This would be true, but games like Guitar Hero have set standards for the average American gamer who now enjoys music games.

The complete lack of balance to the difficulty and completely ghetto nature of Beatmania is going to turn the majority of them off.

Well, maybe i was a little rushed to type that last post after reading
the song list.

But i honestly i don't think it's terrible. I think those tracks (not all, but
a good amount) SOUND good. So it might not be up to date with a Japanese
mix, i still feel that these tracks hold some weight. Like guitar hero,
you can play it on easy and still enjoy the songs, right? I like Snow,
V, Holic, Summer Vacation~ light 7 - 7 key - Another ~ It doesn't matter,
i think they're enjoyable to hear.

To who? To US who have been playing IIDX for a long time???
Yea, they're old, but that doesn't mean they are bad.
Guitar Hero has some old rock songs, they must be bad
then right? I still go back and play older IIDX mixes because i love
the songs. Music is music.

Until now. What's your point? You act like you've never played a game
that requires unlocking ^_^'' New Comers don't need to worry about
Anothers yet. They'll have their hands full as is with 5key and 7key.

Exactly, I can't mention this enough- This mix isn't for us.
IIDX importers aren't Konami's target.

Yes, the game's interface is purple (why?!!? lol), but lack of balance in
difficulty? New comers can play 5 key until they are comfy and
start trying light 7 (or whatever it's going to be called here).
I feel the only standard Guitar Hero has set on a music game is it
must have popular liccensed songs to grab the Average American's attention.

Honestly though, Konami should not sell this game as some "Club"
DJing sim with this guy scratching on the cover. CLUB... lol Konami...
They shouldn't have targeted the Average gamer in the first place.
Beatmania's followers are definitely another breed.

The songs are old not because they were in Beatmania long ago but because a good portion of those popped up on American DDR mixes... making them ancient to the ears... when you purchase a new game you wouldn't want a good portion of it's contents to be old news right? Like for instance if Resident Evil 3 featured even more gameplay segments in locations where Resident Evil 2 took place.... I would feel ripped off.

True, you're right. I didn't think about DDR mixes here (i've never
playing a US mix besides the first Max US ^_^'''

It could also be a mix of familiarity. If you see a song you liked on DDR on the Beatmania songlist, you'd probably want to play it. I know that's how I originally got into IIDX.

So this hit stores today, did anyone pick it up? My store got 2 of the bundles so I'm probably going to pick one up next week. Anyone with one have any comments?

Not a single Gamestop or EB or any other game store around here had it, I called and checked. Looks like I'll be trying today to see if they have it.

Ohhhh forget it~

I'm seriously thinking about buying this + a controller, but being in Europe I'd have to import it from some store. However I've been having trouble finding it available online anywhere, even on eBay. Does anyone happen to know a store that will ship worldwide and sells the game?

Picked mine up today and the controller is... well, i still feel it needs some modding to the keys and TT. It's also a smaller than the JPKOC (Height).

Glad to be playing doubles though!! I've never tried and i'm kind of
stuck at the 6s ^_^'''

As for Beatmania US, the interface still annoys me~~ purple?!?! lol

Yeah, the game seems to be hard to find. My store got 2 copies, and I picked one up today.

I just picked up my copy and failing level 7 songs like never before. I'd love to get this working with all my BMIIDX simfiles, a lot of the original work I've dug up is on the level with any of the official songs, and I will bear the children of anyone who can tell me how to get it working. Seriously.

But you have to think of the game as on the same terms as say an adventure game sequel with areas you've already visited in the original (in this case songs) I feel ripped off if I'm paying for the same song over and over again...

That's an unfair comparison. While DDR and Beatmania are both in the genre of music games, the actual gameplay concepts behind the games are drastically different. It's like experiencing something in a whole new way as opposed to the old way.

Instead of dancing to The Cube, you're playing it.

i beat myself evry night.

it's pretty maniaous.

I'm gonna mod the keys today for the US controller. I just don't like
the keys at all ^_^'' They throw me off since they click not when
going down but when coming back up.

Feel free to avoid this game as much as possible. It has the worst tracklist in the world in comparison to other beatmania titles, and the only thing worth buying would be the slightly better controller.

And there's absolutely no reason to have a decent controller if all you're going to be playing is a garbage game.

Quote for truth.

Gosh, so much hate in this thread. I'm not a IIDX veteran (I've only gotten my hands on the PSX 5-Key mixes...), but I'm in love with this game! The controller feels much better than the official 5-key controller I've been using, and all of the songs sound and play well ('Toxic' garage mix?!?). Not to mention the great value in the bundle (even if the game sucked, I'm still paying only $65 for a controller that would have set me back $100 elsewhere).

In short, I'm happy with my purchase.

More like Toxic Garbage Mix.

Seriously, you haven't played 10th Style if you think the USA beatmania has a good tracklist. 10th Style has possibly the best, if not close to best, range of songs available from 3-10.

I haven't played all beatmania's however, and a friend from another forum is going to send me burned copies of the beatmania's which I'm missing, along with the Pop'n Music's that I'm missing. I cannot say for sure that 10th Style is the outright dominant beatmania title, but the american version is nothing in comparison.

Of course it isn't. Haven't we established long ago that this title is geared towards newer players? IIDX 10th Style is amazing. I don't even touch any previous style anymore except 8th on the rare occasion. However, if you dropped 10th style in front of a newer player they'd be overwhelmed. There's such a difficulty gap between songs that it'd scare off the newer players.

If this sells well, there will be more games, and they will begin to cater to the advancing players with more difficult songs and charts.

Even more reason for newer players to pick up 10th Style first.

This reminds me of going from 5 button to 9 button in Pop'n. You might as well skip to the good stuff and get to work. Not all 10th Style songs are hard, either. I've only played a few, though.

Gotta love Bemani elitists...not.

I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. Slight problem though...I went through the tutorial, and got the basics of 5-key gameplay. I got bored with that pretty quick though, so I tried out IIDX...and got totally served. My friend told me it'd be easier to use two hands for the keys and scratch with my pinky, but that just seems unnatural to me.

So what sort of position do you veterans use? Which fingers go on which keys? Any other miscelleneous tips/tricks to help get me started? I'm hoping that at some point I'll hit my groove and things will just "click" for me. Then I can stop worrying about how to play and just concentrate on having fun playing.

Hahaha bemani elitists? I'm sorry but my name isn't Arch0wl.

Most people I've seen tend to play beatmania with their left and right index and middle fingers, and their pinky/ring finger to scratch. I don't know if the american iidx controller is fit for modding, but if it's anything close to the japanese version, check out google for some controller mods. I've seen quite a few.

If that's the way to go about it, they made the gap from the keys to the scratch way too wide on the American controller.

Most of the songs blow. Or at least I'm not nearly versed enough yet to get to the good stuff. I'm mostly playing The Cube on beginner over and over. I like the gameplay and want to keep at it, but speaking as someone this game was geared toward, this feels like a slipshod effort. Again, the early level stuff is minimally interesting or just plain bad. To my knowledge, there is no way to hear a song as it's intended to be played. Like those short bursts of notes on (the laughably bad) I Want To Be With You. I just end up hammering the key, I have no reference towards what it should sound like.

I never have been or will be an importer, though, I am glad a version arrived for the west, but I have to agree it seems lacking of much effort at all.