In the running for one of the greatest console rhythm games ever made, with most of its major competition coming from other Bemani ports or other games in the series. DJMax Portable and the rest of the PSP series holds up so well that when people ask "how do I get into rhythm games", I'll send them here.

There's a misinterpretation of what rhythm games mean to me, and what other people might think of when the genre is approached, and that's mostly due to a lack of clarity within the genre definition itself. You have Parappa-esque rhythm games with more of a focus on narrative. While I adore these games in their own right, they're a different beast than the Beatmania format of "here's a collection of a bunch of unrelated songs, see how good you can do". The Beatmania format emphasizes developing a skill over a long period of time and self improvement while getting to listen to a variety of good music. It's not the sort of game you play through in one sitting. Harder songs will ask the player to replay them, or play other songs to improve their skill until they can hope to clear the song fully. It's similar to the appeal that shmup players get trying to 1cc a game like DoDonPachi, but in shorter bursts and with less focus on memorization and strategy.

DJMax fits into that later category. There are three different playstyles (4 button, 6 button and 8 button) and a variety of difficulties within those playstyles. The onboarding process isn't a nightmare in the same way that Pop'n Music would be, but the high end of the game is still brutal and progress through the tracklist still feels like an achievement. The 55 songs that the game comes with aren't licensed tracks. This sounds like a negative, but it's actually a series selling point. The "original" (many songs were taken from previous rhythm games like DJMax Online) songs are fully keynoted (when you press a button, it corresponds with a noise that would play in the song), cover a variety of genres, all have unique, animated music videos to accompany them and are great tracks in their own right. If I started talking about the songs individually, it would just devolve into me going through all 55 songs and saying "Yeah, this is a classic rhythm game banger". They're fun to play. The songs have a distinct personality to them, and playing them multiple times creates an attachment to the music that wouldn't work as well if the game was more of a disposable product. Blythe is my favorite rhythm game song ever, and I say this after a years long trek across the entire Bemani catalogue. Once you get behind the wheel and let this game claw itself into you, even if you're not familiar with the genre or see videos of people playing a difficult song in a rhythm game and think to yourself "I could never do this", it'll change how you approach video games fundamentally. It did for me.

The rest of the game's package holds up to the same level of quality as the setlist. There's different modifiers for how you want to play the song. There's tons of unlockables. There's customization elements to the UI years before we'd see that meaningfully in the IIDX series. If you had this game back in 2006, when getting your hands on rhythm games stateside was much harder than it is today (outside of Guitar Hero and a few compromised Bemani PS1/PS2 ports), this game could have lasted a years worth of bus trips, waiting rooms and lunch breaks. If Mother 3 didn't come out this same year, this would be my GOTY of 2006. If you have a PSP laying around, grab this game and try out a few songs. It might break your hands.

Ih o DDR coreano

Coreanos sabem fazer jogo de ritmo muito bem ein

Absoluto clássico obscuro, gameplay bem parecida com DDR pra não falar falar que é igual, curva de dificuldade mediana e balanceada

A setlist desse aqui ta cheio de techno e eletropop, belo e moral