Main > Main Forum
Guitar Hero coming to the arcade
Ginsu Victim:
MonMotha:
Guitar Freaks also came out on PSX in 1999.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/image/197505.html?box=15188
MonMotha:
--- Quote from: Mauzy on November 25, 2008, 08:43:03 am ---
--- Quote from: MonMotha on November 25, 2008, 12:52:41 am ---*huge history of Bemani*
--- End quote ---
You forgot BeatMania, though I'm not sure if it was linkable with the others. IIRC, that didn't do well with a US release either. I bought that instead of the first GH. That was a mistake...
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: MonMotha on November 25, 2008, 12:52:41 am ---Guitar Freaks is IIRC the 2nd or 3rd game in the "Bemani" series of music games from Konami (beatmania was first, then I think DDR, then GF).
--- End quote ---
beatmania is older than most USA players realize. The 5 key version was quite possibly the first "rhythm" music game made and dates back to at least 1997 in Japan. It was released in the rest of Asia as "Beat Stage" and saw a couple US arcade releases as "Hip Hop Mania". The US arcade version flopped. There was a US console release a couple years back that also pretty much flopped. I think most of the sales were to long time IIDX players (those importing the Japanese versions) just because it was a cheap source of a decent controller.
The Japanese releases are still tracking the Japanese/Asian arcade series (which just recently saw the release of beatmaniaIIDX 16 "Empress", and the CS release of 15 "DJ Troopers" is due any time). There is also beatmaniaIII which was terminated at the same time as original beatmania with "The Final". There were no console releases of beatmaniaIII, but most of the original beatmania is available for the Playstation in Japan region (it's all out of print now, though).
--- Quote from: lanman31337 on November 25, 2008, 08:48:45 am ---They did have a DrumMania at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh PA at one time.
--- End quote ---
There are several drummania machines in the USA, but they are all Japan or other Asia imports and many are running bootleg software. The vast majority of DDR machines (pre-supernova) are also Japanese or Korean imports (and the vast majority of these are also running bootleg versions of the game software).
And yes, I did notice after I wrote the post that Guitar Freaks also saw a PSX release. The PS2 releases were the combined GF/DM versions. I can't say I've ever played the original PSX version, though I have played a Guitar Freaks US arcade machine which would be the same engine (on basically the same hardware).
As for song selection, some of the songs on the Bemani games, while unheard of here, are popular in Japan where the games originate. Many of the songs are done in-house, though. I'm guessing this is simply for cost reasons. Licensing lots of music for public performance (i.e. an arcade game, as opposed to private viewing only) is expensive, especially in the USA. I'll be interested to see what they manage to put on Guitar Hero arcade. This is one thing Konami is frequently faulted for: not including more local music. The Korean and European versions of DDR featured some local music, so I'm not sure why it's such a big deal to put some on the USA versions. These games are actually made by Konami of Japan (KCET does most of the work), so perhaps it's just a lack of communication.
The in-house music ranges from rather good to downright awful (I'd take the opportunity to slam Slake here, but he gets no respect anyway). It's not usually "American Friendly", though. The Japanese don't listen to the same kind of music mainstream America does. While Americans tend to prefer prefer rock, hip hop, rap, and country, and our own flavor of pop, the Japanese tend to go for electronic techno, happy hardcore, game music remixes, eurobeat, and their own unique flavor of pop that most Americans don't like (it's far too "cutesy" for our tastes). It seems to be that either you like the music or you don't on the Bemani series. The Bemani games also tend to cut their music to 1:30 - 2:00, rather than using the full song. I tend to prefer this for music gaming as most songs get kinda boring to play in their entirety when you have a "game" focus, but some prefer to play the whole thing.
Interestingly, Andamiro manages to get tons of licenses on their dance game "Pump It Up", but again you've probably never heard of most of it as it's K-Pop.
ChadTower is talking about Tokyo Game Action (TGA). Their collection is certainly impressive, though I think $100,000 might be a bit high unless you're trying to acquire all that stuff new or have a restrictive timetable.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version