DESCRIPTION

Ever wanted to be a DJ? If just pretending will satisfy your curiosity, then Beatmania might be the answer. With five keys and one turntable, it'll be up to you to create great a mix and keep the audience jammin' along and not booing you off of the stage.

During a song, colored bars scroll vertically down the screen, eventually crossing over a play bar at the bottom. You have five piano keys (three white and two black) and must press the corresponding keys when the bars overlap your play bar. Depending on how exact you are, you will receive one of four ratings: bad, poor, good or great. Hitting a lot of great notes in a row results in you building up a combo, but the notes can come at you quickly and you often are forced to press multiple keys at once. Also, red lines often descend as well, and at these points you need to scratch on the turntable.

There are many different songs to choose from in Beatmania, encompassing a wide variety of dance music. You can scratch around with hip-hop, acid, hard techno, drum 'n bass and several others. Each song is rated by its own difficulty level, and while the easier songs move slowly and don't toss many notes your way, the more difficult songs keep multiple notes coming your way at an extremely high rate of speed. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide