2001: Difference between revisions

beatmania went from having multiple games and spinoffs a year to just '''two''' games in the entirety of 2001. The final CS-only spinoff game - [[CS bm THE SOUND OF TOKYO!|beatmania THE SOUND OF TOKYO!]] - premiered in spring 2001. It boasted a completely original set of 13 licenses, the music focused more on house and jazz than earlier games in the series. The only beatmania arcade game released in 2001 was [[AC bm 6th|beatmania 6thMIX -THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC-]], which scrapped all previous songs from the franchise for 27 brand-new songs, 12 of them by commission artists from the United Kingdom (hence the game's subtitle). Many of the 6thMIX originals later appeared in DanceDanceRevolution even. [[AC bm III 6th|beatmania III APPEND 6thMIX]] also came out this year. Unlike beatmania 6thMIX, it kept all other beatmania songs, though. It also included long versions of three of the game's new songs as an exclusive bonus.

DanceDanceRevolution saw itself focusing more on the new, and less of the old. Along with going from 30 fps to 60, [[AC DDR 5th|DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX]] also saw KOANMI remove all but 20 songs prior to [[AC DDR 4th|4thMIX]], licenses and originals alike. KONAMI shook it up even further with [[AC DDRMAX|DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX-]] later that year, which scrapped '''all''' previous songs altogether for 42 new songs, mostly consisting of new Dancemania licenses, CS songs, and only six new originals. KONAMI even scrapped the dancing characters for the first time in a mainline game. Videos consisted now of various background movies stitched together to form a video, though some songs received their own little original video bits. On the CS front, KONAMI released home ports of [[CS DDR 4th|4thMIX]] and [[CS DDR 5th|5thMIX]]. It also released [[CS DDR EXTRA MIX|DanceDanceRevolution EXTRA MIX]], which brought the songs from [[AC DDR Solo BASS|DanceDanceRevolution Solo BASS MIX]], [[AC DDR Solo 2000|DanceDanceRevolution Solo 2000]], and all the new songs from [[AC DDR 4th PLUS|DanceDanceRevolution 4thMIX PLUS]] in a single package.

Internationally, 2001 was a big year for non-Japanese DDR fans, as KONAMI started releasing DanceDanceRevolution titles internationally on the Sony PlayStation. [[CS DDR US|DanceDanceRevolution CS (America)]] came out in the U.S., containing a decent mix of songs from [[AC DDR 1st|DanceDanceRevolution]] through [[CS DDR 3rd|3rdMIX CS]], while [[CS DS EuroMIX|Dancing Stage EuroMIX CS]] came out in Europe. Both North America and Europe received [[CS DDR Disney MIX|DanceDanceRevolution Disney MIX]] ('''Dancing Stage Disney MIX''' in Europe), a ''very'' loose port of [[CS DDR Disney's RAVE|Dancing Stage featuring Disney's RAVE]] that eliminated most of the non-Disney based licenses with 4thMIX KONAMI originals. The only major addition is MANIAC charts for all songs on Single, but you need to play all the songs on TRICK first to unlock them, which is a tad tedious.

GUITARFREAKS & drummania found itself struggling with the KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL, too. The series was losing as many songs as it was introducing, many of which ''never'' returned to the series again, including KONAMI originals. Space limitations got so bad that by the time [[AC_GF6DM5|GUITARFREAKS 6thMIX & drummania 5thMIX]] came out, KONAMI had to remove near all the older songs' BASS charts just to have enough room for all of the songs. Both releases did get a boost with a certain add-on this year, which will be explained below. On the CS front, only one new home release for PlayStation 2 - [[CS_GF4DM3|ギタドラ! GUITARFREAKS 4thMIX & drummania 3rdMIX]] - came out this year, selling so poorly that KONAMI didn't bother to port any further games on PlayStation 2 for over four years.

'''Dance Maniax''''s final "new" game was an upgrade to last year's 2ndMIX, titled '''Dance Maniax 2ndMIX append J-PARADISE''', using the same interface. It included 14 new songs, though except for the peculiar beatmania IIDX crossover [[sanctus]], most of the licenses/crossovers had earlier appeared in [[AC DDR 5th|DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX]].

2001 was definitely a year of KONAMI focusing more on quality over quantity with BEMANI, but [[2002 (year)|2002]] saw another huge change in store for BEMANI.

[[Category:History]]