20 years ago today, Konami released the arcade successor to their wildly popular beatmania rhythm series. Up until this point, the original game was a solid foothold in Japanese arcades, bringing unique music focusing on House and Hip-Hop. Who knows why, but somebody decided that beatmania would be a lot more fun with 2 extra buttons and if you stood on a sub-woofer while you played. The result is one of the best arcade machine designs in history.
IIDX started producing music with a significant slant towards other electronic genres including Trance and Jungle. One of the earliest games linked with compatible DDR machines (DDR Club Mix/IIDX Club Mix), creating a unique experience where the music pumping through the game would actually come from the performance of the IIDX player. This was only for a single version and didn't continue further.
Starting with IIDX 3rd Style, the games started to port to PS2 versions with their own snazzy controller. For many who didn't live in Japan or had an arcade nearby, the IIDX controller was the only way to play.
The game did get a US port simply called beatmania. It came packaged with an improved controller and sported an older interface and rather muted song selection. It didn't sell well and reviewed horribly as the US music game scene was taken over by Guitar Hero at this point. Combined with some really bizarre game decisions that put this version far behind the ones released in Japan, it was not a good introduction for US players. I guess this quote from the X-Play review says it all:
After 13 releases on the PS2, the game continued with arcade releases. The newest release, IIDX 26: Rootage, is spectacular. There are a huge variety of music genres represented, a near infinite skill ceiling, and the return of mutli-player Arena mode. If you have a Round1 arcade around you, take a moment to try the game out, if you haven't, and see what makes IIDX a mainstay in the music game community.
Many of your favorite DDR songs probably came from IIDX. Things like A, Colors, V, Red Zone, Bloody Tears, Vanessa, and a whole ton of others are all IIDX transplants.
So, people of ResetEra, do you have any favorite IIDX tracks? Any good IIDX memories?
IIDX started producing music with a significant slant towards other electronic genres including Trance and Jungle. One of the earliest games linked with compatible DDR machines (DDR Club Mix/IIDX Club Mix), creating a unique experience where the music pumping through the game would actually come from the performance of the IIDX player. This was only for a single version and didn't continue further.
Starting with IIDX 3rd Style, the games started to port to PS2 versions with their own snazzy controller. For many who didn't live in Japan or had an arcade nearby, the IIDX controller was the only way to play.
The game did get a US port simply called beatmania. It came packaged with an improved controller and sported an older interface and rather muted song selection. It didn't sell well and reviewed horribly as the US music game scene was taken over by Guitar Hero at this point. Combined with some really bizarre game decisions that put this version far behind the ones released in Japan, it was not a good introduction for US players. I guess this quote from the X-Play review says it all:
After 13 releases on the PS2, the game continued with arcade releases. The newest release, IIDX 26: Rootage, is spectacular. There are a huge variety of music genres represented, a near infinite skill ceiling, and the return of mutli-player Arena mode. If you have a Round1 arcade around you, take a moment to try the game out, if you haven't, and see what makes IIDX a mainstay in the music game community.
Many of your favorite DDR songs probably came from IIDX. Things like A, Colors, V, Red Zone, Bloody Tears, Vanessa, and a whole ton of others are all IIDX transplants.
So, people of ResetEra, do you have any favorite IIDX tracks? Any good IIDX memories?
