There's some speculation that BMIII existed purely as a "patent troll game" to ensure they had more grounds to sue AmuseWorld (the creators of Ez2Dj) which was another game with 5 keys, TT, and foot pedal (the latter of which actually released before BMIII). Hell, even one of the decryption keys for BMIII is "jdotysae" (read that backwards). It's speculated that Pop'n Stage existed for the same reason except against Pump it Up. Great video btw!

in my opinion, 5 key never truly died out until iidx 26, the first iidx game to not include the 5 key modifier, but by the time rootage had come out, the 5 key modifier had gone from a way for 5 key players to ease their way into 7 key, to something only really used by beginners

10/10 video, 10/10 drip, and 11/10 bed made

I used to play Beatmania III at my local arcade back in the day. Even though I would have preferred IIDX, (which was hard for most arcades back then to get) there were some things about BM III I liked that IIDX didn't have or lacked at the time. BM III appeared to run at 60fps, which IIDX took years to finally do. BM III had several colorful, detailed interfaces depending on the the song played. I liked how these looked more than what IIDX did at the time. BM III had more sound options and effects to choose from. Also, it was the clearest sounding game at the arcade, at least my local arcade. I think it even sounded clearer than what IIDX did, but I could be wrong because back then I had limited access to IIDX and not enough experience playing the arcade version at the time. IIDX still has the better songs overall though. :) BM III had a headphone jack. IIDX took years to finally put one in with their Lightning Model cabinet which I feel was necessary since for some reason the arcade operators at my local Round 1 have the volume lower than the regular IIDX cabinet. I have to play on the Lightning Cabinet using headphones to hear everything better. Still, IIDX is the better game overall of course.

4:10 another "rhythm game" with a hybrid difficulty is Rocksmith, a game for learning guitar/bass. It's a super helpful tool, especially since learning a string instrument has such a large difficulty curve if you've never actually played one before

Given a lot of these games would most certainly have the ability to upgrade to the next version, I'd say the "append" versions of BM3 were probably there to not piss off arcade owners who just bought a "new" version of Beatmania only to be told it would never be upgraded. The real question I have now is where's Beatmania 4 with 7 keys + foot pedal lmao.

I spent many a token on Beatmania III the Final. It was a really great game. The cabinet was pretty, it sounded great, and the songlist was packed. Like you said, it was essentially just a "deluxe" version of 5 key but it just had a vibe to it.

Now please do one on IIDX. I know it hasn't died yet, but I do really want a solid retrospective of some sort of it. There doesn't seem to be any good english ones out there currently

There is another game that does the "hybrid difficulty" thing, Pump it Up. Specifically older versions of it had a game mode called Division Mode, where every song would start off easy, and then every so often, a G or a W would come up in place of one of the arrows, and if you hit the G, the song would stay easy, but if you hit the W, the song would get a little harder. And it'd keep getting harder/staying easy if you kept hitting Gs / Ws.

Great video. I remember playing beatmaniaIII at Magfest back in 2015 and it was pretty cool. At first I didn't really notice a difference since everything looked about the same. However, someone explained to me that the timing for the older songs outside of the BMIII folder were out of wack due to the new engine and hardware. I hopped between both BMIII and BM cabinets that were available and it became really apparent. Nonetheless it was an interesting experience; it was my first (and last) time trying out the spinoff.

You may want to look into Seven’s Code. It’s becoming a Dead Rhythm Game at the end of this month, so you can still get the game and record footage for a potential Episode on this title.

may rhythm games never stop dying and may this series never end

back in my BEMANI heyday circa 2000-2009 or so at one point my local bowling alley HAD a beatmania III: 6th MIX! I definitely had some fun with it, although I remember the giant speakers being almost *too* loud to be bearable for too long. I guess if you wanted the ultimate 5-key experience there was bmIII: THE FINAL?

Thanks for your hardwork

Man I just discovered your channel and I LOVE IT! I hope you cover DanceManiaX on this section as well!

I'm gonna play BMIII The Final just to explore. Underdogs like these deserve a good look in my eyes.

omg ive been looking here and there to find out what beatmania 3 actually is thank you

I love your channel!!

Torquay used to have an limited bemani scene and theres an obscure group called team paranoia I wonder where did that all go??

This explains the KONAMI vs EZ2DJ (amuseworld) legal shenanigan... I had no clue Beatmania had a foot-pedal version, damn also. *TTFATF teaser* ?

Honestly, I would love the chance to talk your ear off about (Mirai Dagakki) Future TomTom to help out with providing info on a video regarding the game, should you want to make one for Dead Rhythm Games! Easily one of my favorite BEMANI games in recent years and the history behind it, albeit sparse, is fascinating. I miss it, like, a few times every year since it died.

Are you planning on doing a video on the original GuitarFreaks and DrumMania games (both the original series and the V series) since they're a similar situation to 5 key Beatmania?

AAAANNDD you forgot hiphopmania complete mix 2 was circulating too 😅😅

Would you cover Re:Rave and In The Groove?

where is that shirt from?? it's cool af

Oh hey, I know the guy in the thumbnail. He’s me. 😉

Is this supposse to be the sequal to BMIIDX.

Wacca\sevens code\Touhou Danmaku Kagura when?

Beyond the ez2dj patent guarding, the original beatmania hardware (DJ Main) was just *super* outdated compared to everything else. Unlike System 573 (DDR) it didn't have CD, so each update mix was expensive, and a logistical challenge-hence why as you noted in your beatmania video, they were constantly pulling songs out and just eking every scrap of performance they could. The monitors were also... Not great. 5 key was still quite popular in japan after IIDX, so one of the goals of III was that arcade operators would (hopefully) replace those 5 key machines with something that could more gracefully move forward, with more songs from the back catalog in each release, like IIDX, DDR, Gitadora etc. That didn't happen, and IIDX picked up significant steam shortly after the release of 3rd style. I loved bmIII though, and *absolutely* brought my 3.5" disk with me to the arcade to keep scores! bmIII the final is in my opinion the ultimate 5 key game, with it's beautiful 60fps higher resolution display, headphone jack, 268 songs vs beatmania the final's 188, and score saving. :)

Look up kickbeat It's dead as hell