Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 on February 21st, 2007. 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 the Taito Type X² Arcade system board - which uses Windows XP Embedded as its operating system.
As suggested by the title, Gold's interface is a retouch of the interface of Distorted, featuring a prodomently metallic interface containing a gold and silver color scheme.

[edit] Gameplay

Main article: Beatmania IIDX#Gameplay

Core gameplay remained the same on 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.

[edit] e-Amusement

Main article: e-Amusement#e-AMUSEMENT in Beatmania IIDX

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.

[edit] 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 Suzaku. The stage is played on Hard mode, which removes the 80% groove gauge requirement, but will fail the player 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.

[edit] 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 e-Amusement connected machines entered "beat #3" mode, which unlocks all songs for regular play.

[edit] Music

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, with additional vocals provided by Michael a la Mode, 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 its ridiculous sound and vocals (further characterized by its given genre, "Reckless Rave") and its incomprehensible lyrics. Lines from the song and video, such as "Make it make money" have also been referenced by players in many ways.
• TRANOID - a tribute to video game music. The video for the song contains an opening sequence for a fictitious game of the same name, staring "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.

[edit] Home version

The home version of Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold for the PlayStation 2 was released on May 29, 2008. The console version includes 8 new songs (including 6 collaborations with IIDX regulars), 6 unlockable songs (including the least 100 sec, a boss song from the Guitar Freaks/DrumMania and Keyboardmania series, which has also appeared on other Bemani games), the new songs from the Gold arcade version, and revivals of older songs from other IIDX versions and from the original 5-key Beatmania series. Two songs from the Kaiden course in Dan mode, Vanessa and Kamaitachi feature new Another charts only playable on the course. The songs Last Message and Sense 2007 (which are infamous for their videos containing scenes of sexually provacative imagery, the most well-known being a specific in Last Message) have 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.

Some pre-order bundles for the game also include the "Beatnation Summit" DVD, the artwork book "Puzzle - Maya Takamura's Pieces", and L.E.D's album, Denjin K.

[edit] English version

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. The build was first seen at a location test at Brunswick Zone Naperville in Naperville, Illinois. Most of the Japanese text in the interface was translated into English, though Dan mode was untranslated, and song titles were left in their original unromanized format (although the scrolling LED screen does show scrolling titles in a romanized form by default on all styles). ^[1] As of 2008, the English version has not been officially released.

[edit] External links

• Offical home page (Japanese)
• IIDX Gateway (Japanese)

[edit] References