Beat Mania Beats a Path Home

The popular Japanese arcade game Beat Mania by Konami was just released for the PlayStation this week in Japan. The crew at videogames.com got its hands on a copy as well as a couple of the special Beat Mania controllers. Here's what we saw.

Beat Mania is a DJ simulator, that's right, a DJ simulator. The game has tons of music tracks that have different types of dance music like house, techno, rave, and hip-hop. The game is played by listening to a track, and just as a beat or note is to be played, you press the correct button on the controller at the precise moment that a corresponding icon shows on the screen. As the songs play, different animated graphics flash in the middle of the screen - they are just random images like a guy shooting a basket or two teddy bears hugging each other. There's even a hidden bonus track that is the main theme from Metal Gear Solid.

The special ASCII-manufactured controller that you can pick up has five square buttons on it that act like a musical keyboard, as well as a mock turntable. This special peripheral gives you the full experience of being a DJ. And besides, the game is incredibly hard to play with a regular PlayStation controller.

Currently Beat Mania hasn't been scheduled for a US release.