There's no better time to be a music game fan with not only a number of rhythm games hitting Japan, but also in the U.S.
One of those series, originating from Roxor Games in the United States, is In the Groove (ITG), preparing for a third arcade release with a potential release for a home version of In the Groove 2. The series, which has been a current mainstay in U.S. arcades, has been a frequent visitor at the top of coin-operated charts.
ITG launched in arcades but has since branched off into home versions. To catch up on the work Roxor has done on In the Groove, here is the legacy of the titles released so far in the franchise:
In the Groove (Arcade) – August 2004
In the Groove entered the market as an upgrade to existing dance cabinets, kicking the series off with around 70 songs, licensed and original. The game was notable for being more difficult than other four-panel dancing games with intense "expert" step charts, mines that haunted players with a decrease in score and performance if stepped on, choreography that required players to use their hands to hit three or four panels simultaneously, longer songs and marathon courses that inserted periodical modifications to the appearance of game play.
Another mode allowed two players to verse each other in a battle mode. Players could also track their personal records and edit step charts through data stored in a USB flash drive. The ranking system was also much more robust than any other dancing game at the time, offering a top ten ranking for every possible game mode, song and difficulty combination.
In the Groove (PS2) – June 2005
The arcade version came to home systems almost a year later and replicated the coin-op version pound for pound. While the Playstation 2 had hardware limitations compared to the arcade counterpart, Roxor was able to not only replicate the original version but also added material completely new to the home version to tease the then-upcoming release of In the Groove 2. It also featured a play-based unlock system that gave the player new songs, modifiers and marathon courses after playing a set number of songs.
In the Groove 2 (Arcade) – June 2005
The second version of the arcade title offered vendors the choice of ordering a brand-new dedicated cabinet built specifically for ITG2 with a partnership with Andamiro. The cabinet featured a bigger screen and better sound system than the cabinets used for the previous version. The new ITG offered more songs and marathons and added new features such as roll steps (players had to continually hit the panel for the duration of the arrow), a new novice mode to assist beginners and an even more brutal survival mode where players needed to make the most accurate steps possible to delay a countdown clock.
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