play another music game again.

Fin
 
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