DrumMania (alternately drummania, abbreviated DM) is a video game created by Konami as part of the Bemani series. The player uses a simulated drum controller to play the notes of a chosen song's drum part as they are displayed on the screen. The game's music consists largely of rock and roll and J-Pop, though other types are used occasionally as well.

Certain versions of DrumMania have been released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and other Asian countries, under the title Percussion Freaks. Konami has not produced an American version of DrumMania, since another company holds the US patent for "drum simulation games".

Controller

DrumMania is played using a controller designed to imitate a drum set. Five pads are arrayed from left to right for the hi-hat, snare drum, high tom, low tom and cymbal. There is also a foot pedal for the bass drum near the snare and the high tom. During play, the player depresses the pads and stomps the pedal.

The pads are actually a true electronic drumkit. A Yamaha DTXPress kit is basically 'built-in'. The pads are made by the Yamaha Corporation and most likely within the machine is a DTXPress module. The kit is obviously available in standalone format with much more capabilities availible to the user. This kit is one of the cheapest and most popular in current use, and it is availible in almost any musical chain store.

To the right of these pads, there are three buttons, Left, Start and Right, which are used to select and decide in the selection screens. In those cases, the Left button is assigned to the snare drum pad, Right to the low tom, and Start to the cymbal.

Gameplay

The screen setup is simple. Left side, a vertical note scrolls is displayed. Colorful animations for each song are displayed in right side of the screen. Each note scroll consists of 6 columns: one each for the Hi-hat, Snare-drum, Bass-drum, High-tom, Low-tom and Cymbal. Individual notes are represented by small colored bars that scroll downward in the columns. To play the correct note, the player must hit one or two of these pads and/or stomp the pedal when the note bars reach the yellow picking line.

The player's accuracy is judged for each note played, and while the individual note judgments have changed throughout the series, the current system uses Perfect, Great, Good, Poor, and Miss to evaluate performance of each note. Ratings of Poor or Miss will deplete the player's "Groove Gauge", while correct play will replenish it. If the Groove Gauge is emptied completely, the game ends. Players will be able to play anywhere from three to five songs depending on the game's configuration, with the potential to earn one or two additional stages in certain versions of the game if performance is good enough.

At the completion of a song, players are given a letter rank for their performance which can range anywhere from E to A, as well as S and SS depending on how well the song was played, and how the particular release of the game being played computes ranks.

Session Linking

One of the major selling points of DrumMania is its ability to be linked to another of Konami's Bemani games, GuitarFreaks. This allows up to 3 players to get together for a virtual jam session. When set up correctly, the music will play from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds will be relayed between the two games as well. This is known for being quite loud and extravagant at times.

Konami's numbering scheme for the GuitarFreaks and DrumMania series is such that the current release of DrumMania is numbered one less than the current release of GuitarFreaks. For example, as of this writing, GuitarFreaks 11thMIX can be linked with DrumMania 10thMIX.

This naming system changed completely with the 2005 release of DrumMania V & GuitarFreaks V, with the "V" representing the fifth anniversary of the series. As such, they may return to a 12th/13th combination after this release, or continue with a Roman numeral naming. Otherwise, the functionality is the same.

Super Session

Seen only in two releases each of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, Super Session (or Multi Session) allowed the games to be linked up with Keyboardmania 3rdMIX as well. In addition to having three players controller 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 5thMIX and DrumMania 4thMIX, or GuitarFreaks 6thMIX and DrumMania 5thMIX.

Home versions and simulators

Three home versions of DrumMania have been released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 game console. The standard PS2 Dual Shock controller can be used to play the game, or a special arcade-style controller can be purchased separately. The home line was ended at 3rdMIX due to unimpressive sales.

A handful of DrumMania simulators have been created for use on personal computers, the most popular of which is called DTXMania. It also supports GuitarFreaks. It can be controlled using the computer keyboard, any USB device that can act as a joystick, or any MIDI instrument such as a MIDI keyboard or professional quality electronic drumkit. It was written by a Japanese team so little English documentation is available. However, an FAQ on DTXMania and other DrumMania simulators can be found at GDAmania.

DrumMania V

DrumMania V is the latest version of the series, and it links to GuitarFreaks V. The games are essentially DM 11thMIX and GF 12thMIX, but the games seem to have been united with a single version number.

One of the significant improvements in DrumMania V is the ability to show true music video. Previously, all the music videos resembled animated slide shows at best. However, in DrumMania V, while the 2D animation remains closer to slide shows, the music videos and 3D animation flows flawlessly. Other improvements involve reviving many songs from previous mixes which had disappeared. The Premium Encore Stage, which disappeared in DM 10thMIX, has also made a come back.

Like recent releases, machines in Asia can be linked to the e-AMUSEMENT network. With the network, players can use special game cards to store their high scores and earn "skill points", which allows them to unlock hidden songs in the game. Machines with e-amusement will also submit high scores to the main server. The current Top 10 scores for each song with the player's name are available at the game's official website.

See also

• List of drumming games

External links

• Konami's official GuitarFreaks and DrumMania arcade website (in Japanese)
• DTXMania
• GDAmania - a popular GF/DM community and simulation website