Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment


Do you like rhythm games like DDR, Taiko Drum Master, and Guitar Hero? Ars …

Training guide

It's easy to get overwhelmed when playing Beatmania or IIDX for the first time. It's even easier to develop some bad habits before you know how to play properly. To help flatten that learning curve, Ars Technica has enlisted the help of Tamarik, one of our forum regulars and a hardcore Beatmania player to give us some points on playing for those of us new to the game.

The basics

Beatmania/Beatmania IIDX is part of Konami's Bemani series of music simulation games, and quite possibly is one of the most difficult of the series to learn and master. Like all of the Bemani games, Beatmania is best played with its special controller. Importers have had to often pay upwards of US$100 for the similar Japanese controller sans game, and the seriously addicted (myself included) have shelled out upwards of $500 for the limited-edition IIDX ASC. (Yeah, I'm crazy.)

Before you get started, make sure you have a good set up to play. The Beatmania controller isn't exactly the most ergonomic out there, so extended periods of play will leave your hands aching in short order. Don't be put off by this; as you play more, you get used to the range of quick movements and key presses that wear on your hands.

The arcade cabinet has the keys and turntables placed at about waist height on a 6' 2" frame, so mimicking that by laying the controller in your lap and leaning back is a good position. You can also use a short TV dinner tray to set the controller on while you play. Experiment to see what feels most comfortable to you.

The controller is reversible, so if you're left handed and feel more comfortable pressing keys with your left hand, you can detach the key section of the controller and turn it around, placing the turntable on the right side, and vice-versa. To avoid hand-eye confusion, you can also switch the places of the turntable and keys display during gameplay. It's really hard to scratch with your left hand when the notes for the turntable are coming down the right hand side of the screen.

In most tutorials on Beatmania/Beatmania IIDX, the keys are numbered 1-5 or 1-7, in a zig-zag pattern starting with the first white key, then the first black key.

Hand placement

For many people, the initial assumption for hand placement is to press keys with one hand and to scratch the turntable with another. While it is possible to become very skilled at this style of play, you face a much steeper learning curve in an already extremely difficult game for beginners.

For the southpaws among us

If you're just starting and have never played a Beatmania game before, I strongly suggest starting off with two hands. Use the hand closest to the turntable to scratch and to hit keys 1 and 2 (and maybe 3, again, it depends on comfort) and the other hand to press the rest of the keys.

While this does remove a hand from being dedicated to the turntable, it's not that big of a sacrifice. Eventually, you'll get extremely good at moving your hands quickly, and the turntable is very sensitive. It only takes a fraction of an inch for the turntable to register a scratch. In fact, as Ben pointed out, you cannot play multiple scratches in a row during a song by rotating the turntable in the same direction; you must scratch the turntable back and forth as if you were scratching an actual record. This can be done easily by flicking a pinky along the turntable or scratching and keeping your thumb poised over keys 1 and 2.

Difficulty and practice

Beatmania is hard, but for a starting player, it's artificially hard. The major obstacle in overcoming the inability to pass the easiest songs is learning the unique controller and having your hand-eye coordination compensate properly. The majority of beginning players are frustrated when they start because while they understand the dynamics of the game, they can't play well since they don't know where the keys are in relation to their hands.

Once this initial obstacle is overcome, Beatmania gets genuinely hard. Ben mentions a learning curve, but it's really more of a learning staircase. Reacting to the note's color (white is for the white keys, blue is for the black), playing the beat and melody at the same time, learning to quickly hit multiple keys at the same time... all of these gameplay elements are potential "walls" that players will encounter and will learn to overcome. As you play more and more, you'll gradually get better until there's another gameplay element that's a wall. Much like DDR and other music-sim games, there's a real sense of accomplishment when you clear these walls and are able to move on to more difficult stages.

The game also has various settings for the speeds the notes fall down the screen, so if reading the mish-mash at Normal speed is too difficult, you can speed up the notes with Hi-Speed and spread them out. There are also Shuffle and Mirror modes so that you can practice sight reading and reacting. The challenge and settings makes for a very deep and rewarding experience.

Thankfully, with all that difficulty, Beatmania makes it easy to practice. The Training Mode is extensive, offering all the in-game settings and letting you practice on any song with several playback speed settings (the game will literally slow the song down, as if you played an LP at a lower RPM) so that you can see note patterns and hit the keys accordingly. It then rates your play and displays your "problem measures" so that you can see where you need to work on the song. Make sure you take advantage of the Training Mode; it's the best tool at your disposal to practice problem songs.

This should get you started on learning the right way for you to play Beatmania. Of course everyone has a different style of play, but these tips should get you started on learning how to play Beatmania in the way that's most suited to you.

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