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The Lowdown
Pros: More songs to play for Beatmania addicts.
Cons: Doesn't offer anything different from any other mixes and the song
list isn't as diverse.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
 Purchase
at Lik-Sang
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The wait between 7th Style and 8th Style was a short one. Just six months
later fans are getting their next Beatmania fix with IIDX 8th Style. If
you haven't heard about Beatmania in the states you're not alone. Even
after eight IIDX games and a bunch of other regular 5 key Beatmania
games Konami still hasn't brought the series to the US. Konami calls the
game a "DJ game", but it's more like a beat box simulator with changing
instruments. After you choose a song little bars, which signify
notes, will start falling from the top of the screen. Each note
corresponds to a key on the Beatmania controller and you need to press
the correct note when it hits the bottom of the screen. If you're
perfectly on time you'll see a flashing great. If you're slightly off
beat you'll see good. If you miss the note bad will appear and you'll
lose some energy from the bottom meter. The goal of the game is to play
the song with the best of your ability and get as many of the notes as
possible.If you haven't played Beatmania IIDX before, 8th Style offers
a beginners mode to get you started. This mode gives you tips on how to
play the game. Once you complete the tutorial mode you'll be ready to
tackle the arcade mode. Just like in the arcade version of Beatmania
IIDX, you'll pick a song to play and need to score 80% or above to
successfully clear it. In the console version clearing songs will unlock
gallery pictures for you to view. Collecting all of the different
gallery pictures is one of the game's challenges. Although the real
challenge remains for players to perform the hardest songs on the
hardest difficulty. If you're looking for a difficult task you
can take on the expert courses. In this mode you start out with
100% in your life meter and you'll have to complete five songs in a row.
All console versions also include free mode, which lets players
leisurely select any song in the song list to play. If you're looking to
brush up your skills with a certain song or just want to quickly play
the game free mode is a good choice.
Beatmania IIDX 8th Style can be played with the standard PS2
controller, but the control is really awkward with out one of the
Beatmania pads. There are two types of Beatmania controllers out there,
the five key kind and the seven key kind. The IIDX series utilizes the 7
key pad, but the PS2 games do have support for the 5 key controllers.
However, if you're using one of the older controllers you won't be able
to play beginner's mode, the expert courses or class mode. So you'll be
limited to free mode and arcade mode. If you're serious about the
Beatmania series pick up one of the IIDX controllers to play this game.
There are over 85 songs to play with, but you're getting a lot of
musical overlap. Instead of having songs from a variety of artists and a
bunch of different genres, 8th Style seems to have a lot of songs from
the same artists with the same style. L.E.D., Togo and TaQ are heavily
featured on this mix. You've got drum and bass music such as "Symbolic",
"Abstract", "Gravity", "Holic", "Radical Faith" and "Voltage" just from
TaQ. The down tempo Toga tracks include "Jelly Kiss", "Tell Me
More" and "Everyday Lovelyday", which is an L.E.D. remix. Some other
notable new songs in this mix include "Star Dream" from Pink Pong, "Love
is Orange" by Orange Lounge, "Music to Your Head" by Slake and "Sakura"
Just like all of the other Beatmania mixes you've got some repeats from
past mixes like "R5", "Kakumei", "Colors", "A" and "V". Konami hasn't
really out done themselves with this song list. There aren't any huge
licensed tracks in this. Also the repeats are the same repeats they use
over and over for instance "5.1.1" is in a Beatmania game again.
Like many music games Beatmania doesn't have impressive visuals.
There are bunch of preset psychedelic visualizations that look like
they're from a night club. All of the videos are pre recorded and while
some of them are cool to watch you'll be paying more attention to the
notes. Some of the videos are disappointing, like the one for Sakura.
The background video for the DDR song has an anime theme to it. The
Beatmania team could have reused this idea for their video, but instead
all you get is the standard flashing colors seen in other songs. Konami
has a few music videos packed into the game, but these videos are bare
bone affairs. As a whole the game doesn't look that great, in fact other
mixes seem to have better visuals than this has.
Beatmania IIDX: 8th Style may be the latest mix out there, but it
isn't necessarily the best. If you've been waiting for more tracks to
play Beatmania IIDX 8th Style is waiting for you. If you're more of a
casual Beatmania player or a new comer you may want to check out a
different mix. It doesn't offer any new features and while
the song list will please fans it isn't as great as some of the other
mixes.
The menus and song list are in English, but the beginners mode is in
Japanese.
US Bound?
Konami still has not announced any plans to bring the Beatmania
series to the US yet.
Overall
If you love the series pick this game up, otherwise there are better
mixes out there.
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