First Touch: DJ Max Technika

The Escapist heads to Los Angeles to go over the incoming big thing in arcade rhythm games on test.

As my escape descends into the urban center of Los Angeles and the endless suburban gray-haired stretches as far as the eye can see, I endeavor and remember the finis fourth dimension I travelled specifically to play a rising rhythm game. Was it 2001, hind when Arcade Infinity was the solitary proprietor of Beatmania IIDX: 6th Elan? Regardless, IT seems like far likewise long for someone WHO wont to travel all around to be i of the few to bask these games in the US Government. Much has changed in the sometime few years, with Harmonix and the advent of Guitar Hero doing everything that like Japan and Korea could not: make rhythm games a in full-breathless, graph-top-hole cultural phenomenon.

Recently, however, in that location's been a revolutionary air of momentum flowing once Sir Thomas More from the East. Pentavision of Korea and their Disc-jockey Max Portable series have brought hard-core rhythm games back to a global audience, thanks in part to the ease of importing, availableness of the PSP chopine and their credence of gamers from all around the world with international versions of their games. The world of DJ Max Portable is coming to US shores in January thanks to Postmeridian Studios, but part 2 of their invasion plan involves the arcades and their new touch modality-enabled rhythm title, DJ Grievous bodily harm Technika.

From a visual standpoint, Technika looks care a titan, over-powered Nintendo Doctor of Science (check come out of the closet my flickr for photographs from the test locations). It features ii LCD screens mirroring the legal action, with the bottom cover being a touch-screen for gameplay and the tipto screen displaying the action for spectators, albeit at a slightly high resolution. The point of this is to not only give the audience a clear view of the plot without having to lean over the musician's shoulders, but to show off Pentavision's outstanding production values likewise. Each song features a high-quality picture being played in the desktop and in a variety of different styles to match the action. E.g., the chip tune "Hard to Set forth" features a crowd of adorable CG blobs bouncing around a real forest, self-contained with hikers marching through the muck up. Songs from the Korean pop genius, Clazziquai, utilize clips from their actual music videos while other songs sport everything from cel-shady to hand-drawn and CG animation, entirely of which looks undreamed of and gushing at a much high resolution than those seen in games corresponding Beatmania IIDX.

Technika is passing impressive and eye-infectious on its visuals alone, but for fans of rhythm games, its as so when information technology comes to the gameplay mechanics. While Disk jockey Max on the PlayStation Portable plays equal your mediocre Beatmania or Guitar Hero title, Technika with its tactual sensation screen plays a quite a little like the Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! surgery Elite Beat Agents series on the Nintendo Darmstadtium, with a slight twist. A timeline scrolls across the screen, which is disunited in half horizontally, and bounces from right to left as it reaches the edge of the screen, while the appearing notes take out turns alternating from the top and bottom incomplete of the screen respectively with each pass. This creates a selfsame chiseled flow to the game as your hands move from one side of the screen to the strange in a circle pattern, fashioning the appearing notes undemanding to follow and your hands always in the straight position. The screen utilized by Technika allows for bigeminal touches at in one case (something a Nintendo DS can't do), so the use of both of your hands is not only encouraged, but also obligatory.

There are a mixed bag of different note styles to be found in Technika, some of which whitethorn be familiar to Ouendan and Elect Beat Agentive role players. Along with the standard single-touch notes are Pause notes that must be held down, Connect notes that require you to hit a unmoving button to the beat and Ghost notes cause your finger's breadth followers a curing path. Both Basic and Break notes ass be turned into doubles that require deuce fingers at once, but completely of them tin personify layered over united another in more difficult songs. At its easiest, Technika utilizes solely the Basic and Pause notes, though at higher levels wait to make up tracing lines down the play field while still tapping other notes with your free hand. In our clock time with the game, we saw players of all different abilities tackle the game and spell it seems quite welcoming to newcomers, it also holds nothing back for experienced rhythm method play veterans.

Musically, Technika is possibly the topper in the series, sporting a merge of songs from the DJ Max Portable games as well A newfangled tracks. When it comes to the Portable entries, I always find that I gravitate towards astir ten some songs that I'll meet to death and dismiss the pillow (preceptor't care, I do the same to Daddy'n Music releases too), but with Technika, selecting new and foreign songs was actually appreciated, as opposed to getting a shot full of ear venom. At some of the essa locations I visited (UCLA and Long Beach), the nigh hot songs were those by Clazziquai and DJ Max favorites such as "Ladymade Star" and "Limbo," though the real winner was the Daft Punk-esque, "Play the Future," as its hard-hitting beats made for a cracking case of the machines sound capabilities. Personally, I found myself termination each game with "Motion," equally I'm a chump for anything Jazz-Squinch in rhythm games (I'm looking at you, "Wee-wee Your Move").

Pentavision's US handlers, PM Studios, wish be conducting further tests at different locations throughout the Undivided States, with tests in Circumboreal Golden State and New York coming soon. Acknowledging that arcades in the US are few and far between, PM Studios is aiming towards more mainstream congenial locations corresponding movie theatres and Dave & Busters to learn the title, with these tests providing the necessary Book of Numbers to pass pass.

For everyone else, there's always interior ports or this case, the handhelds. Michael Yum of PM Studios has already confirmed to both Siliconera and The Dreamer that a Nintendo DS version of DJ Easy lay Technika is currently in-development, but Yum also informed us that an iPhone version of the brave is currently in the pre-output, inquiry phase, as the iPhone could better support the title's multi-touch gameplay and high-resolution art. Both platforms do instant their own advantages and challenges for the team in Korea, so for now it looks as though the arcade may exist the only place to get the true Technika experience. For everything else, number back to The Escapist tomorrow for our full interview with PM Studios producer, Michael Yum.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/first-touch-dj-max-technika/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/first-touch-dj-max-technika/

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