Monday, April 1, 2019

Sonority Scouts - Prankfully Yours, 2019 Edition



Well, we sure got something new for Taiko this year around, alright... heh, what do you mean "I can't read a thing on that other post"? It was straight to the point!

I'll look after it in a while, but while you wait for it, why don't you take a seat to our yearly appointment of April Fools stunts from other music games series?




Starting out once again into familiar territory, let it be known that Bandai Namco's Synchronica is about to crank up their popularity pace up to a notch with quite the announcement: it's going to be made a movie out of this music game! While you wait for its sure-to-come release date, said movie's theme song is playable for 1 day only at your nearest Synchronica cabinet.




Synchronica, however, is not the only one this year to fight for otoge movie blockbuster supremacy! The masterminds over Taito's Groove Coaster series have thought to make a movie adaptation out of COSIO's Spooky Story: Car GPS April Fools song from years ago. For such a gargantuan project to be handled, why not leave the freelance musician Cranky to make a remix out of it?

The song is a 1-day-only playable masterpiece for the Android/iOS Groove Coaster game, starring the stunning art that Cranky himself has penned over the last few years as well as a sneak peek at the main actors in the upcoming movie, from COSIO himself to t+pazolite and E.G.G... hold on for a second, why was MASAKI cut out from this?!?


We also hold out a scoop for you all to gawk at! Bemani composer wac is missing and we need your help to find him back by playing this 1-day-only ENDYMION remix in the latest installments of the pop'n music and dancy-floor-mat game series. Our resident aquabluu/pikaby got this intel for us, so it's safe to us be trusting of this scoop... so, MOVE OUT!

... in all seriousness, there's not that much to talk about new April Fools at bemani's for this year, with SOUND VOLTEX re-opening the former April Fools tracks for today only. Can't win them all, can we?







However, for one of the usual main otoge parties dropping out for new prankful situation, we have one company that has gone completely ballistic in the jokes department! In this very morning, the Sega sound unit's very own Takenobu Mitsuyoshi has received a cryptic challenge request from the mysterious AnotherVision organization, alongside an a-capella rendition of one of Mitsuyoshi's own songs. Turns out that this gauntlet is too much for one man alone to tackle, so he's calling out all Sega arcade music gamers to figure out what's really behind it!

Thus, the Ikazuchi remix he allegedly received, titled Ikazuchi ～Takenobu Mitsuyoshi Mystery～ (怒槌 ～光吉猛修一部謎～), has been made playable on the latest installments of all the currently-active Sega music game series (in video order: CHUNITHM, maimai and Ongeki), alongside the cryptic messages left by AnotherVision in either movie visuals or notechart form. If you played those songs and have figured out what messages lie behind each of the song's notechart ports, you can head over to this special website here to submit your findings and attempt to crack the code. Hints from the mysterious organization may be shared on social media feeds as well, so keep your eyes wide open if you're stuck!

We also mention here that all past April Fools songs are also permanently unlocked on maimai FINALE from this day onward, as the series' "Gen 1" arcade line is about to be discontinued with the current firmware line, in order to make the next leap forward for the series in the coming months.



The giant mystery party in Sega music gaming hasn't stopped the single music series to have their... shall we say, "regular broadcasting" for this special day. For istance, today is your only rateup chance to get a very special and hi-quality card of a particular CHUNITHM character, as you can see from the tweet above!





April Fools for this game, as usual, also means a new time-limited and totes-serious Irorimidori song to boot, one that deviates to the past years' Touhou Project spoof formula in order to test out the capabilities of the development team's latest hi-tech notecharting gizmo: the Chuunerizer (チュウナライザー)! This wonderous and costly gadget will allow its users to translate their voice into notecharting bliss, from talking to just moaning and such- anything goes! As reported by the referenced Chunithm news bullettin on the above-embeded tweet, misusing this tool may cost anyone's life. Even the game's own poor mascot...

The Chuunerizer's capabilities have been used to chart a card game between Irorimidori members, one that -as a song- has taken the long name of It Is A Story To Be Seen With My Eyes (なるがちゃんなぎにいよいよえれー目にあわされる話). For a time-limited frame, its WORLD'S END mode has been opened for everyone to enjoy, but just make sure not to focus that much on the notechart and its actual lyrics- you might have some meme flashbacks to some other card games-related shenanigans in animated form...





Joining the AF ranks for the first stand-alone time is also Sega's Ongeki, as one of its idol leads has decided to take over the reins of all its feeds, from the Twitter handle to its website. The mishievous Akane Osaka has also taken advantage of the situation to release one new song, nonetheless!

Together with Bandai Namco's April Fools stunts, Ongeki Zeniki★Akane-sama? (オンゲキ全域★アカネサマ？) is one of the all-modes-fully-charted specimen for this year's jokey recurrence. Have some fun with this red-haired singer before her sneaky deeds are undone for the day!



We now move to the mobile games field (even if... we kinda already started this with the Groove Coaster bit...), with lowiro's Arcaea bringing out the new feature of adding Likes to the songs that players love the most. However, be sure not to play with this feature not that much, when certain songs are involved...

By spam-liking Silentroom's unlockable Red and Blue, in fact, you can get across a corrupted version of it, sure to bring some havoc by adding a third color to the mix! The multi-finger-friendly Red and Blue and Green also has more nasty tricks on its sleeves to play with 1st-timers' expectations, so make sure that there's enough room around you when trying this one-day-only bug exclusive treat.

For those who are coming from the past April Fools tomfoolery, you can also access 2018's joke song of Ignotus Afterburn again by like-spamming the regular Ignotus track!



Moving swiftly on, we get a couple of tweet jokes from Rayark's music series, the first of which involving Cytus II and one of its fictional composers' experiences. There's a new popular singer at Node03, and the livestreamer/musician Neko was eager to reach her out and make a new song together, one that is sure to be reaching the game really soon! ...

... that doodle though... I'm not sure why, but it gives me out some odd vibes... I wonder wh-*REDACTED*

[POST-AF EDIT] - Some days later and it turned out that Rayark was not jesting at all on this issue, as a proper Hatsune Miku collaboration campaign was properly announced.


...now that Lokamp's away from the keyboard for a while, here are a couple of new crossover merchandise goodies that merge together characters from Deemo and Mandora! I can't wait myself to purchase this fridge and surveilance once they're out!




Noxy Games' Lanota has received an update that... really makes you think! A tap on the new Ritmo icon before playing any song will result the player's inputs to be changed into bamboo percussions and airhorns for respectively each single-hit and hold note press. It's the perfect addition for the fans of the Nintendo DS game Micheal Jackson The Experience's anti-piracy measures, with the added perk of being playable... sweet!



All players of Muse Dash have also received a new boss song from Morimori Atushi for their hard-gaming desires! ...or is it, really? Weird sudden jumps asides, nothing seems to scream 'high-difficulty' as advertised by the star rating, but you can be the judges on this by hopping aboard for this auto-runner music gaming experience





Another contender also stepped in for an April 1st announcement, although this time the added GIGA difficulty to TQ★'s Oracle is anything but false difficulty advertisement. You gotta love today's special background for the song bumper art from the Facebook reveal post, though!


We close out this year's cavalcade of silliness with an announcement from Tatsuya Shimizu that is sure to shake not only fans of his works and looks, but also seasoned music rhythm players as well. Styling with a new blonde attire, be sure to attend your closest game center for when its much-anticipated sequel to the beatmania IIDX song zenius-I-vanisher is finally revealed!
Posted by Nintendo 5-Star at 8:43 AM
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