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Finally the first US test location of bemani’s (Konami’s rhythm games division) Ubeat is up and running, and I must say, I haven’t quite seen a game like this before. Rather than hitting a handful of buttons in response to on-screen commands, here the buttons and the screen are one and the same, though the massive controller is a 4×4 grid (for the math-challenged among you, that makes for 16 buttons to smash furiously). The player looks for a panel in the grid to light up in time with music, and then taps that panel.

While the idea is simple, the game gets devilishly complicated, as expected of any good bemani title. Early first-hands impressions are glowing, and the lines to play the machine were even bigger than those for the new Dance Dance Revolution X. Another positive is the tracklist, featuring such surprising picks as A-Ha – Take on Me, Aqua – Barbie Girl, and Scatman John – Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) (no, seriously, I’m not making this up). It would be great to see Konami win back its American fanbase of hardcore bemani players, and this game could be poised to do both that and seduce more casual gamers due to its poppy tracklist and flashy presentation. Hopefully the large number of panels won’t scare newcomers away.

[bemanistyle.com]

Sporting a frighteningly garish color-scheme, Konami’s new Beat’n Groovy is set to deliver a scaled-down version of the complicated and often expensive Pop’n Music experience in a more affordable and simple XBLA game. The game uses five buttons rather than nine, and you use the standard 360 controller to play. And yes, the game is explicitly marketed for the US audience (no word on JP/EU release).

As of now this information is coming from an anonymous source through bemanistyle, so we won’t know about release dates or pricing for a while. However, there is already some very good news about the tracklist. Some artists already listed are good-cool, DJ Taka, Ryu, and Orange Lounge, making for a star-studded line-up of bemani favorites. I was so relieved when I didn’t see “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” on the tracklist (even Samba de Amigo is going to have it. Ugh).

[bemanistyle.com]

Kotaku received an anonymous tip yesterday which contained the supposedly complete songlist for Konami’s upcoming band game Rock Revolution. Some interesting things to note are that these are all licenses, and no Konami originals (often the hallmark tracks of Bemani games) are included here.

The tracklist is a believable one, sporting a lot of generic tunes and familiar names to the American rhythm game scene (Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Rush, and The Who). Some songs like “Detroit Rock City,” “Highway Star,” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” of course, have already appeared in Rock Band.

A few tracks are a bit of a surprise to see on this kind of list: Lacuna Coil’s “Our Truth” and Dream Theater’s “Pull Me Under” are some metal oddballs that seem a bit out of place. Overall it’s a solid list that will appeal to a lot of people, but at 41 songs, it’s just too little too late, if indeed it is the real deal. Hit the jump for the full list.

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