Extrange Is Metrosexual

DJMax Portable Cover

I’m crazy for rhythm music video games. Doesn’t matter if you need to use a dancing pad (Dance Dance Revolution, Pump It Up), press key buttons (Beatmania, Para Para), fiddle on your guitar pad (Guitar Hero) or even press your NDS screen with your stylus (Elite Beat Agent), and requires to do it in rhythm to the music; te most probable is already played it. I’ve even played those obscures Beatmania Anime versions for Game Boy. Try playing Lupin III opening in the squeaky wavy sound of the GB…..it ain’t pretty.

The Game

So when a Beatmania clone came out to Psp, I realy had to get my hands on it. DJ Max Portable is the Psp import of the Pc online version of the game. The games mechanics are simple: in each stage, a song will be played and you will need press the buttons that correspond to the visual markers along with the correct rhythm. The better you do the job, the bigger your score is. Nothing new so far in this kind of games, but the main detail of DJMax is the soundtrack and the animation. Another interesting detail is the personalization of gameplay: you can set what skin to use, the HP inherent to them, the notes, change the speed mid-game, etc.

The Songs

The game has a impressive range of song to play with from your normal J-Pop, getting several Tecnho and Electronica variants, Dramatic Trance, Fantasy Pop, Anime House, RnB, Acid Trance, Jazz, Bossa Nova, Classical, Heavy Metal and even Minimalist. The quality is remarkable but that’s expected since this is a game who lives from music…

The Music Videos

This is where the game gets major kudos. All the musics have a background video Anime inspired in several Anime/Manga genres. the overall results are Flash-like videos who makes you drool for a real series import. (Several times my friends asked from what anime they were when I showed them.)

The Extras

The game creators weren’t cheap on the several extras included in the game. As you complete the several song modes, courses and free play, you will earn points who will unlock items in the gallery mode such as concept pictres, new courses, new sons and some hidden videos. You also have the OST and MV mode, where you can listen the soundtrack and see the AMV’s withouth the inteference of the gameplay.

DJMax is a great game who made me be addicted to it so strongly who lead me eventually to break my Psp. ( It went out of comission for 3 months;….3 WHOLE MONTHS without PSP! Seriously, I would go crazy if I didn’t had Code Geass to see meanwhile.)

PS: The videos here are part from the PC version; it’s that or shitty quality webcam versions of the psp ones….

PPS: DJMax 2 comes out in 30th March, so thank to Fanjita leet hacker of Psp, I may have a review of it sooner than you guys think .