Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX

By: FRANCESCO LOMBARDO ‘17
PTS Falconer Assistant Editor
SCORE: 8/10

Rhythm games have been around for a long time and really grew in popularity when Guitar Hero and Rock band were released for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii. They were famous for a while even making games based off of famous bands, such as Greenday, The Beatles, and Aerosmith to name a few, but soon the popularity fell and the games seemed to disappear until the recent announcement of new installments into the series. One series, however, that has kept people tapping their foot while playing are the Hatsune Miku games.

What exactly is Hatsune Miku? Well, Hatsune Miku is a computer program developed by Yamaha that emulates vocal patterns and can be used to create artificial singers for songs. All of the songs are sung in Japanese and created by the millions of users of the Hatsune Miku program. What does this have to do with the game? Well this is a rhythm game that is a compilation of all the most famous Miku songs. Although I can’t understand Japanese I must say, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is a top notch rhythm game incorporating other gaming aspects such as minigames, house decorating, music composition, dance creating, and AR cards.

There are 47 songs in total, each one with its own set of animations and difficulties. One thing that seems unbalanced is the difficulty. Some songs such as Senbonsakura are really easy on Hard, while others like The World is Mine can be quite the challenge. This is disappointing, as I would’ve liked a more consistent difficulty across all the songs. The rhythm portion can be played in two modes, tap or buttons. You can use the touch screen to hit the corresponding colors or use the buttons and the d-pad for the same purpose. This is great, because while you may excel in one mode, the other mode can be more difficult. It mixes up the gameplay options. The animations that go along with the song are bright, vivid, and very entertaining. Overall, the game looks and plays fantastically.

While playing the songs, you’ll earn coins that you can use to purchase various things from the department store. From clothing that you unlock as you beat songs to different pieces of furniture. It’s a nice little touch that lets you customize your experience with the game. You can also choose which character you’d like to have in your home screen. You can choose from 6 different singers, each with their own voices and animations. There’s also a version of Puyo Puyo 39 (a classic Sega Genesis game) included, so you can play against computers or friends in local connection. The game is packed full of things to do other than the standard rhythm game. You can create your own dances, make your own little tunes, use with various AR cards, and play Mikuversi, which is a board game that your little character will get progressively better at as you get better.

Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX shows how first party games should be made. It has an extremely well done rhythm mode with some great catchy tunes even if you don’t speak Japanese. It’s also filled with lots of mini games and extra activities to do. The difficulty is disappointing; I wish it was balanced a bit more and obviously you can’t like every song that’s included in the game. Other than that, it’s a great game to break up the long play times of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate or Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.