is a

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

series produced by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

. The series consists of two games, ''GuitarFreaks'' and ''DrumMania'', where players use

game controller A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device or Input/Output Device, input/output device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game. Input devices that have been classified as ...

s modeled after musical instruments to perform the

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

and

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

of numerous songs across a wide range of genres by matching scrolling

musical note In music, notes are distinct and isolatable sounds that act as the most basic building blocks for nearly all of music. This musical analysis#Discretization, discretization facilitates performance, comprehension, and musical analysis, analysis. No ...

s patterns shown on screen. Players are scored for successfully-hit notes, but may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both single-player and multiplayer modes where up to three players can perform together. Some earlier versions of the game could also be linked with ''Keyboardmania''. is a music video game series produced by Konami. It is a

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

where the player uses a controller to simulate the playing of an

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

. The game consists of music predominantly from the

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

and

J-pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

genres. It is considered one of the most influential video games of all time, for having laid the foundations for popular guitar-based rhythm games, such as the ''

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead guitar, lead, bass guitar, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Players match ...

'' series.

Working Designs Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, it ...

attempted to bring ''Guitar Freaks''

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

games in the U.S., but patent problems with the guitar controller prevented the project from moving forward. is a drumming music video game series produced by

Bemani , stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, ''Beatmania'', and expanded into other music-based games, m ...

, the musical division of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. It first released in 1999 as an arcade game, then subsequently ported to the

Sony PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 November, in Australia on 30 November, ...

in Japan in 2000 as a launch title. Subsequent mixes have been released approximately once a year. In 2010, a series XG was introduced, adding a floor tom, left cymbal and a left pedal to the cabinet setup.

History

System 573 era (1999–2004)

''GuitarFreaks'' was released on February 16, 1999. It included a dozen of songs and uses the Bemani

System 573 The System 573 is an arcade system board made by Konami based on the original PlayStation. The hardware was used primarily for Konami's Bemani series of music video game arcades, including the popular ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series introduced ...

analog hardware, so called because it uses the analog audio output from a CD drive. ''DrumMania'' was released on July 10, 1999, along with ''GuitarFreaks 2ndMix''. These versions included 26 and 33 songs, respectively, and could be linked together to play 14 common songs. Subsequent versions used digital hardware and featured larger song lists, eventually surpassing 120 songs. The ''GuitarFreaks'' version number continued having an increment of one compared to the equivalent ''DrumMania'' version until ''GuitarFreaks 11thMix'' and ''DrumMania 10thMix'' on April 22, 2004. ''GuitarFreaks 2ndMix'' was the last System 573 analog game, and ''DrumMania'' was the first System 573 digital game. Although the series saw 11 main arcade releases for the System 573, only the first four received home ports. Two of these are ''GuitarFreaks'' games for the original

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

console: * ''GuitarFreaks'' was released on July 29, 1999. It features a total of 18 songs: 12 from its arcade counterpart, 3 previews from ''2ndMix'' and 3 unique songs. It features Key Disc technology to allow play of ''GuitarFreaks Append 2ndMix''. * ''GuitarFreaks Append 2ndMix'' was released on February 24, 2000. It features a total of 45 songs: 17 from its predecessor (J-STAFF is omitted), 17 from its arcade counterpart and 11 original songs. As an Append Disc, ''2ndMix'' functions like an

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or Miniature wargaming, miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules ...

, requiring the first ''GuitarFreaks'' to be loaded as a Key Disc before play. ''DrumMania'' home ports are exclusive to the

. The first is simply ''DrumMania'', the drum counterpart to ''GuitarFreaks 2ndMix''. The game's two immediate sequels were also released as ''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania'': * ''DrumMania'' was released on March 4, 2000, as a

launch title Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

for the PlayStation 2. * ''GuitarFreaks 3rdMix & DrumMania 2ndMix'' was released on September 13, 2000. * ''GuitarFreaks 4thMix & DrumMania 3rdMix'' was released on September 20, 2001. No home ports were released for the seven other System 573 sequels. Instead, songs from these arcade games are included in future titles for the PlayStation 2: the ''Masterpiece'' series, with a total of 150 songs split between two releases, and home ports of the ''V'' series, with 46 revivals split between three releases and unavailable in ''Masterpiece''.

''V1'' to ''V3'' (2005–2007)

In 2005, the ''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania'' series was upgraded to Bemani Python 2 hardware, which is powered by the

, the same hardware that later became used in the ''

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova , released in Europe as ''Dancing Stage SuperNova'' is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' (''DDR'') series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was rele ...

'' series. This eased the development of home ports, which saw a reduced song list, but functioned nearly identically to their arcade counterparts. Three versions of the guitar and drum games utilized this platform: * ''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania V'' was released on February 23, 2005, for arcades and March 16, 2006, for the PlayStation 2. The arcade version features 271 songs: 118 new additions, 125 from the previous version (« super "shomin" car » was removed) and 28 from older versions. The home version of ''V'' is limited to 68 songs, of which 49 are from the arcade version ("Misirlou" is missing), 16 are revivals from GF5/DM4 to GF11/DM10 (excluding GF6/DM5) and three are ''V2'' previews. * ''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania V2'' was released on November 24, 2005, for arcades and November 22, 2006 for the PlayStation 2. The arcade version features 363 songs: 93 new additions, 270 from ''V'' ("Mountain à Go-Go" was removed) and 25 from older versions. The home version of ''V2'' is limited to 67 songs, of which 44 are from the arcade version, 18 are revivals (seven of these revivals are also in ''V''), three are ''V3'' previews and another two are unique songs later featured in ''V4''. * ''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania V3'' was released on September 13, 2006, for arcades and October 4, 2007 for the PlayStation 2. The arcade version features 417 songs: 46 new additions, 357 from ''V2'' (six songs were removed) and 14 from older versions. The home version of ''V3'' is limited to 80 songs, of which 46 are from the arcade version, 21 are revivals, 12 are console originals (including "You ~Meaning All Orbit~", later featured in ''V6'', plus three ''V5'' previews and six ''V4'' previews) and one ("Misirlou") is from ''V''. Two other home versions of ''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania'' were released: ''Masterpiece Silver'' on August 31, 2006 and ''Masterpiece Gold'' on March 8, 2007. Each features 74 and 76 songs, respectively, from older releases that lacked a home port.

''V4'' to ''V6'' (2007–2009)

''GuitarFreaks & DrumMania V4'' was released on August 8, 2007, in Japan and received a location test on September 30, 2007, in the United States. This instalment is the first in the series to forego PlayStation-based hardware, replacing it with a Bemani PC running

Windows XP Embedded Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

. This is in contrast to ''

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 , released in Europe as ''Dancing Stage SuperNova'' is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' (''DDR'') series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was rele ...

'', which was released on August 22, 2007, in Japan and continued to use the

-based Python 2. ''V4'' is also the first international release in the series, the second location test of ''GuitarFreaks'' in the US, and the first location test of ''DrumMania'' in the US. The test was short-lived in the United States, concluding in just over a month.

''XG'' to ''XG3'' and ''V7'' to ''V8'' (2010–2012)

The ''XG'' series features guitar and drum controllers with extra frets and pads, respectively. ''V7'' and ''V8'' were released concurrently with ''XG'' and ''XG2'', respectively.

''GITADORA to GITADORA GALAXY WAVE'' (2013–present)

GITADORA became a continuation to the XG Series of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania. The first release of GITADORA series was February 14, 2013, with lots of modification in the game-play. The "Matixx" Sereies of GITADORA had a lot of improvements (like for example, Phrase Combo has been added to the Song Progress), similar to the following GITADORA series. By December 16, 2020,

announced that they have already a PC version of the Game called "コナステ GITADORA" (Konasute GITADORA) with a Monthly Fee of 1480

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

to play the game. From February 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022, Konami made a promo for players that they will have a free month of playing the PC version of GITADORA by purchasing a Yamaha DTX 402KS or 452KS drumset and then introducing the serial code included with them. GITADORA GALAXY WAVE is the latest arcade release.

Controller

''GuitarFreaks'' is played using a controller designed to imitate the shape of an electric guitar, most like the

Fender Jazzmaster The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling of the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Convention, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarist ...

Fender Mustang The Fender Mustang is a solid body electric guitar produced by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. It was introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fender's student models, the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. It was produced ...

. The neck houses three buttons, colored red, green, and blue. During XG series up to recent GITADORA, two buttons were added such as yellow and pink. On the main face of the guitar, a pick lever is used to simulate the picking and strumming of an actual guitar. A small metal knob near the pick is used to alter the sound produced by the game, such as adding Chorus/Delay effects.

Gameplay

The interface is similar to other games in the

series. Two ''note scrolls''—one for each player—are displayed at the left and right sides of the screen. Colorful animations for each song are displayed in the center of the screen. Each note scroll consists of four columns: one each for the red, green, and blue buttons, and a fourth column, known as the Wailing Bonus column. Individual notes and chords are represented by small colored bars that scroll upward in the columns. To play the correct note, the player must hold down the buttons corresponding to the colored bars, and move the fret lever when the bars reach the yellow fretting line. When a guitar icon is displayed in the Wailing Bonus column along with an associated note, the player can tilt the guitar upright while playing the note to receive bonus points. The player's accuracy is judged for each note played. The current system uses the names ''Perfect'', ''Great'', ''Good'', ''OK'', and ''Miss'' to indicate a player's accuracy. Ratings of Miss will deplete the player's Groove Gauge, while Perfect, Great and Good ratings will replenish it. If the Groove Gauge is emptied completely, the player fails, and the game ends. Players are allowed to play anywhere from one to five songs depending on the game cabinet's configuration, with the ability to earn additional songs in certain versions of the game. Furthermore, if "fast/slow" (advanced judge) is enabled, then there will be additional indicator of judge (Just/Fast/Slow/Miss). Just Perfects are called "X-Perfect"s (rainbow color) while Fast/Slow Perfects are regular Perfects (yellow color). Upon successful completion of a song, players are graded on their performance. When the game ends, the player's total score across all songs played is tabulated. ''DrumMania'' simulates real life drumming. It is played using a controller designed to imitate a drum set. Five pads are arrayed from left to right for the

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock music, rock, popular music, pop, jazz, an ...

snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...

, high

tom Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name. Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tom'' (1973 film), or ''The Bad Bunch'', a blaxploitation film * ''Tom'' (2002 film) ...

, low tom,

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...

and

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...

. On XG series, a left cymbal, left pedal and a floor tom are added. During play, the player presses the pads and steps on the pedal in sync with the notes falling vertically from the top of the screen in time with the music. DrumMania uses a modified Yamaha DTXPRESS electronic drumkit. This drumkit is used for players for gameplay and navigating through select screens. Navigating can also be done by pressing Select and Start button on the right side of the machine. On home releases, a drum controller made by KONAMI can be used, although rather than separating each buttons on their own pads, home controllers place the pads on a single place, more resembling a palette. PlayStation 2 DUALSHOCK Controllers may also be used.

Session linking

One of the major selling points of ''GuitarFreaks'' is its ability to be linked to another of Konami's Bemani games, ''DrumMania''. This allows up to three players to join together to play simultaneously in ''Session Mode''. During a session, the music will play simultaneously from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds are relayed between the two games. Because the second version of ''GuitarFreaks'' was released prior to the first version of DrumMania, GuitarFreaks is one "mix" number higher than the ''DrumMania'' version it links up to. For example, ''GUITARFREAKS 6thMIX'' is designed to be linked with ''DrumMania 5thMIX''. The mix versions were synchronized with the release of ''GuitarFreaks V & DrumMania V'' eschewing the long-standing number system, and replacing what would have been the 12th and 11th mix, respectively.

Super Session

Seen only in two releases each of ''GuitarFreaks'' and ''DrumMania'', Super Session allowed the games to be linked up with

Keyboardmania (alternately ''KEYBOARD MANIA'', and abbreviated KBM) is a rhythm video game created by the Bemani division of Konami. In this game up to two players use 24-key keyboards to play the piano or keyboard part of a selected song. Notes are repres ...

3rd Mix as well. In addition to having three players control the guitars and drums, two more could be added playing along on keyboards. However, when linked with ''Keyboardmania'', only about a dozen songs are available to play. ''Keyboardmania 3rd Mix'' can be linked with ''GuitarFreaks 5th Mix'' and ''DrumMania 4th Mix'', or ''GuitarFreaks 6th Mix'' and ''DrumMania 5th Mix''.

Soundtrack

The series' songlist has steadily grown with each release. As of Gitadora FUZZ UP, the latest version of Gitadora features over 1,200 songs in total. Most songs are either crossovers from other

games, and Japanese

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

. Some mixes also contain covers of popular North American songs. Songs are primarily in-house original compositions, covers of popular Japanese or English songs or edited master tracks licensed from the artists. Most songs are pop and rock in style, although there are often a wide variety of musical genres available.

Reception

The arcade game was popular and played in arcades throughout Asia. The PlayStation

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

of ''DrumMania'' received a positive review from Dave Zdyrko of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' in 2000. He said that, while the game lacks realism and that it was "nothing at all like playing real drums," it "provides for one of the most addictive and enjoyable videogame experiences since ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

'' was first unearthed."

Legacy and impact

It is considered one of the most influential video games of all time, for having laid the foundations for popular guitar-based rhythm games, such as the ''

'' series. ''GuitarFreaks'' is believed to have inspired

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

's similar rhythm game '' Guitar Jam'', released later in April 1999. ''GuitarFreaks'' and ''DrumMania'' inspired the development of popular North American console game franchises ''Guitar Hero'' and ''

Rock Band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

''. The Huangs raised $1.75 million for the effort, despite being turned down by some investors who "thought /nowiki>the idea/nowiki> was too weird". In 2008, Konami sued ''Rock Band'' developer

Harmonix Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bein ...

for allegedly violating three patents for its drum and guitar based music games. The lawsuit was eventually settled in 2010 and its claims dismissed. Konami also partnered up with

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

for post-2007 ''Guitar Hero'' games to comply with Konami's drum and guitar games patents, and eventually in 2009, the two, along with

Raw Thrills Raw Thrills, Inc. is an arcade video game entertainment company based in Skokie, Illinois. It is best known for developing arcade games based on films. History Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. E ...

, released ''Guitar Hero Arcade'' in North America.

Releases

In Asia, outside of Japan, DrumMania releases from 1st to 10thMix are known as PercussionFreaks. The PlayStation 2 port of ''GuitarFreaks 4thMix & DrumMania 3rdMix'' is known as ''ギタドラ! GuitarFreaks 4thMix & DrumMania 3rdMix''. It is the first game with Gitadora in the title.

Gallery

File:PercussionFreaks 5th Mix arcade machine.jpg, ''PercussionFreaks 5th Mix'' (DrumMania 5th Mix) arcade machine File:Guitarfreaks v4.jpg, ''Guitarfreaks V4'' cabinet File:DrumMania V7 20170726 125157.jpg, ''DrumMania V7'' cabinet File:GITADORA Tri-Boost DrumMania arcade.jpg, ''GITADORA Tri-Boost'' DrumMania arcade machine

References

External links

* *, with arcade cabinet details {{Konami franchises 1999 video games Arcade video games Bemani games Konami franchises Guitar video games Drumming video games Video games developed in Japan