To commemorate my induction into the community, I bring you this Classic Review of DJ Max Portable.
Released back in January 2006, DJ Max Portable is technically a port of a really popular online PC game made by Pentavision. In its core, DJ Max was and is a rhythm game, a DDR for your fingers, if you will.
They finally brought it over to the PSP where, unfortunately, it was only sold in Asia and sky rocketed in popularity in Korea. You can only get it if you import it. A quick interesting thing about that fact is that the game’s interface isn’t fully understandable (because it’s Asian) but it’s easily overlooked because the only things you won’t be able to read are the messages to tell you that you unlocked something. Otherwise, it’s mostly in English.
This is what you’ll see:
*Korean characters* IMAGE*Korean Characters*
*Korean OK*
You’ve unlocked an image, specifically, the cover art of the song you played. Enjoy.
Now then onto the actual review:
Presentation: 8
There isn’t much that goes on in the game, select song, play song, fail/win song, sauté and repeat. But the intro is well done, then, when you’re good at a song, you can unlock its respective video and watch it anytime. And the visuals during gameplay are pretty trippy. Sorry, but that’s all I can say, as for the presentation.
Graphics: 9
Ok, it’s not Tekken or Crisis core, but like Patapon, this game deserves a high graphics grade. The track (the area on which you play on) is constantly in motion and high quality; you can also change your track with one of the ones you unlock, I mean… one of the 20 or so. The music jewels are obviously in motion, with no lag whatsoever, and when you hit them, sparkles and wails of the appropriate sound rage through your PSP speakers. The background video for the appropriate song is also high quality and plays constantly. Even the menus… You can stay and watch the menus for hours… (If you’re high)
Everything in there is high quality and resolution. Playing this game on the TV via the PSP Component cables showed how good the game really looks.
Sound: 10
Like DDR, Guitar Hero, Beatmania, PSP Revolution, etc., this game is based on music. There are about 40+ songs in the game, accompanied with their own video. The sound quality is phenomenal, even more so, they offer an “Original Soundtrack” (OST) mode in the game, where you can basically listen to the music as if you were listening to an MP3 player. The soundtrack is more GENERALLY the type of music you’d hear in “teh hardcorez underground dance clubs.” But to me, the gameplay was so addicting, I didn’t care what kind of music it had.
Gameplay: 9
What can I say? Have you played a rhythm game? Have you heard of one? I bet you have, Guitar Hero? DDR? Rock Band?
Well, basically, DJ Max is that. But metaphorically: DJ Max Portable is DDR for your thumbs, and when you get really good, for your index fingers as well. Here is what I mean: Like in Guitar Hero, for example, when you start off, you start with a limited amount of buttons to press. When you start DJ Max, you start by pressing the left, up, Triangle and Circle buttons. Then when you get “phat skillz” you move onto 6 buttons, which tack on the right and Square buttons. And before you know it, you unlock the “Master Mode” where your “phat skillz” turn into “1337 skillz,” where you also press the Left and Right Triggers. Sound complicated? Wait till you actually play it… The gameplay can also be tweaked to give you some extra challenge. You can increase the speed of the song, change the speed of each jewel, make the jewels invisible and really test yourself, basically, make massive chaos on the track for a few minutes at a time.
Lasting Appeal: 10
I can’t stress enough how long you will probably play this game. There’s a total of 95 unlockables, trust me, I counted. Some of said unlockables will take so much time and perseverance; you will probably kill yourself or someone else if you get something wrong… I almost did, I swear. The one I mean specifically: getting a 999999 note streak (the note streaks carry over from song to song). So imagine getting 999902 notes and tapping the left button instead of up... I thought so.
Final Word: 46/50 Near Perfect
What’s that? You want a rhythm game? You have two thumbs and index fingers? This is your game! It’s fun, practically flawless, cheap, and HARD AS HELL (later on in the game).
By “HARD AS HELL,” I mean this kid, playing a song on the hardest difficulty with all 8 buttons at some increased speed… Right here:
Oh wait a minute, there’s a sequel called DJ Max Portable 2. Read on next week for a review on that!!!
Posted by Genemech 50 days ago
Released: January 2006 (Asia)
To commemorate my induction into the community, I bring you this Classic Review of DJ Max Portable.
Released back in January 2006, DJ Max Portable is technically a port of a really popular online PC game made by Pentavision. In its core, DJ Max was and is a rhythm game, a DDR for your fingers, if you will.
They finally brought it over to the PSP where, unfortunately, it was only sold in Asia and sky rocketed in popularity in Korea. You can only get it if you import it. A quick interesting thing about that fact is that the game’s interface isn’t fully understandable (because it’s Asian) but it’s easily overlooked because the only things you won’t be able to read are the messages to tell you that you unlocked something. Otherwise, it’s mostly in English.
This is what you’ll see:
*Korean characters* IMAGE*Korean Characters*
*Korean OK*
You’ve unlocked an image, specifically, the cover art of the song you played. Enjoy.
Now then onto the actual review:
Presentation: 8
There isn’t much that goes on in the game, select song, play song, fail/win song, sauté and repeat. But the intro is well done, then, when you’re good at a song, you can unlock its respective video and watch it anytime. And the visuals during gameplay are pretty trippy. Sorry, but that’s all I can say, as for the presentation.
Graphics: 9
Ok, it’s not Tekken or Crisis core, but like Patapon, this game deserves a high graphics grade. The track (the area on which you play on) is constantly in motion and high quality; you can also change your track with one of the ones you unlock, I mean… one of the 20 or so. The music jewels are obviously in motion, with no lag whatsoever, and when you hit them, sparkles and wails of the appropriate sound rage through your PSP speakers. The background video for the appropriate song is also high quality and plays constantly. Even the menus… You can stay and watch the menus for hours… (If you’re high)
Everything in there is high quality and resolution. Playing this game on the TV via the PSP Component cables showed how good the game really looks.
Sound: 10
Like DDR, Guitar Hero, Beatmania, PSP Revolution, etc., this game is based on music. There are about 40+ songs in the game, accompanied with their own video. The sound quality is phenomenal, even more so, they offer an “Original Soundtrack” (OST) mode in the game, where you can basically listen to the music as if you were listening to an MP3 player. The soundtrack is more GENERALLY the type of music you’d hear in “teh hardcorez underground dance clubs.” But to me, the gameplay was so addicting, I didn’t care what kind of music it had.
Gameplay: 9
What can I say? Have you played a rhythm game? Have you heard of one? I bet you have, Guitar Hero? DDR? Rock Band?
Well, basically, DJ Max is that. But metaphorically: DJ Max Portable is DDR for your thumbs, and when you get really good, for your index fingers as well. Here is what I mean: Like in Guitar Hero, for example, when you start off, you start with a limited amount of buttons to press. When you start DJ Max, you start by pressing the left, up, Triangle and Circle buttons. Then when you get “phat skillz” you move onto 6 buttons, which tack on the right and Square buttons. And before you know it, you unlock the “Master Mode” where your “phat skillz” turn into “1337 skillz,” where you also press the Left and Right Triggers. Sound complicated? Wait till you actually play it… The gameplay can also be tweaked to give you some extra challenge. You can increase the speed of the song, change the speed of each jewel, make the jewels invisible and really test yourself, basically, make massive chaos on the track for a few minutes at a time.
Lasting Appeal: 10
I can’t stress enough how long you will probably play this game. There’s a total of 95 unlockables, trust me, I counted. Some of said unlockables will take so much time and perseverance; you will probably kill yourself or someone else if you get something wrong… I almost did, I swear. The one I mean specifically: getting a 999999 note streak (the note streaks carry over from song to song). So imagine getting 999902 notes and tapping the left button instead of up... I thought so.
Final Word: 46/50 Near Perfect
What’s that? You want a rhythm game? You have two thumbs and index fingers? This is your game! It’s fun, practically flawless, cheap, and HARD AS HELL (later on in the game).
By “HARD AS HELL,” I mean this kid, playing a song on the hardest difficulty with all 8 buttons at some increased speed… Right here:
Oh wait a minute, there’s a sequel called DJ Max Portable 2. Read on next week for a review on that!!!
