So, I finally got to try Mambo A Go Go and ParaParaParadise...

Two games I thought I'd never get to try out (especially the former, since apparently, the Museum of Pinball is the only known "arcade" in the US to have two machines, let alone one!). I uploaded some pics at the museum's page if you want to see proof:

https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/arcade.php?id=3551#summary

Anyway, I would describe Mambo A Go Go as if Konami tried to meld together DrumMania and Donkey Konga; pretty fun when the three bongos were working 90% of the time!

As for PPP, it was pretty fun, although the sensors were a wee bit oversensitive, and the sound was relatively quiet compared to the two machines that were sandwiched by it (Groove Coaster and GuitarFreaks); judging from the Arcades page here, this might be the only machine in California running 2nd Mix that's not in a private collection. Fun little story about this game; the only other time I saw a machine in the wild was at Pharaoh's Lost Kingdom in Redlands back in the early-2000's; never seen it on/working while it was there, so I thought it was some weird ballroom dancing simulator at the time.

Anyone else here got to play Mambo A Go Go? Curious to know what you think.

So midnightclubx, I didn't get to do Mambo a Go Go, but this time last year was when I got the opportunity to play Para Para Paradise for the first time. It was fun and I think that the closest thing that we got was DanceEvolution. But in other obscure Bemani games wise, I remembered playing Dance Maniax in 2010 but then never touched on it again for 5 years and started to go annually on it. Certainly hopes that any type of these game and footage could come in handy for all to see.

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Wow I was just there at Arcade Expo at the museum of pinball yesterday and I played a lot of Mambo a Go Go. It is a very interesting game, since each of the 3 drums has 3 sensors that trigger depending on where you hit it. I played on hard, and it was decently challenging, considering I failed most of the harder songs. Also ParaParaParadise was interesting to play, and I saw several skilled people playing it. I was too busy playing Groove Coaster 3 though to play it a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw you there and just didn't know!

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Wow, this thread takes me back. Over a decade ago, there was a Mambo A Go Go at a local place called The Putter. It was a kind-of big deal at the time; one of the local papers even ran a story on how it was the only arcade that had it outside of Arcade Infinity. I wouldn't be surprised if those two machines were the only ones that came to the US, come to think of it.

Having played it, I could say it did not deserve its fate. Kind of like a Latin version of pop'n music with all the cutesy characters and the act of slapping conga drums. It had a good soundtrack; I'm glad most of the good songs were crossed over to other games. Maybe it was just too limited in scope, and too niche for Japan.

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To be honest, I was shocked MoP got all those music games (though it might have been a factor that I suggested they added some Bemani games after I posted on their Facebook I added them to ZIV's Arcade page right after last year's Arcade Expo ended), and I figured they were probably just gonna get DDR since that's super common in comparison to, say, a 5-Key Beatmania game. At this point, I would not be surprised if they get their hands on a DanceManiaX machine before Pinball Madness in October... and before you ask, I've never tried that game, but I'd love to give it a shot!


If you saw a guy in a black Batman shirt that looks like the Starry Night painting, then you most likely have seen me (I played a lot of Groove Coaster as well, and I was showing a staffer how to play that game since it was in Japanese for some reason).


Funny enough, I might have seen at least one machine when I was at DisneyQuest in Orlando, back in 2009; I didn't play it since I was a bit more invested in playing SuperNova 2 (because, back home, Round1 had not existed yet, and the only machines that were anywhere near me were all Extremes). I heard of the name, if only because DDR Extreme mentions it when you're selecting a song, but I couldn't really find any footage of it at the time.

Now that you mentioned it, it is sorta like Pop'N Music, since you have to hit three certain areas of each bongo. Also, I think one of the biggest reasons this game didn't catch on was that this game came out roughly at the same time as Samba De Amigo; maybe people thought it was a ripoff of that game, get it?. ;) Interestingly enough, according to the Wikipedia page for it, Konami planned on making a US version called Mambo King before changing their minds.

UPDATE: Someone made a walkthrough of the arcade room, so you might see Mambo A Go Go in action: