In the Groove (video game)

In the Groove

PlayStation 2 cover artwork for In the Groove.
Developer(s) Roxor Games
Publisher(s) RedOctane
Distributor(s) Roxor Games
Series In the Groove
Engine StepMania
Platform(s) Arcade, Mac OS X, PlayStation 2, Windows
Release date(s)
  • NA: August 30, 2004
    (arcade)
  • NA: June 17, 2005
    (PlayStation 2)
  • EU: August 21, 2006
  • NA: August 21, 2006
    (Mac OS X, Windows)
Genre(s) Music, Exercise
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer
Cabinet Upgrade kit for Dance Dance Revolution cabinets.
Arcade system Boxor

In the Groove (abbreviated ITG) is the first game in the In the Groove franchise, published by RedOctane and developed by Roxor Games,[1] and first released in video arcades around August 30, 2004.

Gameplay

In the Groove utilizes similar mechanics to Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series.[2] The core gameplay involves the player moving his or her feet to a set pattern, stepping in time to the general rhythm or beat of a song. Like DDR, there are 4 arrows. During normal gameplay, arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over flashing stationary arrows (referred to as the "guide arrows" or "receptors"). When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform. Longer arrows referred to as "holds" must be held down for their entire length for them to count. Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills the life bar, while failure to do so drains it. If the life bar is fully depleted during gameplay, the player fails the song (unless the fail at end of song setting is on), usually resulting in a game over. Otherwise, the player is taken to the Results Screen, which rates the player's performance with a letter grade and a percentage score, among other statistics. The player may then be given a chance to play again, depending on the settings of the particular machine (the limit is usually 3-5 songs per game).

Stepcharts on In the Groove can sometimes contain 3 or 4 arrow combinations (supposed to be hit with hands but usually hit by placing one or two feet between two arrows making them hit both). Stepcharts can also contain Mines. If a player is on an arrow when a mine passes through the step zone for that arrow, it will explode and health will be lost.[3]

Modes of Play

In The Groove offers various modes of play.

Dance Mode is the default mode of play. In this mode, a player chooses a number of individual songs to play (the default is three). After the songs are played, the game is over.

Marathon Mode is an extended mode of play. In this mode, a player chooses a predefined configuration of songs that may also have a predefined script of modifiers whose purpose is to make the song more challenging. Marathon courses typically have four songs, although some have five songs.

Battle Mode is a specialized "versus" mode of play. Two players (or one player against the computer) play three individual songs of the same difficulty. During the song, successfully executed steps fill up a player's "power bar". When the power bar completely fills, a modifier is applied to the opposing player's side.

Song list

This list covers the 75 songs available in the arcade and home versions of In the Groove. All the songs are playable in the sequel game, In the Groove 2. For songs exclusive to In the Groove 2, see the ITG2 song list.

The difficulties are abbreviated to conserve table space:

N = Novice
E = Easy
M = Medium
H = Hard
X = Expert

Note the numbers given for each difficulty level are similar to DDR's 1-10 "footers," except ITG removed the footer label and added 3 additional difficulties, far surpassing the hardest 10-footers in DDR. Thus a 10 in ITG is comparable to a 10-footer in DDR. If one actually counts the number of boxes showing the difficulty, one will notice there are only 12 boxes. The 13s go far and beyond the realm of reality for most people. Only one 13 exists for In the Groove 1, while two make their debut in the sequel.

Songs that need to be unlocked in the arcade version are highlighted in red. Songs that are from In the Groove 2 are highlighted in green. These also need to be unlocked.

The Novice steps are only available in the home version, as well as in the sequel. In addition, there is an asterisk beside the Single Expert step routines for "Why Me." These are also only available in the sequel. The Double Expert steps are not on any current release of In the Groove 1, but they are on the sequel. It is marked with a karat to emphasize this.

There is one song that is in the arcade version that cannot be played in normal mode. "Liquid Moon" (which is also used as the menu music) exists only in the Energy Marathon course. It is fully playable in the home version and the sequel. It is highlighted as a home version song.

All of the songs by Kyle A. Ward, (which include the Smiley, Inspector K, and Banzai songs) can be found on his studio album Synthsations which is available for digital download.[4]

Title Artist BPM Single Double
N E M H X E M H X
Anubis Banzai 110 1 5 7 8 10 2 8 9 10
Bend Your Mind Reflection Theory 140 1 6 7 9 10 6 8 9 10
Boogie Down Inurvise 175 1 3 6 8 9 4 6 8 9
Bouff Machinae Supremacy 200 1 5 7 9 10 5 7 9 10
Bubble Dancer Crispy 137 1 3 5 7 9 3 7 9
Changes Sandy Rivera & Haze 125 1 2 4 7 9 1 5 8
Charlene Missing Heart 138 1 3 4 8 11 3 6 7 9
Crazy DJ Doo 135 1 2 5 7 9 3 6 7
Da Roots (Folk Mix) Mind Reflection 89-134 1 2 4 7 9 4 6 9 9
Dawn KaW 138 1 3 5 8 9 4 6 8 9
Delirium 163-280 1 2 6 8 12 6 8 9 11
Disconnected Inspector K 200 1 4 6 8 9 4 6 8 9
Disconnected ~Hyper~ Inspector K 195 1 3 6 9 10 5 7 9 10
Disconnected ~Mobius~ Inspector K 88-175 1 3 5 8 9 4 6 8 9
DJ Party BB Hayes 130 1 2 5 8 1 4 7
Do U Love Me DJ Doo 133 1 3 4 6 10 2 4 6 9
Don't Promise Me Reflection Theory 66-132 1 3 4 6 4 5 7 9
Don't Promise Me ~Happiness~ Reflection Theory 66-132 1 4 5 8 4 6 8 9
Dreams of Passion Dax 97 1 2 4 5 1 2 5
Drifting Away Filo Bedo 143 1 3 5 8 9 3 6 7 9
Driving Force Classical Digital Explosion 168 1 2 5 8 9 4 7 8 9
Euphoria KaW feat. ☺ 70-140 1 3 6 9 12 3 6 9 10
Fly Away Missing Heart 138 1 2 5 7 9 3 5 7 9
Fly With Me Nina 29-137 1 2 5 7 9 4 6 8 9
Flying High Filo Bedo 146 1 2 5 8 9 3 6 8 9
Funk Factory Money Deluxe 132 1 4 7 8 9 4 7 8 9
Hand of Time Reflection Theory 92-184 1 3 4 8 10 3 6 9 10
Hardcore of the North Digital Explosion 110-169 1 4 6 9 12 5 6 9 11
Hip Hop Jam Indiggo 194 1 2 4 6 9 3 7 9 10
Hybrid Machinae Supremacy 185 1 3 5 9 10 3 8 9 10
I Think I Like That Sound^^ Kid Whatever 131 1 3 5 8 9 2 6 8 9
I'll Get There Anyway Sammi Morelli 100 1 3 6 7 1 5 7
Incognito Inspector K 150 1 3 5 8 9 3 6 9 10
Infection Inspector K 170 1 3 6 8 11 3 6 9 10
July 170 1 3 5 9 11 5 7 9 10
Kagami KaW 73-146 1 3 5 8 10 5 8 9 11
Kiss Me Red Crispy 137 1 2 5 7 9 3 5 6 9
Land of the Rising Sun Spacekats 136 1 3 5 7 9 4 6 8 9
Lemmings on the Run E-Rotic 134 1 3 5 7 9 4 6 8 9
Let Me Be The One Sammi Morelli 123 1 3 4 6 2 5 7
Let My Love Go Blind Nina 160 1 4 6 7 9 3 6 8 9
Liquid Moon Inspector K 160 1 2 6 8 9 2 6 9 10
Mellow Spacekats 160 1 3 5 8 10 4 6 8 9
Mouth Rochelle 134 1 3 4 8 3 6 8 9
My Favourite Game Natalie Browne 68-136 1 3 5 6 10 2 5 7 9
Mythology Digital Explosion 138 1 3 7 9 11 4 8 9 10
No 1 Nation Anet 200 1 4 7 8 9 5 7 9 10
Normal Anet 141 1 3 5 7 1 6 8
Not Worth The Paper Dax 133 1 2 4 6 2 5 7
Oasis KaW 145 1 3 4 9 10 5 7 9 9
On A Day Like Today Obsession 134 1 3 5 7 9 2 5 7 9
PA Theme MC Frontalot 142 1 2 4 6 2 3 5
Pandemonium ZiGZaG 330 1 5 9 11 13 6 9 10 12
Perfect Sammi Morelli 100 1 3 5 8 3 6 8 9
Queen of Light Missing Heart 132 1 3 4 7 10 3 6 8 9
Remember December Mind Reflection 192 1 3 6 9 10 5 7 9 9
ROM-eo & Juli8 Nina 135 1 2 6 7 9 3 5 7 9
Solina Evolution 129 1 2 4 7 9 4 7 9 9
Tell Symphonius w/Rossini 163 1 3 6 9 12 4 6 9 11
Tension Inspector K 85-180 1 5 6 9 10 5 6 9 10
The Beginning DJ Doo 132 1 4 6 8 11 3 6 9 10
The Game Crispy 138 1 2 5 8 9 3 5 8 9
Torn Natalie Browne 128 1 3 5 7 3 6 7 9
Touch Me E-Rotic 138 1 3 5 8 9 3 5 8 9
Tough Enough Vanilla Ninja 98-196 1 2 4 7 9 1 2 5 9
Tribal Style KaW 140 1 3 6 9 10 3 5 9 11
Turn It On Georgetown 120 1 3 5 7 9 2 5 8 9
Utopia 88-166 1 3 5 8 11 4 6 9 11
VerTex ZiGZaG 60-612 1 6 7 10 12 6 9 10 12
Walking on Fire (Blank & Jones Remix) Evolution feat. Jayn Hanna 138 1 3 5 8 10 3 6 9 9
Which MC Was That? MC Frontalot 111 1 3 5 7 2 3 5
While Tha Rekkid Spinz DJ Zombie 140 1 2 5 7 9 2 5 8 9
Why Me Desire 126 1 2 4 6 9* 1 3 6 9^
Xuxa 160 1 3 5 9 11 4 6 9 9
Zodiac Banzai 107 1 2 5 7 9 2 7 9 10

^^On the original arcade version, the song was labeled on the song wheel as "That Sound", but all other releases following it label the song as "I Think I Like That Sound"

Home versions

Two home versions of In the Groove were released. The first was released for the PlayStation 2 on June 17, 2005, and was published by RedOctane.[5] The PS2 version contains the Novice mode carried over from In the Groove 2, Liquid Moon as a fully playable track, and 4 songs from the sequel. A PC version was released on August 16, 2006, featuring 3 songs from the now-canceled In the Groove 3, widescreen aspect ratio support, and Edit Mode. A patch named Song Pack A was later released adding the songs and theme from In the Groove 2.

Controversy

Konami filed a lawsuit against Roxor Games on an infringement of various rights on May 9, 2005 in the Eastern District of Texas, a district known for its bias for the plaintiff in patent cases.[6] Additionally, they amended their complaint on July 1, 2005, to include the dance game "MC GROOVZ danceCRAZE" (a game produced by Mad Catz to accompany their 3rd party dance mat). Konami primarily claims that Roxor has infringed their dancing game patent rights, but also goes on to claim that the refitting of arcade cabinets "has been done in an infringing and unfair way".

On July 10, 2005, however, Konami amended its complaint to include the In The Groove PS2 game and its publisher RedOctane. On July 25, 2005, Roxor Games filed a counterclaim against Konami. In the counterclaim, Roxor denies the claims in Konami's complaint, stating that 'In The Groove' does not violate patent law and that claiming that Konami has engaged in unfair competition.

However, the lawsuit ultimately ended in a settlement. On October 18, 2006, Roxor announced that Konami had acquired the intellectual property rights to the In the Groove series as part of the settlement to this litigation.[7] The musicians and developers of the game would later go on to create Pump it Up Pro, a spinoff of the Pump it Up series featuring music and features from ITG.

See also

References

  1. "In The Groove - Videogame by Roxor Games". www.arcade-museum.com. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  2. "In the Groove Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  3. Lewis, Ed. "In the Groove". IGN. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  4. "Amazon.com: Synthsations: Kaw: MP3 Downloads". amazon.com.
  5. "PS2 In the Groove Dance Game". www.ddrgame.com. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  6. "Analysis: patent reform bill unable to clean up patent mess". Ars Technica.
  7. Konami acquires In the Groove
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