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The story
A thread titled “Beatmania is honestly way too crappy a game” popped up on 5ch’s Newsspeed VIP board, kicking off with complaints that the menu screen doesn’t display song titles at all — only genre and difficulty. The discussion then broadened into a debate about the series as a whole, with posters citing Konami’s shoot-’em-up series “Gradius” for comparison, suggesting the original was accessible to everyone while the sequels narrowed their focus toward hardcore fans. Some pushed back with specific sales figures, and while no consensus was reached, the thread settled into a familiar general take shared across rhythm games and shooters alike: “difficulty inflation widens the gap between newcomers and veterans.”
What people said
If you love rhythm games that much just go drum on your desk lol
Gradius is fun though.
Xexex sucks though.
https://youtu.be/MOq2YRj46rk
This is basically the VIP board's theme song, you know
That song wasn't in it, so it's probably a different version.
Are you a professional DJ or something
There was a crossover event back around version 17 or 18
where filling out a folder in one title would unlock songs in another
The one I played this time was the very first PS1 release, the one that came bundled with that "Nyan Nyan Byuu Byuu" cat song, so I wouldn't know
The original is fun for everyone,
but the ones after that aren't
Honestly the original isn't even that fun
it's only good because of the Big Core and Reverse Volcano stage music
It only shows genre and difficulty.
Isn't that the crunchy chocolate? (mixing up composer "Cranky" with crunchy candy)
It's just a general statement, you know
saying everything from 2 onward is "for core fans" — your take is the unusual one
That's not just a rhythm-game thing lol
That's true for rhythm games and shooters.
Cave's fine since that's literally what they sell, but nobody actually wants bullet-hell patterns.
I'm talking about you, ZUN.
Calling your own opinion "general," huh.
The original was only popular because of the Konami Code.
Also, Parodius was popular too.
It's not just my opinion — Gradius has an actual track record of selling a million units.
Gradius III sold 500k at launch, and everything after that tops out around 200k, basically off the radar.
Only hardcore fans rate Gradius II highly
Well of course everyone buys it when something new comes out, regardless of the content.
And I wasn't even talking about Gradius II to begin with
People who play rhythm games at arcades are total ○○○○, huh.
Censoring that since it'd be awkward if someone saw
What are you talking about?
The oldest one is the best-seller, you know?
Well of course it sells well, it's the oldest one
Armored Core VI sold 3 million copies though
if the oldest one always sells the most, I wonder how many copies the original Armored Core sold?
after that it just feels different somehow
Personally I wanted to smash the disc starting from the very first PS1 one.
The bundled append disc too, of course.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Beatmania is the original music game Konami launched in 1997, spawning numerous spin-off series since, including IIDX. The complaint raised in the thread about missing song titles reflects a real quirk of the song-select screen, which shows only genre and difficulty — a usability issue that makes it harder for beginners to pick songs. Meanwhile, the exchange about Gradius used posts citing sales figures of “1 million units” for the original and “500,000” for the third installment as evidence, but it’s worth noting these numbers come from individual posters’ memories rather than confirmed statistics presented as fact in this article. The discussion centers on two main points: whether the original was made for everyone while its sequels narrowed toward a hardcore audience, and the broader claim that rhythm games and shooters decline as difficulty inflation widens the gap between newcomers and veterans. The latter point tends to come up regardless of genre, with some posts even citing the bullet-hell style of the Touhou series as an example.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Newsspeed VIP) thread “Beatmania Is Honestly Way Too Crappy a Game.”
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