2004

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2004

2003 was a bit of a slow year for BEMANI fans worldwide unless you were a fan of DanceDanceRevolution. In comparison, 2004 saw an increase overall in the amount of BEMANI titles released throughout the year, both at home and in the arcade.

beatmania IIDX fans had a lot to celebrate in 2004. 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 arcade version, plus two previews (one from 8th style and one from 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 beatmania IIDX 8th style CS.

But the arcade players were not left out, too. 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 cards. 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 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 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 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.

pop'n music had a fairly busy year in 2004 as well. pop'n music 11 launched in arcades in March. It introduced HI-SPEED 5 to the series, as well as introduced the short-lived URA chart concept, which were old pop'n music songs with brand-new charts on all difficulty levels. (This concept was never used again in the series.) In December KONAMI launched pop'n music 12 いろは, which added several pop'n music firsts: song previews for songs, score display for previous played songs on the loading screen for songs, and NET対戦モード (NET Taisen Mode), a mode where you play songs with people from other pop'n music machines simultaneously across the country. It would become one of the series' most popular modes, and is still around in the franchise to this day.

CS fans got three new console pop'n music games, too. 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.) 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 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 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 DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME US CS. But the game's biggest draw is that it also included all the new songs/DLC from 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 DanceDanceRevolution ULTRAMIX2. EXTREME US featured some backlash from fans of the 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 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 DanceDanceRevolution SuperNOVA.

Europe also got two new releases in 2004. First up was the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 versions of 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 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.

Another big event in 2004 was the formation of BeForU NEXT, which was created following the departure of BeForU member Shiyuna Maehara, who left the group in 2004 after having no singles released. Three new girls were added - Sayaka Minami, Miharu Arisawa, and Risa Sotohana - alongside the original three BeForU members Riyu Kosaka, Yoma Komatsu, and Noria Shiraishi.

Two more vocalists later joined BEMANI through the BEMANI 2004 Vocalist Audition - the previously mentioned Kanako Hoshino and Reiji Sakurai. Reiji mostly contributed to pop'n music and GuitarFreaks / DrumMania, even later composing his own songs for BEMANI.

2005 will introduce a rather big shake-up to the GUITARFREAKS / drummania series, and the start of another BEMANI staple concept.

February

• February 18th: beatmania IIDX 10th style is released to Japanese arcades.
• February 19th: pop'n music 9 CS is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.

March

• March 4th: pop'n 対戦 ぱずるだま ONLINE is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
• March 10th: beatmania IIDX REMIX for 10th Success Anniversary, a remix album celebrating the launch of beatmania IIDX 10th style, is released.
• March 20th: Dancing Stage Unleashed is released in Europe for the Xbox.
• March 24th: pop'n music 11 is released to Japanese arcades.
• March 24th: pop'n music Vocal Best 5 album released.

April

• April 22nd: GUITARFREAKS 11thMIX & drummania 10thMIX is released to Japanese arcades.

May

• May 13th: beatmania IIDX 7th style CS is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2 for those who pre-ordered the game through KONAMI STYLE.
• May 19th: beatmania IIDX 10th style ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK album released.

June

• June 11th: begin, the first album from BeForU member Riyu Kosaka, is released.
• June 23rd: GUITARFREAKS 11thMIX & drummania 10thMIX SOUNDTRACKS album released.
• June 25th: DanceDanceRevolution PartyCollection ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK album released.

July

• July 2nd: Des-ROW's album D. is released.
• July 22nd: pop'n music 11 AC ♥ CS pop'n music 9 album released.
• July 20th: 亜熱帯マジ-SKA爆弾 featuring MAKI album released.

August

• August 5th: beatmania IIDX 7th style CS is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2 to retail stores.
• August 18th: ～pop'n music artist collection～2Days-ツーデイズ-デイズゴゴチ album released.

September

• September 21st: DanceDanceRevolution EXTREME CS (America) is released in North America for the Sony PlayStation 2.

October

• October 28th: beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED is released to Japanese arcades. Yoshitaka Nishimura, Kanako Hoshino, and Maya Takamura make their debut in BEMANI.

November

• November 5th: 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: beatmania IIDX 8th style CS, DDR FESTIVAL -DanceDanceRevolution-, and pop'n music 10 CS are all released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
• November 18th: DanceDanceRevolution ULTRAMIX2 is released in North America for the Xbox.
• November 18th: KI・SE・KI EP, the first release following the restructuring of BeForU, is released.

December

• December 8th: pop'n music 12 いろは is released to Japanese arcades.