One of the best rhythm games, overlooked due to it's learning curve
Pros:
Good songs
High skill cap
Fun controller
Cons:
Bad songs
Bad difficulty progression
Very, very difficult for beginners
The Bottom Line:
Avoid this game if you don't appreciate a challenging rhythm game. It's not easy, but very rewarding if you play it well.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Beatmania is Konami's attempt at bringing their HIGHLY POPULAR rhythm game stateside. As of today, they currently have 15 games in the Beatmania IIDX franchise. Unfortunately, the US port sucks in comparison.
Since Guitar Hero and Rock Band seem to be the only rhythm franchises that most gamers are familiar with nowadays, I'll compare Beatmania to these:
Guitar Hero has 5 columns in which circles float down which you need to hit at the right time, corresponding to the rhythm of the song; Beatmania has 8: a turntable and 7 buttons. It also uses a special controller. If this sounds difficult to you, well, it is. Beatmania isn't an easy game, and you shouldn't start playing it expecting to start passing the easy songs right away like you would in Guitar Hero. YOU WILL HAVE TO PRACTICE TO GET GOOD AT THIS GAME. A LOT. The game doesn't start out easy, and it only gets exponentially harder as you start moving up to more difficult songs. The pro
The unfortunate part about Beatmania is that the soundtrack is VERY hit or miss in comparison to the Japanese games. Konami really threw some fantastic songs in there that players might find familiar from DDR (V and Era), but there's also a lot of terrible songs that were put on here because they tried to appeal to the American audience.
Let me tell you, you will never be able to beat the hardest songs in this game. If you thought "Through the Fire and Flames" on Guitar Hero was difficult, you have another thing coming. The songs on the most difficult setting seem like a wall of dashes raining down from the top of the screen. Players who are able to beat songs on this difficulty have easily played the game for a year. This is a good thing though, you always have something to strive for.
Unlike Guitar Hero and Rock Band, you'll get more points for how accurately you press the button. Some players get frustrated with Beatmania since it isn't geared towards beginners like Guitar Hero is, but you'll have a healthy sense of accomplishment if you get good at it.
