Gamespot score:n/a
my score:9.2
(+)Pros:-Simple and addictive gameplay that sucks everyone who lays thier hands on the game in,- vibrant selection of songs that spread across every genre,-e-amusement acts as a memory card and features an interesting unlock system,-features local and online matchmaking systems,-lots of self customization to suit the player's tastes,-harder level charts are an absolute blast to play.
(-)Cons:-Oversentitive touch screen and faulty sound systems.
Gameplay cost:3 tokens
Surely enough I wasn't much of an arcade person. WASNT, now I am, thanks to this monster machine you are seeing in the picture above. Since early this year (jan/feb/march), I have started on a new arcade game, and have become indefinetely hooked to it. Meet jubeat, a konami made music game in the beamani genre. Jubeat is a crazy addictive game, and to prove it, there are tons of people all over asia playing it. In singapore, the jubeat scene is quite hectic, many a time the arcades' jubeat machines will all be occupied, and in the end, you have to wait long lines of other players before you can actually play. Of course, the jubeat stars all live in korea and japan, but thats beside the point, jubeat is suprisingly popular. Theres a later version, copius coming out later this year, but today's review is mainly targeted towards knit (of course, the append version stuff all added in too). Enter the magical cube known as jubeat!
Jubeat's token price has remained the same all these years. Unlike most music games, whose token prices drop after some time, jubeat's token price has always been 3. This was probably because of its popularity, since it is quite the way the milk money for the arcade vendors. Its simple really, for 3 tokens, you get to play 3 tunes. Each tune lasts for about 1 and a half minute to 2 minutes. Counting the time you take to choose the 3 tunes, you get at least 5 minutes of gameplay per runthrough.
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| Jubeat's concept is fun and interesting. |
Jubeat is a very innovative game, easily the most innovative arcade game out there (related to music of course). The entire game is played on a 4 by 4 square grid, made out of 16 mini squares. Each square represents a button that can be pushed down, so the game is basically made out of 16 button screens. Cool stuff eh? You can fiddle around with all the buttons, they all show something new when pressed. The gameplay is simple and addictive. Since the game is made out of 16 grids, its pretty simple once you think about it. You pick a song from an incredibly vast song list (more on this later), confirm your settings( you can choose which markers suit you) and click next to start playing.
After some online or local matching, the song begins. During the song, notes will appear on screen, following the beats of the song. When a note appears on screen on one of the buttons, just tap it, simple as that. Depending on the songs levels, which range from 1 to 10, there will be different amounts of notes. On a level 1 song, there will be very little note appearances, making the game seem like a very simple version of wack-a-mole. On the harder levels, notes fill the screen frantically one by one or in awkward patterns, making the game more fun and hectic. Harder songs will have you tapping the buttons very quickly and in different positions too, depending on how the notes are positioned.
Most of these must be accomplished by doing weird hand positions to point yourself to the notes, but dont worry, you're not the only one doing them. Of course, you cant just tap the note the moment it comes out, you have to time yourself. Each marker will fill the screen in about a split second or so, and when your marker is at the most precise moment, you tap it to gain the most points you can. Of course there are many situations where you may be pressing too early or too late, which will result in lesser points accounted for that note, or even a miss, breaking your combo and receiving no points for that note.
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| With the number of awesome songs, you will be spoilt for choices. |
Up till the recent jubeat knit append, there are a total of over 200 songs (yes, incredible), spread over a variety of genres. If you buy an e-amusement, you can maximize that song amount, but if you dont, you can only play the very few they grant you. Getting an e-amusement card lets you unlock songs, expanding your song list to the full potential, rather than the measly amount of songs you get when you play the game without a card. Within this song list you get tracks from various popular konami artists and japanese artists. Konami artists such as Dj yoshitaka, L.E.D and ryu* pull out their biggest hitters for this game, with songs such as evans, stellar wind and I'm so happy. The japanese artists have thier own big hitters too, like only my railgun by fripside, infinity by girl next door, endscape by uverworld, R.P.G by SuG...and many more. Out of the ton of songs you get to play, each one has 3 charts, basic, advance and extreme.
People most of the time play extreme, as they are level 8 and above, those are where charts get hectic and extremely fun. Basic and advance are kind of like for practise reasons. Plus, while playing your favourite songs, the online matching lets you pair up with other players around the world that are playing that very same song you are at the very same time. This happens frequently, there are so many players around the globe, and while it may seem like a competition, its not. The online matching helps you not only to compare scores, but if you fail a song and someone who online matches with you passes it, he/she can save you. Cool stuff, definetely. Plus, you can match locally with your friends, giving them the priorities just like an online matchmaking.
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| Thats right, keep those hands moving! Jubeat is a mother f***ing SPORT biatch! |
Plus, if a machine has faulty buttons, the buttons may be too hard to press, or when you hit them, they will get stuck...kind of sucks when you have to pay $1.50 to play each round. Whats more, the sound system. While most machines have loud speakers with good volume management, some do not. And if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in the middle of two other good machines with loud volume, you cant hear squat from your machine. You may loose the beat of the song and that will heavily affect your playing (Earpieces work, they are highly recommended).
Jubeat may seem like a stupid game, and you may be reluctant to try it. But if you see that many people playing it, it cant be that bad can it? Its an awesome game, and people love it. Its highly addictive, and while you think that its just a simple music rhytm game like any other in the arcade scene, you are terribly wrong. You will curse yourself if you miss that 1 note from getting an S grade, or make a fuss when you fail to achieve what you want at times, but you will find yourself putting in more tokens for another play, most of the time. When you starts seeing squares, going online to study the charts and start hitting thin air when you hear any song at all...you know you've caught the jubeat disease. Jubeat is an incredibly innovative music game that is an absolute blast to play.
Happy gaming!
