DDR and Guitar Hero Natal Now With Stagediving!

On September 25, Naoki Maeda gave an interview at TGS 2009. He is the Producer at Bemani Production of Konami Digital Entertainment Co.

Bemani is of course the company that brought you Dance Dance Revolution, Dancing Stage, BeatMania, Dance Maniax, Pop’n Music, Pop’n Stage, GuitarFreaks, DrumMania, Rock Revolution, Keyboardmania, ParaParaParadise, Ubeat, Bemani Pocket, and Pop’n Rhythm.

They invented the whole genre of rhythm and dancing games, and had games like Guitar Hero and DJ Hero long before Guitar Hero itself.

These games are such an obvious usage for Project Natal, so it’s not surprising Bemani is very keen on adding Project Natal support. You wouldn’t need to buy a dance mat anymore, which makes games much more affordable and gives them a much wider audience and profit margin. I don’t know if we’re going to have air-guitar games. But there’s no reason it can’t use normal guitar peripherals while using Natal for things like starpower, avatar control, avatar creation, etc.

But Naoki Maeda wants to go a lot further than that… (transcript after the video).

“I feel we could try a lot on Natal. My specialty is games that work with music.

My instincts tell me that Natal would be ideal for dancing. Any form of dancing could be emulated on Natal. [starts dancing] … I really can’t dance, obviously.

The fundamentals of music are about performing. Well, dancing too.

For example, when you’re on stage, the audience reacts to your performance. This is where Natal may prove to have a lot of potential. You’re up on the stage, and you see the audience. You might want to call out to them. And then the crowd also calls back to you. You throw something at them, and somebody in the crowd catches it. The responses from the audience are what makes it so exciting for the performer. You’re on stage, performing to your audience, and they react to your performance.

I’d like to create a more realistic music entertainment with Natal for my fans.”