[06/28/06] DJ Max Portable

[L.S.D]

Game: DJ Max Portable

System: PSP

Emulators: None

 

Anyone know about Beatmania series? Hands up! Ok, now did anyone know about EZ2DJ series?

EZ2DJ series is an innovative Beatmania style game which was brought to you by a Korean

company, Pentavison. The EZ2DJ series was so popular that Pentavision keep on churning out sequels

after sequels. Pentavision also has ventured into online gaming with DJ Max Online (which was available

LEGALLY in Japan and Korea) with much success. And now, they make their boldest move by releasing

a Beatmania type game on PSP, DJ MAX Portable. WTF?!? Yes, most people will have this initial thinking.

Read on for my impression:

 

Graphics:

you will be greeted by a very impressive anime introduction when you start this game. MY GOD!

The KOREANS COULD DRAW GOOD ANIME! Anyway, it set the tone for most of the graphics in this

game. When playing this game, there will be a high quality anime music videos that accompany the

songs. Some of them contain stories (some look like straight from Ragnarok), some are choreographed

visuals but all are really impressive and bright and colourful. Again, impressive.

 

Graphics: 9/10

 

Sound:

This game can only be played using an earphone. PSP speaker did not even utilise 10% of the

quality music in this game. With a pair of decent earphones, you will notice the vast difference in quality

and sound effects. The range of the songs available in this game range from dance, pop, Euro beat,

techno, hard rock, rap and so on. A little bit of each to please each fan of different genre athough

most of the songs are much techno and "drum n bass" type. With 54 songs overall, plus a few bonus

unplayable music.....GREAT!

 

Sound: 10/10

 

Controls:

As one suspected, the control on PSP will be a problem. Pentavision try to modify the gameplay

to suit the PSP design. You will need to press the D-pad UP, LEFT and RIGHT, TRIANGLE, SQUARE

and CIRCLE and the L & R pad. Confusing? Yeah, so do I, especially when the music notes are falling

down like raindrop and you are scrambling to press the correct buttons in sequences. You will also

need to twist the analog stick ala turntable in the arcade but PSP analog stick is so stiff, it is not

a comfort. Thumbs down here, but it is not the developer's fault.

 

Controls: 5/10

 

Gameplay:

This game is FREAKING HARD! I have difficulty playing this game even on the EASY mode, which is

the easiest setting. You will find yourself smashing at all buttons at once just to get through the levels.

THis might work on Easy mode as Easy mode utilises only four buttons, but higher difficulties are not

so lenient. You will have to be really, really good in order to finish all songs. Coupled with the layout of

buttons, you will be frustrated and feel like throwing your PSP. It seems that Pentavision like to torture

people in this game

Aside from the difficulty, this game offers up to 54 playable musics. There will be the normal Arcade

mode which feature Easy, Normal and Master Mode. THere is also a Club Scene mode where you

play songs according to the club that you enter, be it jazz, techno or hip hop. THe game encourage you

to rake up combos by not missing a beat in the musicplay, and you get to unlock cool screenarts and

music videos. you also get to customise how the music notes will look like, the screenplay etc.

And if you are bored with playing, you can just simply listen to the songs via the music player or

watch the music videos again. Cool feature. And simply no hiccup when playing with no slowdown

in framerate at all. Loading time is kep to around 10 - 15s when loading the songs which is just nice.

Another downside however is online mode, or rather the lack of it. Once you have unlocked all the songs,

you will find that there is nothing more for you to play. There are no features to add songs which can

help to increase the replayability, like what Namco did with downloadable songs for Taiko Master PSP.

A minus here.

 

Gameplay: 7/10

 

Overall:

Graphics: 9/10

Sound: 10/10

Control: 5/10

Gameplay: 7/10

 

Overall: 7.8/10

 

I have fun with this game. The difficulty might be frustrating and the controls will really make your

fingers numb. but this game offer a fresh type of gameplay to PSP which is oversaturated with racing

and sport games. THis will appeal to those looking for a different type of game on PSP. Also,

you will never go wrong with a game which has a song named "Oblivion: The Gothic Lolitta

Metamorphosis" (the most unique name! ) Anyway, here is the link to the official website of this game

with song samples on it. Go ahead and try it. You might like it

 

Link: http://www.djmax.co.kr/

[Agozer]

This korean game has a kickass soundtrack.

[L.S.D]

This korean game has a kickass soundtrack.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, it does.