Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold
Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold (stylized as beatmania IIDX14: GOLD) is the 14th game in the beatmania IIDX series of music video games. It was released in arcades by Konami Digital Entertainment on November 8, 2006. The game features over 45 new songs, some of which are unlocked over Konami's e-Amusement platform. The game instituted another hardware change for IIDX, now running on more powerful hardware using Windows XP Embedded as its operating system.
| Beatmania IIDX 14 Gold | |
|---|---|
 Titlescreen of the CS version | |
| Developer(s) | Konami Digital Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Konami Digital Entertainment |
| Series | beatmania IIDX & Bemani |
| Platform(s) | Arcade & Sony PlayStation 2 |
| Release | Arcade PlayStation 2
|
| Genre(s) | Music |
| Mode(s) | Single-player & Multiplayer |
| Cabinet | Custom |
| Arcade system | Konami Bemani PC Type 2 |
| CPU | Pentium 4 @ 2.5GHz |
| Sound | Realtek HD Audio |
| Display | 36" CRT, (Raster) 640x480 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio |
The user interface features a predominantly metallic appearance, with gold and silver accents throughout.
Gameplay
Beatmania IIDX tasks the player with performing songs through a controller consisting of seven key buttons and a scratchable turntable.[1] Hitting the notes with strong timing increases the score and groove gauge bar, allowing the player to finish the stage. Failing to do so depletes the gauge until it is empty, abruptly ending the song.[2]
The core gameplay remains the same in Gold. A new hidden modifier, "REGUL-SPEED", locks the BPM of a song to a constant 150, but scores achieved with it turned on are not recorded. In addition, a new song folder was added, Assist Clear, for songs which were cleared using the 5-Key or Auto Scratch modifiers. Gold also utilizes less strict timing windows than previous arcade releases, utilizing more CS-like timings. Also, the ability for 2 players to play on separate difficulties was added.
e-Amusement
A new e-Amusement feature added to Gold are "GP", points earned during songs which can unlock secret songs such as console exclusives and revival songs from previous styles.
Extra Stages
If the player gets three AA's on any difficulty (without use of the Random or Mirror modifiers) and the levels for all the songs add up to either 20 for Hyper or 30 for Another, the player is awarded a chance to play the extra stage, Vanessa by 朱雀 (Suzaku). The stage is played on Hard mode, which removes the 80% Groove Gauge requirement, but the player will fail if it drops down to 0%. If the stage is cleared, the player gets to play One More Extra Stage, Fascination MAXX, a crossover from the then-recently released Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova.
VIP Room
An additional extra stage-like system added to Gold through e-Amusement is the VIP Room, an extension on the system introduced by Distorted's "Cardinal Gate" system. To access the VIP Room, the player must play 30 songs on one difficulty, then pay 1700 GP. This unlocks the Silver Room, containing GOLD RUSH by DJ Yoshitaka-G feat. Michael a la mode.
Clearing 60 songs on one difficulty, then clearing GOLD RUSH with an A in Hard mode, plus another payment of 1700 GP unlocks the Gold Room, containing CANDY GALY by Risk Junk-G.
Clearing 90 songs, 5 songs from IIDX Records on the same difficulty, clearing CANDY GALY with an A or higher in Hard mode, and another payment of 1700 GP unlocks the Platinum Room, which contains 電人、暁に斃れる。 (Denjin, Dead at Dawn) by L.E.D-G. An additional OMES in the Black Room was Sense 2007 by good-cool.
The VIP Room system was later dropped as all songs were later unlocked for regular play on e-Amusement connected machines. All songs contain different frames for the gameplay UI in their room's color.
Music
New Songs
| Genre | Song | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindu Salsa | 2hot2eat | Osamu Kubota | |
| Flow Pop | Air Bell | D-crew | |
| Psychedelic Synth Trance | ANDROMEDA II | Sota Fujimori | |
| Epic Poetry | Blind Justice ~Torn Souls, Hurt Faiths~ | Zektbach | Also in pop'n music 16: Party and DDR Supernova2. |
| Spanish Cool | カミロ・ウナ・メンデス | 山根ミチル | |
| Nostalish Requiem | CaptivAte～誓い～ | A/I | |
| Nostalish Requiem | CaptivAte～裁き～ | DJ Yoshitaka feat. A/I | Also on GF/DM V2 |
| Trance | シティ・エンジェル | PINK PONG | |
| Techno Rave | Come On | John Robinson | |
| Dramatic Euro Trance | CROSSROAD *1 | jun with TAHIRIH | |
| Cyborg Trance | Cyber Force | Sota Fujimori feat. cyborg Akemi | |
| Scouse House | Dreaming Sweetness | Auridy | |
| Acid Jazz | earth-like planet | ELEKTEL | |
| Buchiage Trance | FIRE FIRE | StripE | Also on DDR X2 |
| Rock | four-leaf | Sis Bond Chit | Also on GF/DM V6: Blazing!!! |
| Disco | GHOSTBUSTERS | Remixed by DJ Yoshitaka. | |
| Electronica | GRID KNIGHT | SAW WAVE SQUAD | |
| Progressive | HALF MOON | Mutsuhiko Izumi | |
| Japanese Alteration | 花吹雪 ～ IIDX LIMITED ～ | S.S.D.FANTASICA feat.ユッコ | Also on pop'n music 17: Movie |
| Filter House | heaven above | kors k | |
| High Speed Love Song | High School Love | DJ Yoshitaka feat. DWP | Also on pop'n music 14: Fever! |
| J-Happy Hardcore | HONEY♂PUNCH | 小坂りゆ | Also in DDR SuperNOVA. |
| J-Pop | 星をこの手に | DJ YOSHITAKA feat.星野奏子 | |
| Millennium Trance | INORI | dj TAKA feat.HAL | Revived from beatmaniaIIDX 11 IIDXRED CS |
| Freeform Hardcore | KAMAITACHI | DJ TECHNORCH fw. GUHROOVY | |
| Industrial Review | 鬼言集 | あさき | |
| Future Pop | クルクル☆ラブ～Opioid Peptide MIX～ | イオンチャンネル | |
| Pops | Love Again... | Tatsh feat Junko Hirata | Revived from beatmaniaIIDX 11 IIDXRED CS |
| Nu Skool Breaks | LASER CRUSTER | L.E.D. | |
| House | Make Me Your Own | good-cool ft. Raj Ramayya | |
| Oldskool Hardcore Rave | METALLIC MIND | DJ TECHNORCH fw. GUHROOVY | |
| Hyper Eurobeat | My Only Shining Star | NAOKI feat. Becky Lucinda | Also on DDR SuperNOVA |
| Dance Pop | never... | 星野奏子 with dj TAKA | |
| Piano Concerto | op. 31 叙情 | akiko | |
| Drum'n Bass | PHOTONGENIC | L.E.D. fw.堀澤麻衣子 | Revived from beatmaniaIIDX 9th Style CS |
| 小倉テクノ (Ogura Techno) | Play back hate you | AKIRA YAMAOKA | |
| J-Pop | Red Rocket Rising | BeForU | |
| Hyper J-Pop Zero | 零 -ZERO- | TЁЯRA | Appeared in DDR X |
| Euro Trance | リグレット | 星野奏子(with DJ Yoshitaka) | Revived from beatmaniaIIDX 11 IIDXRED CS |
| Eurobeat | Roulette | Y&Co. | |
| Handz Up | Second Heaven | Ryu☆ | Also on DDR X2 |
| Ele Pop | smile | miru_maki. gjw | |
| Trance | snow storm | dj TAKA | |
| 歌謡ハウス (Song House) | So Real | Y&Co. feat.mioco | |
| Hyper J-Pop+ | STARS☆☆☆ (Re-tuned by HΛL) -IIDX EDITION- | TЁЯRA | Cut version on DDR SuperNOVA 2 |
| Schranz | the shadow | kors k | |
| Pop | The Smile of You | 猫叉Master feat.JESSY | Also on pop'n music 17: Movie |
| PSG Works | TRANOID | T&S seq. factory | |
| Hiphop | Watch out!! | MAD Sequence＊ | |
| J-House | With Your Smile | Shoichiro Hirata plus Junko Hirata | |
| Retro Rave | X-rated | SADA | |
| Digital Rock | Yabis Starlight | DAJI | |
| Techno | ヨシダさん | AKIRA YAMAOKA | |
| Deceptive Gabba | VANESSA | 朱雀 | Extra Stage, Appeared in DDR X2. |
| SuperNOVA Beat | Fascination MAXX | 100-200-400 | One More Extra Stage |
| Nu-NRG | 電人、暁に斃れる。 | L.E.D.-G | VIP Room (Platinum) Extra Stage |
| Happy | CANDY GALY | Risk Junk-G | VIP Room (Gold) Extra Stage |
| Reckless Rave | GOLD RUSH | DJ Yoshitaka-G feat. Michael a la mode | VIP Room (Silver) Extra Stage, Appeared in DDR X2 (2 versions), and pop'n music 18: Sengoku Retsuden. |
| Rave | Sense 2007 | good-cool | VIP Room (Black) One More Extra Stage |
*1 CROSSROAD has 2 different versions in this game.
Notable songs from this version include:
- GOLD RUSH - a song accessed through the VIP Room system. The song is an extended remix of Gold's opening theme by DJ Yoshitaka, with additional vocals provided by "Michael a la Mode" (actually Yoshitaka's voice placed through various audio filters) and a middle breakdown containing a naming of all the IIDX versions in order of release. The song gained a cult following in IIDX online communities due to Michael's incomprehensible but booming vocals, and the intentional Engrish lines from the song have often become memes. Michael a la Mode as a character has appeared in other roles due to his popularity among fans, such as hosting the Tutorial mode in future versions, and later appearing in a B4U remix.
- TRANOID - a tribute to video game music. The video for the song contains an opening sequence for a fictitious game of the same name, starring "Tran", an alien character seen frequently in IIDX videos. The actual game consists of her running down a track (which resembles the gameplay area of IIDX but tilted on its side), dodging other red, white, and blue aliens. The "game", is actually Tranoid's notechart on Normal for that portion of the song, and the game area and colors even imitate the standard colors of notes on IIDX. The logo for the game resembles the logo for Gradius, another Konami game.
- The Smile of You - the theme song from the Konami game Elebits, which coincidentally also includes references to other Bemani games in general.
- Golden Cross, a techno song by DJ REMO-CON and dj TAKA, and one of the collaborations in the console version of Gold. The song is the toughest out of the new songs on Gold CS, with its Another chart being ranked a 12 and containing a total of 1765 notes. The video features several of the musicians in a show named "Yoshitaka no Shogi" (a parody of Hikaru no Go, another television program based around a Japanese board game).
- Sense 2007 - a song accessed through the VIP Room system. Sense 2007's Normal difficulty is rated a 9, making it tied in rating with gigadelic as the highest Normal difficulty in IIDX history.
Home version
The home version of Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold for the PlayStation 2 was released on May 29, 2008. The console version includes new songs such as 6 collaborations with IIDX regulars, 6 unlockable songs, revivals of older songs from earlier IIDX versions and from the original 5-key Beatmania series, for a total of 96 songs.
Two songs from the Kaiden course in Class mode, Vanessa and Kamaitachi, feature new Another charts only playable in the course, which are more difficult than their original charts. As with other recent PS2 styles, the game also contains unlockable interface items, such as different menu music, category announcers, additional lane covers for the Sudden+ modifier, and discs for the turntable icon in gameplay.
The original videos of Last Message and Sense 2007 (which are infamous for containing scenes of sexually provocative imagery, were replaced with generic videos on Gold CS due to stricter age certification processes by the CERO and a desire to keep the game A-rated, although Last Message's video was included on the console version of 7th Style (which does not have a CERO rating). On the contrast, 星をこの手に now has a dedicated video, and Metallic Mind now has overlays featuring Hihumi, the mascot of the game.
Some pre-order bundles for the game also included the "Beatnation Summit" DVD, the artwork book "Puzzle - Maya Takamura's Pieces", and L.E.D's album, Denjin K.
North American location test
Gold was the first version of Beatmania IIDX to have a dedicated English build for the North American market. As with other music video games, Japanese IIDX machines have been imported by some arcades, but are still considered rare. This is not the first time a Beatmania IIDX game has been released in North America though, as a Beatmania game based on 9th Style, featuring songs from IIDX, and the original Beatmania games, were released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. These did not have an arcade counterpart.
The build was first seen at a location test at Brunswick Zone Naperville in Naperville, Illinois. Most of the instructions in the interface were translated into English, though Dan mode was untranslated, and song titles were not translated or romanized (although the LED marquee does show titles in a romanized format on all styles by default).[3] The English build of IIDX Gold was never released.
External links
- Official home page (in Japanese)
- IIDX Gateway (in Japanese)
- RemyWiki
References
- Foster, Neil (April 1, 2013). "Beatmania (page 8)". Hardcore Gaming 101. Kontek. Archived from the original on July 23, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- "overall on beatmania IIDX". Konami. Konami. 1999. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- "Beatmania IIDX Gold to go on test in an American arcade". Archived from the original on 2007-12-18. Retrieved 2008-04-02.