beatmania IIDX is one of Konami's flagship music-rhythm games over in Japan and it went through a trial run last year with the first-ever American PlayStation 2 release. Although its performance is not totally clear, it appears that Konami is willing to bring the game over with a true-to-the-series release with the games fourteenth arcade iteration of the game, beatmania IIDX GOLD.

beatmania IIDX has always been an import game since the game's inception 8 years ago. Recently, Konami held one of the first location tests for the game in Brunswick Zone located in Naperville, Illinois and they deemed it a success. After taking the machine to this year's Amusement Showcase International, the game was a hit and one of America's top amusement chains is interested in getting them.

By participating in showing your interest, it will demonstrate to Konami to consider bringing over their other music games over from Japan, including GuitarFreaks (guitar), DrumMania (drums), Keyboardmania (keyboard/piano; game is discontinued but interest might show a revival!), and maybe even the obscure pop'n music (general rhythm game that doesn't resemble an instrument; think FreQuency/Amplitude in a way but smacking 9 giant buttons with your palms). Konami would only merely have to refine the games for the intended audiences as they already have a tremendous backlog of in-house tracks from a variety of music genres. Konami also already has its own internet ranking system that can work interoperably between arcade games and home versions for those who seek some competition.

So if you want to help out with all of this, read on the sudden opportunity that has risen for everyone and let Dave and Buster's know that you would like to see beatmania IIDX GOLD in their arcade. They are the first place we want to see these machines to be shown in a marvelously presentable manner (ability to use internet capabilities, keeping the machine in top condition, and so on). You'd be doing yourselves and the Bemani community an unbelievable favor.

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Brunswick Zone will get back the test machine sometime soon. Brunswick Zone will also be location testing GuitarFreaks/DrumMania and Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 together this summer. For more information on beatmania IIDX, GuitarFreaks, DrumMania, and pop'n music, I suggest the articles for the game series at Wikipedia. And to see the games in action, there's always good ol' YouTube and Google Video (make sure to search by the game title!). Lastly, to keep up on the status of the games and any possible U.S. location tests, you can always hit up bemanistyle.com, DDRFreak.com, and DDRUK.com!