Kotaku Australia » beatmania

Up Close And Very Personal With Beatmania’s Celica

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Konami has just released a limited edition 19-cm figurine of beatmania IIDX Celica Mizushiro. As we pointed out before, she’s priced at ¥5,985 (US$60) and comes with different sets of arms in various poses.

The link below has a photo review of the piece. There are several discerning pictures — like this:

Not to everyone’s tastes, but then again, not everyone likes milk in their tea or butter on their bread. Different strokes, folks!

コナミｂｅａｔｍａｎｉａ IIDXフィギュア 1/8シリーズ第3弾「CELICA」 [Asumanga]

The Last Beatmania Game Coming To PlayStation 2

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Arcade music title beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS is getting a PS2 port. It’s the last beatmania coming to the PlayStation 2.

To mark the occasion, Konami is releasing the game with a “PREMIUM BEST DISC” set that continues new songs and tracks especially for the home version. There’s a total of 180 tunes as well as a look at upcoming title beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS.

Dated for October 15 in Japan, beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST is priced at ¥7,980 (US$86).

19cm Of beatmania IIDX

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Konami is releasing a limited edition beatmania IIDX Celica Mizushiro figure. The latest in its beatmania series, Celica is 19cm-tall statue is slated for an August 28 release.

She’s priced at ¥5,985 (US$60) and comes with different sets of arms in various poses.

2,500の声集まり『beatmania IIDX』フィギュア第3弾「セリカ」発売 [Gpara]

Activision Trademarks DJ Hero

Flynn De Marco — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Trademork is reporting that Activision has applied for a trademark for the name DJ Hero earlier this month. There’s not a whole lot of details at the moment but in legal terms, the trademark refers to “computer game software and related instruction manual sold together as a unit; interactive video game programs; computer game discs; downloadable software for use in connection with computer games; video game controllers; interactive video game comprised of a CD or DVD sold as a unit with a video game controller.”

Sounds suspiciously like Konami’s Beatmania but it will be interesting to see how Activision would make the game their own. It also leaves me curious as to what the song list would be like.

DJ Hero [Trademork via Opposable Thumbs]

MTV Wonders Where Da Hip Hop Games At

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:40:34 +0000

With pop-rock games Guitar Hero and SingStar certified success stories, and Rock Band generating plastic instrument lust, MTV’s Stephen Totilo looks at the chances we’ll see a “Hip Hop Hero” emerge. He speaks to Harmonix’s Alex Rigopolous and Get On Da Mic developer Denis Lacasse of Artificial Mind and Movement about the lack of hip hop games that involve actual rhyming and turntable skills.Sure, there’s plenty of rhymes in Sony’s PaRappa the Rapper and even SingStar flirts with a smattering of commercial hip hop. There are also no lack of video games starring mainstream rappers, as anything that starts with Def Jam features nothing but.

But what about the games that measure rhyming skill? The one’s that do it better than Get On Da Mic? And turntabling?

Totilo unfortunately misses out on two games that do require some semblance of turntable skills, Sega’s arcade game Crackin’ DJ—successful enough to warrant a sequel—and Konami’s Beatmania. While the latter may be strictly for the button-slapping Bemani set, you’d have a hard time denying Crackin’ DJ’s close approximation of real life turntable and fader dexterity. Both, however, are typically relegated to Japanese and extremely rare Western arcades.

Maybe some Western developer will be up to the challenge of tailoring Crackin’ DJ’s arcade experience for console gamer tastes, as Harmonix did with Konami’s Guitar Freaks.

It’s an interesting game design challenge and fascinating to hear accomplished developers speak on the subject. Online rap battles would certainly make for interesting gameplay, especially if digital DJs are involved.

At least we’ll always have Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style.

Where’s ‘Hip-Hop Hero’? [MTV's GameFile]