If Air Hockey Was A Music Game It Would Be Reflec Beat

Konami’s Bemani label has a touch screen music rhythm game too. No, not Jubeat or Ubeat. This post is about Reflec Beat. Released in arcades, Reflec Beat is a versus arcade game where players touch the gauge line just as a beat hits it.

I think Reflec Beat is better explained like air hockey. You protect your neon goal by hitting the puck that moves to the music. If your timing is good you can score more points and make the puck split into two beats when you send towards the other player.

The song list was mostly J-pop. Ai Otsuka’s "Lucky Star," "Shine x Shine x Shine x Shine" from The Aprils, "Living Dying Message" from 9mm Prabellum Bullet, and "Super Driver" from Aya Hirano were some of the songs on the list. "My favorite swing" by De De Mouse and "One More Time" from Daft Punk stood out as the rare international songs. Compared to other Konami music games, Reflec Beat had a light music selection clocking in at 34 songs. Perhaps, this is because all of the music is licensed.

I noticed there were two kinds of Reflec Beat players in the arcade. There were hardcore players zoned in on maximizing their score and saving it to Konami’s e-amusement pass. Then there was another group, usually couples, that played Reflec Beat together. Sharing the screen sounds easier, but inevitably players let pucks in the middle slip through. Just an interesting observation that Reflec Beat perhaps like House of the Dead 4 is another arcade-date game.