In the Groove (video game)

Gameplay

In the Groove utilizes similar mechanics to Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series. The core gameplay involves the player moving his or her feet to a set pattern, stepping in time to the general rhythm or beat of a song. Like DDR, there are 4 arrows. During normal gameplay, arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over flashing stationary arrows (referred to as the "guide arrows" or "receptors"). When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform. Longer arrows referred to as "holds" must be held down for their entire length for them to count. Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills the life bar, while failure to do so drains it. If the life bar is fully depleted during gameplay, the player fails the song (unless the fail at end of song setting is on), usually resulting in a game over. Otherwise, the player is taken to the Results Screen, which rates the player's performance with a letter grade and a percentage score, among other statistics. The player may then be given a chance to play again, depending on the settings of the particular machine (the limit is usually 3-5 songs per game).

Stepcharts on In the Groove can sometimes contain 3 or 4 arrow combinations (supposed to be hit with hands but usually hit by placing one or two feet between two arrows making them hit both). Stepcharts can also contain Mines. If a player is on an arrow when a mine passes through the step zone for that arrow, it will explode and health will be lost.

Modes of Play

In The Groove offers various modes of play.

Dance Mode is the default mode of play. In this mode, a player chooses a number of individual songs to play (the default is three). After the songs are played, the game is over.

Marathon Mode is an extended mode of play. In this mode, a player chooses a predefined configuration of songs that may also have a predefined script of modifiers whose purpose is to make the song more challenging. Marathon courses typically have four songs, although some have five songs.

Battle Mode is a specialized "versus" mode of play. Two players (or one player against the computer) play three individual songs of the same difficulty. During the song, successfully executed steps fill up a player's "power bar". When the power bar completely fills, a modifier is applied to the opposing player's side.

Song list

This list covers the 75 songs available in the arcade and home versions of In the Groove. All the songs are playable in the sequel game, In the Groove 2. For songs exclusive to In the Groove 2, see the ITG2 song list.

The difficulties are abbreviated to conserve table space:

N = Novice E = Easy M = Medium H = Hard X = Expert

Note the numbers given for each difficulty level are similar to DDR's 1-10 "footers," except ITG removed the footer label and added 3 additional difficulties, far surpassing the hardest 10-footers in DDR. Thus a 10 in ITG is comparable to a 10-footer in DDR. If one actually counts the number of boxes showing the difficulty, one will notice there are only 12 boxes. The 13s go far and beyond the realm of reality for most people. Only one 13 exists for In the Groove 1, while two make their debut in the sequel.

Songs that need to be unlocked in the arcade version are highlighted in red. Songs that are from In the Groove 2 are highlighted in green. These also need to be unlocked.

The Novice steps are only available in the home version, as well as in the sequel. In addition, there is an asterisk beside the Single Expert step routines for "Why Me." These are also only available in the sequel. The Double Expert steps are not on any current release of In the Groove 1, but they are on the sequel. It is marked with a karat to emphasize this.

There is one song that is in the arcade version that cannot be played in normal mode. "Liquid Moon" (which is also used as the menu music) exists only in the Energy Marathon course. It is fully playable in the home version and the sequel. It is highlighted as a home version song.

All of the songs by Kyle A. Ward, (which include the Smiley, Inspector K, and Banzai songs) can be found on his studio album Synthsations which is available for digital download.

^^On the original arcade version, the song was labeled on the song wheel as "That Sound", but all other releases following it label the song as "I Think I Like That Sound"

Home versions

Two home versions of In the Groove were released. The first was released for the PlayStation 2 on June 17, 2005, and was published by RedOctane. The PS2 version contains the Novice mode carried over from In the Groove 2, Liquid Moon as a fully playable track, and 4 songs from the sequel. A PC version was released on August 16, 2006, featuring 3 songs from the now-canceled In the Groove 3, widescreen aspect ratio support, and Edit Mode. A patch named Song Pack A was later released adding the songs and theme from In the Groove 2.

Controversy

Konami filed a lawsuit against Roxor Games on an infringement of various rights on May 9, 2005 in the Eastern District of Texas, a district known for its bias for the plaintiff in patent cases. Additionally, they amended their complaint on July 1, 2005, to include the dance game "MC GROOVZ danceCRAZE" (a game produced by Mad Catz to accompany their 3rd party dance mat). Konami primarily claims that Roxor has infringed their dancing game patent rights, but also goes on to claim that the refitting of arcade cabinets "has been done in an infringing and unfair way".

On July 10, 2005, however, Konami amended its complaint to include the In The Groove PS2 game and its publisher RedOctane. On July 25, 2005, Roxor Games filed a counterclaim against Konami. In the counterclaim, Roxor denies the claims in Konami's complaint, stating that 'In The Groove' does not violate patent law and that claiming that Konami has engaged in unfair competition.

However, the lawsuit ultimately ended in a settlement. On October 18, 2006, Roxor announced that Konami had acquired the intellectual property rights to the In the Groove series as part of the settlement to this litigation. The musicians and developers of the game would later go on to create Pump it Up Pro, a spinoff of the Pump it Up series featuring music and features from ITG.