I’m in the mood for a quick post before I go to bed. Another in the “Japanese Game Center” line of posts. Before I brought you the children’s oriented Pokemon Battorio, this time it’s a rhythm game by Jubeat. Jubeat has the lineage of a fine rhythm game. Before there were the likes of Guitar Hero, there were games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and Beatmania. What do these games all have in common? They all share the same developer in Konami and all all pretty renowned for their adictiveness and tight gameplay. Maybe also a little bit for their insane difficulty levels. I’m sure many of you have seen ridiculous DDR (or am I the only one who looks this up in their free time?), but the other two are equally ridiculous. Guitar Freaks was around before Guitar Hero ever thought about stepping onto the scene. And Beatmania? If you want to see hand eye coordination, search YouTube for Beatmania.
These games are all still alive and kicking on the Japanese arcade scene. Most of which is probably due to the fact that the Japanese arcade scene (at least in Tokyo) is alive and kicking. Arcades don’t tend to exist much in the states, and when they do they tend to be very small. You have to be lucky and live somewhere with good ones, or if you’re from Minnesota, live near a Casino, or a specialized venue like GameWorks. Venture into downtown Tokyo and they’re fairly common. There’s one next to my station and I live in the ‘burbs. I was beginning to think DDR had seen the end of its popularity, but I finally stumbled onto a new machine last month, released in December, and recently aquired by an arcade close to school. (I’d like to write about that sometime.)
But let’s stay focused. Jubeat. It’s got the pedigree. Konami knows what they’re doing. But we’ve got dancing, guitars, and dj covered. Oh, yeah, they have a “Drum Freaks” game too, so I guess that means drums are covered too. Well, if anything, Jubeat follows in the footsteps of Beatmania in that in has the player pressing buttons. A lot. Repeatedly. The physical console itself is a bunch of stylized cubes. It’s all about squares. The game itself utilizes two screens; a top screen that displays all relevant player and song information, and one bottom “screen” which is actually sixteen separate buttons set up in a 4 x 4 grid. So I guess if you wanted to be technical, the game actually sports 17 screens!
Gameplay is faily simple. You insert your coin, and player card (if you have one). It then let’s you choose three play modes – you can play online, locally, or by yourself. Local works if you’re starting at the same time as someone. I’ve always seen Jubeat in clumps of 2-4 machines. In order for local mode to work you both have to chose the mode around the same time – that is to say, if someone is already playing you can’t just jump in and challenge them. Single player is just that – you play by yourself. Online functions the same way as single player, you go along picking your difficulty and song as you normally would, and then before starting the game goes into a search mode. Because all the machines on the continent are wired up to the same network, you usually connect to at least one player waiting to play the same song and difficulty. Some songs are also more popular than others, so there’s a better chance of playing against someone. Regardless of mode, the actual gameplay itself is always the same. Based on the rhythm of the song (as most games of this genre function) set patterns “light up” on the buttons. The buttons actually say “touch here” in Japanese and get kind of shiny. The more accurate your press, the more you score. Failed presses result in a red explosion. On easier levels it’s fairly noticable, but the game will keep you at single button presses and not too many, so hopefully too many micro-explosions aren’t a problem. As far as I know, the game features three difficulty levels (though I wouldn’t be suprised at all if there is a harder mode) along the lines of beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
I’ve been playing the game recently, and it doesn’t seem too difficult. I do have some background in the Rhythm game genre though. I’d definitely say it’s easier than Beatmania – something I never managed to get the hang of. I haven’t played it enough to gauge it against any other games, but you really can’t compare it. At higher levels the game has you hitting 8 buttons at a time and things can get really confusing. However, it includes a good selection of songs, and strangely enough a few English ones as well. (Scatman, YMCA, Kiss Kiss.) The Japanese ones are mostly popular songs as well as songs from the previously mentioned games.
In any case, I can’t remember enjoying a rhythm game this much since DDR. Konami games have some sort of special charm to them. I don’t think any stateside realease is planned, but keep your eyes pealed! Let me leave you with some gameplay footage here. This guy is good.
Tags: dance dance revolution, ddr, Japan, jubeat, konami, rhythm game, tokyo
Posted May 14, 2009 by Cory under Gaming, Japan, Technology
August 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Har I filmed that video ^-^
Y.S is so much better than that now