Konami to rock gamers with a revolution?

too bad they wont be able to beat neither gh or rb

P.S. i hate harmonix :P

I remember when Beatmania was released in the US a number of people at my college were complaining that it was a Guitar Hero rip-off, not knowing better,

If this hits the States I’m going to have to correct a lot of my friends.., but it would be worth it. :D

Sometimes I try to get one of my Guitar Hero-obsessed friends to play Guitar Freaks over at a local arcade (they’ve got Drummania connected to it there, too). I noticed there are three points that turn them off from Konami’s originals: the games are harder (despite fewer buttons), US players can’t relate to the music selection, and, it pains me to say this, but some people are turned off from it simply because the notes don’t come at you in 3D.

So while it does seem unfair that Harmonix is cashing in so heavily on something that so closely resembles a series that’s existed long before, you do have to hand it to them for successfully reinventing it for our culture. Konami’s in a tough spot right now; they can tweak it so it better appeals to the US audience, in which case it will be seen strictly as a Guitar Hero ripoff but may garner some sales, or they can run a simple localization, in which case it won’t be nearly as popular as Guitar Hero/Rock Band (and will still be widely seen as a ripoff). It might be helpful if they market it as “the ORIGINAL instrumental rhythm game, brought to you from Japan!”

When it comes down to it, it’s all about having fun. I’m glad that Konami has successfully brought players together in Japan, and Harmonix in the US and other parts of the world.

(More people need to realize that it’s more fun to jam with REAL instruments, though!)

News tidbits on domain registrations are the very bottom of the barrel. How many hundreds of these have proven meaningless in the end? How many hundreds more before it’s clear that they aren’t worth reporting?

@DJH - Just to clarify this is a US Patent and Trademark registration, not a domain name registration. Anyways, it’s just a fun bit of gaming news, nothing really to take seriously.