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AOU 2007: Bemani sequels unleashed
It's the 10 year anniversary for Konami's legendary Bemani series of rhythm titles and you know what that means! More sequels! Okay, so they're not doing much out of the ordinary aside from some choice merchandising opportunities, but if you're a Bemani fan, sequels to your favorite series are about all could ask for at this point.Bemanistyle attended AOU this weekend to check out the latest batch of assembly line titles in Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold (featuring Ghostbusters), GitaDora V4 and the all-star of the bunch, Pop'n Music 15: Adventure. Yes, it took fifteen sequels but we finally get character previews in Pop'n Music. Whose to say they don't work hard for the money now?A few of the artists were on-hand, conducting interviews and generally fawning to their audience. Also making an appearance was Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2, albeit in poster-form only.
DDR Universe track list revealed
Orange Lounge Radio has uncovered the gigantic track list for Dance Dance Revolution Universe, which arrives on the 360 later this month. While Guitar Hero II may have a rabid fan base, there is no denying that DDR paved the way for rhythm games in the mainstream. The track list is huge, and contains plenty of names with which we are almost completely unfamiliar. We do have to note with some excitement that the game features both Jamiroquai and the Sugar Hill Gang, though. If there's one song that might actually make you look cool while playing DDR, it just might be "Rapper's Delight." See the full track list after the break.
Konami announces Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party for Wii
Perhaps Seizure Party would have been a more appropriate subtitle, as Konami's latest Dance Dance Revolution game will require the simultaneous use of three peripherals: a dance mat, a Wii remote and a Wii nunchuck. The Bemani developer has announced that their decidedly groovy franchise will pay a visit to the Wii, with Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party releasing sometime before 2007 keels over from pure exhaustion.The game will feature all the modes series fans are familiar with, though we expect they really mean it with Workout Mode this time. Konami also encourages players to invite up to three friends for fantastic and potentially dangerous multiplayer stomping, flailing and gyrating. Remember, it's not embarassing if you enjoy it.[Via press release]
Dancerific videos of DDR: Universe
GameTrailers released a couple of new videos from the upcoming Xbox 360 iteration of Dance Dance Revolution. The first video (embedded above) is a live action video overlain with the typical DDR interface. The video itself is pretty bizarre, and frankly a little disturbing. The second video is more standard DDR fare, although the digital vixen in the video benefits from a higher polygon count. Seriously, sexy dancing girls and freaky live action videos, it's like Konami is trying to distract the player. Watch the second video after the break.
Got a disagreement? A dance-off will settle it!
Forget for a moment that libraries are supposedly places where one can go for some quiet reading. Forget too that librarians are typically known for being shushers and squelchers of anything resembling fun. Finally, forget that there's an inverse relationship between time spent exercising and time spent sitting in a library. Now you're ready to accept the wackiness of a situation in which a teenaged librarian uses DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) to settle disputes between patrons and to determine whether an overdue fine should be waived. Totally awesome, if completely inappropriate in a library environment. [Via BoingBoing] [Image via flickr user Librarian Avenger]
Active gaming burns more calories, coordination still a concern
A recent Mayo Clinic study may indicate that kids burn significantly more calories while playing active games (e.g., Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2, Wii Sports) than while engaged in sit-down games. That this conclusion seems obvious is part of the problem.Parents may now be more content than ever to plop their kids in front of the TV if they perceive that a few hours of active gaming will substitute for necessary exercise. Even if kids, on average, burn twice as many calories while on the dancepad than while button-smashing a gamepad, they're still simply engaged in virtual activity. Wii Sports might be all the rage but "touching a virtual ball is not the same thing as catching a real ball," warns Active Healthy Kids Canada director of development Jennifer Cowie Bonne, "You need those types of [real life] fundamental skills to build a foundation for a lifelong involvement in other types of physical activity." You wouldn't want Junior to grow up throwing baseballs like a pansy, would you?
Konami wants your music for the next DDR
Are you secretly producing some sort of euro-trash-cum-bubbly-pop wonder song that could whip the whole world into a certain state of stomping in place? Konami sure hopes so, as they're once again teaming up with Broadjam to find the next big thing in Dance Dance Revolution -- you! Konami is looking for songs that are at least a minute and a half long, above 120 beats per minute and include "strong and/or catchy melodies." Any chosen songwriters will get $1,000 and have their music featured in a future game, but, as the contest site oddly notes, "There is no guarantee there will be any winners." Considering you have to pay up to $20 just to enter, it sounds like someone could be making out like a bandit here.Last year's contest produced four winning entries, all of which debuted (and coincidentally, died) on DDR Ultramix 4 for the original Xbox. With Konami pouring less and less original effort into songs for their Bemani series, contests like these are increasingly valuable to them. It's either this or they dig through the dusty Beatmania library for one more go of "20, November."
Mayo Clinic prescribes active games
The Wii has been getting a lot of attention lately, mainly because of its different control mechanism. However, movement in gaming isn't a new concept, which hearkens to days such as the NES Power Pad. Now, exergaming is getting a supporter. The Mayo Clinic has released a report on the results of an exergaming study. Using a sedentary base, games that use a camera (such as EyeToy) and using a treadmill while gaming burned triple the amount of calories as sitting (five times over for more obese children); dance games registered the greatest calorie burn at six times the sitting rate. With this new study, Nintendo is likely to jump on and further promote the health benefits of playing the Wii. Pulling children away from video games is a difficult task these days. While the Wii will unlikely burn the fat like Dance Dance Revolution would, they can add a bit to the marketing pamphlet to say the Wii requires exercise (if used right) for something their kid would otherwise be vegetating to do. As if we needed any more reasons to buy a Wii. [Thanks, Ben]
Pump It Up heading to PSP (in Korea, at least)
PSP continues to prove itself as one of the best platforms for music games out there. Pump It Up is a game very much like Dance Dance Revolution, and it's insanely popular in Korea. PSP Vault discovered a new listing for a PSP version of the popular dancing game on Sony's official Korean website.The homebrew community embraced dance-style games through projects like PSP Revolution. However, DDR and its clones require you to input buttons that correspond to up, down, left and right. Pump It Up uses diagonals and a center button: how will these be mapped on the PSP? Puzzling, no?See also:DJ Max Portable, for non-Korean speakers
DDR dances its way out of 2006
It looks like Dance Dance Revolution Universe has run out of breath. Originally set for a fall 2006 debut on the Xbox 360, Gamespot is reporting that DDRU has been delayed until early 2007. Konami cited Microsoft's draconian rules for 3rd party peripherals as the reason for the delay. Which leads to the next tidbit: because of said draconian rules, the DDR dance pads will be wired on 360 (at least initially). Wireless pads are a definite possibility for the future. We didn't even realize a DDR game was bound for the 360 in the first place, so the news has only partially saddened us. What about the rest of you? Were any of you anxiously awaiting Dance Dance Revolution Universe?[Via Evil Avatar]
Konami to shut down Hawaiian studio
Much like the spritely amphibian star of Frogger, it seems that Konami's Hawaiian studio is destined to be mangled by a large (and largely oblivious) truck traveling on the "streamlining operations" freeway. Roughly 40 employees will be affected by the year-end closure, with Konami hoping to relocate most of them to positions throughout the rest of the company. No specific reasons for the change are cited, though John Strom of Enterprise Honolulu suggests that it stems from Konami's desire to scale back all game development in the US and focus on casino gaming facilities instead. Konami has not confirmed such a plan, but with most of their titles emerging from the buff Japanese arm, it's hardly inconceivable. The Hawaiian studio was responsible for games such as Frogger Beyond and Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix -- a roster not nearly as impressive as their valiant resisting of the obvious impulse to combine the two franchises into some sort of rhythmic, frog-stomping adventure.See also: Real-life Frogger (or: Roomba hacking is fun) XBLA Wednesdays unveiled
DDR Disney Mix, no console required
Looking to get down with The Mouse without visiting the Magic Kingdom? Konami, Buena Vista Games, and Majesco will be partnering to produce a Plug 'N' Play version of Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix. The game plugs directly into TVs and includes a custom Disney dance pad. DDR Disney was originally released for the PlayStation back in 2001 to average reviews, but console-free technologies have been giving older games second lives. How many Plug 'N' Play titles do you own?
Japanese game commercials: you watched it, you can't unwatch it
Over at the wonderfully named Bits & Bytes & Pixels & Sprites, a set of Japanese video game commercials has been assembled for your entertainment and inevitable, irreparable and incredible psychological breakdown. Repeat viewing is not advised, though we suspect that for several of you, the lure of seeing grown men dressed as enormous microphones or Segata Sanshiro hurling human missiles about will be too great to resist. It certainly was for us.Our favorite commercial, one filled with painful foreign stereotypes and truly unnerving facial expressions, is embedded in the second part of the post. [Thanks Dan!]
The Pipeline: Pundits go Wii!
Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week. This week, the media was all over Nintendo's announcement that the gaming console formerly codenamed Revolution would henceforth be known as Wii. And, not surprisingly, most of the mainstream journos covering the story concurred with our assessment that the name somehow isn't going to wiin Niintendo any kudos. "Is Nintendo being desperately silly to attract attention, or is it just desperately short of clue?" asked the Guardian, while the Financial Times headlined its article "Wii aren't too sure about this." However, Nintendo did have at least one defender, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, who pointed out that "N-Gage and Gizmondo are cool names" that didn't help those products win many fans. "Consumers relate to the coolness of the product, not the name." Wii'll see, Michael, Wii'll see.Of course, the Wii announcement wasn't the only story in the news this week, and the mainstream press managed to crank out a few other interesting nuggets. USA Today took a look at the Pioneer Inno, and declared it "a winner," while The New York Times looked at the growing number of home docking systems for cellphones. Meanwhile, Forbes looked at another way to use cellphones at home, checking out the market for UMA-enabled handsets. Our favorite media hit this week, though, came from the Washington Post, which took an in-depth look at the DDR-as-exercise phenom, with the paper's reporter declaring, "Hello, my name is Caroline, and I'm addicted to 'Dance Dance Revolution.'" Hey, at least she's not addicted to the Wii. Nintendo goes Wii ... (not a typo) Guardian - Nintendo Wii is twee Financial Times - Wii aren't too sure about this BBC - Nintendo name swap sparks satire Seattle PI - Wii is for everyone AP - Nintendo names new video game console USA Today - Look out iPod, Inno marries satellite radio, portable music The New York Times - A cellphone in park, even more powerful Forbes - Double-duty phones The Washington Post - Get a move on
