Pentavision has just released the third incarnation of their popular rhythm game entitled DJ Max Portable 3, the sixth game for the PlayStation Portable. Will this game be a hit to rhythm lovers and long-time DJ Max fans?
Long before DJ Max Technika became a hit in the arcades, there were several versions of DJ Max to the PSP, which became a hit. For those who haven't tried DJ Max Portable, the gameplay is similar that from Beatmania, only without a turntable. You have to press the corresponding button as notes fall down from the screen, continue timing the press to make a combo, rack enough combos to fill up your meter to unleash fever mode, a special mode where you can multiply your combos, the longer your combos, the higher your score will become. You can also adjust the speed of the notes before and during the game.
The first thing you will notice in DJ max Portable 3 is the new presentation, it makes you feel that it is whole new game, all of the videos are now in HD, giving a more fluid and crispier look.
DJ Max Portable 3 now features a new gameplay called the Remix System, with the Remix System, you now have an additional two side panels on the screen, making it a total of three panels instead of the original of having just one, when notes come out in one the two side panels, you have to push the analog nub to that particular direction, making the game feels like you are actually playing a real DJ turntable.
In addition to the Remix mode, some of the game modes returns to the game, such as the mission mode, where you are given a challenge to complete a certain objective in order to accomplish the mission and unlock a reward such as new tracks, avatars, wallpapers, most of the unlocked contents can be seen in the Lounge mode.
Sadly it only features quite a few songs compared to the previous games, and most of the songs are from the Technika 2 series and others are remixes from older songs. Despite the somewhat small tracklist, it still offers a variety of songs such as House, Techno and Pop.
Another sad part is the tedious grinding in a casual game, it feels like all Korean games are required to be super grindy, and the bad part is that to unlock new contents and songs, you need to level up and to make it worse, when leveling up, you have to pick from 3 boxes to get a random reward, so the chance of getting a new song is pretty slim. It would be better if they retain the Club Mission mode from DJ Max Black Square to lessen the repetitive grinding.
The multiplayer mode was removed, which was a bad move. and there is no online leaderboards to check on your ranking, instead the game will give you a code where you will input it on the DJ Max website, they could have offered an online feature via WiFi to receive song and mission updates similar that to Rock Band Unplugged for longer gameplay times.
Overall, DJ Max Portable 3 would have been a better game it wasn't for the tedious grinding, and the lack of a multiplayer feature lessens the gameplay time for players. Although the new Remix mode still offers a good amount of entertainment despite with several flaws to the game.
If you are a fan of DJ Max, you might give this a second chance, otherwise if you are looking for a good polished rhythm game, better stick with the older DJ Max games or with Rock Band Unplugged.
Game Rating: 6 out of 10
DJ Max Portable 3 was developed by Pentavision and published by PM Studios
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