Are You Ready Come on! It's Party Time!
step into the ring; IIDX enters its bling era. though the series had evolved into a bastion of capital-h Hard Dance throughout its run, Gold pulls the cheese back in. we're talking old-school rave shit, with gaudy pitch-shifted samples, hoots and hollers, and fat kicks. from the opening shot of your 24 karat gold-plated arena comes an infectious chant from Michael a la mode: "Make it make it money!". elsewhere the artists dip into their goofy side: see dj yoshitaka's ghostbusters remix complete with his own vocal stylings, or kors k's supersaw-laden FIRE FIRE, a veritable pop trance anthem. perhaps the most telling is that this game's VIP ROOM boss song deviates from the usual hardcore, drum 'n bass, and RENAISSANCE to give us a pseudo-remix/sequel of 3rd Style's Sense in Sense 2007, replete with late '80s orchestra stabs yet punctuated by a mid-song shift to dance floor R&B. perhaps the most eclectic entry out of the named styles on ps2.
this is also the first title I've gotten some serious 10* clears on! my DistorteD review was somehow from a year ago? and it makes it painfully clear how steep the difficulty curve is; I had rocketed up to 8* in just three months of regular play and then took the next year basically just to get a handle on 9*. much of it has to do with simply reading the charts more quickly, as the density of later charts (especially once you hit 10*) becomes egregious to the point that lower scroll speeds make the appearance muddled. unfortuantely, while I have ~6 10* clears on this disc, I haven't quite been able to replicate that amount on my other discs... but all things with time. one of the best ways to learn the more unorthodox chords of 10/11/12* is to start playing lower difficulties on random, and I've admittedly been too reluctant up to now to do so. also just like DistorteD CS this release got some lovely home-exclusive collaborations, this time pairing old-school beatmania and DDR composers with IIDX mainstays.
favorite tracks (not including those already linked):
Sota Fujimori - ANDROMEDA II (PSYCHEDELIC SYNTH TRANCE)
Sota Fujimori feat.cyborg AKEMI - Cyber Force (CYBORG TRANCE)
Auridy - Dreaming Sweetness (SCOUSE HOUSE)
DJ YOSHITAKA-G feat.Michael a la mode (RECKLESS RAVE)
kors k - heaven above (FILTER HOUSE)
DJ TECHNORCH fw. GUHROOVY - KAMAITACHI (FREEFORM HARDCORE)
L.E.D. - LASER CRUSTER (NU-SKOOL BREAKS)
Ryu☆ - Second Heaven (HANDZ UP)
dj TAKA - snow storm (TRANCE)
dj REMO-CON vs. dj TAKA - GOLDEN CROSS (TECHNO)
The Plastic Ambition(jun & DJ YOSHITAKA) - Guilt & Love (SHINING RAVE)
SLEDLAKE (SLAKE & L.E.D.) - SEQUENCE CAT (TECHNO)
SADA & SOTA - The Story Begins (EPIC TRANCE)
NAOKI & Ryu☆ fw.さちまゆ - Treasure×Star (DANCE POP SPEED)
step into the ring; IIDX enters its bling era. though the series had evolved into a bastion of capital-h Hard Dance throughout its run, Gold pulls the cheese back in. we're talking old-school rave shit, with gaudy pitch-shifted samples, hoots and hollers, and fat kicks. from the opening shot of your 24 karat gold-plated arena comes an infectious chant from Michael a la mode: "Make it make it money!". elsewhere the artists dip into their goofy side: see dj yoshitaka's ghostbusters remix complete with his own vocal stylings, or kors k's supersaw-laden FIRE FIRE, a veritable pop trance anthem. perhaps the most telling is that this game's VIP ROOM boss song deviates from the usual hardcore, drum 'n bass, and RENAISSANCE to give us a pseudo-remix/sequel of 3rd Style's Sense in Sense 2007, replete with late '80s orchestra stabs yet punctuated by a mid-song shift to dance floor R&B. perhaps the most eclectic entry out of the named styles on ps2.
this is also the first title I've gotten some serious 10* clears on! my DistorteD review was somehow from a year ago? and it makes it painfully clear how steep the difficulty curve is; I had rocketed up to 8* in just three months of regular play and then took the next year basically just to get a handle on 9*. much of it has to do with simply reading the charts more quickly, as the density of later charts (especially once you hit 10*) becomes egregious to the point that lower scroll speeds make the appearance muddled. unfortuantely, while I have ~6 10* clears on this disc, I haven't quite been able to replicate that amount on my other discs... but all things with time. one of the best ways to learn the more unorthodox chords of 10/11/12* is to start playing lower difficulties on random, and I've admittedly been too reluctant up to now to do so. also just like DistorteD CS this release got some lovely home-exclusive collaborations, this time pairing old-school beatmania and DDR composers with IIDX mainstays.
favorite tracks (not including those already linked):
Sota Fujimori - ANDROMEDA II (PSYCHEDELIC SYNTH TRANCE)
Sota Fujimori feat.cyborg AKEMI - Cyber Force (CYBORG TRANCE)
Auridy - Dreaming Sweetness (SCOUSE HOUSE)
DJ YOSHITAKA-G feat.Michael a la mode (RECKLESS RAVE)
kors k - heaven above (FILTER HOUSE)
DJ TECHNORCH fw. GUHROOVY - KAMAITACHI (FREEFORM HARDCORE)
L.E.D. - LASER CRUSTER (NU-SKOOL BREAKS)
Ryu☆ - Second Heaven (HANDZ UP)
dj TAKA - snow storm (TRANCE)
dj REMO-CON vs. dj TAKA - GOLDEN CROSS (TECHNO)
The Plastic Ambition(jun & DJ YOSHITAKA) - Guilt & Love (SHINING RAVE)
SLEDLAKE (SLAKE & L.E.D.) - SEQUENCE CAT (TECHNO)
SADA & SOTA - The Story Begins (EPIC TRANCE)
NAOKI & Ryu☆ fw.さちまゆ - Treasure×Star (DANCE POP SPEED)
4 Comments
@HylianBran woof... so IIDX is on version 30 now, and that's not including the incremental upgrade "substream" that happened between 1st and 2nd style. you can think of it like a yearly song pack, and it generally comes with new in-game progression (nowadays they've leaned fully into unlockables and achievements and monthly events and currencies etc.) and QoL additions. I started playing back when IIDX 29 CastHour was current, and nowadays there's IIDX 30 RESIDENT, which you can find in the states at Round 1 locations. as for home releases, there were 15 releases on ps2, all of which were japan-exclusive other than one american release (beatmania 2006) that was a potpourri of classic tunes from the series mixed with some western licenses. after IIDX 16 EMPRESS they stopped doing yearly home releases, and instead there's this shitty subscription service PC version called Infinitas.
that doesn't count the original beatmania series (which had 13 separate versions, or "mixes") and beatmania III (which had 5 versions), both of which use 5-keys compared to IIDX's 7-keys. sort of overwhelming LOL. the nice thing is if you find a cabinet for any of these in the wild it'll have nearly every song ever on there and you can just go nuts. the ps2 releases are a little more annoying since you constantly have to switch discs, but each disc has plenty of older songs added to round out the selection, so it's never a chore on any of these to find a song that hits.
that doesn't count the original beatmania series (which had 13 separate versions, or "mixes") and beatmania III (which had 5 versions), both of which use 5-keys compared to IIDX's 7-keys. sort of overwhelming LOL. the nice thing is if you find a cabinet for any of these in the wild it'll have nearly every song ever on there and you can just go nuts. the ps2 releases are a little more annoying since you constantly have to switch discs, but each disc has plenty of older songs added to round out the selection, so it's never a chore on any of these to find a song that hits.
@Pangburn a cabinet would be nice but I haven't laid eyes on an arcade in like a decade. The only one I can think of is the fucking chuck n cheese which is about two or three hours away. These games look cool so I'll try it on ps2
@HylianBran be warned that playing these on controller is a bit of a nightmare. if you're willing to invest, you can snag an official controller off of ebay for like, $60-70 last time I checked. only reason I ever ended up getting so deep into these is bcs I got a hand-me-down controller from an old roommate
HylianBran
10 months ago