Starting with GF/DM 10th/9th, any song can be selected as the Extra stage but only the actual Extra stage songs (usually colored red) will let you play the Encore afterwards.
![guitarfreaks drummania gitadora guitarfreaks drummania gitadora](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l4GYmbn4fyI/hq720.jpg)
Early DrumMania mixes actually had no Extra and Encore stages until DM 3rd. Starting with GF 4th, Encore stages are also playable if you do well enough on the Extra stage.
#Guitarfreaks drummania gitadora series#
Konami hasn't officially released the series in America since: when faced with the aforementioned competition, it decided to play Follow the Leader with itself and release the dismal Rock Revolution instead, and then played a Heel≯ace Turn as the publisher for an arcade version of Guitar Hero.
#Guitarfreaks drummania gitadora plus#
Later turned into a Cash Cow Franchise by Activision before its untimely death in 2011), and Rock Band (which took Guitar Hero and added drums, plus karaoke built off its work on fellow Konami franchise Karaoke Revolution, and lots and lots of Downloadable Content). The series has been most prominently cited as the influence for Harmonix's franchises Guitar Hero (originally published by RedOctane, a company whose other claims to fame include making third-party dance pads for DDR, and publishing the In the Groove home version. So much so that the guitar cabinet only supports one player now). In fact, when new versions come out, they now come out at the same time, the PlayStation versions always compiled the two games together, and the Portmanteau Series Nickname Gitadora (ギタドラ) is used as shorthand to refer to both GF and DM at once, and became the official name of both games beginning on the 2013 version (which also introduced new cabinets best described as white, downsized versions of the XG cabinets. In its homeland of Japan (which is, as usual, the only place you'll really find plenty of it), you'll rarely find matching versions of the two games separated from each other.
![guitarfreaks drummania gitadora guitarfreaks drummania gitadora](https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/pictures/1422077914.8582.jpg)
In 2010, Konami pulled a IIDX and introduced an upgraded version of the franchises known as XG which brought revamped cabinets with a more powerful sound system, high definition screens, and redesigned instruments (specifically, the guitar now has five buttons, sustains and an effector pedal, and the drumset got two additional drum pads, double bass pedals, and a raised stage platform)
![guitarfreaks drummania gitadora guitarfreaks drummania gitadora](https://static.highwaygames.com/images/products/large/9477.jpg)
or European rock bands (the latter occurs infrequently in recent versions, but was more common in the early era). Much like other BEMANI franchises, the series uses a soundtrack with a mixture of original music by Konami's in-house artists, along with songs from J-rock acts and U.S.