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Interview with Alex Rigopulos at GameCritics.com
 
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Cutriss
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0. PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:10 am    Post subject: Interview with Alex Rigopulos at GameCritics.com Reply with quote

GameCritics.com has posted an interview with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix. Harmonix is the developer behind the popular FreQuency series, and worked together with Konami to create Karaoke Revolution.

In the interview Rigopulos not only discusses trends in the current music games market, but also makes mention of Bemani's future direction and makes mention of several future projects with Sony and Konami both.

You can access the interview here.
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1. PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

He states that Konami and Sony would by working together, same thing that EGM stated a few months ago, what does this really mean?

New music game that's not like Freq. Or Amp...?
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2. PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

D-Man 95747 wrote:
New music game that's not like Freq. Or Amp...?
Well, Rigopulos said that they aren't working on a successor to Amplitude right now. It's questionable if they will anyway, since apparently the sales of both FreQuency and Amplitude weren't very high.
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3. PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 11:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, Karaoke Revolution won Time Magazine's Game of the Year.

Always good to get an award from a magazine known for its knowledge on gaming. Kind of like THUG broadcasting that Maxim gave it a 4/4. Who cares?
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4. PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

But they feel that Konami's bemani games have a very one demensional feel to them. I don't think so!!!

They want to try to make games where you actually make notes as you go along listening to the music. If you ask me fequencey was just to danm wierd for me to play. I looked at and thought "What the hell??"

It just felt like it was missing that magic something. If you ask me the one thing beamani games have that I really love is music that is complex. I like knowing that I go as far my level of understanding will take me. The American music games tend to be too overly simplistic.

I know music gaming here is still a very niche genre, but that doesn't mean that they should hold back either. Learn to accomidate the new players, but give existing players a reason to get better.

Ryu Hiragoshi
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5. PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 5:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ryu_Hiragoshi wrote:


They want to try to make games where you actually make notes as you go along listening to the music. If you ask me fequencey was just to danm wierd for me to play. I looked at and thought "What the hell??"

It just felt like it was missing that magic something. If you ask me the one thing beamani games have that I really love is music that is complex. I like knowing that I go as far my level of understanding will take me. The American music games tend to be too overly simplistic.

You contridicted yourself

Frequency and Amplitude were ok, but I still don't think they were anywhere near as good as most Bemani. I wish the guy had been able to disclose some new information about the games they're making. We already got DDR and KR from KoJ, I wonder what Bemani we could possibly getting next. Id love it if it were Pop'n Music, but I doubt thatll be it.
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6. PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Spike wrote:
Wow, Karaoke Revolution won Time Magazine's Game of the Year.

Always good to get an award from a magazine known for its knowledge on gaming. Kind of like THUG broadcasting that Maxim gave it a 4/4. Who cares?


That's something that confuses the hell out of me, too. In fact, it's getting popular to cite Maxim's reviews in print ads for games, too. They probably don't even give scores lower than 3/4 anyway. That's like citing a gleaming movie review from a home remodeling magazine.

Anyway, regarding Harmonix's future projects, I'd like to see something like Rez or Vib Ribbon from them. I'll track down a copy of Rez someday, but Vib Ribbon may be too elusive. >_<
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7. PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Harmonix is a good group. I own two games developed by them: Frequency and Karaoke Revolution. They need to do more music games in the future.
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8. PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Syxx wrote:
Harmonix is a good group. I own two games developed by them: Frequency and Karaoke Revolution. They need to do more music games in the future.


What else they do?
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9. PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 12:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

D-Man 95747 wrote:
Syxx wrote:
Harmonix is a good group. I own two games developed by them: Frequency and Karaoke Revolution. They need to do more music games in the future.


What else they do?

Amplitude
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10. PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kunio573 wrote:
Anyway, regarding Harmonix's future projects, I'd like to see something like Rez or Vib Ribbon from them. I'll track down a copy of Rez someday, but Vib Ribbon may be too elusive. >_<
If you liked Rez, keep your eyes open for Unity. It's a similarly-styled game being developed for the GameCube by UGA, the company that made Rez.

/me hugs his copy of Rez that JustJeff procured for him six months ago
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11. PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 5:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rez... is easy and boring.
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12. PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 6:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The guy who wrote the captions on that Web page wrote:
Kakaroke Revolution (PS2)


Uh... is this some sort of sequel or something? =)

~yyr
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Catastrophe
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13. PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 12:48 pm    Post subject: Harmonix Interview Reply with quote

Kick ass interview! I knew I was going to hear some good news from them at E3 and now I'm sure of it!

I always divided music games into 4 types. My first type is the rhythm type, like Parappa & Space Channel 5, where the music is basically static and you're essentially playing a long game of "Simon Says" with your thumbs. Those get old fast. My second and third types are the dance-type and beat-matching-types that Konami has made alot of. I consider GF&DM (etc) to be the beat matching type. KR is so different that its the only pitch-matching type of game that I know of. (Yay innovation! E7.gif)

And some people are going to hate me for saying this, but I think Vib Ribbon looks like the first type but with dynamic music. I haven't played it but I have seen it and it looks like calculated obstacles put to music. Am I right? I suppose DDR, DMX, and PPP are also just another long game of Simon Says but I enjoy those games because of the physical component to them. The dance routines in those games always follows the music and when you get really good at them you can just go with the flow and you really begin to notice ...

(*mid-post*, Catastrophe hears Keep It Going, gets up, and starts dancing to Winamp - including some random fits of Kereoke, which lasts for 10 minutes, and sits down again)
Well, I guess anyone who would understand what I'm trying to say already knows what I'm trying to say. E1.gif

Its funny actually, because Beatmania-syndrome edits for DWI got me hooked on Beatmania since I'm essentially playing the music with my fingers either way. And now Harmonix seems to be saying that they can do better than than completely scripted music games. I can't wait to see what that means!

The Interview wrote:
We're trying to up the eye-candy, the hypnotic visual component is a lot more compelling than the sometimes cheesy low-budget cartoony graphics of the Japanese-flavoured BEMANI games.
Yeah, Amplitude is still 50 times prettier than even the newest versions of IIDX but thats still no reason to pick on Goli's artiwork! Oh, unless they meant Pop'N, DDR, and everything else that features generic movies of random animated shapes. That could be.
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14. PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I'm at least glad to hear Harmonix still has more games in production other than KR. Its too bad that Harmonix doesnt have any really close ties with any record labels, like Konami has to Dancemania. Then again, I cant really think of anything similar to Dancemania in America, the closest thing is Ministy of Sound, and they're British....

BTW, I've always thought of Bemani graphics as kinda like sheet music, plain and sorta ugly, but really functional.
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15. PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 10:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
BTW, I've always thought of Bemani graphics as kinda like sheet music, plain and sorta ugly, but really functional.

exactly, I've never noticed the background when I play DDR, and not even while I watch people play, only when my little nephews make some punk comment about them but thats only because they have no interest in the steps.
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16. PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:54 am    Post subject: Mmm ... rhythm games. Reply with quote

So when are they going to release those damn expansion packs for Karaoke Revolution? The PS2 HDD is out, so it should be no problem now. They need to get on that.

I love Rez! I just sent in my money order since I won it on eBay, so I'll be getting my PS2 Rez in a week or so. /me is happy. I sort of want that vibration pack from Japan, too. Seems like it would be ... pleasureable.
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17. PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:47 pm    Post subject: DDR On Southpark Reply with quote

On the most recent episode of South Park, an extremely stereotypical asian character was put on the show as a team member of the antagonist team of the competition. Apparently, the ideal chinese ghetto kid was put on the show to basically explain how typical it is for asian kids to play DDR. I just thought that was interesting..
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18. PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:49 pm    Post subject: Re: DDR On Southpark Reply with quote

Anti-Gravity wrote:
On the most recent episode of South Park, an extremely stereotypical asian character was put on the show as a team member of the antagonist team of the competition. Apparently, the ideal chinese ghetto kid was put on the show to basically explain how typical it is for asian kids to play DDR. I just thought that was interesting..

OMG South Park may have been just a little offensive, God Forbid!! frust.gif

BTW wrong thread.
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19. PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"...the hypnotic visual component is a lot more compelling than the sometimes cheesy low-budget cartoony graphics of the Japanese-flavoured BEMANI games."

Man...if he hadn't added that "sometimes" in there I might've had to hunt him down...*thinking of IIDX* biggrin.gif

Good article, but it really felt like he was trying to diss the Bemani games as much as possible. Or maybe he's implying that it's a dying breed...? I know DDR is alive and well here in the U.S. and over in Europe, but I've heard it's dying in Japan. Aren't PnM, GF/DM, and BM making up for it though? I'd think the Bemani games were doing well, besides DDR...
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