Audition Online
Audition Online, also known as X-BEAT in Japan and popularly called AyoDance in Indonesia, is a free-to-play multiplayer online casual Rhythm game produced by T3 Entertainment. It was originally released in South Korea in 2004 and has been localized by various publishers around the world. Audition Online is free to play, but earns revenue by selling virtual items such as clothes for the player's avatar.
In the game, players have an avatar/dancer, and they compete in dance battles, against other players live, to popular Pop music songs,, with the goal being the player must correctly input arrow commands, come up with their own freestyle rhythm commands, match sound effects in timing, or copy verbal dance commands from an NPC, The better a player performs during a song, the more their avatar levels/ranks up, and the more in game currency they get, to better customize their avatar. Players can also engage in side non gameplay, networking features Audition acts as an alternative fusion to Dance Dance Revolution and DJMax, also combining Life simulation elements as well.
The North American/United States distribution of Audition, was published in early 2007, by Los Angeles based company Nexon USA. Promotional material, included a commercial which was very frequently played on family networks such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, featured a young woman watching a music video on television,, and putting herself "in the Audition game", with other players, and an announcer in which he tells the viewers to "get into Audition". The release sparked controversy, as the music selection consisted of vulgar/inappropriate songs, lack of game updates/maintenance, and hackers using cheats during gameplay, and making their avatars deformed/glitched. Because of these issues Nexon was pressed to rectify, ownership was transferred years later to Orange County, California based company Redbana, to where issues under Redbana's control were fixed. However, due to development issues, in 2023, Redbana disconnected the Audition servers. Two unofficial fan servers later launched; one launched in 2023 called "Audition Galaxy", and another launched in January 2024, called "Audition Nexus". The next incoming Unofficial fan server will launch soon, called "Audition Dance Battle". "Audition Dance Battle" is the reborn version of Audition Nexus
History
Audition Online was developed by T3 Entertainment and was released to Korean publisher 'Royworld' during July 2005. During June 2006, YeDang Online took Audition Online and named it Club Audition. The game also saw its first release outside of Korea in 2006 in the South-East Asian region, the Japanese region under the name Dancing Paradise and the Vietnamese region. In 2007, major publisher Nexon localised the game for the American audience. The game was then also localised for the UK and European audience where publishers 'Alaplaya' and 'G4' had an agreement to have a joint server. In June 2008, Audition saw the first release of the Season 2 update where the new game mode "Beat Rush" was added, updated graphics and adjusting the aspect ratio to 1024x768.Nexon, in 2009, decided to not renew its contract with T3 Entertainment in order to operate Audition Online, thus having the Japanese and American servers shut down. In order to resolve this issue, T3 Entertainment subsidiaries Redbana and Hanbitstation published the game. American players could migrate their accounts and characters from Nexon over to Redbana.
On 30 September 2015, T3 Entertainment did not allow YD Online to renew its contract. This decision was made in order to allow T3's subsidiary HanbitSoft the ability to publish Audition Online. YD Online held the databases to Audition in South Korea, however, which prompted a server wipe. HanbitSoft, however, rewarded players with free CASH, cheaper CASH shop items, an exclusive indefinite outfit and more frequent updates. On 1 October, HanbitSoft was officially the publisher of Audition Online and Hanbiton was the official publisher of Audition in Korea.
Gameplay
A player is allowed to create a room or join a room. The "DJ" is given power to choose the settings for the room: song, "chance," and game mode. The song's BPM usually will determine the song's difficulty and speed. While the "DJ" has the power to kick people out of the room and close the dance floor off, this generally has no benefit. After all, the most appealing part of the game is its social aspect: playing alongside others whether for fun or competition.The basic game is played by pressing the arrows displayed on the screen and pressing the 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. A grade of "PERFECT" will provide players with the greatest score, a grade of "GREAT" and "COOL" will provide players with decent scores, a grade of "BAD" will provide players with very little score, and for "MISS" will provide players with no score for the turn. A player who receives a "MISS" will not get the chance to play for the next move.
The "Finish Move," a special move during most gameplay modes, can be said to be the hardest move. A player who does not miss the move before the "Finish Move" has the option to do it. Finish moves issue a lot of points and can often be the key to success.
A player who does two or more PERFECTs consecutively gets bonus points for doing so. These PERFECT combos enable players to interfere with the opposition. A blue circle indicates that the player made a PERFECT move and acts as a shield. When a player performs a PERFECT X1, the players ahead of and behind him or her in score standings receive a yellow circle. Players with the yellow circle will not receive points if they do not achieve a PERFECT.
Players can increase their score by playing "chance." "Chance" 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. That player's character is presented at the front of the stage. Each player will receive experience points and Den/BEATS according to their finishing positions.
If a single/group game is full, a random event may occur. Bonuses are given for accomplishing these challenges. Some of the challenges are, but are not limited to: getting a specific beat judgment, getting perfect combos, or getting a standing. The music can be random, random, or random from any range of tempos.
There are also different game modes such as:
1-2 Party/One-Two Party - where an NPC/randomly generated automaton dancer, in a computer generated/AI voice, will say a number, and/or, will shout a word, and players must input the commands in the same tempo/speed the NPC shouted the commands, or it will be counted as a mistake/miss. In Easy mode, the numbers to press are highlighted better for players. In hard mode, the numbers go away. Each round consists of a non gameplay related cutscene/interlude/intermission where players aren't instructed to enter any commands, and instead view a replay of the dance moves/commands they just entered.
Beat Rush - where there are four ovals around the bottom of the screen with different keys. The user must press all of the keys at the precise beat in order to gain a "Perfect." Pressing all the keys at the correct beat will gain a Great, whilst pressing all keys at a bad beat or pressing a moderate number of keys at the correct beat will gain a Cool. Bads and Misses can be earned by pressing the fewest keys either at the correct beat or at the incorrect beat.
Beat Up - where individual keys come in six keys divided two different sides. Players must press each individual key at the correct beat to get a higher score. At 100 Combos and 400 Combos, a bonus score multiplier will be given.
Block Beat - where players team up and hit the three individual keys at the correct beat.
Boy's & Girl's - where boys and girls team up 2v2 or 3v3 in their respective genders and play the normal key mode in order to battle.
Couple Mode - where a boy and a girl must team up. Both characters will have the same move; however, their normal mode blue keys will be separated by random grey keys.
Club Dance I/II/III - where boys and girls team up to be couples for the game. I, II, and III each have their own unique quirks where players will generally provide each other with hearts, flowers, or gifts while switching between couple mode and normal mode.
Guitar Mode - where the individual notes come down and the player must hit the notes with the corresponding keys. The Guitar Controller can be bought in the Korean version or earned from events in the North American regions. However, the Guitar can be used throughout all servers. The Guitar Controller gives players an extra 20% EXP.
Rhythmholic - Players hear a series of sound effects in the background of whichever song they chose. They must then in perfect timing, match the sound effects to the beat of a song. There is a cannon on top of the screen called the "Holic Gauge" which if a player gets every note in correct timing, the Gauge will fill to one hundred percent, and players will get extra EXP.
Shooting Stars - This mode plays similar to Beat-Up in which players strike notes when they move into their windows, but instead of a fixed two lanes, the notes are now all over the screen and it moves freely in many directions. There are three difficulty to choose from, with higher difficulty adding more notes to the screen and double-lanes that require players to press both Space Bar and notes at the same time.
Mouse Mode - Located in Normal Mode, you need to play with your own Mouse and you need to control the mouse movement and click some notes by left click or right click. The notes contain 2 kind of color which is Blue and the other is Red. This mode kind of different from other Casual Games, this Mode is a new refresh that created in Audition Online History.