While Pop’n Music 15: Adventure remained still as an arcade exclusive game, Konami released Pop’n Music Portable for Playstation Portable in early Feb 2010. To fans of the franchise, the first question on bringing the game to the PSP was how in the world would the control work? And what hits would be included and what new pieces would be added in this edition?
After having hands-on experience with this game for a fortnight or so, I would say easily proclaim that this is the best portable music game on the market so far. The controls though a far-cry from the 9-button controller that I’m used to on the arcade cabinet or on the home console, are not exactly broken and could easily be mastered in a matter of hours. For me, who completely dislike shoulder buttons, I applauded the inclusion of the 7-button mode, where the controls could easily be laid on one plane.
The difficulty of the game can be frustrating, which is kinda plus for this game, since Pop’n Music was never known to be easy in the first place. What it do means however is that I would easily spend the entire train journey on one song, repeatedly trying to beat it almost a dozen time to no avail. Still, the lacking of success was still as entertaining and doesn’t causes much despair. I’m hopeful to clear some of my favourite songs on Hyper mode soon.
The success of a music game is not restricted to just controls. It is the selection of music that make or break the game. And luckily, Pop’n Music did not despair. On the anime section, there are a number of familiar and strongest anime tune out there, including theme song from Evangelion, One Piece and Aquarion.
On the arcade section, there are superb hits, including 凛として咲く花の如く by Red Litmus (from Pop’n Music 15) and Cloudy Skies by Egoistic Lemontea – (from Pop’n Music 18), amongst many many great hits.
The most interesting addition have to be the multiplayer mode. As demonstrated by Konami’s in-house musician themselves, the 4-player Taisen Mode seems very very intriguing:
DJ Yoshitaka’s High School Love and DES-ROW’s Cobalt – two of my favourite musician and pieces in Pop’n Music – are also included in the game to give Pop’n Music boost in the already great music lineup.
And I’d just found out that Lamento is also included as a secret song as well. Sighz~! I’ll be stuck on this one game for a long time.
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