Will have you humming to over 60 tracks

by David Kwon

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

One of the harder rhythm games out there, but it offers feverish gameplay and an impressive assortment of songs and music videos, as well as addictive gameplay.

There’s no reason to feel bad if you’ve never heard of this game or franchise before. After all, it’s the first time western audiences outside of Japan and Korea get a chance to experience the game without having to import it. As a rhythm-based title largely featuring Asian (mostly Korean) trance and 2D Asian art, DJ Max Fever will initially alienate the majority of non-Asian gamers, which is rather unfortunate because beyond that niche surface is content that’s easy to fall in love with.

Impressive assortment of songs

There are two extremely lovable things about this game, those being the fact that it doesn’t require overpriced plastic instrument peripherals and that at least half of the 60 songs featured in the track list are addictive. Maybe I’m biased toward the game’s music because I myself am Korean, but I still am certain that anyone who plays DJ Max Fever for a while will bob their head and smile as they maniacally press buttons on the PSP to match the beats furiously scrolling down. The button setup takes some getting used to, especially with the total absence of a tutorial of any kind, but with such a diverse soundtrack ranging from Trance to Jazz to Rap and everything in between (some songs are hybrids of Techno/Trance with Rap vocals and Jazz instruments), the music alone will have you stick around.



The addictive nature of the game goes beyond just the game’s music though. Operating behind the scenes is an RPG system which rewards players for every song they play and for every challenge they accomplish. The more you play, the more you level up. Players also get rewarded with equipment and gear that help them get higher scores or earn experience faster. For great performances, you can unlock new images, more songs, music videos, and new character skins, which will totally change how the notes look (e.g. hearts, stars, smiley faces). To top it all off, the RPG system feels endless because of the unbelievably high levels you can reach. You will still have tons of content locked at level 40.

Game modes that will give you “fever”

Beyond the RPG system is a wealth of modes and content that makes the game really worth your money. From the get-go, DJ Max Fever gives players access to the songs in pure audio form to listen to or in music video format to watch. These are unlocked from the beginning, so it’s a real treat if you like the game’s music. A network option lets players compete via Ad-Hoc but the real meat is in the actual play modes.

The first four modes have you choosing four songs to play through. The differences between the modes are in how many buttons you can use to play. Obviously, the more buttons there are the harder the game. The easiest mode is 4-Button mode, and if you change the difficulty to Hard you can try out the insanely difficult 8-Button mode. Freestyle lets you rack up unlimited combos and play through any songs they want. The thing that will test you the most is Challenge mode, where different missions require players to achieve different things, such as achieving a certain score, finishing the song without missing more than 25 notes, chaining “Fever” at least twice in each song, getting an accuracy rating of at least 85%, etc. They’re very fun but the later missions get so hard that only hardcore DJ Max Fever players will be able to achieve them (I’m unfortunately not THAT good).



All those play modes rely on the same gameplay mechanic though, which is hitting the notes that scroll down the screen with button presses. Unlike many other rhythm games, DJ Max Fever does not penalize you for pressing the wrong button as long as you pressed it at the right time. So in theory, some songs can be finished by just using one button, as long as the song doesn’t include notes that require two or three buttons pressed at the same time. However, don’t think that this makes the game easy. On the contrary, it remains extremely difficult by judging your timing and accuracy.

Not the easiest rhythm game on the market

Other western rhythm games (e.g. Guitar Hero, Rock Band) simply rate you by whether you hit the note or not. Not here. If you hit the button too slow or too early, the game will rate your accuracy. Accuracy matters because only 100% ratings build up the Fever meter. Scores are multiplied when the meter is maxed without missing a single note. Consecutively using the Fever meter raises the score multiplier up to 5X, but since this requires that you don’t miss a single note and have 100% accuracy, chaining Fevers is a skill you won’t have until you’ve played many hours. For later challenges though, it’s a skill that you absolutely must have.

But only if chaining Fevers was the difficult part. No, simply hitting the notes can be hard. Some tunes are so full of notes and so fast-paced, they’ll murder you over and over again and you’ll be glad you got a 70% overall rating with over 37 notes missed. The difficulty is sometimes the game’s own fault for having you match guitar riffs one moment and then suddenly changing it to drum beats or keyboard notes. Most of the time, these transitions work well, but on a few songs like Blythe and Brand New Days, mastery will only come after you play the tunes repeatedly. Some tracks are so ridiculously oversaturated with notes they are clearly aimed the hardcore players. Just the mention of Sin the Last Scene will give DJ Max players shivers. That song is hard enough on 4-Button mode, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be in 6-Button mode or worse, in 8-Button mode.



One thing that will bug players a bit is missing green notes. When that happens, the other instruments playing in the background get silenced and only return if you hit the next green note. The concept is cool but the execution makes it feel like it’s a bug and not an intended game feature. When the music suddenly goes out like that, it takes the player out of the experience. Also, out of the 60 songs, there are a lot of crappy “poppy” tunes that are too Asian and too corny, but when you got amazing tracks like Oblivion, Chains of Gravity, Divine Service, Falling Angel, and more, DJ Max Fever becomes a game you purchase not only because it’s fun playing but also because it’s so great to listen to.

Summary

Overall, for an addictive rhythm-based experience on the PSP, there is no better alternative than DJ Max Fever (or any of the two previous DJ Max games that were released in Asia, which are more difficult, better translated, have fewer bugs but include fewer songs). The music is great, the gameplay is addictive, and at times the experience is really out of this world. Even the fact that every song has a different load screen is really cool. And the best thing about it is that the game features so much content that if you come to enjoy it, it kind of becomes a gaming sin to not purchase it.