2002 (year): Difference between revisions

The first of these two new ideas was V-RARE SOUND TRACKs, limited release CDs that came with pre-orders of the CS release of BEMANI titles. As their name applies, these CDs contain exclusive remixes and sometimes even original songs on them, and the grand majority of the content on them have never re-released anywhere else, even today. KONAMI only did this with their PlayStation 2 BEMANI releases, presumably to gain more incentive in purchasing the games on the still recent platform in Japan. The first release, [[V-RARE SOUND TRACK]], came with the limited edition version of [[CS DDRMAX JP|DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX- CS]]. KONAMI would continue to produce V-RARE SOUND TRACKS as late as 2010, though it became more sporadic after the mid-2000's.

beatmania entered its last year this year, as it released its two final games: [[AC bm 7th|beatmania 7thMIX -keepin' evolution-]] and [[AC bm THE FINAL|beatmania THE FINAL]]. 7thMIX introduced the short-lived 1-turn Scratches, which required you to turn the tuntable exactly once by the time the note ended to get the best score possible. THE FINAL featured the series' biggest number of songs in the series with 192 songs, with songs from every non-licensed game. While memory limitations met some games' songlists were very incomplete, as well as videos being reduced to just a little square boxes, all older songs received brand-new charts to replace any duplicate charts left over, and the new songs of the game featured the hardest charts the series had ever seen, with Double ANOTHER charts like [[IMPLANTATION]] and [[Quickening]]'s just as hard as any beatmania IIDX charts at the time. [[CS bm 6th + CORE REMIX|beatmania 6thMIX + CORE REMIX]] was also released on the Sony PlayStation, combining the new songs from both [[AC bm CORE REMIX|beatmania CORE REMIX]] and [[AC bm 6th|beatmania 6thMIX -THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC-]] together. It will be the last CS release, unfortunately, as neither 7thMIX or THE FINAL ever got home ports. (Though quite a few of 7th and THE FINAL's originals ended up in pop'n music via [[ee'MALL]] the following year.)

Europe's only home release of 2002 was [[CS DS PARTY EDiTiON|Dancing Stage PARTY EDiTiON]] on the Sony PlayStation, which featured all but six of the songs from KONAMIX, replaced with five brand-new licenses. Its 51 song tracklist would be the biggest in the series for the next two years, and the largest in the European PlayStation library. However, Europe ''did'' get something this year that North America did not; an arcade release! [[AC DS EuroMIX2|Dancing Stage EuroMIX2]] came out this year, based on the DDRMAX2 game engine (though CHALLENGE charts did not transfer over). 11 new licenses and three new KONAMI originals were bundled together with eight older Dancemania licenses, along with 30 classic DDR tracks that hadn't appeared in any European arcade release at the time. It was also the first arcade release with the now traditional BEGINNER difficulty. While CHALLENGE MODE is gone, NONSTOP MODE takes its place. While its tracklist of 78 songs wasn't quite as big as DDRMAX2's 135, EuroMIX2 contained several DDR originals that still haven't been revived in the arcades in Japan to this day, such as [[LET THEM MOVE]] and [[HYPNOTIC CRISIS|HYPNØTIC CRISIS]].

The first of the two new home releases was [[PnM_CS_6|pop'n music 6 CS]], the last Japanese game on the original PlayStation. It had the biggest songlist in PlayStation BEMANI history with 104 songs and included all the new originals from [[PnM_AC_6|pop'n music 6]], and most of the course songs. Near the entire [[AC pns|pop'n stage]] songlist was included for play as well as a bonus. But this came with some sacrifices: all but two licenses were gone, BATTLE MODE and RGB MODE were removed, and course songs only had the chart in that course and no others. Despite this, the game ran at a smooth 60 FPS and boasted an impressive high number of new songs as well. It also introduced [[Kanashiine|悲しいね]], at the time considered the hardest song ever in a CS pop'n music title, going at a frantic 200 BPM and putting in 820 notes into a song barely over 90 seconds long! The second game released this year, [[PnM_CS_7|pop'n music 7 CS]], saw the series switch over to the PlayStation 2. Space restrictions were a thing of the past: BATTLE MODE made its CS debut, course songs now had their full charts and playable in arcade mode as well, and the loading times got overall shorter. 7 CS sold well and was even re-released as part of KONAMI's KONAMI the BEST line several years later at less than half its price.