~ britney's dance beat ~ ~ playstation 2 ~ ~ faq ~ ~copywright marcus hanshew 2004~ Hi again, and welcome to my FAQ for Britney's Dance Beat on the Playstation 2. I've never played the Game Boy Advance version of this game, though I do have a friend with the game, so maybe I'll write about the GBA version later in an update. Here's the table of contents. You can copy any main item (Roman numeralS) or any sub-item (capital letters) and paste it in your browser's FIND function (usually CTRL+F) to go straight to that section of the FAQ. I. About the Game II. The Game Menu A. Audition B. Practice C. 2 Player D. Video Vault E. Preview F. Options III. The Game Engine/How to Play IV. Characters and Attacks A. Dan B. Rob C. Enrique D. Elisa E. Carla F. Leana G. The Universal Attack V. The Passes/Unlocking VI. FAQ VII. Legal Disclaimer, etc. *** I. About the Game *** Britney's Dance Beat was a quickly-made game starring Britney Spears. In fact, she randomly shows up during gameplay for no reasons and upstages your character. Many companies worked on this game, including one that worked on Bust-a-Groove (Bust-a-Move in Japan), a semi-popular dancing game for the PS1. Britney's Dance Beat actually has a pretty nice music game engine. The timing is superb and more accurate than even that of Dance Dance Revolution (the first mix released on PS1 in America) or Dance Dance Revolution Disney's Mix (also PS1 American), or even Parappa the Rapper. Actually, for the engine itself, the timing is really great, and it's a really well-made engine. Unfortunately, it's simple and can't play on anything but the downbeats and the upbeats (the "and" counts). This game features 5 Britney Spears songs and a few strange videos to watch. One of the most interesting features is Submersive Video in which you can watch a live perfomance and actually move the camera around during it. *** II. The Game Menu *** When you turn on the game, you will see many company logos. Tap the X or Start buttons on each one to skip them. Then the intro sequence will play. You will see a pretty cool introduction showing random clips of Britney and a cool remix of Stronger will play. You can press X or Start to skip it. After the intro scene, you will see a really ugly computer-animated Britney do a stupid dance move and then talk to you, explaining the "story" behind the game. Press X or Start as soon as it comes on so you don't have to watch it. The title screen and title menu will now appear, playing a remix of I'm A Slave 4 U. I'll explain each of the menu choices and what they do: ~ A. Audition ~ This is the main game. You go through a series of 10 "auditions" in which you play a VS match against computer opponents randomly selected. You can select your music, but you will have to do every song's both short and long versions eventually. You will be taken to a screen where you can choose one of the six characters (the question mark is just a random character selector, there are no hidden characters and you can't play as Britney) and play the game. As you pass auditions, that character will gain a gold bar under their picture. ~ B. Practice ~ This is where you can practice the dances that you'll play in audition mode. Setting the difficulty level is just choosing how many different buttons you have to press. On difficulty 1, you will only have to press one button over and over on the right counts. On difficulty 2, you'll have to press two different buttons. 3 and 4 have 3 and 4 buttons, respectively. The buttons you have to press on your "sidestep" don't count towards the button total number set by the difficulty. ~ C. 2 Player ~ This is the same thing as a match from Audition mode, but you'll play the match against whoever is using the controller inserted in the 2nd player port. This mode isn't locked from the beginning or anything, if you're wondering; you just can't choose this option if there's only one controller connected to your PS2. The selection will be a darker color and you can't move the cursor to it (Or maybe you can. It doesn't really matter, because you can't select it.) ~ D. Video Vault ~ This is where you can watch all the videos that come with the game. Only one of each type will be available from the start. You'll have to play Audition mode a lot to unlock more. The types of videos are "behind the scenes" which show really short clips put to remixed Britney music and "immersive video" which puts you in control of the camera angle at a live performance. ~ E. Preview ~ You can watch the characters do there dances to the songs here. In reality, there are only 3 dances to each song: A girl dance, a boy dance, and a Britney dance. The girl and boy dances are extremely close to being the same thing, and when the boy dance differs, it looks incredibly stupid. They usually do some kind of moonwalk or something. ~ F. Options ~ This is where you can set up your game. You really should go here before you play and set things up, because you might not like the default settings. CAPTION: This turns on or off the caption when the computer-animated Britney talks. She only talks during the intro and after the audition mode is completed so you really shouldn't care about this one. SOUND: You can set up the sound here. Set the sound mode to Stereo or Mono properly, because the music is important. You might want to lessen the volume of the sound effects if they mess you up during gameplay. VIBRATION: You can set if the control vibrates or not for each controller seperately. The only time it will vibrate is when you've been hit by an attack, which is completely random times during the song. If you like the rumble, you can turn it on, but if it messes up your concentration, turn it off. SAVE/LOAD: You can save or load data to your memory card here. It takes 55 KB of data to save on a Playstation 2 memory card. Also, you can turn the autosave function on or off. The autosave will save your game every time you complete an audition. CONTROLS: You can set the control type here. The first option is a set of feet; this lets you play using a dance mat because all of the buttons you need to press will be arrows. The second option is to use the shapes on the Playstation 2 controller. These shapes are Triangle, Circle, X, and Square. The sidesteps on this option will all be arrows. The third option is arrows. It uses the D-pad on the controller. The sidesteps will be the shape buttons. After setting up the game, you can go play! *** III. The Game Engine/How to Play *** This is a music game. You have to have rhythm to play. I don't know how many people try to play music games by watching the graphics (just hitting the DDR arrows when the arrows line up, just pressing the buttons in Parappa when the head floats over them, etc). If you don't understand that the buttons you're supposed to be pressing come on beats of the music, you'll never get it. In this game, there is a wheel with a green dial that spins around. One complete revolution of this wheel is one measure of music in 4/4 time. You don't really need to understand what 4/4 time is to play, though, but if you do it helps. The wheel looks something like this: ( ) ( ) o ( ) o o ( ) o * o ( ) o o ( ) o ( ) ( ) Everything that is placed in one of the "( )" spaces is a STEP. This will be what you press on the controller most of the time. Everything placed on the "o" spaces is a SIDESTEP. Sidesteps come at the EXACT SAME TIME as their corresponding steps. Let's say these two for example: ( ) ( ) o (X) o ? ( ) o * o ( ) o o ( ) ! ( ) (Y) In this example, you would press "?" at the exact same time you would press "X" and press "!" at the same time you'd press "Y". Of course, none of those are real buttons (except for X), but you get the point. If X was the X button and ? was an up arrow, you would press X and up at the same time. But when are you supposed to press them? Well, the green dial will spin around the wheel. When the dial is overlapping them, you press them. It's pretty simple. But I just said not to watch the graphics, right? That's right. Only use the green dial as a GUIDE to tell you where on the wheel you should be on the beat. The beats go like this: (1) ( ) 1 ( ) o o (4) 4 * 2 (2) o o ( ) 3 ( ) (3) Whenever the green dial is on either 1, 2, 3, or 4, you will press the button EXACTLY on the beat. Do you think it looked like it passed over the button a little before or after? Guess what? IT DIDN'T. Just press the button ON THE BEAT, WITH THE MUSIC. DO NOT WATCH THE GREEN DIAL AND JUST TRY TO LINE IT UP. The circles that I left unnumbered are the offbeats. The buttons that you press on those circles come EXACTLY halfway in between each beat of music. You might know these as "eighth notes" or "ands" or something. It will always come on the upbeat, always halfway between two beats, no matter what you think the green bar looks like it's doing. The most important thing to getting the step correct is to press it WITH THE MUSIC, not with anything else. You could play this game without the green bar. All you need is the music. The green bar is only there to let you know which beat you're on so you don't have to count "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &" through the entire game. If you know anything about music, the numbers I labeled above are the numbers of the counts. The number 3 is the third count to the measure. If you count eighth notes saying "and" on the upbeat, it would look like this: (1) (&) 1 (&) & & (4) 4 * 2 (2) & & (&) 3 (&) (3) And that's how the game goes. It's pretty simple. Just please, please, PLEASE listen to the music and don't try to watch the green bar lining up. The music. It's a MUSIC and RHYTHM game. Not a graphical timing guess game. New notes will appear about 2-3 counts before you're supposed to press them, so you'll be able to look ahead and won't have to worry about them showing up suddenly or anything. Once you press a button (or maybe if you don't) when the dial is lined up with a button to press, you will recieve a rating of either "Perfect", "Great", "Good", or "Miss" depending on how close to the beat it was (not how well the green bar was lined up. It has to do with the music). Along the bottom of the screen is a favor meter. There is a bar in the middle that moves back and forth toward the names of the characters playing. If player 1 gets a PERFECT and player 2 gets a GREAT, the bar will barely move toward the Player 1 side. You can tell whose side the bar is on also by the yellow trail it leaves behind. Every time you hit a step accurately, you will add to your combo. Every time you miss a step, your combo returns to zero. Every multiple of 10 that you get in a combo, you will do an attack to your opponent. Which attack you do is determined by your character. At the end of the song, whoever the favor bar is closer to wins the match and does a really annoying victory dance (male) or a cute/funny act (female). *** IV. Characters and Attacks *** There are six characters (no secret ones, no Britney) to this game. Each one has his or her special attack that screws up the opponent while playing. You can probably choose your own gender and nationality with these characters, because they tried to make them really diverse, which is kind of funny, because there is no Caucasion female, which is probably the main audience of this game. So, here's each character and what they do: ~ A. Dan ~ Dan is a Caucasion boy who is really, really annoying. With his blonde hair and stupid clothes, he likes to bounce around and say really dumb things when he wins. Sorry if you like Dan, but he's really not cool. Dan's attack, on the other hand, is a pretty good one. He'll insert sidesteps, but never on a beat that you're already playing on. So if your measure looked like this: (X) ( ) o (X) ? o (X) o * o (X) ? ? ( ) o ( ) (X) In which you played on all the X's, Dan could insert notes for any of the ? sidestep spaces, so you have to press extra buttons. He would never put a sidestep on what is still marked as "o" in that example. ~ B. Rob ~ Rob is an African-American boy who is funny to watch dance. His smile looks really strange and he wears similar clothes to Dan. His attack inserts a step into a place where you don't already have a step to play. It's basically the same as Dan, but with Steps instead of Sidesteps. ~ C. Enrique ~ Enrique is a Hispanic boy, and also looks strange (like the other 2 boys). His attack will take a step of yours and scramble it. You won't be able to see the step until the green dial gets closer to the step, and it may change from what the step origianlly was. ~ D. Elisa ~ Elisa is the Asian girl with pigtails. She also has the most unique attack. She will take your step and move it. You can tell which step is going to move because it will shake first. It will also only ever move either a half of a beat forward or back (one space on the wheel). Most likely it will move forward but be prepared for either. This is the most predictable attack and you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. Just expect it to either be on the next or previous eighth note. ~ E. Carla ~ Carla is the African-American girl who I would also say is probably my favorite character, because she is cute and the least annoying, and she has a pretty cool attack. She will add a sidestep, but unlike Dan, to a step that you're already playing on. So if it looked like this: (X) ( ) o (X) ? o (X) o * o (X) ? ? ( ) o ( ) (X) She would add sidesteps to anything that still looks like an "o". She wouldn't add anything to the ? spaces. This can get annoying when you already have sidesteps to press with other notes; it makes it difficult to think about each hand having to do very different things. ~ F. Leana ~ Leana is the Hispanic girl, and she is pretty cool, too, like Elisa and Carla. I'm sorry, but the boys in this game are really dumb. Anyway, her attack is to change the step that you are going to play. Unlike Enrique, it doesn't Roulette before changing. It will just change right before the dial gets to it. You can't really look out for it, although there is a dark aura behind the step before it changes. You'll still just expect to have to press whatever step is there and end up pressing what button it was supposed to be instead of the changed one. I consider her the hardest opponent. ~ G. The Universal Attack ~ There is also one more attack that everyone does. When your combo reaches 60, in addition to your character's special attack, you will also change the opponent's dial into a pink dial that is smaller than the green dial. This means you have to play more accurately. The only steps accepted will be ones that earn a "Perfect". So getting "Great" or "Good" while the dial is like this will just inherit a "Miss". Adding to your combo will stretch the dial back out to normal and you can get Greats and Goods again. *** V. The Passes/Unlocking *** There are six passes to collect throughout the game. They unlock different videos in the video vault. To get the passes, you have to collect points throughout the audition mode. As you pass auditions, you get points determined by how well you did. You usually can get more points in the later auditions. You should be able to get all of the passes before completing even 3 entire characters' worth of auditions. Here is a list of the passes, what they look like, and what they unlock. You will have the first backstage scene and the first immersive video from the start. Pass 1 (500 pts) - Teal pentagon that says "Britney Local" on it. Unlocks: Scene 2 Pass 2 (1500 pts)- Yellow circle that says "Executive Seating Britney" on it. Unlocks: Scene 3, IV2: "Stronger" Pass 3 (2700 pts)- Pink rectangle that says "VIP Britney" on it. Unlocks: Scene 4, IV3: "Overprotected" Pass 4 (4800 pts)- Pink/Green/Yellow says "Family&Friends Britney" on it. Unlocks: Scene 5 Pass 5 (7300 pts)- Orange/Yellow that says "Touring Staff Britney" on it. Unlocks: Scene 6, IV4: "I'm A Slave 4 U" Pass 6 (9999 pts)- The final pass! Yellow/Blue rectangle with Britney's body. Unlocks: IV5: "...Baby One More Time" If you try to enter a video besides one of the first ones without having a pass, a computer-animated bouncer will say "This is the Q dome. To enter the dome, YOU must have the right pass." It's extremely funny, and probably one of the best parts of the game. If you enter once you have a pass, he will say "Right this way" or "Sorry, wrong pass." Depending on what you try to access. Once he's said "Right this way" for an item, he won't repeat it for that item. *** VI. FAQ *** Here are some questions and their answers. Well, duh... Q: How do I unlock Britney in PREVIEW mode? A: Complete all of the auditions for any character. Q: How do I unlock extra songs or characters? A: You can't. The only songs are: ...Baby One More Time Oops! I Did It Again Stronger Overprotected I'm A Slave 4 U Q: What is the hardest song? Isn't it I'm a Slave 4 U? I'm having more trouble on (another song)...?! A: Even though it says "song difficulty" or whatever it says, that's really just the tempo rating. The higher it is, the faster the song. I actually think the two fastest songs are the easiest. It's different for every person. Q: I'm doing really bad at this game. What can I do to get better. A: Figure out what you're doing wrong. Do you usually get Good/Miss ratings but press the correct buttons, just not at the right time? Maybe you should turn up the music. If you're not listening to the music, you can't play right. You have to press the buttons according to the music and not by how the graphics line up. Do you try to press the right buttons but hit the wrong ones? Try changing the control mode. Some people play better with the arrows then they do the shapes. I do the shapes because I think arrows all look similar and I'll press the wrong ones in long series of multiple arrows, but not everyone has the shapes memorized as well as I do. Do you not know how to keep the beat to the music? Have someone who does clap every time you should play a step. Also have someone teach you how to clap with the beat and how to find the upbeats. It may sound dorky, but it will help you improve and gain rhythm. Also, make sure you're willing to practice. If you're having trouble hitting the buttons at the right time, go into practice mode and play any song with the difficulty set to 1, and it will only have 1 button for you to press. If the reason you are doing bad is because of the opponent's attacks, you'll just have to keep practicing in audition mode until you can do better against the attacks. Q: Sometimes my wheel disappears and the opponent plays alone. What happened? A: The game gives "solo time" in VS matches. There are times when only you are playing, too. Q: I haven't messed up any notes, but the computer is very far ahead. Why?? A: Sometimes the solos are unfair. The computer will get a solo with many notes and you will get a solo with very few notes in it. It's really annoying, and it gives the computer an advantage. You can go the entire song and never mess up, but win by a sliver. Also, when you play as Dan or Rob, the opponent gets new buttons to press which increases their combo AND gives them more edge on the favor bar. The game isn't exactly fair with the solos. Q: How do you win in the final audition where you dance with Britney? A: You don't. If you want to fill up the bar all the way, you have to run a combo for the entire song and never mess up... but doing this gives you nothing. The game doesn't even acknowledge that you did it. It will still just have the same scene where Britney says "Good Job. Bye!" and run the credits. Q: Isn't Britney a secret character? A: No. Why would she audition for herself? Q: What happens if you complete every audition with every character? A: Absolutely nothing. I thought maybe something cool would unlock or something if I did this, but it really was just a waste of my time. Once you've gotten every pass and the Britney unlocked in Preview mode, there's nothing more to the game, so just stop playing unless you want to play for fun. By I would just keep playing as my favorite character and restarting their file, or I would play the "final" with Britney when I felt like playing. I always restart Carla or Leana and play through again as them. Q: Can I play the SHORT versions of the songs in audition mode once I've completed the game with every character? A: No. You'll have to erase that character's data and start over. Q: When playing in audition mode, every single step was Triangle. Why? A: On the first audition, all of the steps will be the same button. If you get attacked, the attack could change it to something else. Sidesteps don't count towards this "one button" rule either. The second audition will use only two different buttons, and the third will use only three. After that, all of the buttons will be used. Q: Aren't the notes the same every time? A: You'll notice that with most music games like this, every song will have the same pattern of button presses, so you are able to memorize the song. If you really wanted to, you could memorize one of the songs so that you could play it with the video cable unplugged and just listening to the audio to play. Q: Who is the best character? A: It depends on who you're playing against and which type of attack messes with their brain the most. When playing vs the computer or a very skilled opponent, it's bad to use Dan or Rob because it will give them extra steps to play, which gives the opponent a higher combo, more attacks, and more influence on the favor bar. The computer barely misses any notes (including ones you add by attack) on the later stages of the game (8-10 auditions). Q: Britney suddenly appeared and the game said "Bonus Time." How do I make this happen again? A: I have no idea. This happens even when you're losing and missing many notes. So, I guess it's completely random. Q: What's wrong with the video in the back? A: In the back of the stage, a small clip from the music video for the song you are playing will repeat itself over and over, but it doesn't actually go with the song. Q: Why did you spend money on this game? A: I love music games, and I like the Britney Spears music featured in this game. If you don't love music games and Britney, you won't like this game. *** VI. Legal Disclaimer, etc. *** These characters, titles, etc. are not mine, obviously, as I never claimed they were. This guide, however, is mine and cannot be used without my permission, punishable by law. Do not use any part of this faq for your own use without BOTH permission AND credit. So in other words, you can have a personal copy, but it cannot be used for ANY other reason except for personal use. If you would like to distibute, post, or do ANYTHING else publicly with this document, you MUST HAVE my permission. Currently, the only permission to use this faq is given to gamefaqs.com. You can contact me through my email at nesseggman@yahoo.com. Please put SOMETHING in the subject. Something with no subject, I will probably skip over and it may take me a while to get around to reading it. Don't worry, I won't delete your emails just because it doesn't have some exact title that I want it to have... but if it's not worth the energy to type a title in before you send it then it's not worth my energy to move my mouse over it and click it. Thanks for reading! I'd also like to thank my brother Wataru for playing this game with me and watching the backgrounds to tell me what the situation was for Britney's appearance (which we still don't understand) and if the video lined up or not, and other things like that. Thanks to Kasumi who bought me this game and knowing that I actually wanted it. Thanks to Wataru, Kasumi, and Ditto for playing with the Dance Pads and listening to me babble on about this game. And of course, thanks to all the people who worked on this game.