*Interesting Imports is a little series of games that I've imported & decided to review. This'll be part one. Hopefully, enough people will be interested enough for a part two...*

I decided that instead of reviewing the game that I imported, I would review the entire series in general since there's so many games in the series. This is a review/history of the beatmania IIDX (pronounced 2-DX) series.

Beginnings & gameplay: WAAAAAY back in 1997, Konami released a game in the JPN arcades called beatmania. Basically, the controller consisted of 5 buttons (or "keys") & a turntable (please note that this is the 2P side. 1P's side has the turntable on the left & the keys on the right):

The gameplay was simple: Simply press the keys & spin the turntable when the bars on the screen hit the red line to produce a sound to make the song:

At the end of each song, you must have your gauge at 80% or higher in order to pass the song. Then you're graded on a scale of F to A, AA, & AAA (almost like Dance Dance Revolution).

The game did well & had a number of sequels & PS1 ports. In 1999, Konami decided to make a "deluxe" version of the game, adding 2 more buttons/keys to the controller (note: this is the controller for the US release (more on that later). The JPN controller is squared at the end rather than rounded):

& now, after 10 years, the series is still going strong. The regular beatmania series ended in 2002 (beatmania: The Final), but the IIDX series is still being produced.

Console ports: Starting with 3rd (& 4th, as 3rd & 4th were put together in 1 game), Konami has ported the IIDX games to PS2 which basically include:

- All the new-to-AC songs

- a certain # of "revivals" (songs from past games)

- around 5 to 10 CS exclusives (songs that were made exclusively for PS2. Sometimes, after time, the song will make it to either AC &/or other CS releases)

Sometimes, Konami will be nice enough to include "preview songs", which is basically a song from the newest arcade game on the newest PS2 release, which is usually 1 game behind (i.e on the newest PS2 release, which is the 16th game, there's 2 songs from the 17th game, which is in arcades now).

All the PS2 ports have been only released in Japan, but in 2006 (before the PS2 release of the 11th game in Japan), the US got a released simply called "beatmania", which consisted of both songs from the original & the IIDX series. It was different from the JPN version (mostly toned town in diff. & song count) & sadly, didn't do all that well (annoyingly, X-Play deemed this a "Guitar Hero rip-off" despite beatmania/IIDX was released YEARS before GH, not to mention Konami made their own guitar/drum simulators.....but I'll talk about that for another time). However, it's a great game to help introduce people into the IIDX series, plus it's alot cheaper than importing a controller.

Music: This is what is going to decide on if you want to import the series or not. On the latest arcade release, there's over 500 songs. The PS2 releases usually have (starting w/ the 11th, or RED) 89-99 songs. However, on the newest release (beatmania IIDX 16: Empress + Premium Best), Konami added a SECOND DISC containing 99 songs that consist of songs from the past 15 games, as a way of saying good-bye to all the years the IIDX series has spent on the PS2 (no word on which console the series will move to). There's MANY different genres of music, most of which you wouldn't expect to appear. There's even some songs from the Dance Dance Revolution series (Konami also made that) & songs from IIDX that have appeared on DDR (we call these "crossovers"), so if you like some of the songs in DDR, you'll like the songs in IIDX (though I think IIDX has better songs than DDR).

Difficulty: I want to address this because while the game is great at teaching new people & it starts off easy, it can get HARD. VERY, VERY, VERY HARD:

YEEEAAAAAHHHHHH, I'm not gonna pass that anytime soon, & neither are you.

But don't worry. That's one of the hardest songs. You won't have to deal with alot of those. Most of the songs are alot more easier to beginners (especially the ones in the US release I mentioned). There's 4 different difficulties in the series. Normal, which is just as it sounds & where you'll play the easiest charts/songs. Hyper, which is the medium diff. & Another, which is the hardest & where you'll see those kinds of ridiculous charts. In the PS2 release of the 15th game (DJ Troopers), Konami made ANOTHER difficult which basically translates to Kuro/Black Anothers, which is basically even HARDER charts, but not all songs have this. As you can see in the video above, the chart on the left is the Another & the chart on the right is the Black Another. The rating system goes from 1 to 12 (as of the 12th game), 1 being the easiest & 12 being the hardest.

Recommendation: Go listen to some songs on YouTube & determine for yourself if the music will want you to get the games. I got the US release & then started importing the newest JPN releases since '06 (I have 11 through 16, the newest), so if you're lucky enough to find the US release w/ the controller, I'd say get it to start out & see if you want to import them like me. I've enjoyed some of the music so much, most of my music on my MP3 collection consists of songs from the series (& other Konami music games). If you want a list of songs that appear on each game & what songs are part of the beatmania series, I'd suggest this site, as it'll also answer some other stuff not mentioned here.

Next time: GUYS can be cheerleaders?!

P.S: Bit.Trip Void will be added to WiiWare tomorrow, so once I play some of that, I'll review it, plus DSi got another Art Style game, so I think I'll review that too w/ Bit.Trip Void. Also, there's now a demo of Bit.Trip Beat on WiiWare for download, so please download to try the game out.

One of the classic NES games, Excitebike recently just got a remake on WiiWare which was released on Nov. 9th (& it was only announced 2 weeks before it's released!), which got me excited. Is it memorable like it's NES counterpart, or should you skip it?

Excitebike: World Rally

Genre: Racing

Price: 1,000 Wii Points ($10)

Platform: WiiWare

Excitebike: World Rally is basically a remake of the old NES game, keeping true to it's roots. The controls are the same (just hold the Wiimote on it's side & play it NES-style) & the goal is simple: just beat the time (or the B-rank time) to go to the next track. Complete all 4 to go to the next cup (think Mario Kart). There's 4 cups w/ 4 tracks each, so it'll hardly take you any time to go through it, but since you can unlock extra colors by getting S-ranks on all the tracks for that cup (2 colors for each cup, plus a special one for getting S-ranks on all 4 cups).

Modes: The good ol' Track Editor is back, & this time, you can send & receive custom made tracks online (like Super Smash Bros. Brawl's stage editor). Speaking of online, you can go online & race against other people. Sadly, due to limitations, I can't test this out (I have to use a LAN adapter to connect to the internet & it's not all that fast, plus I have to haul my 21" TV out, which isn't fun. You can also unlock even more colors/designs online by earning points by racing online against anyone or your friends (hey, I might get online if enough people convince me).

Cons: Like I said, there's only 16 tracks, & they're all short (only 2 laps & all should take under 2 minutes to complete the race). The alt. colors are OK, but don't feel like a great reward for that hard work getting the S-ranks, & that special design is just basically the black w/ a skull on it & some white strips, but you can hardly see them since your rider covers the design, not to mention you're too far away to see it, so it kind of feels pointless. There's also multiple "angles" you can view the race from, but they're awkward due to the controls being like the NES, so you'll want to stick w/ the classic angle, which makes the other angles feel useless. Also, shaking the Wiimote up & down after you crash IS NOT FUN & GETS ANNOYING.

Recommendation: Ask yourself this: "Do I like Excitebike on the NES? Do I like classic-style racing games?" If you do, then I'd recommend it. You'll have fun enjoying Nintendo remaking another classic game & playing against people online. If not, well, then this isn't for you.

Alright, Bit.Trip Void gets released on Nov. 23rd, so I'll download that & review it about a week after. I'll review the Japanese PS2 game I imported (it came on the 27th, a WEEK AFTER I was expecting) sometime later, as I've got everything unlocked & ready to give my review, plus I might review 2/3 DS games I've imported.

I finally got those Miles Edgeworth Tokyo Game Show posters that I won in the mail today, so here's some pictures (along w/ another prize I won in the past) of them.

Here they are just opened:

& after 10-ish minutes later of finding 16 push-pins, on my wall.

I also want to share with you something I "won" 2 months ago on Twitter from Capcom. Their Dark Void Twitter account was doing a special contest where you could win one of those neat E3 t-shirts. Well, I entered & a few days after it ended, I asked them if they had a list of the winners. They did, but it turned out, THEY HAD AN EXTRA & WOULD ME MORE THAN GLAD TO SEND IT TO ME. Yup, I won an extra shirt that they had from the contest. Sadly, it's only a Large (they didn't have XL), but it's still neat having something that only 300 were ever made. I even got a paper w/ 3 signatures of people who worked on the game!

That's it for this post. My Japanese PS2 game should be shipping soon (i.e 10/14 or 10/15), so I'll do a little review of that, plus I'm getting the Mario Hat from Club Nintendo (it went to preparing order. If any of you care, I'll post it) & I'll be reviewing Bit.Trip Void once that gets added to WiiWare.

GameStop had a special exclusive demo (10/11) of DJ Hero, so I went to check it out, & now that I'm back, I'm going to give some quick impressions.

At 1st, I didn't seem to care much about the game & the controller left me wondering how it was actually going to work. But after spending some time playing it, I felt like it worked perfectly & my interest in the game sky-rocketed up. There was only 1 set of 3 songs in which you HAVE to play them in order ("Heard it From the Grapevine vs. Feel Good Inc", "Hollaback Girl vs. Give it to Me", and "Boom Boom Pow vs. Satisfaction"), so it was kinda weird not being able to just choose a song like in most demos for rhythm games. The only difficulty you couldn't choose was Expert, which kind of makes sense seeing as nobody has actually played the game until now, so I just played on Hard after going through the Tutorial (which does a good job explaining how to play)

At 1st, I would overshot the crossfader (which is used to switch the lanes for green & blue), but I eventually got the hang of it, & it was really fun to scratch & rewind (which, w/ the spin of the turntable, will rewind a few seconds of the song to replay & score extra points) the turntable. The music selection (to me) was mixed. The 1st song was "meh", the 2nd was really good, & the 3rd song wasn't as good as the 2nd, but was better than the 1st.

To summarize, I had no interest in the game until now, & I really had fun w/ the demo. Sucks I can't buy it since I'm saving up for a laptop.....

Now, for future blog posts, I'll be reviewing Bit.Trip Void once it gets released, I have an imported PS2 game that'll be shipping this week, so I should be getting it in about 2 weeks or so, & since I was the winner of those Miles Edgeworth Tokyo Game Show posters, I'll show off those once I get them & I'll even throw in some pics of the Dark Void jetpack shirt I won awhile back.

P.S: Since I turned 18 on 9/21, my blog posts are now public, so everyone will be able to read them now, so spread the word of my blog.

So after ALL this time, I've finally gotten around to review a WiiWare-exclusive 6-game series. The 1st 2 games have been released & I'll be reviewing both of them, Bit.Trip Beat & Bit.Trip Core. As always, game titles link to footage.

Bit.Trip Beat

Genre: Rhythm (I guess, I really don't know how to classify it)

Price: 600 Nintendo Points

Remember Pong, one of THE 1st video games ever created? Remember Atari? Bit.Trip Beat takes you back to those days, & what a retro trip.

Gameplay: Hold your Wiimote sideways & tilt it up & down to control a paddle that represents a yellow Pong rectangle. Simple. You control your paddle to hit flying bits at you that range from just flying straight at you to curves to random movements. There's also special bits where it can change your paddle, from gaining 2 to hit multiple bits at once, a bigger paddle, or a smaller paddle that earns you more points. Each bit you hit adds a sound effect to the amazing 8-bit soundtrack. If you hit so many bits, then you go into Hyper, which increases your score multiplyer & makes the music better. However, miss too many, & go back down to Normal. Miss too many in Normal, & you'll go into Neither, where the music is gone, the graphics turn to black-&-white like Pong, & the only noise will be Atari-style sounds from your Wiimote speaker. Miss too many in Neither, & you fail & have to start over. There's only 3 stages, but they're about 8 minutes long each. There's also multiplayer for up to 4 people, but I haven't tried it since I don't have anyone to try it out with.

Cons: Like I said, there's only 3 stages, so some might think that the game is too short. But here's another thing; the game is VERY hard. The 2nd level can be brutal after 1/2 way, & the last level is just one of the most hardest moments I've ever done, & I still haven't beaten it, so the difficulty might frustrate some people (though it'll make you keep trying again & again to memorize), & for a game that wants you to get a high score, there's no online leaderboard. & It can get annoying wondering "how much longer is this stage?!" if you're not the patient type since there's no way to tell how far you are. I've also heard that there's some bug where you have to get a high score, or else the game won't save, thus not saving the stages you've unlocked, but you can just get a save file online from the game developers themselves to get both stages unlocked.

Recommendation: 600 points feels right for this great, unique experience. It's short & hard, but you'll get a lot of fun out of it.

Bit.Trip Core

Genre: Rhythm (It's really hard to classify these games...)

Price: 600 Nintendo Points

Core is the 2nd game in the Bit.Trip series & once again, it's am unique game for WiiWare that you must play & a nostalgia trip to the old days of gaming.

Gameplay: Once again, you hold the Wiimote sideways NES-style, but there's no motion control this time. You control a "+"-shape in the middle of the screen being able to fire a beam in 4 different directions  (up, down, left, & right). You destroy bits that fly towards the area you can fire your beam (watching the gameplay footage helps explaining) & then hold the D-pad in the direction you want to fire & press "2" to fire. The interface is better this time around, as you can see how far you've made it in the stage (an issue I had in Beat). There's also a new mode called "Mega", which is a better version of Hyper, except if you miss ONCE in Mega, you go down back to Hyper. Once again, there's special bits that'll affect the object you're controlling. You can gain the ability to fire in 2 directions (up & down or left & right), fire a beam by just holding the D-pad, or the "+"-shape will rotate, requiring you to rotate your Wiimote so the D-pad presses match the directions the "+"-shape is firing. You also have a bomb that'll destroy all the bits on the stage by pressing the "1" button. Otherwise, it's like Beat w/ the music & graphics being retro & having 3 stages being around 8 minutes.

Cons: Like w/ Beat, there's no online leaderboards (though I couldn't care less for leaderboards) & there's only 3 stages again. & I think Core is even HARDER than Beat (I'm still stuck on the 2nd stage!), so easily fustrated won't like this game.

Recommendation: Like I said w/ Beat, it's a great deal at 600 points, & one of those unique experiences you can't find anywhere else.

I've also downloaded a bunch of Virtual Console games. If you're interested in me reviewing them or other things, please leave a comment of what I should review or what you thought of this. Thanks for reading.

P.S: For my next blog post, I'll be posting pictures of the Dark Void t-shirt that I'll be getting. I'll tell the story of how I got it when I get it in the mail.