DrumMania

DrumMania (alternately drummania, abbreviated DM) is a music video game series produced by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., where colored notes travel down the screen which correspond with color coded parts of an electronic drum set. The player must hit the drum parts when the notes reach the bottom of the screen in order to fill in missing drum parts from a song.

Earlier versions of DrumMania which includes before the release of DrumMania 10th Mix, have been released in Asian countries, under the title Percussion Freaks.

Since DrumMania V, DrumMania and GuitarFreaks had been united with a single version number as part of the 5th Anniversary of the video game. As of writing, DrumMania V5 is the latest version of the DrumMania series, and it links to GuitarFreaks V5. They are essentially the 15th and 16th versions of each.

Konami has not mass produced an American version of DrumMania, primarily since John Devecka holds the US patent for "drum simulation games", which Activision had purchased and utlized in Guitar Hero series. Even with this possible obstacle in mind, Konami has tested English builds of DrumMania and Guitar Freaks V4 at the ATEI exhibition in London and at a Brunswick Zone bowling alley in Naperville, Illinois - though official releases have not been announced. Nonetheless, imported versions of DrumMania can be found in various locations across the United States and Canada.

Controller

DrumMania is played using a controller designed to imitate a drum set. Five pads are arrayed from left to right for the hi-hat, snare drum, high tom, low tom and cymbal. There is also a foot pedal for the bass drum near the snare and the high tom. During play, the player presses the pads and steps on the pedal.

The pads are actually a modified version of the DTXPRESS electronic drum kit made by Yamaha Corporation which is available in almost any musical chain store.

To the right of these pads, there are three buttons, Left, Start and Right, which are used to select and decide in the selection screens. In those cases, the Left button is assigned to the snare drum pad, Right to the low tom, and Start to the cymbal.

Gameplay

The screen setup is simple. On the left side, notes scroll vertically downwards and a short video clip for each song is displayed in the right side of the screen. Individual notes are represented by small colored bars that scroll downward in the columns.

To play the correct note, the player must hit one or two of these pads and/or step the pedal when the note bars reach the yellow line. The note scroll in DrumMania is in essence a drum tablature timed with the music and placed vertically.

The player's accuracy is judged for each note played, and while the individual note judgments have changed throughout the series, the current system uses Perfect, Great, Good, Poor, and Miss to evaluate performance of each note. Ratings of Poor or Miss will deplete the player's "Excite Gauge", while accurate play will replenish it.

If the Excite Gauge is emptied completely, the game ends. Players will be able to play anywhere from three to five songs depending on the game's configuration, with the potential to earn one or two additional stages in certain versions of the game if performance is good enough.

At the completion of a song, players are given a letter rank for their performance which can range anywhere from E to A, as well as S and SS depending on how well the song was played, and how the particular release of the game being played computes ranks.

Session Linking

One of the major selling points of DrumMania is its ability to be linked to another of Konami's Bemani games, GuitarFreaks. This allows up to 3 players to play together, the music will play from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds will be relayed between the two games as well. Linking only works with the same "version pair". A release of DrumMania was numbered one less than its corresponding version of GuitarFreaks. For example, GuitarFreaks 11thMIX can be linked with DrumMania 10thMIX. Beginning after the 11th and 10th mixes of GuitarFreaks and Drummania respectively, the numbering system was reset to start with V. All newer versions of the two games follow matching V numbering; for example, GuitarFreaks V2 links with DrumMania V2, etc.

Super Session

Seen only in two releases each of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, Super Session (or Multi Session) allowed the games to be linked up with Keyboardmania 3rdMIX as well. In addition to having three players control the guitars and drums, two more could be added playing along on keyboards.

However, when linked with Keyboardmania, only about a dozen songs are available to play. Keyboardmania 3rd Mix can be linked with GuitarFreaks 5thMIX and DrumMania 4thMIX, or GuitarFreaks 6thMIX and DrumMania 5thMIX.

Hardware

Until V, DrumMania used Konami's System 573 Digital hardware, which was also implemented on GuitarFreaks on its 3rd Mix, allowing the implementation of link functionality between the two games. On V, both games were switched to a PlayStation 2 based system, now using a hard drive instead of CD-ROM discs to store game data. As of V4, the DrumMania now runs on Windows XP Embedded based hardware (which has also been adopted by other Konami arcade games).

List of DrumMania games

e-Amusement

Since 9th Mix, the series has taken advantage of Konami's e-Amusement system, which adds several online capabilities to the game:

Avatar

With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed to select an avatar to represent themselves.

Battle

As of Drummania V3 with the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed to select an additional mode: Battle (Worldwide). With Battle mode, players can compete and pit their skills with another player available on the e-AMUSEMENT server; otherwise not available without the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass.

Players can select NORMAL, PERFECT or COMBO modes upon selection of the song to determine the final calculation. Upon winning or losing, they will be entitled to promote or demote to another higher BATTLE CLASS rated from D3 to SS, where players are sorted according how well they have successfully defeated opponents.

However, without the use of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, if there are additional Drummania machines in the arcade, an additional Battle Mode (Local) option is created, just like in a LAN. They have the same functionaility as the Battle Mode (Worldwide); otherwise do not have Battle Classes to sort the players.

Other than Battle Mode (Local), alternatively players can select the Battle Mode (CPU) which is also available only Drummania machines without e-AMUSEMENT access. This mode allows players to complete with the CPU, rather than a player.

Hidden songs

With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed access to hidden songs not playable without the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass. These songs are highlighted in green prior to selecting a songs.

Internet ranking

With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed to have their results posted via the Internet. These results include their own personal ranking and have results of their songs stored into the e-AMUSEMENT Pass.

Regional competition

With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players can compete against other players locally before being selected as the top 8 players to represent for their country. According the BEMANI TOP RANKER 2008 Competition, these players will be invited to Hong Kong for the semi-finals and Japan for the finals respectively.

However, an online registration must be submitted via the BEMANI TOP RANKER website and the player must play the complusory songs to determine the players who will be representing for their country.

Skill Points

Songs played are then converted to Skill Points, which is determined by the percentage of Perfects, Greats and the number of notes hit correctly in succession, known as "Combo." The higher the combo count and percentage of Perfects, Greats, the higher the percentage of skill obtained for that particular song, up to 100% or simply MAX.

As of Drummania V4, Skill Points are dependent on the first 14 songs released for the particular mix, next 36 songs from previous mixes and last 3 long songs from any mix played throughout the song list.

The previous mixes uses a different calculation of Skill Points since NON-STOP Mode is abolished in Drummania V4. The old skill point calculation is dependent on the first 13 songs released for the particular mix, next 35 songs from previous mixes, 2 long songs from any mix and the last 3 non-stop courses played throughout the song list.

Skill Points are awarded upon successful completion of a song, and depending on how well the Skill Percentage earned for the particular song, the player earns the amount of Skill Points reflected at the end of the game.

Titles

Players are allowed to select titles earned from Drummania to represent them. These titles require special condition(s) to be met before earning the particular title.

Soundtrack

As of DrumMania V5, the arcade versions of DrumMania have contained over 700 songs in total. Most songs are either crossovers from other Bemani games, J-pop and J-rock. Some mixes also contain covers of popular North American songs.

Drummania simulators

A handful of DrumMania simulators have been created for use on PCs, the most popular of which is called DTXMania, which also supports GuitarFreaks. It can be controlled using the computer keyboard, any USB device that can act as a joystick, or any MIDI instrument such as a MIDI keyboard or professional quality electronic drum kit. This is also compatible with the Rock Band Series Drum Sets

References

External links

gdamania (English)
Konami Digital Entertainment Limited (Hong Kong)
GuitarFreaks & DrumMania OFFICIAL SITE MAIN TERMINAL GATEWAY
e-AMUSEMENT PASS
Asia's BEMANI TOP RANKER決定戦 (Competition) 2008
Drummania Unofficial Homepage, a resource for DrumMania song information, including drum charts, artists, and difficulties.

Simulators

gdamania(English)
DTXMania, a popular simulator for DM/GF.
DigiBand, another simulator for DM/GF, currently the only one available for Linux.

Community

gdamania(English)
GDAmania, a Drummania/Guitarfreaks community website.

Hardware information

System 16's Bemani System 573 Analog Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the first-generation DrumMania games.
System 16's Bemani System 573 Digital Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the second-generation DrumMania games.
System 16's Bemani PlayStation 2 Hardware Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the third-generation of DrumMania games.
System 16's Bemani PC Based Hardware Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the most recent forth-generation of DrumMania games.