STsung’s Blog

14 days before the official launch Positive Gaming has sent out press release containing more information about iDance.
As all you may already know iDance is a new dance game by Positive Gaming. It is a four panel dance game featuring songs by PG selected music artists (various genres) and featuring step charts by step artist from the community. The judgements are in stars not in words as we are used to. 3 yellow stars are when you are on time, two green stars when you are a bit off and one blue star when you almost missed the arrow. no star means a miss.

Features

- Up to 32 players using RF-based high range wireless transceivers.
- Over 100 licensed songs
- A minimum of five step charts and difficulty levels per song
- 1 to 3 simultaneous difficulty levels during play
- 3D game engine.
- Real time scoring (star system)
- Early-late timing indicator (nice graphic will show you also in the end how your timing was)
- Direct player feedback in all game modes
- remote controlled interface
- Regular software upgrades with new song packs and features (once per 6 months)
- Durable and light-weight wireless Positive Gaming(TM) dance platforms
- Optional space effective transport and storage cart for up to 16 dance platforms.

Newly confirmed songs

- Behind The Horizon - Daniela Elger
- Bollywood vs. Hollywood - Xaviaro
- Crocodiles - Cat Jahnke
- In The Hall Of The Mountain King - Digital Explosion
- Hardkore Of The North - Dr. Tanner
- Kleine - Shiki
- Million Feelings - Floren Cristea
- Party Hard - Neo Cartoon Lover feat. Daddy Boastin
- Tek Drum - Ryan Blair
- We Met Dat Night - Vospi

Pentavision announced an official American release of DJ MAX game. This game will be named DJ MAX Fever and it more or less a merge of DJ MAX Portable 1 and 2.

The second release announced and tested last month is DJ MAX Technika. It is an arcade machine of DJ MAX meant for the Korean audience (for the time being). But beware it’s nothing like pressing 4-8 buttons on a PSP. It has a new gameplay system. The arcade machine consist of a screen and a big touch pad/screen. The touch pad screen is divided in half vertically. Notes of the melody of the chosen song appear on the screen. A bar goes from the left to right. As it goes and reaches the notes the player is supposed to confirm the notes by touching them on the screen.

There are three types of notes. Normal notes that just need to be pressed. Freeze notes that need to be pressed all the time till the bar does not touch them and some kind of slide notes. Those are notes that can be played by “sliding” your fingers in the direction indicated on the screen.

Now Pentavision announced even more releases. DJ MAX Portable: Clazziquai edition and DJ MAX Portable: Black Square. Black Square is a DJ MAX Portable game that follows the series. Thus new songs from not that really known artists, returning songs from DJ MAX Portable 1 and 2 and the same gameplay difficulty and setings. Clazziquai is a DJ MAX version is not targeted at hardcore gamers but for more general audience. The game is easier compared to other DJ MAXes and features more known songs (k-pop). Also Pentavision hopes that this game will be played also by female players.

Brett Ratner an American film and music videos director announced his will and wish to create a Guitar Hero movie. You heard me well….a Guitar Hero MOVIE. The director is known for Red Dragon, Rush Hour trilogy (for the time being, fourth movie “coming soon”), X-Men: The Last Stand and Prison Break pilot. Do you think that this person can make a good movie about a video game that is taking over the world?

The movie is supposed to be about a boy who always wished to be a rock star till one day he wins a local tournament in Guitar Hero game. (ok, what else? I guess a romance with some nice guitar hero heroine or something - it’s Hollywood right?)

Anyway the wish is not the only thing he needs. Of course he needs the rights and thus a lot of money to do that. Do you think Activision will support this idea or they won’t? The other thing needed is time. Bratner will be working on four different movies and one of them is God of War. I name this movie because it’s also based on a video game. Might not be such a phenomenal game as GH is, but I have deep respect for the authors of the game and the game itself. I personally think no one can recreate this game (in a movie) so I wish he would stay away from it.

Samba de Amigo

The only game that interests us at SEGA stand is Samba de Amigo. Announced quite a long
time ago was a Nintendo Wii version of Samba de Amigo. A game played usually with two
controllers in a shape of maraca. Maraca is a Latin American percussion musical
instrument. This game will let you be the maraca player. You have to confirm notes that
come from the middle of the screen at one of the six receptors located on a imaginary
hexagon few cms away from the center of the screen (of course you confirm the notes
with music^_~).

The game is same as any other Samba de Amigo game. Of course songlist is different, see below. The only new thing I can think of is that Ulala is a playable character in the game and that there is also a full space station stage.

SEGA had many people telling you how to play the game and you could come to the stage and compete with Sonic the Hedgehog in Samba de Amigo.

From my personal feelings the game just does not feel right when played with Wiimote and nunchuk instead of maraca controllers. Both make the sound of maracas but wiimote and nunchuk has completely different feel when you shake them with music.

Songlist

Bellini - Arriba Allex
Las Ketchup - Asareje
Gypsy Kings - Baila Me
Charo - Borriquito
Chelo - Cha Cha
Ozomatil - Como Ves
Miami Sound Machine - Conga
Jennifer Lopez - Do It Well
Dee Lite - Groove Is In The Heart
Harry Belafonte - Jump In The Line
War - Low Rider
Ken Woodman - Mexican Flyer
Bellini and Mondonca Do Rio - Magalenha
Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5
Perez Prado - Mambo No. 8
Santana - Oye Como Va
Perry Como - Papa Loves Mambo
Rihanna - Pon De Replay
Tito Puente - Ran Kan Ran
Santana - Smooth
Wavegroup - Solo Tu
Wavegroup - Tango With Me
Wavegroup - Un Aguardiente

KONAMI stands are usually white with nothing special and nothing that would catch the
eye. This year at GC nothing has changed. On the first day of GC there was a preview of
Rock Revolution (imagine Guitar Hero stage and people from KONAMI on the stage showing
their new cool game). Rock Revolution is a KONAMI US game similar to Rock Band. How the
game will look like/feel like is yet up to see.

DS Supernova 2
At KONAMI stand we could play Dancing Stage Supernova 2 which was supposed to be
already released in August but was delayed. They say that the game is still not
finished. But I don’t see anything unfinished about the game except for example the
fact that after an extra stage all the modifiers you set are reset. (at least you don’t
end up with Beginner difficulty). Well, DS SN2 is same as DDR US. It is easier in game
play with more licensed songs with nothing special to offer. Should be released in September this year.

DS Supernova 2 box art is more red/pink than anything. It has a red female dancer (which is not even attractive) in the middle of the box art. Also this color can be seen on all the Dancing Stage t-shirts you could get at KONAMI stand. (pink….why pink???)

DS Hottest Party
The second dance game at the stand was DS Hottest Party 1. Yeah, you see it correctly
1. Not 2 as promised. I better not comment on this game. This game is played on a dance
pad, but you are also forced to use nunchuk for left nunchuk notes and wiimote for
right wiimote notes. There are also other items like step/hand mines which are moving
objects that scroll up to the targets and if you DON’T step on them it will take some
of your life from the life bar. Thus “oh, this is a mine I should avoid it will make
you fail.” The game is targeted at beginners and people who will hardly play any other
DDR game….

DS Universe 2
The last game at their “enlarged” dancing stage stand was DS Universe 2. I’ve never
played the previous games on this console but I have to say I was disgusted with it.
The songlist is bad for a CS version. The game was far more offsync than Hottest Party
and Supernova so I suppose that even on lag free TV it would be offsync. The
animations are quite nice. But who needs big and “nice” note judgements? Who needs
different colored target arrows? Seems like bright pink is now popular at KONAMI.
Empress and now DS Universe? I just can’t write anything objective about this game. The
whole feel of the game is like “KONAMI US just made another bad DDR game…”.

Well, most of the people could be found at Games Convention could be found at
Activision stands. Most of them were playing Guitar Hero, waiting in line to play
Guitar Hero, watching other people play GH, screaming and yelling to get some GH/Rock
Band goodies, “enjoying” rock concerts by some unknown German bands….
….you get the idea.

GH On Tour Decades
Guitar Hero On Tour for DS was available in a really nice booths or on a quite nice and
confortable benches. GH On Tour is played with the four action keys available on
Nintendo DS and a special strumming “thingy” you use to strum. You put it on your
finger and with it you scratch the strums on one of the DS screens.

The song list of this game is similar to GH World Tour it features songs from Linking Park, Red Hot CHilli Peppers or REM.
The game is also linkable with the original Guitar Hero On Tour.

GH World Tour
Guitar Hero World Tour was played in way bigger booths. GH World Tour is a game similar
to Rock Band. Four players can play it. One player plays the normal guitar, other one
is playing bass, the third one is playing the drums (two kind of cymbals, three drums +
kick) and the last one sings/screams.

The Game engine seems to be the same as of Rock Band - it looks the same, it feels the
same, it has the same features and weak points. Overally in game the game is much more
legible than Rock Band (also it’s not that bright and gold).

The notes are similar to previous Guitar Hero notes. There is a new note type for drum note charts. It’s a two layered note which has to be confirmed with both drum sticks. The solo parts in GH World Tour have a different colored notes for some reason. What is completely new is the piano roll with notes for the singer. There are the long notes you actually have to sing, then there are parts were you have just to yell and some parts where you have to be on time with the music (more like rapping from Singstar - anyway it’s same as in Rock Band).

KONAMI in the US have filed a patent lawsuit against Harmonix (and thus also MTV and Viacom) in the federal court in Tyler, Texas.
They started the lawsuit because they think that Rock Band (Harmonix) violates KONAMI patents which relate to “simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a musical-rhythm matching game”.

Well, the lawsuit has been around for a while but I wanted to find out more information about KONAMI vs. Harmonix.
Why did not KONAMI sue Harmonix for Guitar Hero? Even though that Harmonix itself claimed that the game is based on GFDM? (as well the idea of FreQuence/Amplitude came from BEMANI games). Well, I don’t know why didn’t this happen. But with Guitar Hero III being released we could find out that Activision and KONAMI have some kind of agreement on several ““simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a musical-rhythm matching game” patents. In my eyes this can mean that Activision pays KONAMI for the use of these patents in their games. Also Activision bought Devecka patents “Methods and apparatus for providing an interactive musical game” so it seems that Activision plans something bigger in the future with music games.

Anyway it seems that KONAMI is not looking for competition nor killing the game(s) itself but for settlement. (I would personally say that cash settlement is not the only thing KONAMI wants, but after finding out about Activision using KONAMI’s patents….). Harmonix in the time being fully localized Rock Band (with Japanese songs as well) for Japan. This game might become a rival to GFDM….What do you think? I seriously find this outrageous.

Well, the game’s being around for few days and people are really having fun to play this game. I wonder how popular this game will get.

Anyway more to the game play mechanics. You already know that you have to confirm the panels that light up with music but I guess everyone wondered when exactly the panels were supposed to be confirmed. People could think that it needs to be confirmed as fast as possible, but those playing BEMANI games were like “there has to be something like ‘just great’ window”. And there is actually one. The just perfect window is at the time when the panel is full lit.

Songlist:

KONAMI original

ki☆ki - Happy Happy
Mutsuhiko Izumi - Polaris
Mutsuhiko Izumi - Snow Goose
Mutsuhiko Izumi - 天国と地獄

License

AAA - BLOOD on FIRE
鈴木亜美 joins �*田ヤスタカ - FREE FREE
Mi - Good bye little girl
Chris Brown featuring T-Pain - Kiss Kiss
川嶋あい - My love
�*ードオブメジャー - PLAY THE GAME
ANNA inspi’ NANA(BLACK STONES) - rose
Scatman John - Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)
VILLAGE PEOPLE - Y.M.C.A.
THE BOOM - 風になりたい
mihimaru GT - 気分上々↑↑
RIKI - �*�！ミッドナイト
MINMI - シャナナ☆
FUNKY MONKEY BABYS - ちっぽけな勇気
Do As Infinity - 冒険者たち

Cover

BONNIE PINK - A Perfect Sky
Ai + BAND - BELIEVE IN LOVE
浜崎あゆみ - BLUE BIRD
UVERworld - endscape
POLYSICS - I My Me Mine
Nolans - I’M IN THE MOOD FOR DANCING
嵐 - love so sweet
大塚愛 - PEACH
平井�*� - POP STAR
絢香 - Real voice
Rip Slyme - SPEED KING
コブク�* - YELL ～エール～
THE BLUE HEARTS - �*スしてほしい
倖田來未 - �*ューティーハニー
レミオ�*メン - 粉雪
Crystal Kay - こんなに近くで…
ス�*マスイッチ - 全力少年
山下智久 - 抱いてセニョリータ
MISIA - 太陽の地図
BUMP OF CHICKEN - 天体観測
サンボマスター - 光の�*ック
NANA starring MIKA NAKASHIMA - 一色
YUKI - ふがいないや
ZARD - �*けないで

Hidden

Kozo Nakamura - Jumping Boogie
kors k - Special One
Jimmy Weckl - Icicles

Changes:

- Added “Half Double” steps, added missing FS and NM charts (view below)
- Red button unready
- Mod names on Results
- Sort by Freestyle, Nightmare, Half Double
- Song wheel icon for Edits
- Faster life regeneration on Easy
- Show disqualified on Results
- Fix high score score name blacklist
- Fix RANDOM SPEED MOD will not turn off unless using “ALL OFF” option.
- Fix some saved mods (like Perspective) shouldn’t be applied in Progressive
- Credits screen names updated
- Fix very short hold notes (Utopia Crazy) complete without stepping
- Add toggle songs screen
- Fix machine eats credits on title screen
- Fix grade gems now displaying correctly in Freestyle and Nightmare

Pump Original revivals:

Can Can - Banya* [1, 4, 7, 10 .2. 8, 11]
Miss’s Story - Banya [1, 4, 6, 9 .7. 6, 11]
(*actually composed by F2 Systems)

In The Groove crossovers:

Euphoria - KaW feat. Smiley, [1, 3, 7, 12 . 9. 4, 11]
Tension - Inspector K, [1, 4, 9, 11 .4. 7, 12]
Tribal Style - KaW [1, 4, 9, 10 .7. 3, 11]

New Songs:

Epilogue - When Machines Dream, [1, 3, 7, 10 .3. 7, 13]
Kitty Cat - Coconut, [1, 3, 5, 9 .7. 2, 9]
Ladybug - Coconut, [1, 3, 7, 8 .8. 4, 9]
London Bridge - SCIGuyz, [1, 4, 7, 10 .8. 4, 11]
Move It Groove It - KaW feat. Sam I Am, [1, 3, 5, 10 .7. 4, 11]
Shooting Star - Coconut [1, 3, 6, 8 .7. 2, 10]
Style On My Speed Dial - Oscillator X [1, 3, 7, 8 .4. 2, 8]

Added FS and NM charts:

Blow My Mind (FS added [4])
Coming Out (NM moved to HDB [10]. New NM added [9])
Dawn -Perpetual Mix- (FS moved to HDB [7]. New FS added [8])
VVV (FS moved to HDB [12]. New FS added [8])
Chicken Wing (FS added [6])
D Gang (NM added [10])
Dance With Me (NM added [9])
Don’t Bother Me (NM added [9])
Emperor (NM added [9])
Eres Para Mi (NM added [12])
Everybody (NM added [8])
Ignition Starts (NM added [11])
Let The Sunshine (NM added [8])
Maria (NM added [8])
Mexi Mexi (NM added [11])
Monkey Magic (NM moved to HDB [9], New NM added [10])
Oh Rosa! (NM added [9])
Space Fantasy (NM added [10])
Starian (NM added [10])

Starting yesterday and ending on 23rd of July Japanese people have the chance to try the new DDR arcade game out. As you may know this mix is celebrating the 10 years of DDR’s existence and thus should be innovative or revolutionary.

The cabinet itself looks different. It has bigger and wider screen and more lights next to the speakers. Also the banner is bigger etc^_~. Anyway the platform has changed quite a lot. At least the looks of it (no pink/blue panels, red bar). KONAMI asks the player what they think of the panels (playing-wise) so I guess they changed more than just the look^_~ (hope it is better than the SN platform). In overall the cabinet is more western urban styled and I’m quite afraid of how the game will look like.

All songs have been rerated to 1-20 scale. So most boss songs have different difficulties now. (So max300 or TLOM are rated 15 and FELM and FAXX are 18s)

KONAMI also introduced a new type of note. It’s called a shock arrow. When you step on the arrow you will get a combo breaker, you will loose a bit energy from the lifebar and the scrolling arrows will vanish for a while.