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. 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.
Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 1
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.
+ 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.
Overall: If you love the series pick this game up, otherwise there are better mixes out there.
Published: Sep 26, 2005 04:07 am