In the Groove 2
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| In the Groove 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Roxor Games / Andamiro |
| Publisher(s) | Roxor Games / Andamiro |
| Release date(s) | June 18, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Music |
| Mode(s) | Multiple one-player and two-player modes |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Input | Two 4-panel dance pads, eight buttons, USB Memory Card reader |
| Arcade cabinet | Custom |
| Arcade display | Horizontal, Raster, standard resolution |
In the Groove 2 is the sequel to Roxor Games' 2004 arcade game In the Groove. It was released to arcades officially on June 18, 2005. It is available as an upgrade kit and as a dedicated cabinet developed by Andamiro. The price for a dedicated cabinet is $9,999 USD and the upgrade kit (sometimes referred to as a "Boxor") is $2,999 USD. Currently, a home console version is in development (most likely for the PlayStation 2).
There is a total of 135 songs available in the arcade version. This includes all 72 from the original arcade game, the three new songs in the home version, and 63 brand new songs, four of which are hidden and unlockable.
A lawsuit filed by Konami on May 9, 2005, asked for an injunction against the sale of the upgrade kit version. October 23, 2006 Konami and Roxor reached an out-of-court settlement which resulted in Konami acquiring the intellectual property rights to the In The Groove franchise and thus effectively terminated the distribution of the game in North America. [1]
In development, it was known solely as In the Groove 2. On June 18, 2005, Roxor Games officially announced the release of the game, and announced that it would add the name of Andamiro's Pump It Up line, becoming Pump It Up: In the Groove 2. However, "Pump It Up" only appears on the marquee of the dedicated cabinet. It does not appear in-game (in either version) or anywhere on an upgraded cabinet.
The game also features a modified interface, based on the first version but recolored red and incorporating other changes. The interface also features a new font; the first version used a generic font.
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[edit] New features
The Novice difficulty level is a feature added to the home version of In the Groove, carried over to In the Groove 2. On this dfficulty level, all songs are rated as ones (including the hardest and fastest songs on other difficulties), and play in Novice mode places a traffic light graphic on the screen that tells players when to step. As always, two players can select different difficulty levels for the same song, but if one selects Novice, then the traffic light always appears instead of the normal backgrounds. It is also worth noting that on ITG2, Novice always forces a constant speed of 120 BPM (a "C120" mod). As a result, since C-mods disqualify scores from appearing on the scoreboards if the song played has pauses or speed changes, those songs will never have any Novice scores saved.
Rolls are a new feature. They look like spiky hold notes and usually come in pairs. The player must continually tap the corresponding arrows until the end of the roll, much like the drum roll notes in Namco's Taiko no Tatsujin. Regardless of the song's speed, rolls must be tapped at least once every 0.3 seconds.
Survival Mode is another course-based gameplay mode. The player must play a five-song course, where each song has a time limit less than the song's length. Time left over after each song is carried over to the next, and missteps deplete the time remaining - time is only added for Fantastics, with no change for Excellents and detractions for anything lower. The lifebar in this mode is not used to determine whether the player passes. Instead, it serves as a visual indicator of how much time is remaining. The game ends when the remaining time is fully depleted.
Fitness Mode is a common home version feature on dance games that is included in the arcade version of ITG2. This gameplay mode allows users to keep track of time spent dancing and calories burned.
Three previously Marathon-only modifiers - Bumpy, Beat, and Robot (a metallic gray Flat arrow type) - have also been added to the regular modifier list. In addition, a multi-colored arrow type, Vivid, has been added for colorblind players. It resembles the default arrow color scheme used in Dance Dance Revolution.
"Excellent", "Great" and "Decent" judgments are now prefixed or suffixed with a dash. A prefix (-Excellent, -Great or -Decent) indicates that the player stepped too early; a suffix (Excellent-, Great- or Decent-) indicates that the player stepped too late. In novice mode, "Way Off" becomes "Way Early" and "Way Late" respectively; in other modes, the dash system still applies.
"Stretch Jumps" have been included in double play, a jump that requires a player to hit two panels simultaneously that are farther away from each other than normal jumps, such as 1PU+2PD or 1PL+2PL.
[edit] Song list
- For more details on this topic, see In the Groove 2 song list.
In the Groove 2 includes more than 60 new songs in addition to the entire songlist from the previous version, In the Groove. The sequel includes new songs from established artists like ZiGZaG, Kid Whatever, Inspector K, Nina, Digital Explosion, and Machinae Supremacy. It also introduces songs from newcomers like Tekno Dred, Affinity, Hybrid, Lynn, and Onyx.
As with the original game, several artists that have released songs for Dance Dance Revolution games appear on ITG2. These include Bambee, Missing Heart, Ni-Ni, Triple J, E-ROTIC and Lynn (Papaya in DDR). In fact, three songs appear on ITG2 that have been on Dance Dance Revolution games, though with different step charts: Typical Tropical and Bumble Bee from Bambee and Sunshine (originally Follow The Sun) from Triple J.
[edit] Custom Songs
On October 11, 2006, Roxor released Revision 21 (also referred to as r21). The patch added a feature that allowed players to play custom songs with accomponying .sm files (see StepMania) stored in their USB.
Current limitations to the feature include:
- A fixed song limit of 120 seconds
- Song format must be .ogg.
- Banners and song samples aren't loaded and are absent from the song selection screen.
- Backgrounds aren't loaded; random background videos run during play
- Maximum limit of 50 songs per player, sometimes less are loaded if the USB load time exceeds a set maximum limit.
Revision 21 was otherwise unremarkable, so players often use the term "r21" as a way of referring to the feature.
Revision 21 was released a week prior to the official announcement of Konami's acquisition of In The Groove [2]
[edit] Location Testing
Location testing took place at an arcade named 8 on the Break in Dunellen, New Jersey.
