Incardine's Ratings, Keyboard Division


And the part of the competition which seems to have formed out of the limitations of early simfile play into something quite different. With the limited (at the time) availablilty of pads which could work while connected to a PC, players took to playing DDR on their keyboards instead, progressing through DDR's limited ranks fairly quickly (it took me a month to go from four-footers to Max300 on keyboard). This introduced the need for harder works in this vein, leading to files which no one could pass on pads, but which suit themselves excellently to keyboard play. Here's (hopefully) a few of them now!

fffff:
In which Eggman takes a popn song and converts it into a simply enjoyable set.
SONG 13/15
Sound File Quality 2/2 Sounds excellent, but does sound like a straight play recording to some extent.
Creativity of song choice 2/4 pop'n is only a notch over IIDX in the 'creative selection' department...
Edit (length and cut quality) 4/4 It sounds to me like the straight pop'n cut.
DDR/ITG Appropriateness 5/5 For keyboarding, why not an older-school keyboard song, eh?
GRAPHICS 13/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 3/3 There is something to be said for elegently plain, and using proper music symbols for the title is a sweet touch.
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 2/4 I will never really be a fan of 'grab a photo, add text, done', though this is certainly one of the more reasonable examples I've seen of this method.
STEPCHARTS 51/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3 If Quasar is a keyboard 10, this is a keyboard high 10.
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 18/25 I count a few things wrong with this set. The third trill seems gratuitous, one section of sixteenths is based off the undertone of the song under triplets, and the opening chain of short jackhammers can drag on a little... This set has a good feel to it, but the little things put me off a fair bit.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 27/29 Can you say "clusterfuck"? People who love challenge and lots of it in a short time, rejoice because this set takes Heavy, mixes it up a lot more (good!), actually appears to use the triplets (really good!) - and throws in having you play either part of the drum part and a piano part, or both piano parts at once. Insanity at it's fine-tuned most awesome, and even after failing, it kept me going to the end smoothly. I will say that the sixteenth-note jump sequences are a complete bitch though.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 8/10 fffff is another feather in EggmaniMN's tradition of well-polished stepcharts. The graphics could've used a little more polish, and the Heavy chart has it's weaknesses, but that Challenge chart is worth coming back to again and again with it's bright, plain style.
TOTAL SCORE 84/100

ICHIRIN NO HANA (Huge Hollow Mix):
Anime mixed with Drum 'n' Bass... Doesn't work too well.
SONG 9/15
Sound File Quality 1/2 One Word: Distortion. The one word is something that you want to try and avoid.
Creativity of song choice 3/4 Anime theme - gone hardcore. Meh.
Edit (length and cut quality) 2/4 Yeegads. The Edit seems to reveal how innately 'ugly' the song is, with an annoyingly-placed fadein to two and a half minutes of pain.
DDR/ITG Appropriateness 3/5 I guess it fits... Kind of.
GRAPHICS 13/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 3/3 Not bad, not bad....
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 2/4 Again with "BG and Banner look too different".
STEPCHARTS 26/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 10/25 You felt like you were fumbling for the steps WAAAAY too much. Worse, you threw in unnessesary speed manipulations galore, a maneuver guaranteed to annoy most Keyboard players, including myself. A very annoying and sub-par chart.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 10/29 Keyboard players can't hit three buttons at once - HANDS BAD. Once again, annoying - even MORE so in fact - speed manipulations, and a fumbling-feeling chart.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 3/10 Can you tell I wasn't impressed? Bad song choices make for bad keyboard files, as a rule.
TOTAL SCORE 51/100

IN GAME 8:
You know that you don't need to specify the source game like that, right?.
SONG 11/15
Sound File Quality 1/2 Sounded distorted right nasty... Normally I'd zero for this but it might be the song's nature.
Creativity of song choice 3/4 Game music, but it's low-detail hard rock... Creative, but not too suited to DDR or Keyboard.
Edit (length and cut quality) 4/4 Honestly? The length and cut felt just about right, and was one of your better elements.
Keyboard Appropriateness 3/5 See "Creativity of Song Choice". This is just too simplistic ultimately for  true keyboard entry.
GRAPHICS 8/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 1/3 Barely readable image, poor-looking shopped on text.
Background: Includes title 3/3 In a very bad looking fashion, yes.
Background: Size and formatting 0/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 0/4 Yee. Gads. This looks BAD. BAD. BAD. Terrible streching, blocky... Yeech.
STEPCHARTS 30/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 10/25 This feels like it was made, not for keyboard, but for actual DDR'ing. After A'ing it on a pad (and as you people know, I am NOT good at PA/FA), I'm convinced that you just made it for pad and didn't really think about keyboarding form at all.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 14/29 Starts slow, picks up to fun, slows down to kind of annoying, and too often just feels like the Heavy chart is copy-pasted in (though a closer analysis shows it isn't).
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 5/10 Honestly, the score makes the file seem worse than it is. It's more playable than Ichiri, and there's probably a niche of fans for it. It's just... Too riddled with technical issues for me to score it highly.
TOTAL SCORE 54/100

MAXX DELUSION:
Max remixes are the bane of tournaments, but they always show up and we've been getting better ones as late.
SONG 12/15
Sound File Quality 2/2
Creativity of song choice 2/4 Max Remixes do not count as creative, though this one's fairly clever.
Edit (length and cut quality) 3/4 Drug on just a little...
Keyboard Appropriateness 5/5 Detailed drums and synths combine to fit keyboard excellently.
GRAPHICS 14/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 2/3 A bit too simplistic...
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 4/4 WHOA that is weird O.o
STEPCHARTS 23/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 22/25 Mixed things up perhaps a little too often, but featured excellent technical steps which built up and down regularly and well. Switches got annoying at times though...
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 20/29 I found the speed changes at a few particular points to be quite unnessesary and/or annoying. The rest of the chart felt solidly done though.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 6/10 I like, overall, though this is one for C-mods.
TOTAL SCORE 80/100

OVER THERE:
Jazz composition in the key of Chess.
SONG 15/15
Sound File Quality 2/2
Creativity of song choice 4/4 Speed jazz-rock? AWESOME.
Edit (length and cut quality) 4/4 ITG-esque length just fits perfectly. Some repitition but not enough to be annoying at all.
Keyboard Appropriateness 5/5 It just fits.
GRAPHICS 15/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 3/3 Not sure I get the text metaphor, but it looks cool
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 4/4 Same theme different images, both look great... Awesome.
STEPCHARTS 58/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 23/25 Excellent, EXCELLENT use of buildup. From the simple, easy bass pattern, to what feels like an ITG eleven, to an insane part, and cooling off into a good-feeling eights-and-jumps closer, I just loved it.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 28/29 There were a couple instances where I couldn't tell what you were following, but god damn I loved this one even if it  was a twinge easy at a couple points.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 10/10 In a symbol: <3
TOTAL SCORE 98/100

STORM:
Been a while since I've seen a Vanessa Mae song.
SONG 12/15
Sound File Quality 2/2
Creativity of song choice 3/4 Given the past history of these, it's not so creative-feeling anymore...
Edit (length and cut quality) 2/4 Fadeout for the lose, keeping it short and straight for the win.
Keyboard Appropriateness 5/5 It fits  well enough.
GRAPHICS 14/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 2/3 The font for the name just doesn't do it for me at all.
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 4/4 See banner.... Until the video kicks in.
STEPCHARTS 48/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 17/25 God damn you for the speed changes, this chart's otherwise muchly a classic but not noteworthy sixteenth-chain-with-jumps otherwise.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 25/29 The first chart where I had to use a C-Mod. That's not a good thing. >_>  Feels somewhat better, with solidly-placed 32nds, but also has an excess of jumps. The hands are 'false' hands (i.e. at the end of a freeze) and so okay.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 6/10 Less impressive than the scores imply. Technically sound-ish, but just not all that fun.
TOTAL SCORE 80/100

TETRIS TAILSPIN:
Video game remix. *yawn* Note that this entry (due to insane difficulty) was shoved into Keyboard from DDR, and is being rated as a Keyboard chart.
SONG 8/15
Sound File Quality 2/2
Creativity of song choice 2/4 Video Game remix. *yawn*
Edit (length and cut quality) 1/4 Slow fadeout BAD.
Keyboard Appropriateness 3/5 It's... Not terribly off but not too suited either.
GRAPHICS 11/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 2/3 I don't get it. It looks fine but I don't get it.
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 2/4 Too similar to banner. Looks like copy-paste.
STEPCHARTS 36/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 15/25 Honestly? This felt like you beerslammed DDR's 'simplicity' of steps and occasional nonmatching, ITG's difficulty in some spots, and a 16th-chain Keyboard in others. Kind of fun but also extremely annoying - I was regularly asking "is this meant for pad or not?"
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 15/29 And how could I forget the lovely 'tick tock' gimmack? Oh yes, because it was only mildly annoying in the Heavy chart, while it drives me nuts the way you do it here. Fairly nice use of 32nds though.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 4/10 This file feels like a Mac running Windows XP via Boot Camp: If you want Windows, you get a Windows PC. If you want a KEyboard chart, you make a keyboard chart, not DDR gimmacks compressed into an insane amount of steps.
TOTAL SCORE 60/100

VAIROCANA:
Insert Japanese text here.
SONG 12/15
Sound File Quality 2/2
Creativity of song choice 2/4 Pop'n get.
Edit (length and cut quality) 3/4 Pop'n get.
Keyboard Appropriateness 5/5 For pop'n songs, surprisingly keyboard-fitting.
GRAPHICS 13/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 2/3 I know you took it yourself but it sure seems like Google Image.
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 4/4 This one looks like good Google Image though. Good placement of well-fitting text.
STEPCHARTS 52/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 25/25 Smooth like butter, with excellent technical accuracy, a fitting speed doubling, and casual Keyboarder friendly steps in spite of the quirky BPMs (which you handle excellently).
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 21/29 I hated exactly one part of this chart: The end. Long-ass chains of eighth-note jumps at insane speed were old around the timee of the first Keyboard Megapack, and they still are. The rest of it just fits.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 8/10 I liked it quite a lot, overall, though the images could use work... Honestly it sounds like something from ITG, almost.
TOTAL SCORE 86/100

VIDEO OUT C:
Sequel!
SONG 13/15 Bonus for original song get!
Sound File Quality 2/2 Sounds great.
Creativity of song choice 4/4 Auto 4 for original that's not a mashup!
Edit (length and cut quality) 2/4 You're quite heavily pushing it in length, it causes the song to get repetitive over time.
Keyboard Appropriateness 5/5 Advanced drum trance is always fun.
GRAPHICS 12/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 2/3 I could have gone with something at least somewhat distinct from video out a and presumably b.
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 1/1
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 2/4 See banner comment.
STEPCHARTS ???/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 20/25 I've got a few complaints... Unnessesary freezes galore, for one. Those really annoy me muchly. The 64th patterns (especially one that seems to include freezes) precludes playing at slower speeds, which saddens me. Very, very fun and technically excellent nonetheless.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 23/29 The same complaints as before apply quite nicely, and the one hand is an annoyance too in an otherwise amazing file.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 10/10 Hot damn I love this one so much. The charts have their issues, but honestly if I could, ignoring technical scores, pick a winner on Keyboard, this is it.
TOTAL SCORE 84/100

Z3:
MaxX Remix But Not Really.
SONG 19/15
Sound File Quality 2/2
Creativity of song choice 2/4 It's a MaxX Remix but not really. Not very distinct. At all.
Edit (length and cut quality) 4/4 The edit's fine though.
Keyboard Appropriateness 2/5 WAYYYY too simplistic to suit keyboarding really.
GRAPHICS 11/15
Banner: Includes artist and title 3/3
Banner: Size and Formatting 1/1
Banner: Aesthetic Appeal 2/3 Kind of generic 'dramatic' style.
Background: Includes title 3/3
Background: Size and formatting 0/1 Error message get!
Background: Aesthetic Appeal 2/4 See Banner.
STEPCHARTS 28/60
Heavy: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Heavy: Fun and technical merits 12/25 These steps are reasonable... Ish. The repititions on one arrow, the hidden slowdown (SOMEONE didn't read all the rules! -3 right there!) is annoying, and the steps don't follow the music often enough.
Challenge: Bug-Free, has appropriate difficulty. 3/3
Challenge: Fun and technical merits 10/29 Yeah, so, nonstop jump chains are not my idea of fun. Nor 16th note jackhammers at 400 BPM.
Tilt: My overall opinion of the file 3/10 The song defines the steps to some point, and a song that just doesn't fit keyboarding won't make good steps.
TOTAL SCORE 52/100