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.)

DanceDanceRevolution saw the release of [[AC DDRMAX2|DDRMAX2 -DanceDanceRevolution 7thMIX-]], which introduced a whole new difficulty level; CHALLENGE. And with the new difficulty level came a new mode called CHALLENGE MODE, where you played courses made up of songs with one noticeable catch; you had a battery displayed instead of the traditional dance meter. Each time you got anything other than GREAT or PERFECT, you lost a part of the battery. Four misses results in an instant GAME OVER, though it will recharge after each song depending on your performance. KONAMI revived some older KONAMI originals as well, though memory limitations left the videos very pixelated. The end of the year saw [[AC DDR EXTREME|DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME]]. Intended to be a relaunch of the series (its arcade tagline was "We're starting over"), it ended up being the last arcade release in Japan for over three years. EXTREME revived near every KONAMI original from the series that had been earlier removed, along with 13 classic Dancemania tracks, as well as the then record 69 new songs to the series, with BEMANI crossovers ranging from the original beatmania to as recent as last year's '''MAMBO A GO GO'''. Despite lower sound quality and very grainy video, the game became a huge hit, and is considered one of the greatest DanceDanceRevolution releases. Only one new CS DanceDanceRevolution game came out in 2002; [[CS DDRMAX JP|DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX- CS]], a direct port of DDRMAX with two new songs. However, it did mark the first game in the series to be released on the PlayStation 2, and was the first game to introduce the '''V-RARE SOUND TRACK''' album concept explained above.

Internationally, DanceDanceRevolution continued to make strides in North America and Europe. In both areas KONAMI released two new games for both. North America's first release was the final PlayStation release in that country, [[CS DDR KONAMIX|DanceDanceRevolution KONAMIX]], which contained a large 52 songs. As the name applies, it only contained KONAMI originals, its songs consisting of most of the KONAMI originals from before [[AC DDRMAX|DDRMAX]]. Its second release was the first on PlayStation 2, [[CS DDRMAX US|DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution-]]. Despite sharing the interface and the same name as the Japanese arcade game, DDRMAX US instead focused on more KONAMI originals that weren't in KONAMIX, new BEMANI crossovers, as well as classic Dancemania songs that hadn't appeared in a US DDR release at the time. The game became a hit, and KONAMI would continue to release new PlayStation 2 DanceDanceRevolution every fall for the next seven years in North America.  

pop'n music saw two new arcade releases and two new home games this year. [[AC pnm 8|pop'n music 8]], much like beatmania THE FINAL and DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME, saw a lot of BEMANI crossovers come its way, possibly as a late hurrah for the aging BEMANI FIREBEAT HARDWARE, being the last game in the series to run on it. [[AC pnm 9|pop'n music 9]], released near the end of the year, was the first to run on BEMANI VIPER HARDWARE, but was also the first to support e-AMUSEMENT for saving scores. As if that wasn't enough, KONAMI revived near ''every'' song from the past eight arcade games back, many of them which received brand-new charts. Most licensed characters could also be finally played as as well, after years of being restricted to only being rivals.

The first of the two new home releases was [[CS pnm 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 [[AC pnm 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, [[CS pnm 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.

beatmania IIDX saw two new arcade releases in 2002 as well. [[AC 7th style|beatmania IIDX 7th style]] came out this year, introducing the new EXTRA STAGE and ONE MORE EXTRA STAGE model for exclusive songs rewarded to those who managed to complete the requirements for them. [[AC 8th style|beatmania IIDX 8th style]] was noticeable in that it was the first game in the series to be released after beatmania's end, released two months after THE FINAL. Many beatmania regulars at the time migrated over to beatmania IIDX; sound director [[Takehiko Fujii|SLAKE]] even joined the beatmania IIDX staff as a member of the following two arcade games. Unfortunately, similar to GUITARFREAKS & drummania, beatmania IIDX found itself struggling with the limitations of the Twinkle arcade hardware. New songs in 8th style didn't even have overlays, and a lot of originals in both 8th and the preceding 7th were removed due to space. KONAMI seemed to be aware of this, though, as the following year saw a big change in store for the series, one that would turn it into the future cornerstone of all of BEMANI altogether.

* February 26th: [[AC_GF7DM6|GUITARFREAKS 7thMIX & drummania 6thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.