The only Japanese artist I saw was Shinji Hosoe, who added one song (“Xlasher”) to the game. They top the visualizations for all rival rhythm games without question, and the quality is even improved from the games in Fever!ģ) The number of artists represented in this particular title is surprisingly limited, and almost entirely Korean. Where’s the challenge?Ģ) The background videos for the songs are simply fantastic. I handily conquered the 30 songs available in this mode, and as I went, I made the following observations in my mind:ġ) I remember Fever being extremely difficult. I’m actually pretty relieved by this, because having the same songs with different “levels” of button combinations really hurt my brain.

I only have 4-button and 6-button to pick from. I notice that, unlike Fever (which had 4, 5, 6, and 8-button modes), the 5- and 8-button modes are gone. It requires FOCUS!)īefore digging into the new mode, which borrows heavily from the DJ Hero convention of having “side tracks” to cross over into, I decided to do some classic mode. She already hates this game because when I’m playing it, she can’t get a word out of me. So I grab a pair of headphones and settle down to my first of what has quickly become many *frantic* sessions with this game. The first thing I see is a load screen that informs me the game is a lot more enjoyable with headphones instead of the PSP speakers. So I throw DJMP3 into my PSP (I got the UMD version, though a download-only version is also available via PSN). To find out what I mean by this, follow along after the jump!

It’s another thing entirely to keep up with frantic techno or chill with some J-pop (and K-pop) while inputting complex combinations.ĭJMP3 has a new set of songs (over 30 new tracks), a couple new modes of play, and some “hidden” difficulty. It’s one thing to sit around playing top 40 pop-rock hits in your living room.

This PSP rhythm game, developed by Korean studio Pentavision, has some of the best music and most challenging rhythmic patterns you’ll find for a handheld. Last year I discussed at length DJMax Fever, which was a combo title of Portable 1 and 2 localized for North America. But for me, one of the most exciting titles is also the least talked about: DJMax Portable 3. It’s a big season for rhythm games: DJ Hero 2 and Rock Band 3 are on the horizon.

Djmax portable 3 challenges