After years and years of it being a joke in the community, Konami is releasing a US version of beatmania IIDX. Over 50 songs, apparently split between a 7-key mode and a 5-key mode. Engine is the 9th Style engine with some tweaks – the stars are back, amusingly.
Aaron Ramsey has dug through the 62 “screenshots” (mostly artwork, not screens) that Gamespot put up, and has generated a partial songlist including the following:
– Metal Gear Solid Main Theme
– La Bossanova de Fabienne
– Hunting For You
– Overblast!!
– Dancin’ Into The Night
– Nothing Ain’t Stoppin’ Us
– in my eyes
– Paranoia Max “Dirty Mix”
– The Shining Polaris
– I Was The One
– Star Field (not totally confirmed)
Most of the players who frequent this site (who already know about the announcement) will groan with this songlist, as it’s certainly leaning towards the easy side of the song list, but that’s to be expected for a first US mix. It’s nice to see the five-key revivals, although I would enjoy it more if they were songs I had more of an interest in (Inclusion of *Feel The Light* would mean I could finally ditch the PSX games).
The implications of this release are honestly boggling my mind to the point where I’m finding it hard to type – I will need some time to digest it all. Needless to say, VJ Army will be supporting the US mix, and any further US mixes down the line.