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The Stepmania segment from AGDQ 2016 is unbelievable

Tizoc

Member
The trush is often stranger than fiction, his has to be seen to believe
https://youtu.be/XZdJ4dReF4A?t=208

It only gets more crazy as it goes on especially when the Prince Adam Red hot Dance mix is being played.

I'll put up a better video when it's available but that should do it for now.
Need pics?
Have pics
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I don't get keyboard Stepmania files. This is coming from somebody who made pad files for a great many years.

If you're going to do something like this, why not just play IIDX or Pop'N?
 

Mesoian

Member
inb4 Rhythm Game elitists complaining

I thought it was incredible, even if the music choices were questionable

It's funny because, while incredible, I've seen so close to that scene for so long where it's like "Man...whatever, when's OSU"

Bemani Elitists unite.

It was still a cool segment. Just not as cool, to me, as the tetris grand master exhibition from the previous year.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I don't get keyboard Stepmania files. This is coming from somebody who made pad files for a great many years.

If you're going to do something like this, why not just play IIDX or Pop'N?

My guess is because it's more accessible.

If you changed the symbols from arrows to whatever else, it's a different, 4-button setup only marginally related to DDR. Different layout, slightly different experience.

With that in mind, your post might as well have read "why aren't they just playing pop'n?" with regards to a IIDX video, or "why aren't they just playing IIDX?" with regards to a pop'n video.

Perspective, man.
 

Chasecs

Neo Member
Stepmania > Osu

I used to be really big into the scene but don't play much anymore. I could play the files here but probably not at the same accuracy.

I love watching peoples reactions though, the game looks impossible until you've played it for a while.
 
If you changed the symbols from arrows to whatever else, it's a different, 4-button setup only marginally related to DDR. Different layout, slightly different experience.

With that in mind, your post might as well have read "why aren't they just playing pop'n?" with regards to a IIDX video, or "why aren't they just playing IIDX?" with regards to a pop'n video.

Perspective, man.

Not really... The layout is exactly the same as DDR (or in this case, ITG) and the modifiers they use are the same ones that ITG has been using since it's inception. Changing the symbols doesn't change the fact that it will still operate off of DDR (or ITG) timing windows, grading, and layout.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Not really... The layout is exactly the same as DDR (or in this case, ITG) and the modifiers they use are the same ones that ITG has been using since it's inception. Changing the symbols doesn't change the fact that it will still operate off of DDR (or ITG) timing windows, grading, and layout.

It's still a 4-button layout using fingers which is completely different from IIDX or Pop'N, which is my point.

I can't even process the speed of what's happening in that gif.

Well, Stepmania itself runs at 60fps. Which helps.

You'd be hard pressed to actually play the game if it was as janky as the gif itself regardless of how good you are ;p
 

xzeldax3

Member
Stepmania > Osu

I used to be really big into the scene but don't play much anymore. I could play the files here but probably not at the same accuracy.

I love watching peoples reactions though, the game looks impossible until you've played it for a while.
Agreed. I just hate touchscreen based rhythm games and using the mouse for it isn't fun to me.
 

QFNS

Unconfirmed Member
Well, Stepmania itself runs at 60fps. Which helps.

You'd be hard pressed to actually play the game if it was as janky as the gif itself regardless of how good you are ;p

I'm watching the video and I can't process what is happening most of the time. It is a really great showcase. I think it isn't as visually impressive as the Tetris stuff they have done in the past, but it is still a great showcase of amazingly skilled players.
 
i was happy to see rhythm games get more exposure so i checked out their rhythm game twitch group where i was greeted by the most hilariously arbitrary descriptor i've ever heard, "Vertical Scrolling Rhythm Games". seemed like a kinda odd limitation to place on something labeled as a general rhythm game group, lol.

it bums me out to see rhythm game fans trying to invalidate games they don't play. it's not like the western community is particularly large nowadays, so trying to further segment it just seems silly. the fact that this term was probably invented simply to exclude osu players is almost kinda funny, though. i'll never get why people seem to target those guys so much, lol
 
Huh, didn't know Stepmania was done at these events and that it was even remotely popular enough to get an audience. Insane skills, guy must've been playing a long time with lord NIMA and Arch0wl.

Regarding why not play IiDX/Pop'N, I'm used to 4 Panel, it helps me with learning new charts and it's fun.
 

Raticus79

Seek victory, not fairness
It would be interesting to get a high framerate video and see how far I have to slow it down before I could see myself keeping up, lol
 

Falk

that puzzling face
i was happy to see rhythm games get more exposure so i checked out their rhythm game twitch group where i was greeted by the most hilariously arbitrary descriptor i've ever heard, "Vertical Scrolling Rhythm Games". seemed like a kinda odd limitation to place on something labeled as a general rhythm game group, lol.

it bums me out to see rhythm game fans trying to invalidate games they don't play. it's not like the western community is particularly large nowadays, so trying to further segment it just seems silly. the fact that this term was probably invented simply to exclude osu players is almost kinda funny, though. i'll never get why people seem to target those guys so much, lol

Heh, maybe they're trying to differenciate from lane-style rhythm games.

Also very unfortunately the description excludes Xonic which is by far the best retail/commercial, non-arcade rhythm game released in forever.
 

Camwi

Member
Yeah, that shit is really hard to believe, not that I'm denying it's real or anything. It's just crazy.

Reminds me of that crazy invisible Tetris video.
 

Chesskid1

Banned
played a ton of stepmania so it's hard for me to be impressed by anything really.

not trying to be a badass or anything, it just doesn't have enough buttons, so it's really easy to read.
 
It's still a 4-button layout using fingers which is completely different from IIDX or Pop'N, which is my point.

The bolded is part of the disconnect, I guess. I've used Stepmania for years and years playing on a machine, not using fingers. Thus is the great divide between pad and keyboard players and the charts they make.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
That last song with all the modifiers was the craziest Stepmania play I've seen. I've watched a lot of videos similar to the rest but that last song, holy crap.
 

Envelope

sealed with a kiss
i'm guessing most of you aren't familiar with rhythm games if that was enough to blow you away this much
 

Falk

that puzzling face
The bolded is part of the disconnect, I guess. I've used Stepmania for years and years playing on a machine, not using fingers. Thus is the great divide between pad and keyboard players and the charts they make.

Well, I've played FPS on PC for years and you don't see me complaining about console FPS and thumbsticks and autoaim and all that.

:(
 
Yea... Some genres are just not for me.

And this is precisely what I feared would come to pass.

Since this was brought to my attention, I'm just going to quote the long writeup I made on this subject in the main AGDQ thread:

I wasn't going to say anything, but it keeps getting brought up and I don't feel any better about it after yesterday, so.

As a long time rhythm game player, everything about the StepMania Showcase feels like a slap in the face.

Rhythm games have an incredibly long and rich history in Japan. The most storied franchises had their start in the 1990s and are still going today. It's an incredible genre with huge diversity, with not only Konami (who still develop rhythm games despite having abandoned seemingly everything else) holding the torch but Sega, Taito, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Andamiro, and many others consistently contributing new titles every year. There is no shortage of truly innovative products that could have been featured.

After all this, after the entire genre and its player base has fought long and hard to reach some sort of recognition outside of Japan, what did we get? A fan-produced simulator of DDR that no doubt is popular simply because you can download it and any content any random person created for free.

Fan-made offshoots like StepMania would never have even existed if not for the pioneers of the genre creating the gameplay design it shamelessly rips off in the first place. And now everyone who watched AGDQ thinks rhythm games are little more than robots performing 1500 APM input spams of little variety or imagination rather than fully fleshed out, approachable, accessible experiences.

It's as if they decided to have a fighting game showcase and instead of Street Fighter, they decided to showcase Mugen.

If you watched the StepMania Showcase and thought it interesting but not for you, please, please consider giving the many rhythm games on the market a try for yourself. The PS Vita (and by extension, the PS TV) has an incredible wealth of music titles, with Superbeat: XONiC and Persona 4 Dancing All Night having hit just within the four months alone to join classics like DJMAX Technika Tune. Sega has been busy too, having released Project DIVA on PS3/Vita and Project Mirai on 3DS as a result of fan demand. Square Enix has also published the lauded Theatrhythm series, based on Final Fantasy music and soon to expand to cover music from other series, on 3DS as well. And this isn't just a recent trend; going backwards, you can find rhythm hits on any platform, from Gitaroo Man to Elite Beat Agents.

If you're lucky enough to live near a Round1 (with locations in California, Texas, Illinois, Washington State, and Massachusetts) you can also play an amazing variety of imported Japanese arcades such as beatmania IIDX (still considered by many to be the pinnacle of the rhythm game genre), pop'n music, Sound Voltex, Guitar Freaks and DrumMania, Groove Coaster, CROSSxBEATS, Taiko no Tatsujin, and tons more. And the coming months, Dave & Buster's will bring back Dance Dance Revolution, which has continued to iterate and refine its formula despite the previous North American distributor's complete mishandling of the franchise.

There are a huge amount of rhythm games out there. If you were intrigued and think you might enjoy them but were put off by the difficulty of things shown off at AGDQ, please know that the genre doesn't just cater to that sort of gameplay. Please give the games a shot for yourself; I love the genre, and the last thing I want is for people to think it totally inaccessible if you haven't been playing them for years already.
 
And this is precisely what I feared would come to pass.

Since this was brought to my attention, I'm just going to quote the long writeup I made on this subject in the main AGDQ thread:
that's one post. the people shitting on the game because its not their favourite Rhythm Game are much much worse for people interested in the community
 

magnetic

Member
i'm guessing most of you aren't familiar with rhythm games if that was enough to blow you away this much

This genre in general looks so robotic and memorization-centric to me that I can appreciate the dedication that went into learning it, but at the same time I feel nothing emotionally when watching it. At some point it's just a garbled mess of arrows or lines flying by and yeah, that person sure is hitting every button at the right time.

I know this sounds dismissive, but it just looks really, really hard to me, not inspiring or surprising. Maybe the element of executing something predetermined is what I don't enjoy about the genre as a whole.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
And this is precisely what I feared would come to pass.

Since this was brought to my attention, I'm just going to quote the long writeup I made on this subject in the main AGDQ thread:

Can understand your sentiment, but I don't agree that AGDQ putting up Stepmania misrepresents rhythm games as a whole at all. Community-sourced rhythm games like Stepmania and osu have their place. Just as retail products do.

AGDQ is all about skilled play. Even if they'd put up something like Xonic or Theathrythm, I guarantee you it'd have been a showcase of difficult content. Doesn't mean that Xonic or Theathrhythm doesn't have easy stuff to get you started. (okay, well, maybe Xonic not so much ehehehehe)

It's kinda like complaining that AGDQ does speedruns that require a lot of skill - it might make people think games are only for the hardcore!

Apples and oranges.

It really is not. You just have a beef with people consuming content in a way different to what you're used to. But we're just going back and forth here so I'm going to leave it at that.

(I'm not even into Stepmania, btw)
 
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