DJ Max Fever Review

Fans of music games have probably been following this franchise for a long time now. It started out with a PC beta that essentially a very well done Beatmania clone that had a few changes in place that favored playing on a keyboard instead of with the traditional turntable controller. Instead of just having a list of ridiculously difficult songs, you still had multiple difficulties and a large song selection to scroll through, along with online play that slowly ranked you with a DJ level that was essentially representative of how many wins you had. As time passed by, the PC version became more difficult to access, eventually leading to the announcement that the game was in fact being ported over to PSP. There have already been about 4 games released in other countries, but this if the first one to actually hit American shores. While it's always a good thing to see music games get released over here, even though the fundamental gameplay aspects are the same, the soundtracks almost always suffer with licensed American pop hits that just don't fit the nature of gameplay (*coughTaikoDrumMastercough*). Does DJ Max Fever actually manage to overcome that hurdle while still offering the same addictive gameplay? Read on to find out!

Gameplay - 9/10

First impressions would leave you to think that this is just a simple, dumbed down port of Beatmania to a handheld and in some respects, you would right. There are plenty of changes to the formula that actually work to make the game a lot more accessible, while still having loads of options in terms of difficulty as you get better. The first thing of note is the fact that this game includes a pretty straightforward difficulty setting in the options menu, multiple modes (4 button, 5 button, 6 button, 8 button, and a mission mode) that have different difficulties for the songs, along with making it easy to know what the difficulty rating of the song is. For many players, Beatmania is insanely hard to actually play since you're normally playing random background samples in the music which makes it hard to figure out what the pattern is you're supposed to be banging out. DJ Max Fever does a much better job of letting you play the lead instruments and bringing out the sound, meaning you can actually tell what part of the song you're playing and almost feel it. The controls are fully customizable, but the default settings tend to work out incredibly well, with the only downside being the inability to completely turn off the auto feature (more on that later). In addition to the charts for the songs being a lot more relevant to what you're actually hearing, there are unlockable characters that you get from completing different in game objectives, each with their own abilities from earning you extra experience to increasing the auto feature that hits some of the notes you miss. All of this coupled with the large song list (especially considering that it's a handheld!) makes DJ Max Fever a must own title for any music game fan.


Graphics - 7/10

One of the first things that stood out to me about DJ Max Fever was how nice the interface was. Instead of trying to go with some elaborate system, you have a press start screen, and then you've got the option to load up the OST, portable game, network battle, etc by tapping left or right. If you sit there for a while, the game eventually goes to an anime cutscene that's very reminiscent of the stuff that plays in the background as you play. Once you're in game, everything fits well enough, with the combo meter popping up towards the upper half of the note chart, keeping it from obstructing your view too much, yet there's still just enough visual indication to let you know what's going on without having to stare at it too much. For the analog stick spinning sequences, you'll see a spinning stick pop up on screen ahead of time, and the actual section glows pretty bright, again helping you more than distracting your attention. The notes themselves come in a variety of colors that represent what beat they're falling on for those of you who will be playing on higher difficulties. The actual artwork for the characters is pretty well done, even though you only see them in the menu, and there are loads of extra skins that you can get for the note charts themselves, each looking just as neat as the character design. The last major feature that's worth mentioning with the graphics is how well the anime cutscenes for each level are done. While you're loading the game, you tend to see an image that turns into some sort of animation sequence relevant to what you'll see if you're somehow able to pry your attention from the notes frantically flying down screen. The cutscenes themselves almost remind me of professionally done anime music videos, since all of the action seems to be synced just right with the music if you're playing everything right. On the downside, you're mostly just going to be looking at the keys streaming down the screen, which are well done, yet extremely minimalistic and really haven't changed a bit since the stuff from Beatmania. If you really want to just check out the cutscenes and the music, there's still the OST mode that just plays the songs and video along with unlockable images.

Sound - 9/10

It's so rare that a music game comes out over here that originated in another country that gets to keep a majority of their song selection without being "Americanized". DJ Max Fever somehow managed to overcome that major hurdle to the joy of fans everywhere, using some of the classic songs from the games along with a few new ones, and thanks to the diversity of genres, there's something here from everyone that's willing to try out stuff they've never heard of before. Since you're essentially playing the music, the only times any of the sounds are out of place are if you're playing them wrong. If that's not really your bag, there's always the previously mentioned OST mode for just listening to the songs themselves. One of the really nice touches with the game is that aside from the game over screen, there really isn't an announcer to yell out distracting stuff like "100 Combo", allowing you to just focus on the beat and what you need to do to actually play it right. Unfortunately, the amazing soundtrack has one dark side that might be an artistic choice, but I'm pretty sure it's more loading related: While playing through any song, the background track sometimes goes out, leaving you to just hear what you're playing. Had you always been playing lead or rhythm, this probably wouldn't be a problem, but if you're playing some sample that sounds like a rocket launching that fits in context with the song, it just feels wrong playing it without anything behind it. It's one of those things that rarely happens and seriously feels like more of a hardware limitation, but it can break combos sometimes.


Overall - 8/10

For the music gamer on the go, especially if you're an American, you absolutely need DJ Max Fever in your collection. Not only are you getting a great game, but you're getting one that has a soundtrack that rivals the number of songs in most console titles, loads of unlockables and missions for the completionist, and with its nifty tutorial mode, it's a lot more accessible than some other games out there. While the audio glitching out sometimes is a bit distracting and the way the difficulty works (some 6's seem a lot harder than some 7's or 8's as an example), the whole experience and quality of the title seriously makes up for all of that. The sheer fact that they have a soundtrack that is on par with that of the previous releases if not better, is one of those things that truly shows how much the developer acknowledges their fan base and wanted to live up to their high standard.