the control panel); the last of which is used to alter the sound during gameplay. Reception and legacy Neil Foster of Hardcore Gaming 101 noticed that player one's controller had the turntable relocated to the left side, which was advantageous to "some players." He commented that with the addition of a widescreen monitor, the black keys were given easily identifiable lanes. He called the game "a rocky start" for the Beatmania IIDX series, since it had music from Beatmanias first two iterations (1st Mix and 2nd Mix) paired with new songs and remixes. According to Foster, many players were initially not impressed with performing old songs on upgraded hardware, so they switched to Beatmania 4th Mix. Bryn Williams of GameSpy found IIDX harder than the original Beatmania, because songs that take advantage of its seven keys have more notes than those made for five keys. IGN Chris Roper wrote that it was successful because of its distinctive and responsive controller. He opinioned that the controller was imperfectly designed, yet its implementation made the game a rare experience. Bemani developed several updates to the game after its release. Konami decided to link Beatmania IIDX Club Version (later Substream) cabinets with Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix machines for simultaneous play, leading to increased success. In late 1999, the publisher hired artist Goli to design graphics and characters for Beatmania IIDX 2nd Style. Featuring a new visual theme, 3rd Style was ported to the PlayStation 2. In 2002, 8th Style was released after the discontinuation of the original Beatmania. Foster stated these updates popularized IIDX to the point where it overshadowed its predecessor, as the game not only earned more new songs, but became very difficult. A sequel with a five-key controller, Beatmania III, was released in 2000. Notes and references Footnotes Citations Bibliography External links 1999 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Beatmania games Japan-exclusive video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan