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1999 was a very big year for music games in general. Following the success of beatmania, DanceDanceRevolution, and pop'n music, several video game developers started releasing their own music games. ANDAMIRO's ''Pump It Up'' and Amuse World's ''EZ2DJ'' were hitting Korean arcades, and even established game series made before beatmania became big got sequels: NanaOn-Sha's ''UmJammer Lammy'' was a huge hit, combining the engine of its predecessor ''PaRappa the Rapper'' with more freeform guitar licks, and Enix's ''Bust-A-Move 2'' was hitting shelves in early 1999. NAMCO's cult hit ''Pacapaca Passion'' received a PlayStation port, as well as an upgraded version (Special) and a sequel. The PlayStation also received several of its own rhythm games - Warashi's ''Le Concert ff'' and ''Le Concert pp'' took it a step forward and had you controlling an entire orchestra. NanaOn-Sha also released the cult classic ''vib-ribbon'', which used an unique, scribbled black and white aesthetic and had your character literally changing as you moved around. The end of 1999 also saw SEGA step into the music game genre with Compile's ''Puyo Puyo DA!'' and Sonic Team's ''Samba de Amigo''. It would be far from the last rhythm games from the company. | 1999 was a very big year for music games in general. Following the success of beatmania, DanceDanceRevolution, and pop'n music, several video game developers started releasing their own music games. ANDAMIRO's ''Pump It Up'' and Amuse World's ''EZ2DJ'' were hitting Korean arcades, and even established game series made before beatmania became big got sequels: NanaOn-Sha's ''UmJammer Lammy'' was a huge hit, combining the engine of its predecessor ''PaRappa the Rapper'' with more freeform guitar licks, and Enix's ''Bust-A-Move 2'' was hitting shelves in early 1999. NAMCO's cult hit ''Pacapaca Passion'' received a PlayStation port, as well as an upgraded version (Special) and a sequel. The PlayStation also received several of its own rhythm games - Warashi's ''Le Concert ff'' and ''Le Concert pp'' took it a step forward and had you controlling an entire orchestra. NanaOn-Sha also released the cult classic ''vib-ribbon'', which used an unique, scribbled black and white aesthetic and had your character literally changing as you moved around. The end of 1999 also saw SEGA step into the music game genre with Compile's ''Puyo Puyo DA!'' and Sonic Team's ''Samba de Amigo''. It would be far from the last rhythm games from the company. | ||
KONAMI itself was pretty busy, too. In addition to three new arcade beatmania titles, six new DanceDanceRevolution arcade titles, | KONAMI itself was pretty busy, too. In addition to three new arcade beatmania titles, six new DanceDanceRevolution arcade titles, and two new pop'n music arcade titles, KONAMI also introduced two brand-new games: [[AC_GF1|GUITARFREAKS]] and [[AC_GF2DM1|drummania]]. Unlike their previous game series, though, these games originally featured music from almost entirely veteran KONAMI music composers. Original sound director [[Mutsuhiko Izumi]]'s hard rock sound from over 20 years of previous music experience helped develop a very rich sound the series has to this day. Together with veteran [[Yoshihiko Koezuka]]'s more mellow 80s sound, veteran [[Harumi Ueko|Jimmy Weckl]]'s jazz, and newcomers [[Hideyuki Ono]]'s ska inspired sound and [[Toshio Sakurai]]'s more rock pop sound, GUITARFREAKS and drummania quickly became hits, the former receiving a [[CS_GF|PlayStation port]] by the end of the year. | ||
But perhaps the biggest of the new games released that year was, ironically, a spin-off game; [[AC 1st style|beatmania IIDX]]. beatmania IIDX added two new buttons to the overall game design, and also re-positioned the 1P to the left. But it also boast something the original beatmania never had; live-action video. For the first time, licensed tracks from the likes of [[m-flo]] and | But perhaps the biggest of the new games released that year was, ironically, a spin-off game; [[AC 1st style|beatmania IIDX]]. beatmania IIDX added two new buttons to the overall game design, and also re-positioned the 1P turntable to the left. But it also boast something the original beatmania never had; live-action video. For the first time, licensed tracks from the likes of [[m-flo]] and other artists featured their original videos. This game also marked the debuts of the hugely popular BEMANI artists [[Takayuki Ishikawa]] (dj TAKA) and [[Takehiko Fujii]] (SLAKE). Fujii in-particular went on to sound direct near every beatmania game from 1999 onward, while Ishikawa stayed on board with beatmania IIDX, inviting friends of his like [[Taku Sakakibara|TaQ]] and [[Osamu Kubota]] to help make a rich, more electronic counterpart to the more hip-hop/dance/techno tone that the original beatmania kept with Fujii. | ||
beatmania wasn't the only game with a spin-off, though. DanceDanceRevolution had the [[AC DDR Solo BASS|DSolo BASS MIX]] and [[AC DDR Solo 2000|Solo 2000]] games, which transformed the usual four-panel | beatmania wasn't the only game with a spin-off, though. DanceDanceRevolution had the [[AC DDR Solo BASS|DSolo BASS MIX]] and [[AC DDR Solo 2000|Solo 2000]] games, which transformed the usual four-panel style of DDR on its head. Now you had two extra arrows on the top left and right to work with, resulting in a far more difficult game overall. Both of these games contained almost completely brand-new songs never before in the series. | ||
pop'n music itself had [[PnS_AC|pop'n stage]], which was a bit like ''Pump-It-Up'', but keysounded. This game also had an almost completely original songlist, and near all of its songs would pop up in the main series of pop'n music titles. It even got an upgrade later that year known as '''pop'n stage ex''', which added a new difficulty level, a few songs from the then current [[PnM_AC_3|pop'n music 3]], and two brand-new songs. One of the new songs, [[WE TWO ARE ONE]], introduced [[Seiya Murai]] to BEMANI. Murai would be for years after one of the biggest names in pop'n music, and also a key staff member of KEYBOARDMANIA starting the following year. | pop'n music itself had [[PnS_AC|pop'n stage]], which was a bit like ''Pump-It-Up'', but keysounded. This game also had an almost completely original songlist, and near all of its songs would pop up in the main series of pop'n music titles. It even got an upgrade later that year known as '''pop'n stage ex''', which added a new difficulty level, a few songs from the then current [[PnM_AC_3|pop'n music 3]], and two brand-new songs. One of the new songs, [[WE TWO ARE ONE]], introduced [[Seiya Murai]] to BEMANI. Murai would be for years after one of the biggest names in pop'n music, and also a key staff member of KEYBOARDMANIA starting the following year. |