American gamers might wonder what Konami’s been up to for the past few years. Instead of delivering hot new additions to their popular Castlevania and Contra series, they’ve farmed those licenses out to different developers, often resulting in games not worthy of their prestigious titles. Aside from Zone of the Enders and Metal Gear Solid 2, what in-development Konami titles can you name? Konami has been riding a cultural phenomenon in Japan for the past four years. Music games, which have the player keeping time along with popular songs, took off in Japan like mad, and Konami is leading the way with new and innovative games and peripherals. This series, which to date encompasses dance, DJ, guitar, drums and keyboard-based music simulators, is collectively called "Bemani," an abbreviated form of BeatMania, which is arguably the most popular of the entire series. Konami is poised to bring the first of their Bemani series to the U.S. later this year. Dance Dance Revolution, which uses special floor mat controllers, will be the first (and last if it doesn’t sell) Bemani title unleashed into the states. While I personally enjoy these games very much, I’m not sure the American gaming public is quite ready for them, so importing will probably remain the only way to play these games. Here’s a quick look at some of the best that Bemani has to offer, along with a couple of other, similarly crazy Japanese games.

Konami for Playstation

1-2 Players

One of Konami’s oldest Bemani series, DJ simulator BeatMania has seen a few years worth of add-on discs in the land of the rising sun. Konami recently polled their Japanese fans, asking them to name their favorite tunes from the entire BeatMania series, and Best Hits is the result. This stand-alone disc culls tracks from all of the previously released BeatMania games, so it’s a great way to get into the series. BeatMania, like all of Konami’s Bemani games, uses a special controller designed just for this series. The controller features five keys and a turntable, and players must hit the appropriate key(s) or scratch the turntable at the correct times as indicated onscreen. BeatMania has been released into select arcades in the U.S., where it’s known as HipHopMania. The music leans heavily into hip hop and dance mix, although Best Hits has its share of wacky J-Pop as well. One of the highlights is a dance mix of the theme to Metal Gear Solid.

Konami for PS2 (1-3 Players)

Two relatively new Bemani titles, Guitar Freaks was originally released for Playstation in August of 1999, while DrumMania became the first PS2-only Bemani game in March of 2000. This should give you an idea of how quickly Konami releases new additions to each series – Guitar Freaks has had two add-on discs in just over a year, and DrumMania got its first add-on less than a year after the original game was released. These add-ons, or appends, contain new music, and often new play modes. This game is a first of its kind – two separate games on the same disc, and it allows for the very cool Session Mode, with two guitarists and a drummer jamming to the same tune. GF 3^rd Mix also allows players to choose between lead and bass parts for all of its new songs, adding even more replay to the game. Guitar Freaks uses a guitar-shaped controller with three buttons on the neck and a "pick" to strum as you press the buttons to the onscreen prompts. DrumMania features a controller with five pads representing top hat, snare, high tom, low tom and cymbal. It also has a foot pedal to simulate the bass drum. When it was released, DrumMania was the closest game in the Bemani series to actually approximate the playing of a real musical instrument. Thanks to its "Real Mode," DrumMania actually teaches real-life drumming technique, unlike Guitar Freaks, which may help teach rhythm and timing, but is a far cry from playing an actual guitar.

Konami for PS2

1-2 Players

The most ambitious Bemani game to date, KeyboardMania uses a twenty-four key keyboard to simulate playing a piano. The first KeyboardMania contains a slightly disappointing number of songs (something like 22), but 2^nd Mix aims to double that number, and it will include the classic Akujamo Dracula from Dracula X! You’d think that this game would be the toughest Bemani game because of this, but that honor easily goes to BeatMania IIDX…

Konami for PS2

1-2 Players

The "new and improved" (read: harder) BeatMania for PS2 is the newest Bemani series to be unleashed upon the Japanese public. It uses a new controller, roughly the same size as KeyboardMania’s keyboard and sporting 7 keys instead of the original BeatMania’s 5, as well as the turntable. This game is, in my opinion, the hardest in the Bemani series because of the position of the keys, and the finger-twistingly difficult notes you’re expected to hit. The game also moves at a faster clip than many of the other Bemani titles. Still, the power of PS2 allows for some actual music videos to accompany the tunes, and there are better than 80 songs on the disc, so there’s plenty of replay value.

Konami for Playstation

I have never played Dance Dance Revolution. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that there were other music games (Guitar Freaks, Samba) that I wanted to pick up first, and then Konami announced DDR for the states, so I’m patiently waiting for that to happen. I did import Bishi Bashi 3, though, and it’s best described as an incredibly Japanese Mario Party-like game for 3 players using DDR floor mats. The game consists of around 30 mini-games, ranging from standard DDR stepping to classic Konami Track & Field events, and much more. It’s a bizarre game, just about as "Japanese" as you can possibly get, but it’s loads of fun, gives you a good workout and puts everyone one equal ground, beginners and experts alike.

Jaleco for PS2

I haven’t even played this game yet (my copy has been on backorder for a couple of weeks now), but I thought I’d just throw it in here as another example of the expanding Japanese music game genre. Megastage allows up to 4 players to simulate an entire band, with each player chiming in when the icon representing his instrument crosses an on-screen line. Since I haven’t played it yet, I don’t know the quality of the music or the exact play mechanics, but I should be getting the game soon, and I’ll post a review on the site.