2004: Difference between revisions

beatmania IIDX fans had a lot to celebrate in 2004. [[CS 7th style|beatmania IIDX 7th style CS]] came out in May, continuing the CS beatmania IIDX franchise after lying dormant for near two years prior. Featuring all the songs from the [[AC 7th style|arcade version]], plus two previews (one from [[AC 8th style|8th style]] and one from [[AC 9th style|9th style]]) and a whopping 45 revivals from across the previous seven games, there was a lot to celebrate. IIDX fans also received in mid-November [[CS 8th style|beatmania IIDX 8th style CS]].

But the arcade players were not left out, too. [[AC 10th style|beatmania IIDX 10th style]] hit arcades in February, and resolved all the glitches and errors present in 9th style's arcade version. New machines even came with a nice plasma display, and it was the first game in the arcade series to save individual clear status with [[e-amusement|e-AMUSEMENT]] cards. [[AC IIDX RED|beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED]] launched in October, and introduced a shiny new red interface. It also brought in a few new faces to the series, with the debuts of [[Yoshitaka Nishimura|DJ YOSHITAKA]], vocalist [[Kanako Watanabe]] (under the alias Kanako Hoshino), and graphic designer [[Maya Takamura]], whose digital watercolor style differed from the more anime style [[Goli Matsumoto|GOLI]] was known for in the series. IIDX RED also introduced in-game score graphs, allowing you to see your current EX-SCORE in real-time as you play. It also marked the first time you could change skins in an arcade version of beatmania IIDX, though you needed e-AMUSEMENT to access them.

After having all the arcade exposure they got the previous year, GUITARFREAKS and drummania fans only received [[AC_GF11DM10|GUITARFREAKS 11thMIX & drummania 10thMIX]] throughout the entirety of 2004. The now very dated BEMANI System 573 Digital was finally retired after this game's release, as KONAMI had milked whatever they could out of it. In comparison to the usual six month interval between games, fans of the franchise would have to near a year for the next installment following GUITARFREAKS 11thMIX & drummania 10thMIX. But their patience would very much pay off.

CS fans got three new console pop'n music games, too. [[CS pnm 9|pop'n music 9 CS]] launched in February, containing all the new arcade originals, the debut of [[ee'MALL]] in the home releases, and a record 22 new CS songs, which was never matched by any other CS installment. It even included new LONG songs, in addition to the arcade version's. MARATHON is also introduced in this game, where you play ''every'' song in the game on a specific difficulty level in one super-long stretch of songs. (Thankfully, you can save in-between songs.) [[CS pnm 10|pop'n music 10 CS]] followed in November, which introduced its own rather welcome addition to the series; you no longer had to be songs in the the arcade games to play them in FREE mode. And once you finished the unlocking system, all the game's charts were fully unlocked too, which was a main series game's first.

And lastly, in March KONAMI introduced [[CS pnm Puzzle Dama|pop'n 対戦 ぱずるだま ONLINE]], a puzzle game based on their long-running ''Taisen Puzzle Dama'' (対戦 ぱずるだま) series. As the ONLINE subtitle implies, you could go online and play the game with other people, as well as download new pop'n music characters and songs. Unfortunately, the offline mode went down later that same year, leaving a lot of the content forever locked from new players. The game is played by matching three of the same liked color pop-kuns back at your opponent until their side is completely full. KONAMI never re-released the game as their part of their PS2 the BEST line, and the game has since remained in obscurity.

After the nine releases KONAMI released of the series last year, DanceDanceRevolution dialed it back a bit this year. Since there were no arcade games to port over for Japanese players, Japan's one and only CS release of DanceDanceRebvolution was the mid-November release [[CS DDR FESTIVAL|DDR FESTIVAL -DanceDanceRevolution-]]. It was mostly a compilation game, containing some old DanceDanceRevolution songs and a few new licenses, as well as most of the new content from  [[CS DDR EXTREME US|DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME US CS]]. But the game's biggest draw is that it also included '''all''' the new songs/DLC from [[CS DDR ULTRAMIX|DDR ULTRAMIX]], available to Japanese players for the first time ever. Many of them even received new HEAVY charts by the Japanese staff, which are widely considered superior to the Hawaii team's charts.

North America received two new releases in 2004: the aforementioned DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME US CS and [[CS DDR ULTRAMIX2|DanceDanceRevolution ULTRAMIX2]]. EXTREME US featured some backlash from fans of the [[AC DDR EXTREME|arcade release]], in that very few of the songs are from the arcade version (only three EXTREME non-BEMANI originals are even in the game, and one is hidden behind a code). There's also the matter of the new scoring system, which rated on a flat scale to 7 million, awarding you an extra 3 million max based on your combo. IF you break your combo at any point in a song, though, you can't get higher than an A. But arguably the most controversial of all is the music select screen layout, which is down in more of a jukebox style with banners in the top center, with very minimalist, grey backgrounds. (DDR FESTIVAL, listed above, also used this same exact interface.)

The other North American release in 2004 was ULTRAMIX2. Compared to [[CS DDR ULTRAMIX|the first ULTRAMIX]], ULTRAMIX2 mostly featured new content, with commissioned originals and lots of brand-new BEMANI crossovers, mostly from beatmania IIDX. (The DLC song packs would even include GUITARFREAKS / drummania and even KEYBOARDMANIA songs mixed in.) It also featured a brand-new interface and layout, and even new generic clips not previously used in any game in the series before. It got the best reviews of the ULTRAMIX series, and several of its crossovers and originals later made their way two years later in [[AC DDR SuperNOVA|DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA]].

Europe also got two new releases in 2004. First up was the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 versions of [[CS DS Fusion|Dancing Stage Fusion CS]], the former version being the last BEMANI in ''any'' region for the original Sony PlayStation. The PS2 version is based on EXTREME US CS interface-wise, but is more colorful. However, it also removed BPM display from that music select screen. Also confusingly, only ''seven'' of the game's twenty-one licenses have Double charts, the rest being only playable in Single. The PlayStation version only includes a total of 20 songs, but the PS2 contains a far bigger 54, which is nearly bigger than the previous two Dancing Stage PlayStation 2 releases combined.

The other European release was [[CS DS Unleashed|Dancing Stage Unleashed]]. It's mostly a port of the North American ULTRAMIX, but with eleven originals removed, the four licenses replaced with eight brand-new ones, and a couple of DLC song pack songs removed and replaced. The game is also only available in English, despite its European release.

* July 2nd: [[Osamu Migitera|Des-ROW]]'s album [[D.]] is released.

* October 28th: [[AC IIDX RED|beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED]] is released to Japanese arcades. [[Yoshitaka Nishimura]], [[Kanako Watanabe|Kanako Hoshino]], and [[Maya Takamura]] make their debut in BEMANI.

* November 5th: [[CS DS Fusion|Dancing Stage Fusion CS]] is released in Europe for both the Sony PlayStation and the Sony PlayStation 2. The former is the final BEMANI title released in ''any'' region for the Sony PlayStation.

* November 18th: [[CS 8th style|beatmania IIDX 8th style CS]], [[CS DDR FESTIVAL|DDR FESTIVAL -DanceDanceRevolution-]], and [[CS pnm 10|pop'n music 10 CS]] are all released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.

* Former pop'n music commission artist [[Atsushi Shindo]]'s accounts of plagiarism become public. In response, KONAMI removed ''all'' of his songs from the pop'n music series as of pop'n music 12 いろは. To this day not a single one of his songs has been revived.