Beatmania or Pop n' Music?

[Arzadthered]

I love DDR. However, over time, I found out about other music simulation games. I do plan on getting ITG and Pump, but I'm also thinking about getting into imported music simulation games. However, I am stuck on two choices; Beatmania or Pop n' Music. I hate to sound like I'm begging, but what are the strengths and weaknesses of both games? In your opinion, which one do you find more fun?

If anyone can help me on this choice, I'd be very greatful. Hopefully, I'll be able to get into both scenes, but which one should I get into first?

[ColorOfSakura]

beatmania IIDX:

Strengths
- Easy to find
- Somewhat cheap to get into
- US Home Version coming out in March
- Some of the best BEMANI music comes from IIDX.
- While not as much English as DDR, IIDX still has a lot of English in the menus and songlist, thus making it easy to navigate

Weaknesses
- Learning curve is very hard - one of the most difficult BEMANI games out there.
- Beginner Mode is only really useful on 5th and 6th Style, 7th and later don't feature the whole songlist. So you won't get to play all the songs until you get into Light7.
- Most of the songlists are hit and miss with people.

Pop'n Music:

Strengths
- Much easier on earlier levels than IIDX.
- The games are cheaper than IIDX usually (as Konami usually releases a "Best Hits" version that retails for about $30 US)
- Very diverse songlist of music

Weaknesses
- The regular Pop'n controller isn't that great.
- Expensive to get into - an Arcade Style Controller (ASC) is the only way to get an authentic Pop'n Music feel (unlike IIDX, where the regular Konami controller gives a closer authentic arcade experience sans the turntable)
- The entire game and 95% of the songlist are in Japanese, making it harder to navigate menus.
- While the songlist is diverse, unless you're really into all kinds of music, you'll probably not find a ton of songs that you'll want to play right off.

If you want an easier game to get into - get Pop'n Music. But the only way to really get a really good experience with Pop'n Music is to get an ASC (from Ransai, Desktop Arcade or Konami's Official ASC)

IIDX is much harder to progress in, but you don't need the ASC to get an authentic IIDX feel, since the keys are the same size and space as the arcade machine. Really the only difference is that the turntable is much smaller.
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[Flazh]

I would recommend Pop'n music personally. Virtually every song has an english equivilent name (usually the type of song it is) and the important parts of the game are all in English. Buy Pop'n 9 (my favourite Pop'n by far) and get the mini controller type 2. Thats the best way to get into the 'note type' bemani in my opinion.

(You could do yourself a huge favour and buy these two items from eBay actually =D)

Pop'n music 9
Pop'n music 10 Konamistyle with Controller

Okay, so they're my auctions But I do recommend these (I only play in the arcades now )

[Arzadthered]

You know, I figured since they're coming with a US release of IIDX around March, I should invest in Japanese Pop'n. I'll hopefully have both music simulation games by the end of this year.

I thank you all very much for you feedback however. I got more than I asked for.