This is a continuation to another feature we've had last year (link), but while the former was focused on collaborative efforts that could cater to a wider public through the magic of pop culture, this Sympho-Neighbours page is for all those hardcore music players that would love to see some of their favorite series get along with other parties in foreign field, be it for mere song sharing or something a little bit more expansive...
Before we started conceiving the idea of a collaborative network of rhythm games since the Tenkaichi Otogesai's inception (and even after!), here are some of the most remarkable get-along parades between different franchises in recent history.
Before nearly any of the other competitors, the extensive music series production by the hands of Konami's bemani arcade division has made it so that song sharing between its own proprietary series could become a more frequent reality, counting both random song unlocks and universal-grouping events that would get along every single series that was (at the time) active in arcade rooms!
One of these gargantuan operations was the Nettou! Bemani Stadium (熱闘！BEMANIスタジアム) event of late-2013/begin-2014, which would call eAmusement players from each active franchise to assemble a baseball team starring many of the most popular characters/artists of each title. After each play, according to the series and songs picked, players would get cards to use online in order to build a team, alongside digital tickets to compete in tournaments and level up the units; for each tourney won, the player could unlock either popular tunes getting crossed over to other series or one of the brand-new songs that have been made for the event for EVERY participating arcade (except DanceEvolution). All of the newcoming tracks happen to be themed around baseball, no less!
One of these baseball-themed additions was Naoyuki Sato's Deadball de Homerun (デッドボヲルdeホームラン), which was one of the Phase 2 new song unlockables as part of the "Second Half" tournament series. As obvious as this disclaimer may sound, there's no relation with this track and the 'de' songs in Taiko no Tatsujin...
Below are gameplay videos of Deadball de Homerun in other music game series:
DanceDanceRevolution
GITADORA
jubeat
pop'n music
REFLEC BEAT
FutureTomTom
Coming to Groove Coaster, we can spot quite the unique otoge-related collaboration event, as at the other end we happen to find an actual Western rhythm game for a change!
Indeed, Taito's arcade line has crossed paths with the rougelike music game Crypt of the Necrodancer as part of an hybrid collaboration which also saw some representation for the Danganronpa series. Being both franchises either created or published by the same developer in Japan (Spike/Spike Chunsoft), Brace Yourself Games's musical map-randomizer adventure has seen two tracks appearing in Groove Coaster arcades since the third main installment, with mashups of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 themes composed by Danny Baranowsky. Up here is featured the Stage 1 mashup, which also got an Extra mode to make a Groove Coaster experience that is more faithful to the gameplay elements of the source material!
In exchange, the Japanese versions of the game could have a jukebox overhaul in the Crypt of the Necrodancer game for a limited time, starring popular Groove Coaster songs on each floor and featuring the Link Fever navigator Linka as a playable character! For a sample of how the collaboration played out for the other end, click here.
Before the Tenkaichi Otigesai and even before the Game Music Triangle, the very first non-Taiko contact between major music game series happened within Sega and Taito again, with each of the other side making a remix of a song from the other party's musical history by the hands of one of their renowned in-house composers. The final products, in the end, appeared as playable tracks in both the maimai and Groove Coaster series, with soundtrack releases available for both parties.
The remix pick for Sega's sound team [H.] was the always-popular DADDY MULK from The Ninja Warriors, which on maimai was also greeted with a Groove Coaster gameplay video of the same song... being used as the default video on maimai! For an actual video of the song in action in Groove Coaster, click here.
Being co-created by Konami personalities, the Chunithm series often had the occasion to see some songs from bemani games being transplanted from time to time, but for the first event that could actually be classified as some sort of collaboration we have to wait a little bit longer, when Rayark's mobile game Deemo was nearing the Version 2.0 update.
In order to celebrate the milestone, both music series have decided to share the popular BMS song Altale by Sakuzyo at the same time in both series! While above is spotlighted the Chunithm video,
click here for the Deemo side of this peculiar agreement.
I've left for last what someone around here might consider it as a "Take that!" injury to loyal arcade Taiko fans... which is something, considering that one of the two parties involved in this event also did collaborate with Taiko no Tatsujin in the very same year! (only on a minor scale).
While Capcom's arcade branch of the CROSSxBEATS series has had a special event with Taiko no Tatsujin in form of 2 new songs being shared between both series, the event that tied crossbeats REV. with -once again- Groove Coaster has involved a bigger song exchange between the two, ultimately resulting into 4 shared cross-overs of pre-existing popular tracks and 3 brand new songs making their simultaneous debut in both series! Above is one of those three tracks and the one that is more related to the Capcom isle: HONEY♡SUNRiSE by jun and Aimee.
In both series, playing this song would result in the random selection of the version of the track that is going to be played, between the ~Original side~ with English lyrics by aimee and the ~jun side~ with Japanese ones instead, always with the same notechart sets.
With the crossbeats video above featuring the Original version, click here to listen to the jun side being played on Groove Coaster.
