Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold

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 21, 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 more powerful hardware using Windows XP Embedded as its operating system.

The user interface features a predominantly metallic appearance, with gold and silver accents throughout.

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.

e-Amusement

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.

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 朱雀 (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.

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 all songs were later unlocked for regular play on e-Amusement connected machines. All songs contain different frames for the gameplay UI in their room's color.

Music

New Songs

*1 CROSSROAD has 2 different versions in this game.

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 by DJ Yoshitaka, with additional vocals provided by "Michael a la Mode" (actually Yoshitaka's voice placed through various audio filters) 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 Michael's incomprehensible but booming vocals, and the intentional Engrish lines from the song have often become memes. Michael a la Mode as a character has appeared in other roles due to his popularity among fans, such as hosting the Tutorial mode in future versions, and later appearing in a B4U remix.
• TRANOID - a tribute to video game music. The video for the song contains an opening sequence for a fictitious game of the same name, starring "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.
• Golden Cross, a techno song by DJ REMO-CON and dj TAKA, and one of the collaborations on the console version of Gold. The song is the toughest out of the new songs on Gold CS, with its another chart being ranked a 12 and containing a total of 1765 notes. The video features several of the musicians in a show named "Yoshitaka no Shogi" (a parody of Hikaru no Go, another television program based around a Japanese board game).
• Sense 2007 - a song accessed through the VIP Room system. Sense 2007's normal difficulty is rated a 9, making it tied in rating with gigadelic as hardest normal difficulty in IIDX history.

Home version

The home version of Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold for the PlayStation 2 was released on May 29, 2008. The console version includes new songs such as 6 collaborations with IIDX regulars, 6 unlockable songs, and revivals of older songs from other IIDX versions and from the original 5-key Beatmania series, a total of 96 songs.

Two songs from the Kaiden course in Class mode, Vanessa and Kamaitachi, feature new Another charts only playable on the course, which are more difficult than their original charts. As with other recent PS2 styles, the game also contains unlockable interface items, such as different menu music, category announcers, additional lane covers for the Sudden+ modifier, and discs for the turntable icon in gameplay.

The original videos of Last Message and Sense 2007 (which are infamous for containing scenes of sexually provocative imagery, were replaced with 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 (which does not have a CERO rating). On the contrast, 星をこの手に now has a dedicated video, and Metallic Mind now has overlays featuring Hihumi, the mascot of the game.

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.

North American location test

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. This is not the first time a Beatmania IIDX game has been released in North America though, as a Beatmania game based on 9th Style, featuring songs from IIDX, and the original Beatmania games, were released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. These did not have an arcade counterpart.

The build was first seen at a location test at Brunswick Zone Naperville in Naperville, Illinois. Most of the instructions in the interface was translated into English, though Dan mode was untranslated, and song titles were not translated or romanized (although the LED marquee does show titles in a romanized format on all styles by default).^[1] The English build of IIDX Gold was never released.

External links

• Official home page (Japanese)
• IIDX Gateway (Japanese)
• RemyWiki

References