Pop'n music Animelo 2gou

pop'n music Animelo 2gou pop'n music Animelo 2gou is the second of two anime-focused releases of the rhythm game franchise. It has gained notoriety for introducing a modifier which duplicates notes, either twice or thrice, greatly enhancing the difficulty of the available songs. Ever heard of sheer button-pressing torture?

Unused Graphics#

Mockup Image#

The files BOWLING.GCZ and BOWLING.XCZ contain a slightly cut-off mockup screenshot of the Bowling mode introduced in this game. Notice how the graphics are of Tiger Mask while the lyrics are of Combattler V no theme, a song not featured in this game.

Alternate Course Graphic#

S_OVER2.GCZ and S_OVER2.XCZ, which, among other graphics, contains sprites for the course names seen in the highscore tables, has an alternate, graphic for the Ichiro Mizuki course which refers to it as the "MIZUKING Course". Notably, the graphic files associated with this course are labeled "MIZKING".

Placeholder Image#

The files NON_4.GCZ and NON_4.XCZ, which contain the last set of backgrounds meant to be used in Nonstop Mode, contain a placeholder image consisting of the background of the song Tongari boushi no Memole, but with the word "おつかれさま" (Great job) crudely drawn on top of it.

Development Text#

Security Strings#

The game's security strings, present at offset 0x8AC54 (ver.JAA) / 0x8B0BC (ver.JAC) of a decompressed FIREBEAT.EXE all consist of lyrics of anime songs present in the game.

Burn Date#

A burn date can be found as the title of the program disc image:

Revisional Difference#

Two revisions of the game are known to exist, known as ver.JAA and ver.JAC, with ver.JAC being a software update launched around a month after the game's release.

The only difference seems to be that ver.JAA features a mode not in ver.JAC, known as Nonstop Mode, which goes through all songs in the game. GOODs count as BADs, and the Gauge does not recover. To access it, the player must input 1496149614961496 on the title screen, after inserting credits but before pressing 5 to start. If done correctly, a sound will play.

License Over Mode#

pop'n music Animelo 2gou has a rather unique licensing arrangement with, presumably, Toei Animation; five years after the listed starting date (September 18th, 2000), the startup screen will show a red LICENSE OVER notice. Although this doesn't affect gameplay at all, this mode will completely remove any graphics relating to the anime that the songs in the game come from. This mode is similar to the mode in the first game.

As the game was released in September of 2000, these graphics would only have been visible until (approximately) September of 2005.

Title Screen#

License	No License

Watch on YouTubeThe title screen removes the Toei Animation logo. Additionally, the attract mode is modified. The little slideshow of series logos before the title screen is removed. After the title screen, the attract mode will cycle through different screens featuring the characters from the represented series, as well as their show's release dates. These were removed in the License Over mode.

Song Selection#

License	No License

The song selection menu removes the individual series logos, replacing them with stylized text.

Song Artwork#

License	No License

All of the artwork that appears when a song is cleared is removed. This includes the little character window up at the top right, and the big picture in the background.

Scoring Screens#

License	No License

The score summary artwork has been removed, as have the logos. This also extends to the high score tables presented after the game, in which those also have the copyright text removed. The pictures in the high score screen have been replaced with the Animelo logo.

License	No License

Forever License Mode#

By modifying the game's dongle file (gca02ja_gca02jb_gea02ja) and changing the 05 in PeRioD:05/00 to just 00, the game will enter a License Forever mode. It is the exact same as the Licensed mode, it just won't bother checking the date.

That year value in the dongle's Period string can actually be changed to any two digit number, so up to 99. Anything but 00, though, will still check the date and will activate the License Over mode if it passes that year.

References#