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Pop'n Music Portable 2
Topic Started: Feb 5 2012, 10:46 PM (426 Views)
Ant
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Beginner reviewer
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Pop'n Music Portable Review
Did it fix the many problems found in the original?

I recently reviewed Pop'n Music Portable, and although I was rather tough on the game itself, it was still ridiculously fun, so I gave Pop'n Music Portable 2 a try. I was going to lump this review with the other, but I think there's enough to talk about in a separate review. If you need an idea of how PnM plays, check out my review on the original.

General Information
Mimi and Nyami return to the PSP for Pop'n Music Portable. This one features an unlock system similar to the old one, but it's very much improved. The controls stayed the same, but the way the song charts are made fixes a lot of the problems with the original.

Gameplay & Controls
This is where Pop'n Music Portable lost most of it's points. However, I'm glad to say that PnM P2 has found a way to fix it. Instead of changing the controls, the charts themselves are smoother to play, and feel optimized for the PSP. I'm not sure whether they are the same charts as the arcade releases, but there are less - if any - impossible to hit combos of notes in these charts versus the ones in PnM P1. There has not been a time where I needed to press both the left and right arrows on the d-pad at the same time. I'm glad that Konami realized their faults and somehow found a way to fix this. Nine button mide is actually doable in this case, once you get used to it.

Also, in the first game you had to do new songs on 5 button mode before you could play them on seven or nine. In 2 you can play through the entire game only on five, seven, or nine if you wanted to.

Unlock System
I felt this needed a section of it's own. Similar to the first game, you walk around on a map similar to that of the Mario Party games. BUT, unlike PnM 1, the map is not entirely grid based. There are paths that vary in length between each square (circle, in this case). This means less annoying travel distance between the songs. There are also less gimmicks than in the first game, and the point reduction squares take away a significantly lower amount of points.

A new addition to the game is the "party" system used to advance your pop level. A few treasure chests scattered along the board unlock "parties," which are similar to pop tests in the first game, but last three rounds instead of one and pit you against three opponents. You can invite people to the parties, but I'm not sure how that works out because I can't read Japanese. :-/ What I like about this new system is that if you mess up a song you can redeem yourself on the other two. Sometimes doing a party will not advance your pop level, and I have no idea why (even if you come in first) because again, I can't read the Japanese text. There's a lot more in this game that you have to guess on because of the language barrier. The first one had enough engrish to play the entire game without getting confused.

Sound / Music
I like the soundtrack for this game MUCH better than the last, which was already great. PnM 1 had a few songs I REALLY loved (High School Love, 777) but most of them were just decent. But in PnM 2 I have yet to come across a song I didn't love (except Nightmare Carousel, ugh). There's even two more A.I. songs: 0/1 angel and DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Characters
One thing I forgot to mention in my last review was the characters. Pop'n Music has a lot of characters. A lot. And most of them are memorable, too. You have some of the classic characters, like MDZ, Mimi, Nyami, and Rie<3Chan as well as some new ones. Most are reoccurring characters that have been in other home console and arcade releases, like Alt and Poet. The characters all have winning/losing animations that are unique and very fitting.

Overall
The flaws of Pop'n Music Portable 1 have, for the most part, been fixed. There's really nothing else I can say about it. If you love music games then I really would recommend this one, especially over PnM portable 1.
Edited by Ant, Feb 5 2012, 11:21 PM.
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