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= 2001 =
= 2001 =


Compared to the [[2000|previous year]], 2001 saw KONAMI step back a bit with their BEMANI titles. The aging PlayStation was already almost seeing the end of its run, as the PlayStation 2 became more and more the dominant BEMANI system. All three new BEMANI titles from the year before - '''Dance Maniax''', [[KEYBOARDMANIA Information|KEYBOARDMANIA]], and '''ParaParaParadise''' - ended their runs this year, and the older series that were still around at year's end went through large shake-ups.
Compared to the [[2000|previous year]], 2001 saw KONAMI step back a bit with their BEMANI titles. The aging PlayStation was almost seeing the end of its run, as the PlayStation 2 became more and more the dominant BEMANI system. All three new BEMANI titles from the year before - '''Dance Maniax''', [[KEYBOARDMANIA Information|KEYBOARDMANIA]], and '''ParaParaParadise''' - ended their runs this year, and the older series that were still around at year's end went through large shake-ups.


KONAMI only introduced one new BEMANI series in 2001; the short-lived '''MAMBO A GO GO'''. It used three bongos, each one with several sensors. It was made to capitalize on the Latin music craze of the early 2000's, and consisted of licensed Latin dance music and KONAMI originals, the latter from regulars in the GUITARFREAKS & drummania franchise like [[Tomosuke Funaki|TOMOSUKE]], [[Hirofumi Sasaki]], and [[Motoaki Furukawa]]. (Not too surprising, considering it ran on KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL, the same hardware as GUITARFREAKS & drummania.) MAMBO A GO GO's first game was also its last; most of the original songs eventually wound up in other BEMANI titles the following year.
KONAMI only introduced one new BEMANI series in 2001; the short-lived '''MAMBO A GO GO'''. It used three bongos, each one with several sensors. It was made to capitalize on the Latin music craze of the early 2000's, and consisted of licensed Latin dance music and KONAMI originals, the latter from regulars in the GUITARFREAKS & drummania franchise like [[Tomosuke Funaki|TOMOSUKE]], [[Hirofumi Sasaki]], and [[Motoaki Furukawa]]. (Not too surprising, considering it ran on KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL, the same hardware as GUITARFREAKS & drummania.) MAMBO A GO GO's first game was also its last; most of its originals eventually wound up in other BEMANI titles.


beatmania went from having multiple games and spinoffs a year to just '''three''' 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 PlayStation 2 saw the keyboard-based [[CS bm DaDaDa|beatmania打打打!!]], which contained old beatmania songs that were played on a keyboard. 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.
beatmania went from having multiple games and spinoffs a year to just '''three''' 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 PlayStation 2 saw the keyboard-based [[CS bm DaDaDa|beatmania打打打!!]], which contained old beatmania songs that were played on a keyboard. 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). [[AC bm III 6th|beatmania III APPEND 6thMIX]] also came out; unlike beatmania 6thMIX, it kept older beatmania songs, though. It also included long versions of three of 6thMIX's new songs as a bonus.


pop'n music mostly stuck to the arcades in 2001, but not without a major visual upgrade with [[AC pnm 6|pop'n music 6]]. Lanes were separated by color for the first time ever, and it was the first non spin-off game in the series to include anime licenses, all of them brand-new to the series. [[Tomoko Shiono|shio]], who was an early designer for the series who briefly worked on beatmania for a year, returned as head character designer, bringing larger, more animated characters to the series. The songlists only got bigger, and the gameplay expanded with more difficult songs on EX while still maintaining enough easy songs for beginners to adapt to. Stage number limits were mostly gone too, making the game far easier to access than before. On the home front, KONAMI stopped supporting the Sega Dreamcast, so [[CS pnm 5|pop'n music 5 CS]] was only on the Sony PlayStation for the first time ever. 5 CS didn't arrive until near the end of the year. To make up for it, though, KONAMI included a lot of pop'n music 6 songs as previews, and even introduced the higher speed mods 6's arcade version introduced.
pop'n music mostly stuck to the arcades in 2001, but not without a major visual upgrade with [[AC pnm 6|pop'n music 6]]. Lanes were separated by color for the first time ever, and it was the first non spin-off game in the series to include anime licenses, all of them brand-new to the series. [[Tomoko Shiono|shio]], who was an early designer for the series who briefly worked on beatmania for a year, returned as head character designer, bringing larger, more animated characters to the series. The songlists only got bigger, and the gameplay expanded with more difficult songs on EX while still maintaining enough easy songs for beginners to adapt to. [[AC pnm 7|pop'n music 7]] followed at year's end. On the home front, KONAMI stopped supporting the Sega Dreamcast, so [[CS pnm 5|pop'n music 5 CS]] was only on the Sony PlayStation for the first time ever. 5 CS didn't arrive until near the end of the year. To make up for it, though, KONAMI included a lot of pop'n music 6 songs as previews, and even included the speed mods 6's arcade version introduced.


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 the series 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.
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 the series 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 and CS songs, with only six new originals. KONAMI even removed 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 (almost) 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.
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.


DanceDanceRevolution also saw a big first in BEMANI; the first mobile BEMANI game. Years before [[CS jb plus|jubeat plus]] or [[CS RB plus|REFLEC BEAT plus]], there was [[CS DDR i-appli|DanceDanceRevolution (i-αppli)]], which allowed one to play MIDI versions of DanceDanceRevolution songs on your mobile phone.
DanceDanceRevolution also saw a big first in BEMANI; the first mobile BEMANI game. Near a decade before [[CS jb plus|jubeat plus]] or [[CS RB plus|REFLEC BEAT plus]], there was [[CS DDR i-appli|DanceDanceRevolution (i-αppli)]], which allowed one to play MIDI versions of DanceDanceRevolution songs on your mobile phone.


GUITARFREAKS & drummania found itself struggling with the limitations of the KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL hardware. 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.
GUITARFREAKS & drummania found itself struggling with the limitations of the KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL hardware. 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.
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beatmania IIDX got by far the best upgrades of any series this user. Not only did it receive two [[AC 5th style|arcade]] [[AC 6th style|games]], but the interface was streamlined, added several new helpful options (more speed mods, song grades introduced, DVD video hardware replacing VCD), and the songlist and music variety only got better. Two new [[CS 4th style|home]] [[CS 5th style|versions]] came out relatively quickly as well, both having the subtitle "new songs collection", due to having new CS songs.
beatmania IIDX got by far the best upgrades of any series this user. Not only did it receive two [[AC 5th style|arcade]] [[AC 6th style|games]], but the interface was streamlined, added several new helpful options (more speed mods, song grades introduced, DVD video hardware replacing VCD), and the songlist and music variety only got better. Two new [[CS 4th style|home]] [[CS 5th style|versions]] came out relatively quickly as well, both having the subtitle "new songs collection", due to having new CS songs.


KEYBOARDMANIA received one final game this year with [[AC KBM 3rd|KEYBOARDMANIA 3rdMIX]]. For the final game KONAMI added a very interesting feature - ''Multisession GDK''. This allows you to combine GUITARFREAKS, drummania, ''and'' KEYBOARDMANIA all at once to play songs on! While only a few songs were compatible, the result was the most complete band experience one could get in a music game an the time. Unfortunately, only the two new GF/DM releases this year - [[AC_GF5DM4|GF5th/dm4th]] and [[AC_GF6DM5|GF6th/dm4th]] - could be linked up to access this mode. There was talk of a 4th KEYBOARDMANIA title exclusive to PlayStation 2, but it never came to light.
KEYBOARDMANIA received one final game this year with [[AC KBM 3rd|KEYBOARDMANIA 3rdMIX]]. For the final game KONAMI added a very interesting feature - ''Multisession GDK''. This allows you to combine GUITARFREAKS, drummania, ''and'' KEYBOARDMANIA all at once to play songs on. While only a few songs were compatible, the result was the most complete band experience one could get in a music game an the time. Unfortunately, only the two new GF/DM releases this year - [[AC_GF5DM4|GF5th/dm4th]] and [[AC_GF6DM5|GF6th/dm4th]] - could be linked up to access this mode. There was talk of a 4th KEYBOARDMANIA title exclusive to PlayStation 2, but it never came to light.


'''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]].
'''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]].


'''ParaParaParadise''' got its one and only sequel, '''ParaParaParadise 2nd MIX''', this year. Unlike the original game, it never received a soundtrack or console release. It did boast a couple of original remixes, most notably one for then recent pop'n music song [[ULTRA HIGH-HEELS ~I JUST WANNA TELL YOU|ウルトラハイヒール〜I JUST WANNA TELL YOU]]. It was also the first BEMANI game to run on the then new BEMANI VIPER HARDWARE, which pop'n music would start using the following year to great effect. The same day 2ndMIX came out, ParaParaParadise received a PlayStation 2 home release based on '''1st MIX Plus''', though the home port received a bit of criticism for being a pain to set-up and implement.
'''ParaParaParadise''' got its one and only sequel, '''ParaParaParadise 2nd MIX''', this year. Unlike the original game, it never received a soundtrack or console release. It did boast a couple of original remixes, most notably one for then recent pop'n music song [[ULTRA HIGH-HEELS ~I JUST WANNA TELL YOU|ウルトラハイヒール〜I JUST WANNA TELL YOU]]. It was also the first BEMANI game to run on the then new BEMANI VIPER HARDWARE, which pop'n music would start using the following year to great effect. The same day 2ndMIX came out, ParaParaParadise received a PlayStation 2 home release based on '''1st MIX Plus''', though the home port received a bit of criticism for being a pain to set-up and implement.
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* March 16th: ''Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK'' album released.
* March 16th: ''Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK'' album released.
* March 17th: [[AC GF5DM4|GUITARFREAKS 5thMIX & drummania 4thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* March 17th: [[AC GF5DM4|GUITARFREAKS 5thMIX & drummania 4thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.
** [[Hirofumi Sasaki]], an in-house artist who worked on covers in the previous game, starts writing new songs for BEMANI.
* March 21st: ''beatmania ANI-SONGS MIX 究極戦隊REMIX'' album released. This album focuses on remixes of songs from sentai shows.
* March 21st: ''beatmania ANI-SONGS MIX 究極戦隊REMIX'' album released. This album focuses on remixes of songs from sentai shows.
* March 21st: ''beatmania ANI-SONGS MIX 名作動画REMIX'' album released. This album focuses of remixes of songs from the long-running Sekai Meisaku Gekijou (世界名作劇場) anime series, which are TV series based on classic books/stories. It ran Sunday nights from 1969 to 1997, and has running again since 2007.
* March 21st: ''beatmania ANI-SONGS MIX 名作動画REMIX'' album released. This album focuses of remixes of songs from the long-running Sekai Meisaku Gekijou (世界名作劇場) anime series, which are TV series based on classic books/stories. It ran Sunday nights from 1969 to 1997, with a second run starting in 2007.
* March 23rd: [[Sana-mode]], the first full-length album for in-house beatmania/pop'n music singer [[Sanae Shintani]], is released.
* March 23rd: [[Sana-mode]], the first full-length album for in-house beatmania/pop'n music singer [[Sanae Shintani]], is released.
* March 27th: [[AC 5th style|beatmania IIDX 5th style]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* March 27th: [[AC 5th style|beatmania IIDX 5th style]] is released to Japanese arcades.
** Long-time notechart designer [[Jun Wakita|wac]] starts writing music for BEMANI as of this game.
* March 27th: [[AC DDR 5th|DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* March 27th: [[AC DDR 5th|DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.
** [[BeForU]], an idol group formed by series' sound director [[Naoki Maeda]], make their BEMANI debuts.
* March 29th: [[CS bm DaDaDa|beatmania打打打!!]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
* March 29th: [[CS bm DaDaDa|beatmania打打打!!]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
* March 29th: [[CS bm THE SOUND OF TOKYO!|beatmania THE SOUND OF TOKYO!]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
* March 29th: [[CS bm THE SOUND OF TOKYO!|beatmania THE SOUND OF TOKYO!]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
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* April 25th: ''KEYBOARDMANIA 3rd MIX Original Soundtracks'' album released.
* April 25th: ''KEYBOARDMANIA 3rd MIX Original Soundtracks'' album released.
* April 28th: [[AC pnm 6|pop'n music 6]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* April 28th: [[AC pnm 6|pop'n music 6]] is released to Japanese arcades.
** wac starts sound directing the series beginning with this game. He would continue to serve as head/co-sound director of the arcade pop'n music series up until [[AC pnm SP|pop'n music Sunny Park]].


== June ==
== June ==
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* September 11th: [[AC bm 6th|beatmania 6thMIX -THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC-]] and [[AC bm III 6th|beatmania III APPEND 6thMIX]] are released to Japanese arcades.
* September 11th: [[AC bm 6th|beatmania 6thMIX -THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC-]] and [[AC bm III 6th|beatmania III APPEND 6thMIX]] are released to Japanese arcades.
* September 13th: [[AC GF6DM5|GUITARFREAKS 6thMIX & drummania 5thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* September 13th: [[AC GF6DM5|GUITARFREAKS 6thMIX & drummania 5thMIX]] is released to Japanese arcades.
** Veteran KONAMI composer makes his BEMANI debut with this game.
* September 18th: [[CS DDR Disney MIX|DanceDanceRevolution Disney MIX]] is released in North America for the Sony PlayStation.
* September 18th: [[CS DDR Disney MIX|DanceDanceRevolution Disney MIX]] is released in North America for the Sony PlayStation.
* September 19th: ''Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK'' album released.
* September 19th: ''Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK'' album released.
* September 20th: [[CS DDR 5th|DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX CS]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
* September 20th: [[CS DDR 5th|DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX CS]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
** Veteran KONAMI composer [[Sota Fujimori]] makes his BEMANI debut. He would go on to be one of the biggest names in all of BEMANI several years later.
* September 20th: [[CS GF4DM3|ギタドラ! GUITARFREAKS 4thMIX & drummania 3rdMIX]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
* September 20th: [[CS GF4DM3|ギタドラ! GUITARFREAKS 4thMIX & drummania 3rdMIX]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
* Setpember 27th: ''DanceManiax 2nd Mix Original Soundtrack'' album released.
* Setpember 27th: ''DanceManiax 2nd Mix Original Soundtrack'' album released.
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* October 17th: ''beatmania 6thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC'' album released. Like with [[AC bm 5th| beatmania 5thMIX]]'s album, it was released through Toshiba-EMI instead of KONAMI.
* October 17th: ''beatmania 6thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: THE UK UNDERGROUND MUSIC'' album released. Like with [[AC bm 5th| beatmania 5thMIX]]'s album, it was released through Toshiba-EMI instead of KONAMI.
* October 17th: [[Riyu Kosaka]]'s first single, [[true...]], is released.
* October 19th: [[AC DDRMAX|DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX-]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* October 19th: [[AC DDRMAX|DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX-]] is released to Japanese arcades.


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* November 21st: ''DDRMAX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK'' album released.
* November 21st: ''DDRMAX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK'' album released.
* November 22nd: [[CS pnm 5|pop'n music 5 CS]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
* November 22nd: [[CS pnm 5|pop'n music 5 CS]] is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
** In-house KONAMI composer [[Shinji Ushiroda]] makes his BEMANI debut.
* November 22nd: [[AC pnm 7|pop'n music 7]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* November 22nd: [[AC pnm 7|pop'n music 7]] is released to Japanese arcades.
* November 29th: [[pop'n music Artist Collection PARQUETS]] album released.
* November 29th: [[pop'n music Artist Collection PARQUETS]] album released.
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* [[Toshio Sakurai]] leaves KONAMI to form a band outside of KONAMI.
* [[Toshio Sakurai]] leaves KONAMI to form a band outside of KONAMI.
* [[Youhei Shimizu]] leaves KONAMI to join Polyphonic Digital Inc.
* [[Youhei Shimizu]] leaves KONAMI to join Polyphonic Digital Inc.
* [[Parquets]] join KONAMI's music label. They would continue to release singles/albums through KONAMI until 2006.


[[Category:History]]
[[Category:History]]

Revision as of 15:28, 31 December 2018

This page is under HEAVY construction.

BEMANI Timeline
1997 - 1998 - 1999
2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009
2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019
2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024

2001

Compared to the previous year, 2001 saw KONAMI step back a bit with their BEMANI titles. The aging PlayStation was almost seeing the end of its run, as the PlayStation 2 became more and more the dominant BEMANI system. All three new BEMANI titles from the year before - Dance Maniax, KEYBOARDMANIA, and ParaParaParadise - ended their runs this year, and the older series that were still around at year's end went through large shake-ups.

KONAMI only introduced one new BEMANI series in 2001; the short-lived MAMBO A GO GO. It used three bongos, each one with several sensors. It was made to capitalize on the Latin music craze of the early 2000's, and consisted of licensed Latin dance music and KONAMI originals, the latter from regulars in the GUITARFREAKS & drummania franchise like TOMOSUKE, Hirofumi Sasaki, and Motoaki Furukawa. (Not too surprising, considering it ran on KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL, the same hardware as GUITARFREAKS & drummania.) MAMBO A GO GO's first game was also its last; most of its originals eventually wound up in other BEMANI titles.

beatmania went from having multiple games and spinoffs a year to just three games in the entirety of 2001. The final CS-only spinoff game - 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 PlayStation 2 saw the keyboard-based beatmania打打打!!, which contained old beatmania songs that were played on a keyboard. The only beatmania arcade game released in 2001 was 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). beatmania III APPEND 6thMIX also came out; unlike beatmania 6thMIX, it kept older beatmania songs, though. It also included long versions of three of 6thMIX's new songs as a bonus.

pop'n music mostly stuck to the arcades in 2001, but not without a major visual upgrade with pop'n music 6. Lanes were separated by color for the first time ever, and it was the first non spin-off game in the series to include anime licenses, all of them brand-new to the series. shio, who was an early designer for the series who briefly worked on beatmania for a year, returned as head character designer, bringing larger, more animated characters to the series. The songlists only got bigger, and the gameplay expanded with more difficult songs on EX while still maintaining enough easy songs for beginners to adapt to. pop'n music 7 followed at year's end. On the home front, KONAMI stopped supporting the Sega Dreamcast, so pop'n music 5 CS was only on the Sony PlayStation for the first time ever. 5 CS didn't arrive until near the end of the year. To make up for it, though, KONAMI included a lot of pop'n music 6 songs as previews, and even included the speed mods 6's arcade version introduced.

DanceDanceRevolution saw itself focusing more on the new and less of the old. Along with going from 30 fps to 60, DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX also saw the series remove all but 20 songs prior to 4thMIX, licenses and originals alike. KONAMI shook it up even further with DDRMAX -DanceDanceRevolution 6thMIX- later that year, which scrapped all previous songs altogether for 42 new songs, mostly consisting of new Dancemania licenses and CS songs, with only six new originals. KONAMI even removed 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 4thMIX and 5thMIX. It also released DanceDanceRevolution EXTRA MIX, which brought the songs from DanceDanceRevolution Solo BASS MIX, DanceDanceRevolution Solo 2000, and (almost) all the new songs from 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. DanceDanceRevolution CS (America) came out in the U.S., containing a decent mix of songs from DanceDanceRevolution through 3rdMIX CS, while Dancing Stage EuroMIX CS came out in Europe. Both North America and Europe received DanceDanceRevolution Disney MIX (Dancing Stage Disney MIX in Europe), a very loose port of 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.

DanceDanceRevolution also saw a big first in BEMANI; the first mobile BEMANI game. Near a decade before jubeat plus or REFLEC BEAT plus, there was DanceDanceRevolution (i-αppli), which allowed one to play MIDI versions of DanceDanceRevolution songs on your mobile phone.

GUITARFREAKS & drummania found itself struggling with the limitations of the KONAMI BEMANI SYSTEM 573 DIGITAL hardware. 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 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 - 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.

beatmania IIDX got by far the best upgrades of any series this user. Not only did it receive two arcade games, but the interface was streamlined, added several new helpful options (more speed mods, song grades introduced, DVD video hardware replacing VCD), and the songlist and music variety only got better. Two new home versions came out relatively quickly as well, both having the subtitle "new songs collection", due to having new CS songs.

KEYBOARDMANIA received one final game this year with KEYBOARDMANIA 3rdMIX. For the final game KONAMI added a very interesting feature - Multisession GDK. This allows you to combine GUITARFREAKS, drummania, and KEYBOARDMANIA all at once to play songs on. While only a few songs were compatible, the result was the most complete band experience one could get in a music game an the time. Unfortunately, only the two new GF/DM releases this year - GF5th/dm4th and GF6th/dm4th - could be linked up to access this mode. There was talk of a 4th KEYBOARDMANIA title exclusive to PlayStation 2, but it never came to light.

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 DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX.

ParaParaParadise got its one and only sequel, ParaParaParadise 2nd MIX, this year. Unlike the original game, it never received a soundtrack or console release. It did boast a couple of original remixes, most notably one for then recent pop'n music song ウルトラハイヒール〜I JUST WANNA TELL YOU. It was also the first BEMANI game to run on the then new BEMANI VIPER HARDWARE, which pop'n music would start using the following year to great effect. The same day 2ndMIX came out, ParaParaParadise received a PlayStation 2 home release based on 1st MIX Plus, though the home port received a bit of criticism for being a pain to set-up and implement.

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

January

  • January 24th: beatmania IIDX 4th style Original Soundtracks album released.
  • January 24th: pop'n music Vocal Best 2 album released.

February

  • February 7th: Para Para Paradise Original Soundtrack album released.
  • February 8th: おはスタ DanceDanceRevolution GB is released in Japan for Nintendo's Game Boy Color.
  • February 19th: DanceDanceRevolution (i-αppli), the first mobile BEMANI game, is released to Japanese mobile phones.
  • February 21st: beatmania CORE REMIX Original Soundtrack album released.

March

  • March 6th: DanceDanceRevolution CS (America) is released in North America for the Sony PlayStation.
  • March 15th: DanceDanceRevolution 4thMIX CS is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
  • March 15th: DanceDanceRevolution GB3 is released in Japan for Nintendo's Game Boy Color.
  • March 15th: KEYBOARDMANIA 3rdMIX is released to Japanese arcades.
  • March 15th: ParaParaParadise 2nd MIX is released to Japanese arcades.
  • March 15th: ParaParaParadise is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
  • March 16th: Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK album released.
  • March 17th: GUITARFREAKS 5thMIX & drummania 4thMIX is released to Japanese arcades.
    • Hirofumi Sasaki, an in-house artist who worked on covers in the previous game, starts writing new songs for BEMANI.
  • March 21st: beatmania ANI-SONGS MIX 究極戦隊REMIX album released. This album focuses on remixes of songs from sentai shows.
  • March 21st: beatmania ANI-SONGS MIX 名作動画REMIX album released. This album focuses of remixes of songs from the long-running Sekai Meisaku Gekijou (世界名作劇場) anime series, which are TV series based on classic books/stories. It ran Sunday nights from 1969 to 1997, with a second run starting in 2007.
  • March 23rd: Sana-mode, the first full-length album for in-house beatmania/pop'n music singer Sanae Shintani, is released.
  • March 27th: beatmania IIDX 5th style is released to Japanese arcades.
    • Long-time notechart designer wac starts writing music for BEMANI as of this game.
  • March 27th: DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX is released to Japanese arcades.
    • BeForU, an idol group formed by series' sound director Naoki Maeda, make their BEMANI debuts.
  • March 29th: beatmania打打打!! is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
  • March 29th: beatmania THE SOUND OF TOKYO! is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
  • March 29th: beatmania IIDX 4th style -new songs collection- is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation 2.
  • March 29th: DanceDanceRevolution GB Disney Mix is released in Japan for Nintendo's Game Boy Color.

April

  • April 4th: beatmania soundtracks THE SOUND OF TOKYO! album released.
  • April 19th: Dance Maniax 2ndMIX APPEND J☆PARADISE, an upgrade to 2ndMIX, is released to Japanese arcades.
  • April 25th: KEYBOARDMANIA 3rd MIX Original Soundtracks album released.
  • April 28th: pop'n music 6 is released to Japanese arcades.
    • wac starts sound directing the series beginning with this game. He would continue to serve as head/co-sound director of the arcade pop'n music series up until pop'n music Sunny Park.

June

  • June 1st: Dancing Stage EuroMIX CS is released in Europe for the Sony PlayStation.
  • June 4th: MAMBO A GO GO is released to Japanese arcades.
  • June 6th: GUITAR FREAKS 4thMIX & drummania 3rdMIX Soundtracks album released.
  • June 7th: DanceDanceRevolution EXTRA MIX is released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
  • June 27th: beatmania IIDX 5th style Original Soundtracks album released.
  • June 27th: pop'n music 6 original soundtrack album released.

July

August

September

October

November

Unknown Date

  • Toshio Sakurai leaves KONAMI to form a band outside of KONAMI.
  • Youhei Shimizu leaves KONAMI to join Polyphonic Digital Inc.
  • Parquets join KONAMI's music label. They would continue to release singles/albums through KONAMI until 2006.
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