The constant flow of new rhythm games never seems to be in short supply and the latest team to bring a new title for this genre is SEGA with a new game featuring the popular anime diva Hatsune Miku and her crew. In their game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MegaMix+, they provide players with a baseline of over 170 songs and a DLC song pack to boost the playlist up to 250 songs. Featuring a new style for the rhythm game installment and music videos filled with K-Pop music sung by Hatsune Miku and her crew.

Gameplay

The first thing to check out is almost always the customization menu. They really set this game up with a nigh endless customization option for you to choose from. You will want to set up a few of the different customization slots because the design you choose will be able to fill the role in the music videos when selected. Some songs have up to three singers, so you need to fill all of the slots to replace them. Otherwise, the video will play with the default designed character for the video - which is both fitting and perfectly fine as well.

Before you leave the customization section, this is also where you edit things such as your button layout and arrow visuals. Be sure to set this up with the keys you want to use on your keyboard or the buttons you prefer on the controller and choose how you want the arrows to be shown. While designing your anime girls is nice, this is the menu you need to set up in order to actually have a good time playing the game.

After that, it is time to try out some of the songs. As you go through the different menu options, you will be given quick tutorials. While these are helpful, I personally find that actual experience is the best way for me to learn. Thankfully, this game offers what all rhythm games do - a practice mode for each song. Since this game defaults that the hardest difficulty option available is ‘Hard’ until you beat a song on that difficulty and I am well experienced in the rhythm game genre, I gave that a shot only to learn that this game is not like the others.

Arrows are thrown around on the screen in a style that is similar to the popular rhythm game Osu where they can appear on different locations of the screen and are given a little timer that turns around to let you know when to hit. However, when there are a lot of arrows, that timer doesn’t really help you. At least when the arrows are spaced pretty well to visually indicate the spacing in the timing, but with this new seemingly randomized pattern style that I am not accustomed to, I found myself working my way up.

I went back to play some songs on the ‘Normal’ difficulty until I got comfortable with the way arrows are presented on this game. Eventually I was able to handle songs on the ‘Extreme’ difficulty, but personally still haven’t reached the hardest difficulty setting yet. This game does offer quite the challenge and you can organize the songs in multiple ways, including by difficulty.

Once you do find some favorite song titles though, you can head over to the playlist section of the menu and start putting together different song packs. This could be a set of warm-up songs, favorite tracks, challenge road, and so many more options.

As for the song options themselves, you do have some custom options to choose from. If you feel comfortable in your skill, there is the option to speed the song up, hide the arrow indicators, or have the arrow indicators suddenly appear. Other than custom ways to play, if you like a specific song and/or music video and just want to watch it, there is the option to just watch the music video as well.

Audio and Visual

All of the music in this game definitely fits under the K-Pop genre, but is different enough that I can see everybody finding at least a handful of songs they truly enjoy just to listen to. The style reminds me of all the classic rhythm games that got this genre started, so it isn’t anything that fans of these types of games wouldn’t be accustomed to.

As for the visuals, this game is the most anime-styled game I have ever seen. From the characters to the environments and even down to the menu style, it simply screams ‘I’m an anime girl’ all over it. Bright colors, interesting camera angle choices, and lots of dance choreography fills up what you can expect to see in this game.

Replayability

With a song list as vast as this one and the constant room for skill improvement, there is plenty of reason to come back to this game. As long as you want to play a rhythm game and enjoy the general set up of this game, then there is sure to be enough reason for you to load back up and get your next personal best score on your favorite songs.

What It Could Have Done Better

When you do load up to just watch a music video, all of the HUD and options are completely removed. While the HUD removal makes sense, there is no reason to strip the player away of the ability to access a pause menu to back out if they want to. Instead, if you choose to watch a music video, you better want to see the whole thing because there is no turning back until it is done.

With how much customization they put into the characters themselves, it would have been nice to have more customizing options for the songs. What if the music video is a bit distracting and we just want a black screen behind the arrows and song? This should have been an option for players.

Verdict

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MegaMix+ is truly an anime dance revolution! It’s an entertaining rhythm game that I look forward to returning to playing every so often. The massive playlist and colorful art style are part of what draws my attention, but it’s the different style the arrows are presented in this game that really brings me back. It’s a mixture of the challenge I am used to having thrown at me with a new way to experience it that keeps me wanting to improve further. Definitely a solid rhythm game choice for anyone looking for a new game in the genre.

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MegaMix+ is now available on PC via Steam.