Wednesday 5 March 2014
REVIEW AUDITION ONLINE
Audition Online (Korean: 오디션 온라인), also known as X-BEAT in Japan, popularly called AyoDance in Indonesia, is a downloadable multiplayer online casual rhythm game produced by T3 Entertainment. It was originally released in South Korea
in 2004, but it has been localized by various publishers around the
world. Audition Online is free to play but it earns its revenue by
selling virtual items such as clothes for the player's avatar.
In South Korea, PSP (called Audition Portable) and cellphone versions were released on June 1, 2007 and June 4, 2007 respectively.
On June 12, 2008, Season 2 was first officially released in Korea.
Currently, Korean Audition, China Audition, Thailand Audition,
Indonesian Audition, AuditionSEA, AuditionEu, Vietnam Audition,
Philippines Audition, North American Audition, Brazil Audition, X-BEAT
have updated to Season 2. Audition Season 2 features a new interface,
sound system, expressions, and many new features.
During Fall 2008, Audition 2, the sequel, was discovered to be in the
making. On April 28, 2010, closed beta has officially begin and it
ceased its operation during 2013.
During Fall 2013, Audition 3, known as World in Audition a.k.a WIA,
the 2nd sequel, was discovered to be in the making & closed beta has
officially begin.
Popularity
Audition's popularity began in South Korea and global versions of the
game. In 2008, Bugs Corporation discontinued the server. Noticing the
increasing popularity of the game, T3 Entertainment and Yedang Online
began localizing it in other regions including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, North America, Thailand, Taiwan, South East Asia, Vietnam, Brazil, United Kingdom, and Remaining European Countries. The Asian and North American versions remain the most popular, with millions of members registered.
Gameplay Features
A player is allowed to create a room or join a room. The 'DJ' (the
player who creates the room) is given power to choose songs and settings
for the room. The DJ also has the power to kick people out of the room
and close the dance floor off however; this cannot be permanent. The
song's BPM (beats per minute) usually will determine the song's
difficulty and speed(with certain exceptions e.g. beat up mode).
The basic game is played by pressing the arrows displayed on the
screen (with the exception of red Chance arrows, which the player must
do the opposite of) and pressing spacebar or the control key on every
4th beat of the song. The more accurately the spacebar or control key is
pressed, the higher the score, "PERFECT" being the best, "GREAT" and
"COOL" still counted as good enough, "BAD" you will get very little
score, and for "MISS" as the worst one, no score. If you get a "MISS"
you will not get the chance to play for the next move. The player
currently with the most points during the game will have their character
in front and the most visible part of the stage.
A special move during most gameplay modes is the "Finish Move", can
be said the hardest move. If a person does not miss the move before it,
they have the option to do the "Finish Move". Finish moves issue a lot
of points and can often be the key to success.
When a player does 2 or more PERFECTs consecutively, he will get
bonus points for doing so. These PERFECT combos (or "Perfect chains")
enable players to interfere with the opposition. A blue circle indicates
that you made a PERFECT in your move, and acts as a shield. When a
player performs a PERFECT X1 (or perfect X2 in some cases) they will
make either the player ahead or behind them receive a yellow circle.
While under the yellow circle, points will not be given if that person
does not achieve a PERFECT (in a finish move it reduces a percentage
rather than the whole move). In addition, players can increase their
points by playing 'chance'. This can be activated by pressing the delete
key or the . key on the number pad whereby red keys appear and players
have to press in the opposite direction of the red keys. At the end of
the dance battle, the person with the most points is the winner. Each
player will receive experience points and Den/BEATS according to what
position they finished in.
If a single/group game (not including NPC, One-Two Party and Beat Up
modes) is full, while also having the music set to random, a random
event (also called a mission) will occur. This is where bonuses are
given if you accomplish a certain challenge. Examples are not getting a
specific beat judgment (e.g. no COOLs or no BADs), getting perfect
combos (e.g. PERFECT X3), or getting a standing (e.g. getting number 1).
The music can be random, random(new), or random from any range of
tempos.
Chance levels (not available in all versions)
There are chance levels from 1 till 6. With the addition of Chance levels, the DJ can now set a standard number of red (opposite keys) arrows a player will face when they use the chance mode. The choices range from 0 to 6. Alternatively, the DJ can select the free chance mode which will allow players to cycle through the levels at their leisure, or random level chance where a random amount of red chance keys appear per move (ranging from 1 to 6). The more red steps a player clears, the more points they will score. The ability to choose your own level of difficulty adds a new level of strategy and can greatly stratify scores between weak and strong players. In addition, whether or not players are using chance and their current chance level are displayed next to player scores during the game. There is also a random chance option, which gives you a random amount of keys with chance on a turn. When random chance is on, it gives no indication on the sidebar or on the screen which keys will be chance in the next turn or currently.
There are chance levels from 1 till 6. With the addition of Chance levels, the DJ can now set a standard number of red (opposite keys) arrows a player will face when they use the chance mode. The choices range from 0 to 6. Alternatively, the DJ can select the free chance mode which will allow players to cycle through the levels at their leisure, or random level chance where a random amount of red chance keys appear per move (ranging from 1 to 6). The more red steps a player clears, the more points they will score. The ability to choose your own level of difficulty adds a new level of strategy and can greatly stratify scores between weak and strong players. In addition, whether or not players are using chance and their current chance level are displayed next to player scores during the game. There is also a random chance option, which gives you a random amount of keys with chance on a turn. When random chance is on, it gives no indication on the sidebar or on the screen which keys will be chance in the next turn or currently.
New chance system (not available in all versions)
Korean Audition has expanded the original Chance system with three new Chance Modes for normal room. These are: Double chance (Certain notes double, up to 6, display as Yellow notes), Bomb Chance (Bombs appear between notes, players are not allowed to make mistake as one wrong press will cause the bombs to explode, resulting instant miss) and Perfect chance (Scoring Perfect will reduce notes in the move, up to 3). Dynamic Chance is also available to every mode instead of only Crazy-9 like before. As of March 8, 2012, Redbana Audition now also has these three chance modes.
Korean Audition has expanded the original Chance system with three new Chance Modes for normal room. These are: Double chance (Certain notes double, up to 6, display as Yellow notes), Bomb Chance (Bombs appear between notes, players are not allowed to make mistake as one wrong press will cause the bombs to explode, resulting instant miss) and Perfect chance (Scoring Perfect will reduce notes in the move, up to 3). Dynamic Chance is also available to every mode instead of only Crazy-9 like before. As of March 8, 2012, Redbana Audition now also has these three chance modes.
Insane system (not available in all versions)
This feature will add another Judgment, the Insane Perfect. The Insane Perfect gives approximately 3x higher score than Perfect and it'll give you a Score bonus. The score bonus depends on the judgment "blocked" after each insane perfect. Once the Insane is activated, the score bonus will set to +50%, but you will be blocked to achieve BAD judgment anymore, thus you'll miss. After getting a judgment higher that BAD except Insane Perfect, the score bonus is will set to +100%, but this time, you can't achieve COOL judgment too anymore, and after that, +200% score bonus in exchange of GREAT judgment, this will be the time that you'll need to have Perfect/Insane Perfect or you'll miss automatically. Misses gained from Insane's fault will still be counted but you'll be able to dance instantly after the miss, unlike regular miss that you'll have to wait 1 move bar to dance again. If you missed because of Insane in the Finish move, you'll won't miss it but there's no score. The key to success in Insane Mode is to keep your Insane Time as long as possible: Passing block-requirement with lowest result will advance to the next block-requirement, but if you can hit Insane Perfect, it stays back (Say, when the block-requirement is BAD, you hit Great and it advances to COOL, but if you hit Insane Perfect, the next one will still be BAD). There is also a bug from some servers that allow players to enter Insane Mode if they just ignore the key note and time their Space to hit Insane Perfect Point (Which resulting in MISS, but it still activate Insane Mode). Insane System is also known as "The Killer of Old Replays", which rendered all older replays saved before Insane Update corrupted. Older replays can still be viewed, but the players won't dance and always score Insane Perfect without hitting any notes (Even though the final score board still displays real result from that match). This bug has never been fixed, and players unaware of it have to accept that they lost all old replays, unless they record videos for them first.
This feature will add another Judgment, the Insane Perfect. The Insane Perfect gives approximately 3x higher score than Perfect and it'll give you a Score bonus. The score bonus depends on the judgment "blocked" after each insane perfect. Once the Insane is activated, the score bonus will set to +50%, but you will be blocked to achieve BAD judgment anymore, thus you'll miss. After getting a judgment higher that BAD except Insane Perfect, the score bonus is will set to +100%, but this time, you can't achieve COOL judgment too anymore, and after that, +200% score bonus in exchange of GREAT judgment, this will be the time that you'll need to have Perfect/Insane Perfect or you'll miss automatically. Misses gained from Insane's fault will still be counted but you'll be able to dance instantly after the miss, unlike regular miss that you'll have to wait 1 move bar to dance again. If you missed because of Insane in the Finish move, you'll won't miss it but there's no score. The key to success in Insane Mode is to keep your Insane Time as long as possible: Passing block-requirement with lowest result will advance to the next block-requirement, but if you can hit Insane Perfect, it stays back (Say, when the block-requirement is BAD, you hit Great and it advances to COOL, but if you hit Insane Perfect, the next one will still be BAD). There is also a bug from some servers that allow players to enter Insane Mode if they just ignore the key note and time their Space to hit Insane Perfect Point (Which resulting in MISS, but it still activate Insane Mode). Insane System is also known as "The Killer of Old Replays", which rendered all older replays saved before Insane Update corrupted. Older replays can still be viewed, but the players won't dance and always score Insane Perfect without hitting any notes (Even though the final score board still displays real result from that match). This bug has never been fixed, and players unaware of it have to accept that they lost all old replays, unless they record videos for them first.
