[Dream Traveler Klonoa]

Originally Posted by ranatalus

Contrary to popular belief by the "hardcore" community, Konami's target audience IS the tween/teen girls that will buy each mix, play their favorite licenses over and over and only occasionally venture into the KO area, typically by accident.

Would it be possible for them to accommodate both demographics by releasing separate games for the different crowds? You could have DDR games that cater to younger crowds that like things such as The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon, DDR games that cater to the hardcore Bemani crowd with releases like the Ultramix/Universe series or arcade-similar CS releases like Extreme JP, and DDR games that hit in-between, much in the way the current console releases do now.

DDR games still sell quite well, otherwise they wouldn't be making them. If I remember correctly, every US console release from Extreme back (yes, including the horrible mix that was US Extreme) and possibly Extreme2 has gone BEST HITS.

DDR Extreme US CS was not that bad, as we got some awesome songs like Bizarre Love Triangle, the framework for DDR Festival, and the removal of the MAX-era frame borders, giving us full-screen videos. Given what it was technically supposed to be, though, it was fairly lackluster.

You are absolutely right, they COULD put more songs into each mix--but what would their incentive for doing this be? Why make one release when they could easily stretch that content across 2 or 3 versions and have you buy (pirate) 3 games instead of 1? Do you think they hate money or something?

Personally, I think a lazy yet effective method for increasing song-count for CS releases that should be taken advantage of more often are classic revivals. They could bring back some of the songs from Konamix and introduce the Club Mix Another charts. I'm not a fan of the way Konami appears to be trying to slowly remove Club Mix from its arcade releases by eliminating songs like 20,november, celebrate, Dr.LOVE, jam jam reggae, ska a go go, and be in my paradise (given, they did keep things like 5.1.1. and Luv to me (DISCO MIX), but still). I'd love to see the Club Mix version of Brilliant2U on a US CS, as well as songs like g.m.d. and Beginning of Life. Nostalgia is just as powerful a selling tool as new content.

From here, I'm just going to toss out random ideas and discussion.

Downloadable content is the best way to keep things from getting stale. Unfortunately, it can only go so far, but it would be a good way to drag on a certain game for an extended period of time while the next game is being produced, especially if the content consists of revivals and such (as listed in the previous paragraph). Sadly, this isn't really possible for PS2 CS releases, and we don't really know where the future of next-gen Bemani is headed. DDR and pop'n have initial outings on next-gen consoles, but three Universe games and a crap pop'n-esque demo don't really amount to much. We'll have to see where the future official arcade releases start appearing on home consoles, and then we can probably further suggest possible strategies for improving home version quality.

In between DDR games, Konami could attempt once again to try to get back into the US music game market. Unfortunately for them, they haven't had the best outing outside of DDR with Rock Revolution being completely overshadowed by the Rock Band and Guitar Hero properties, with IIDX being so niche and underground that it can't grab any real attention, and with beat'n'groovy being so damn abysmal that even people who have a DJ Azure-style love for Beyond the Earth can't justify purchasing it. The best answer is to try something new for the US market. This could involve taking IIDX and making it significantly easier with a songlist of popular licenses with very few (and only the most popular) Konami Originals thrown in the mix (that upcoming 5-key clone looks to have the right idea), or it could involve creating an entirely new game with an instrument that hasn't been utilized yet. Why not a Keyboardmania revival? Or maybe something that isn't even an instrument at all like Ubeat? Or hell, a Mad Maestro-style game? There are numorous possibilities; it just sucks how the American video game market is so incredibly picky. Judging by most YouTube comments (which sadly is a pretty good place to get general ideas about opinions), if the game isn't GH/RB, it's not worth their time, and something has to change that.

I'm not even sure where I'm headed at this point. Enjoy the words.