Time to rave! How about a little X? Red or blue? Oh, that’s nice…

The very popular arcade hit beatmania, the music game for aspiring DJs, has finally hit store shelves in the US for the PS2 for a cool $64.99. I think it is safe to say if you are a fan of the series you will not be disappointed, however, if you are simply a connoisseur of the genre, you may not find yourself as enthralled as the tried and true beatmania enthusiast.

One of the most exciting elements of this game (usually a trademark of any rhythm game these days) is the innovative and badass controller. In beatmania you get to scratch your way to glory on your very own turntable! That rules. (By the way, for you lefties, go ahead and pop out the button block, flip it around and bam… you’ve got yourself a customized lefty turntable! Nice touch.) Accompanying your turntable are a series of seven buttons, four white and three black, organized in a manner like that of a piano. While the little turntable part works as one would expect, the buttons turned out to be very different from my expectations. I thought they would be used to manipulate sounds, samples, loops, etc. Instead they work just like they look, which is a Casio keyboard for toddlers. My biggest complaint is that the format for this game is more of a play-along for people who know absolutely nothing about music than it is a DJ simulator. Not that there is anything wrong with that, however, I question the effectiveness of an elaborate controller when the game is essentially a turbo bass version of Simon Says.

My argument is simply this, when a game such as Taiko Drummaster, Donkey Konga or the recent Guitar Hero can incorporate a concept controller to actually function as it does in musical performance, however, still be played and appreciated by gamers who have no understanding of music (untrained musicians), why waste your time on a simplified version of the piano played by Schroeder from Peanuts with a spinning wheel. Unless I am missing something, it is my understanding that actual DJ turntables with the accompanying processors do not work in this fashion. This particular format offered so much in the way of possibility, but I felt it simply fell short of its potential. That said, I am not an avid fan of the beatmania series, so I can’t speak with much authority on the history of the gameplay, however, I think would have been a fantastic opportunity to reach another level of depth in both concept and execution. Please do not misunderstand, in spite of the aforementioned issues, I think this is a pretty cool game. Moving on.

The premise of the game is to play along with music tracks on your turntable. You accomplish this by pressing the corresponding buttons, or scratching if necessary, at the same moment as the falling horizontal bars cross the beat line at the bottom of the screen. Each bar falls vertically from directly above its assigned button. White bars are for white buttons and blue bars are for black buttons. A long red bar, which falls over the turntable means scratch. Relatively fool-proof. The system works alright, the turntable is a bit sensitive, sometimes resulting in a misfire, but not overly so that it greatly changes the experience, and the buttons are responsive and feel great, although they seem to lag behind at times.

Points are scored on a tried and true system where every hit scores as well as multipliers given for streaks without missing. Additional points may be accumulated during a free scratch period, where it is up to you and your bad self to scratchity-scratch your way to groovana. If the game likes your ideas, then it rewards you. If not, no skin off your back. You just aren’t very cool.

The menu screens are relatively easy to navigate, however, they look grossly under-produced, given the time that went into the design of the controller. There is little consistency to the look of the different menus, which leaves the feeling of something half-complete or even rushed, though I don’t think that was the case. Along those same lines, the graphics are OK, but don’t really look like a PS2 at the end of its life cycle. I think more could have been done to make slight improvements to the presentation, which I admit, have little bearing on gameplay other than setting a general tone for the experience.

The music in the game is primarily trance, house, some R&B, pop, technical, etc. In other words, exactly what I would hope to find in a DJ simulation game, however, I don’t think these are necessarily great recreations. Some are better than others. You probably know how that story goes. A nice element is that there are approximately 50 tunes, which means you can’t get bored too quickly. And you shouldn’t, because this is one hard ass game as it progresses. In order to unlock more songs, and keep your game going, you need to continue to pass off songs as you play. If at some point you finish a tune without climbing into the red zone… game over. And as if it weren’t hard enough in “beatmania” mode (only uses five of the seven buttons), you can choose “beatmania II,” which operates all seven buttons. Trust me, the easy mode will be plenty hard for most of you for a good deal of time. If you really hate yourself, bump up the difficulty and weep as your delicate little fingers bleed. It’s pretty damn frustrating, but that’s often a sign of something worthwhile, unless of course, you’re talking about your congressman.

Overall, beatmania is a solid game. In my opinion, and that’s all it is, not worth $65, but if it came in at $50 I wouldn’t think twice about it.

For more beatmania discussion, check out the April 9th episode of Team Fremont Live, our weekly podcast.



Article By: Moe