KONAMI couldn’t decide better, after releasing IIDX15 they announced a location test of their completely new music game called jubeat. This game is played with your fingers on a 4×4 grid. Your aim is to press the buttons at correct time.

The game’s name came from the word “yubi” meaning finger and “beat”. Thus the game is also pronounced with “y” not “j” as many people like to say.

There are two modes of play. Online play and Multiplayer. Online - you will be able to compete with players connected to the same network. Multiplayer - you can play against anyone standing right next to you (if there are two machines of Jubeat).

After selecting mode of play, you are prompted to choose a song. There 21 songs from which you can choose. Just press the button correspondin CD picture of a song you wish to play. If you are in Online play one player chooses a song and the other one matches the choice. In Multiplayer mode this is not necessary, the game starts right after one player chooses a song.

There are three difficulties in general Basic, Advance and Expert. Each song has its difficulty of its own (level 1 to 8). The boss song being a Snow Goose (200BPM LVL8 on Expert)
(You’ve got arrows and buttons on the arcade, one is effector button, one is for changing the difficulty and the arrows are for choosing a song)

When you finally get to the game your aim is quite simple. You are supposed to listen to the music for clues when to hit the panels (for example if the clue is lyrics - then you will be pressing the panels with at the same time you hear the vocals). These panels (starting position is all black) will start lighting up. Your goal is to press them^_~. The button variations can consist of all the buttons (1 at a time, 2, 3,4,…16).

The score is calculated from the evaluation of notes. If you get all perfects you should be rewarded with SS and 1000000 score. The worst “not fail” grade is D.

The game ends if you won’t get over 700000 points on one song.

*edit* Tracklist of location test is after the jump!
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Yay! It’s finally released today! : D

Everyone in Japan is playing it atm so I’m collecting pics and vids which I will be posting here today.

Anyways, some early presents for you guys!

the new site is also fully launched which is here:
http://www.konami.jp/bemani/bm2dx/bm2dx15/

A video of a guy playing OMES on DJ Troopers brought to you by www.bemanitube.com, o gosh they really do anything to make the songs harder eh…
http://www.bemanitube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1e61cb8dd3612f26d5ec

More news and updates later this day so stay tuned!

Today (okay, nobody’s really sure about what day the game was released, so we’ll pretend it’s today), about 10 years ago, Konami released a game called beatmania. Nobody would have known that the game would not only be a huge hit in Japan, but start a whole division of music simulation games that still continue to this very day.

So, how about some personal anecdotes? I’ll talk about the first time I remember playing this wonderful game. With footnotes! After the break.

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New Dance Pad
Positive Gaming has been developing their new hard pads (mostly for their multiplayer systems) for about two years. I’ve seen the previous versions, they are quite light (10kg), durable and easily handled (it has handles on the top of the pad).

Eurocup?

Many of us hoped that it would have been held in Silverstone this November. But November is gone and no information was known about the upcoming Eurocup until now. Positive Gaming has announced that next year there would be another Eurocup for sure. But we have no more information about it yet.

New 4-panel dance game?

It’s been a while that many of know that a new 4 panel games is being in production by Positive Gaming but it also seemed that was nothing happening. Today Positive Gaming announced that they are looking for professional musicians and step chart artists.

Once again, Konami has announced that they are collecting scores from IIDX Gold machines across the world, and by the world, I mean Japan. They will also collect scores from the upcoming DJ Troopers once it makes its release in Japan. While they did not explicitly state the reason, judging by the other times they have collected scores, it’s probably for the next home version of IIDX: IIDX GOLD CS.

The score collecting will include every song under the GOLD category, with the exception of Inori and Regret (or リグレット, if you prefer). Since they were both already on RED CS’s tracklist, it’s no real loss. What is most important is that, so far, Ghostbusters has not been ruled out. They also state that songs in the other categories will be included, but they did not elaborate on that detail as of yet.

So far, they held a survey about collaborations, and now they’re collecting scores. All they have to do now is announce it.

The CD cover for the “BEMANI BEST for the 10th anniversary” has been revealed. It’s black with a bunch of logos. Also, they updated the tracklist to include Butterfly by SMiLE.dk (Disc 2, Track 40) and Sunshine Dance by Togo Project feat. Megu and Scotty D. (Disc 5, Track 34). The CD will be released on December 14th.

The soundtrack for Guitar Freaks and Drummania V4 has been revealed. It will be a two-disc set featuring over 60 songs, including Konami Originals and “arrange songs”. It will be released on February 22nd, 2008.

Also to be released on the same day is a concert DVD of the Gitado Live event, featuring songs from the event and backstage interviews with the artists. The concert does feature Izumi, who made such great songs as the Model DD series and Midnight Sun. Whether he played any of those live is beyond me, though. The event also features Tomosuke (Hopefully with Orange Lounge), Brad Holmes (I want to see Used To Rock ‘n’ Roll live, too), and Kozo Nakamura (mostly known for Dragon Blade and songs that sound like Dragon Blade).

Finally, according to USPTO, the main source for unannounced news and rumors about video games, among other things, in the US, Konami of America (odd, considering most Konami trademarks that aren’t slot machine names are filed by their Japanese division) has filed a trademark for “Beat’n Groovy”. The only thing the trademark gives any detail to is that it’s for a home video game. Take this part of the article with a grain of salt, as it’s about trademark drama, and it may not even be a music game, but, seriously, “Beat’n Groovy”?