Type:   Piano Simulation Release:   2000 Home Status:   inactive Arcade Status:   inactive

Keyboardmania was one of the shorter-lived BEMANI games. Utilizing a Yamaha keyboard in the arcade and a USB keyboard at home, this piano-simulation game is very easily the most accurate instrument simulation game released by Konami. Simply put, if you could play Keyboardmania, you could sit down at a real piano and play any Keyboardmania songs you might have memorized. Unfortunately BEMANI fever was dying down in Japan, meaning that this excellent game saw just three releases (dubbed Mixes, as was the norm) in the arcades. Konami did see fit to port all of the Keyboardmania songs (sans a single version of a single song, though a different version appears) to the home console of choice, the PlayStation 2.

Gameplay in Keyboardmania is very similar to Beatmania - you strike the corresponding key when the note hits the bar at the bottom of the screen. However, Keyboardmania easily bests even Beatmania IIDX Double and its 14 keys/2 turntables by weighing in at a whopping 24 keys and a 2-direction effector. Styles range from classical to pop, and both Normal and Real difficulties are available.

The first Keyboardmania game was released with a USB Keyboard at an open price, yet many stores priced the game as if its price would have been 7800 yen. This is a huge amount less than most BEMANI games retailed for; Drummania's open price translated to 13800 yen, while many others required two 5800 yen purchases (for both game and controller). The game proved popular enough for a single sequel which combined both the arcade 2nd and 3rd Mixes into a single "Keyboardmania II" release, which compiled all of the unreleased arcade songs. Separate controllers are available for 2-player play.