For the uninitiated, beatmania is the first of the Konami "Bemani" brand games; DDR, Guitar Freaks, Pop 'n' Music and DrumMania are others in this series. In beatmania, you use a 7-key controller with a "turntable." It is billed as a DJ simulator. In-game, there are 8 lanes, and little dashes fall from the top of the screen to a red bar on the bottom. All you have to do is hit the correponding key or spin the turntable each time a dash hits the line. To merely clear a track, hitting the right key when the dashes are near the line is good enough. But the game rates your accuracy on each press, and it tallies the number of Perfect, Great, Good, Poor and Bad hits that you get. You will need a large percentage of Perfects to get the higher ratings of AA and AAA.
This game first hit arcades in Japan back in 1997, but we're finally getting it here in the US in 2006. In my opinion, Konami has waited this long to bring beatmania to the US because it is so difficult; Japanese audiences generally tolerate harder games. There have been over 10 versions, or "styles," released in Japan.
I've had more time with beatmania now, and I don't think it's as bad as the press would have you believe. I don't care if the menus are gaudy, if there aren't many game modes, or about many of the other complaints I've seen in the press. The controller has a very nice feel, and the game is fun.
The one thing they have right is that some of the music does suck in a major way. Some of them are badly off key, others are just horribly cheesy or have poor choice of instrumentation. Some of them appear to use plain MIDI instruments! Having said that, there are some tracks that are very good. But the music won't be to everyone's taste, since a lot of it is hardcore techno and Drum 'n' Bass. So if you find that you must like the music in a music game to like the game, then you will want to find out if there's enough here that you will like before shelling out for the game.
It is an extremely hard game. As such, it's something you won't enjoy unless you WANT to enjoy it, but practice and patience are truly rewarded. It's extremely satisfying to play through the harder levels once you can do it. After 3 weeks, I can handle level 3 tracks now, and I can do a few of the 4s. I've looked at the 10s, and... well, I dunno. They look impossible. Though I've seen videos of people doing the really hard ones. Just search
video.google.com for "beatmania" and you'll be amazed at what these people can do. You can even play both sides of the game simultaneously:
video.google.com The more casual gamers I know that have tried it tend to like playing it, and are able to get the hang of it by staying on level 1 tracks. So even though it has a very long difficulty curve, it starts easy enough for most people.
The training mode is excellent, as it allows you to play any part of any track, and you can play it at 4/5, 3/5, 2/5, and 1/5 normal speed. This helped me learn the faster parts of "Snow" on Beginner.
The controller is well built, and has a nice feel while playing it. The keys are responsive, and the turntable is tight. Granted, real turntables aren't this sticky, but that keeps it from continuing to spin after you give input with it. I don't feel cheated by the $90 CAD price I paid for the game/controller bundle. The key pad even come out of the controller so it can be put in upside-down. This is to facilite playing double, or for people accustomed to the arcade version's right-handed scratching for player 2. The game also has an option to change on which side the scratch track is displayed on-screen. As I said before, the menus aren't much to look at (or listen to), but the important options are all there.
In the end, I recommend this title, but with hesitation. The music might entirely turn you off, but its style is well suited to the gameplay. Much effort is required to learn to play well, but effort is rewarded with fun. So if you're looking for a single game that can give you months of continuing challenges, this is a good one for you.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
