Fussbett wrote:

curst wrote:

I'd agree with Fussbett about both games being inferior to Beatmania except that A: I've not played Beatmania and can't imagine how it'd improve upon the simple-yet-fun gameplay of Freq/Amp

Nor do you need to play the game to join my Beatmania army. You know it's right, in your soul. It's not that Beatmania improves upon the gameplay, it's that Freq/Amp dumbed down and shit-ized the concept. The proof is in your very own statement that ultimately playing a favourite song in WinAmp with a visual plug-in achieves the same effect. Beatmania, on the other hand always awaits me, taunting. You get rusty from not having played certain songs in a while. Upon victory of a song, you feel like you played the shit outta that track. That you KNOW the song inside and out and that you WERE the instruments. Upon completing a Freq/Amp stage you feel like you did a good job playing pseudo-Tempest.

Fussbett wrote:

curst wrote:

NO CRYSTAL METHOD. NO AKROBATIK. NO FEAR FACTORY. NO FREEZEPOP. NO RUN-MOTHERFUCKING-DMC.

Amplitude: P.O.D., Garbage, Pink, Papa Roach, Blink 182 and the worst Weezer song possible. Radio: The Game!

Fussbett wrote:

Beatmania is a Japanese series, so all the songs are by obscure Japanese people when they're not just goofy compositions from Konami's in-house music dudes. Much of the charm of the games is from these half-baked songs, and holding that against it is misguided. Which leads us to the next point...

Fussbett wrote:

curst wrote:

Basically, Beatmania = LOSE LOSE LOSE LOSE and EXTRA-LOSE. Although I'll grudgingly admit that Fussbett's usually right about this sort of thing, so perhaps I'll rent it.

You can't, sadly. You may only play it in a crowded, noisey arcade where you can't hear the music over the DDR machine beside you. This is why I called Freq/Amp fans dilettantes. It's not their fault that they lack sufficient exposure to Beatmania. It's being kept from North Americans while Freq/Amp is easily available. Beatmania also has a heavy learning curve, so it doesn't reward the dabbler (ie: the people paying $1 per turn in an arcade).