Pop'n Music

, most commonly shortened to "Pop'n", "PM" or "PNM", is a music video game in Konami's Bemani series. The game is notable for its bright colors, upbeat songs, and cute character graphics. Although "Pop'n Music" was originally intended to be played by couples on dates, it has greatly escalated in difficulty since early iterations, and has since then attracted many players of "beatmania" and other Bemani games. Originally released in 1998, the game has had 15 home releases in Japan as well as many arcade versions.

Arcade Versions

* Pop'n Music (1998)
* Pop'n Music 2 (1999)
* Pop'n Music 3 (1999)
* Pop'n Music 4 (2000)
* Pop'n Music 5 (2000)
* Pop'n Music 6 (2001)
* Pop'n Music 7 (2001)
* Pop'n Music 8 (2002)
* Pop'n Music 9 (2002)
* Pop'n Music 10 (2003)
* Pop'n Music 11 (2004)
* Pop'n Music Iroha (12) (2004)
* Pop'n Music Carnival (13) (2005)
* Pop'n Music FEVER! (14) (2006)
* Pop'n Music ADVENTURE (15) (2007)
* Pop'n Music PARTY! (16) (2008)
* Pop'n Music Animelo (2000)

Pop'n Music Mickey Tunes"' (2000)

Consists of Disney music. The Playstation port is known as "Pop'n Music Disney Tunes".

Pop'n Music Animelo 2 (2001)

Notable for being the most expensive Pop'n Music version to date due to its songlist consisting completely of anime and television show licenced songs. This version has also been famed because of its exclusive possession of the infamous "double" and "triple" mods. These options were originally made with the intention of allowing one or two extra people to play along by respectively adding one or two extra notes for every note in the chart sometimes resulting in a chord of all nine buttons. However, it became a new, and still lasting, challenge for a player to play a song with "double" or "triple" by themselves.

Consumer Software

"The following games have only been released in Japan and Asia."

First Generation

"Pop'n Music" and "Pop'n Music 2" were released on the PlayStation and the Dreamcast, and for both consoles two further append discs were released: "Pop'n Music 3" and "Pop'n Music 4". These later two versions required a "key disc", i.e. one had to already possess "Pop'n Music 2". A special controller featuring the nine colored buttons of the arcade version of the game was released for both consoles.

"Pop'n Music 5", "Pop'n Music 6", "Pop'n Music Animation Melody" and "Pop'n Music Disney Tunes" were then released for the PlayStation, but there were no further releases on the Dreamcast. "Pop'n Music 5" and "6" could be used as "key discs" to play the append discs mentioned above.

econd Generation

"Pop'n Music 7", "8", and "9" were released on the PlayStation 2, as well as an anthology version, "Pop'n Music Best Hits".

Third Generation

"10", "11", "Iroha (12)", "Carnival (13)", and "FEVER! (14)" were also released on the PlayStation 2. These versions are a step up from the previous PS2 games with their more advanced interfaces and introduction of arcade accurate hi-speed mods ranging from 2 - 6. Pop'n Music 11 introduced hi-speed 5. The recent release of Pop'n Music FEVER as included hi-speed mods at .5 increments, which first appeared on Pop'n ADVENTURE (15). A revised controller was also released for the PS2 at the same time as Pop'n Music 10, though it is also compatible with the original PlayStation.

The Game Boy Color also had three "Pop'n Music" games: "Pop'n Music GB", "Pop'n Music GB Animation Melody", and "Pop'n Music GB Disney Tunes".

Gameplay

Unlike most of the Bemani series, the "Pop'n Music" controller is not designed to represent any real musical instrument. Instead it is a pattern of nine buttons in two rows; four on top and five on the bottom. On the screen colored notes called "pop-kun" (ポップ君) fall from the top to the bottom in nine rows corresponding to the buttons. When the notes reach the bottom the player presses the button and the game emits a note of the song, along with a judgement ranging from Great (hit the note perfectly on beat) to Bad (missed the note completely).

Like "beatmania", there is a life bar with a long green section on the left and a short red section on the right. Getting Greats raises the lifebar, while getting Poors lowers it. When it is completely full, a higher rating called 'Fever' replaces 'Great' until the lifebar drops again. A song is passed if the life bar is in the red section at the end, which lets the player play another song. If the song is failed, the game ends. A player may play a maximum of 3 songs before the game is over. 100,000 points is the maximum amount of points that can be earned per song (and denotes a full fever combo).

"Pop'n Music" is differentiated from "beatmania" by its lack of a turntable and by its hand-size buttons. Where "beatmania" is played by pressing buttons with one's fingers, "Pop'n Music" is played by hitting buttons with one's palms, fingers, and in some situations, arms and elbows.

Players can choose from a 5-key mode (disabling the leftmost and rightmost buttons), or a 9-key mode. Older console versions also included 7-key mode, which made it easy to fully use a beatmania IIDX controller.

To make the gameplay more interesting, higher difficulty levels feature obstacles known as "Ojamas", large sprites which obscure the player's view of the descending pop-kuns.

A mode that was featured in "Pop'n Music 6" is Expert or Nonstop mode, where the player chooses from different song lists and plays through them in either Normal or Hyper mode. The lifebar is different in this mode. The life bar starts full, and then lowers every time you get a Poor. The life bar seldom raises. Play continues as long as the life bar does not reach zero.

Another later mode is Battle mode, where two players compete against each other using only three buttons and an "action button". As a player continues to get Greats in a song, a power meter increases. When it reaches one of three levels, pressing the action button starts a minigame along the bottom of the screen, requiring the players to alternate pressing the action button at appropriate times until one misses. Both players do this concurrently with the song. The first player to miss has some disadvantage inflicted upon them, such as reversed or double speed notes, and is more inconvenient depending on the level at which the winning player launched it.

"Pop'n Music 9" through "Pop'n Music 11" featured Osusume or Quiz mode, where the player was asked questions (in Japanese), and the game made a song list based on the answers. Gameplay was otherwise normal.

Introduced in "Pop'n Music 12" is the "Taisen Mode" or "Net Battle Mode", where the player is pitted against two computer opponents in 9-button mode as they compete for points. Gameplay starts by selecting a range of songs divided by level. At first the player may only play songs level 1-15, but as they win many games consecutively, they unlock gamuts of harder songs, divided in 3 level intervals. The player selects the first song, and then a randomly selected song is selected by each opponent. To increase the challenge, the player can choose between the Ojama Battle and the Gachi Battle modes of play. In Ojama Battle, all players select three Ojama, separated by levels, to be launched against opponents during a song. (Players may also elect to leave some levels empty.) During the song, players fill their Ojama Meter (the CPUs' screens are never seen, only their life bars and scores) by correctly playing notes. When the meter has filled to one of three levels, icons of opponent characters begin to appear alongside normal notes and scroll slowly. By pressing a button to an icon as a note, that character receives that Ojama and their song is made more difficult. In Gachi Battle, no Ojama are involved. At the end of a song, players are awarded point bonuses for having the highest combo and for the amount of life remaining. The player with the most points after bonuses wins the round. After three rounds, the players have their total points tallied and also receive 2000 point bonuses for each round they won. If the player makes first place, their rank is increased, and after a number of consecutive wins, they are allowed to play songs of higher levels.

"Pop'n Music 13" introduced "Cho-Challenge Mode" or "Super Challenge Mode", an enhanced version of the existing challenge mode.This mode is available if the player pushes both white buttons. In addition to new ojamas, the norma that are selected may be chosen to remain constant throughout the song. Also, Cho-Challenge mode uses the judgement system of expert mode. The high scores recored in Cho-Challenge mode (along with Expert Mode) are also kept separately from the scores from Challenge mode.

Design and Difficulty

Compared to the rest of the bemani series, "Pop'n Music" has a very childish feel to it. The graphics are brightly colored and primarily solid shapes, rather than the metallic and textured interfaces of other Bemani games. As in earlier DDR versions, players may choose a character to play as. The songs are separated by genres like Reggae, Disco Queen, Spy, or Anime Hero, in addition to the usual bemani genres of eurobeat and forms of electronica. In addition to the genres, there are also series of songs with similar elements, like the Classic series (which are medleys of classical music) and the Powerfolk series. Each song has a Normal mode (on-beat notes and simple chords), most songs have a Hyper mode (with more notes and harder chords), and some songs have an EX mode (with lots of notes and complicated chords). Unlike other Bemani games, "Pop'n Music" has no other visuals except the character the player chose, the character for the song the player is playing "against," and the notes coming down to the bar at the bottom. Where Beatmania and Beatmania IIDX have videos of some kind, "Pop'n Music" has no video at all. However, the characters are animated, and react based on how you play.

In spite of its childish appearance, Pop'n Music becomes extremely challenging at high difficulty levels. The higher difficulty levels are considered by some to be the most challenging songs in any music game, its rival being Beatmania IIDX. Difficulty levels range from 1-43+, 1 being the easiest. The spectrum is very broad, allowing new players to easily adapt to the game play as well as presenting a high level of challenge for even the most experienced players. High-level players can work up a heavy sweat due to fast-moving arms and the stamina drain it causes.

Pop'n Stage

"Pop'n Stage" is a dancing game based around the "Pop'n Music" design and songs, with nine "switches" (four diagonals and a center on each side, just like "Pump It Up"'s panel placement, combined with DDR's up-down-left-right shape). It is a combination of "Pop'n Music" and "Dance Dance Revolution", using "Pop'n"-style graphics with "DDR"-style gameplay. The game has a bright, colorful interface and machine design, and is easy compared to most other Bemani games.

"Pop'n Stage" only supports one player at a time; 6-switch and 10-switch modes are available (corresponding to "Pump It Up"'s half double and full double; in other words, 6-switch mode doesn't use the four outer corners). [http://www.konami.co.jp/am/stage/play/index.html]

ee also

*"Beat'n Groovy", the Xbox Live Arcade adaptation

External links

* [http://www.konami.jp/bemani/popn/ Pop'n World] , Konami of Japan's official Pop'n Music site.
* [http://www.konami.co.jp/am/stage/ Konami - Pop'n Stage Top]
* [http://www.popnnavy.com/ American Pop'n Score Tracking Site]
* [http://www.bemanistyle.com/ Bemanistyle.com] , Major North American Bemani Site.

References