whitefox284

It's a been a long disappointing road with Im@s SP DLC, not to mention an expensive one at that. Recently the most latest catalog of DLC has been released, and for the third month in a row, I've just been bothered with the direction it's gone. I've always had one major complaint with Im@s SP which unfortunately is still persistent to this day. It's the lack of outfits for the characters to wear, and the slow release of them. What's great about SP is that there are huge variety of accessories, a huge variety of songs, a bunch of stage backgrounds (not to mention unlimited since you can edit in your own), yet there's this lack of outfits for some reason. Really you're only given 3 outfits with a ton of palette swaps and the 3 rival outfits. After that you're forced to pay to get more outfits, which seem to only be released in one month intervals.

The part that gets me is that most of the Im@s catalogs before SP died around the 12th. L4U catalog pretty much died after the 12th despite receiving content from SP to keep it running to 17. Which has me worried because I've been looking at the SP catalog wondering, "Is this it? This is all we got?" Especially when you look at L4U's catalogs, many of which sported a ton of content, remixes to existing songs, and sometimes multiple dresses being released in one month. The quality is especially absurd not just graphic wise, but concept wise seeing some awesomely crafted dresses and outfits.

Here are my opinions regarding the catalogs that I wanted to write down:

Catalog 1
This was a good start. It had a decent dress and decent accessories, plus a good start in the missing songs. Catalog also contained the idol mails which is good bonus material. Only major gripe is the price on the songs, which is a constant gripe I've had throughout the many catalogs, that they should have all been 500 yen to unlock for all idols, rather than paying individually.

Catalog 2
This was a decent release, almost felt like a good sequel to the first catalog. The dress is nice but it's limited with accessory matching due to it's color. The training outfit is a nice bonus, although it's a bit annoying to pay to unlock something that already exists in the game.

Catalog 3
One of the first catalogs I disliked. The outfit is awful and just looks awkward, and the accessories for it are terrible. While it did introduce the puchimasus, the catalog was more repetitive than productive.

Catalog 4
A very interesting catalog, it contains one of the most daring and impressive dresses of the SP catalogs. It also introduced the Dramas which don't interest me much, but the thought and what they accomplish is interesting. What's nice too is that this catalog finished up all the SP songs allowing for new songs to be brought in from L4U.

Catalog 5
Second catalog I really didn't care for. The dress while being decent, for some reason doesn't match well with any accessories. Plus the first song brought over from L4U isn't that great. Honestly the catalog felt like it was just releasing the worst to get it out of the way.

Catalog 6
One of the best catalogs in memory. The new outfit, while very novelty-like in appearance, is actually quite nice. Plus the swimsuit outfit helped make this catalog feel like you got a lot more bang for your buck. While the accessories are very bland, the new song is fantastic. Plus this catalog introduced downloadable stage backgrounds. A very well rounded catalog overall.

Catalog 7
A very awkward catalog, but it was a decent following to catalog 6. The new song introduced was mediocre for all the hype generated around it for being new to the world of Im@s. The new stage backgrounds were quite nice. The outfit is pretty decent and works well, but the accessories are quite a weird mesh of things. The boots are absolutely amazing, one of the must have accessories. The school wear outfit is sorta meh considering anyone who pre-ordered the game got the code to download it.

Catalog 8
Third catalog I didn't really care for. Probably would have been the worst catalog of all time if it weren't for the song. The outfit is bland and awful stand-alone, it literally requires the other accessories, however you can make better outfits just using the accessories and matching them with other outfits.

Catalog 9
Fourth catalog I didn't really care for. The outfit and accessories are alright but pretty average in comparison to previous catalog outfits. Stage background is pretty bad, and the new song is pretty average.

Catalog 10
Most likely this URL will change come next month, but this is the fifth catalog I didn't really care for. The new song, second of the new songs made for SP turned out to be a slow song of disappointing proportions. The new outfit is just the wedding dress from L4U brought to the PSP. Which I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't the only content for this catalog. To make things even more disappointing, the palette swapped dress has awesome colors but would have been more interesting if it was a new dress entirely.

- - -

To me, it just looks like all the catalogs after the 10th are just going to be L4U carry-overs. Which isn't a problem to me, it's just been taking so long to get outfits. It's nice getting DLC, but it just feels like all SP players got were a bunch of songs and palette swaps.

Another update to the list of games that have caught my attention. Actually this might be the last update for a while considering the outlook for PSP games. For the next couple of months, all the PSP releases I've seen look pretty shitty. After this week, it's going to be a long wait before something decent comes out for the handheld.

LittleBigPlanet Portable
-Sadly the game I didn't have much hope for this month actually blew away the other November releases. I didn't want to pick this up because I was fearing it would be a crappy port of the PS3 version, but apparently it's so well done that it has received a lot of high marks. I'll definitely be picking this up sometime in the future, maybe in January. I want to finish up a few PSP titles I'm still working on and sell a few games before picking up something new.

// To update on pt. 3 of these entries:

Phantasy Star Portable 2
-The demo came out recently and it was amazing! It was like they took the first Phantasy Star Portable, and just improved everything that needed to be improved. Character customization is absolutely top-notch, controls and battles are more fluid, basically the whole game is looking promising. I haven't tried out the online multiplayer modes even though I have an access code to it, but I don't think I will since you don't have access to much in the demo. I really do hope this comes stateside, even if I have to wait till like Q3 of next year.

Persona 3 Portable
-Still not sold on this yet, even though it has a good chance of coming over stateside. Considering the drought of games coming up, it might be good filler to revisit the world of P3 considering the amount of time it takes to beat the game. Surprisingly, no demo on the JPN PSN, however you could download the title.

Pop'n Music Portable
-More information has come out regarding the title and so far so good. It has a release date in Japan for February 2010 so it's coming up at least. Konami put up an image on their website depicting the button layout for the game and pretty much 9 buttons is going to be impossible it seems. I'm hoping you can edit the layout of the buttons because it just may be too hard to adapt for veterans or newbies. I might end up just playing it on 7 buttons (or 5 buttons if it permits that style). They've listed a few songs on the site, and some of them seem very promising. I'm hoping the Karma song they have listed is the GF&DM version or the original by Bump of Chicken.

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble
-I played the JPN demo and was really disappointed. Overall, it seemed like fun, but the environments were bland and it was oddly quiet. Reading a review for the English version, the game seemed fairly short and most of the fun came from how silly the game presents itself. English reviews didn't favor the game to well, and a lot of problems I had with the demo still persist, so I might not pick this one up. Even though it was up there with Assassin's Creed Portable as probably one of the better games for this month.

// To update on pt. 2 of these entries:

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
-Very disappointed in how this played out. For a big name title like this to completely make a fool out of itself is ridiculous. I'll probably be picking this game up to play it since there are mixed verdicts on it. Some praise the game as a suitable PSP game, others condemn it for not being a clone of it's console counterpart. If the game is only 4-6 hours with really no replay value, I might be heavily disappointed as well.

Harvest Moon: Sugartown
-This game disappeared off the charts or the name got changed to the version listed to be released in Q1 of 2010. Still keeping an eye on this game since there's not a whole lot of info out, especially since the list of psp games for 2010 looks barren.

Duke Nukem Triology
-Game got pushed back to Q1 2010, assuming it's going to come out at all that is. Still keeping an eye on this game, but much like Harvest Moon, there's just not a lot of information out there then what already exists.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony
-I played the JPN demo that got released on the PSN. I wasn't that pleased with it despite some redeeming qualities in the game. The game looks good and feels nostalgic, but the whole beginning of the game is littered with fetch quests. The battle system has an auto function, which really removed all challenge from battles, and for some reason FMVs are still in 4:3 ratio format. I wouldn't mind so much if they had put something to cover over the black bars, but that's not the case. Overall it looks like a sloppy port.

I hate coffee.  That was the major block from keeping me from entering inside a Starbucks to begin with.  However I was looking for a place I could just sit back and relax for an hour without getting kicked out, so I sucked it up and gave them a try.  I've always stuck with the same couple of drinks because they were priced decently enough and seemed to stand out amongst the non-coffee items.  But that's not saying much since everything I've tried at Starbucks hasn't been that great flavor wise to begin with.  A lot of the things they serve taste terribly bland and It's incredibly sad there's no consistency in how a lot of items are prepared.  Plus the pricing on some items are insane, such as the tiny 6 dollar salads with barely anything in them.  However I didn't let that bother me that much because I really just come to Starbucks to sit in the corner and relax after I get off work.  I've always viewed buying drink or food there as an exchange to use their lobby.

I usually get a Venti Hot Chocolate which they sell for $2.80.  It's basically a rather slimy/oversaturated hot chocolate with some odd amount of whip cream on top.  I usually top it with Cinnamon just to give it some flavor since it's flavorless.  For being a hot chocolate, it doesn't even have a chocolate taste sadly.  I guess I get it because I like the price, and it's at least decently warmed.  The price was absolutely fine because I could pay with 3 bucks and tip 20 cents; an easy transaction without forcing them to give me a bunch of change.  However this week I found out that item increased by 30 fucking cents.  Granted that's only a 10-11% increase in price, but it's just the audacity of the increase that pisses me off.  Especially considering the "baristas" that work at my local Starbucks are such assholes.  There are only two people there who I appreciate for giving decent service, the rest are such pompous spoiled children that like to talk to me as if I were a stranger who managed to step foot into their social circle.  Now you might ask, why are you tipping them when service sucks?  Mostly out of hope that a single nice gesture, despite not being large, would gradually change their attitudes about working there and dealing with irate customers.

After learning about the price increase this week, I've been avoiding Starbucks thinking about if I want to even step foot in there again.  I wouldn't have mind the price increase so much if it was only 20 cents on what I usually get.  At least then it still would have been an even 3 bucks, but it's just that 10 cents more that kills it for me.  I just feel that extra charge is just sticking a bill to the customer for their gross negligence of their franchise rather than offsetting a cost.  Increasing prices is not going to save Starbucks from the disastrous steps they've been taking.  It'd be like saying to gun the engines faster on the Titanic while it was sinking; it's still not going to get the ship any closer to shore.   I've searched for articles regarding the price increase and I've read people's thoughts on the matter saying it will get them back on track, etc.  Yeah, a lot of the arguments make sense but here is how I view it:  Starbucks is only staying afloat out of convenience.  The people I see regularly at the local Starbucks aren't there because they need a fix.  I just see them because they needed a place to go.  Whether it be the woman reading the newspaper with her son over tea, the businessman on his laptop working the morning away, or friends wanting a place to sit down and chat.  It's incredibly rare that I hear about someone going because they must have some drink they're addicted to.

Talk to any regular customer and ask why they go there, and I think you'll find out it's so incredibly easy for any competing business to bring Starbucks to it's knees.  So much so I am surprised no business has stepped up to the plate and done this correctly.  McDonald's McCafe brand for instance could have been a strong competitor, however I think the major problem is their lobby.  Even with the new re-design, the lobby isn't meant to keep people there for an hour or more.  So even if the coffee is good, you don't feel compelled to sit down with a cup and read the paper.  I honestly think a coffee shop with a broad and simple menu, large enough and comfortable lobby, free wifi, great perks for regular customers, with excellent service, and a sleek store design could destroy Starbucks.  Problem is I'm not seeing anyone stepping up to the plate and covering all those angles because you would essentially have to start from scratch.  Juice it Up! would probably be an excellent franchise to modify as a competitor in California, especially since their menu has some excellent flavors.  If they simplified their menu down, organized it, and added more products in slim areas like hot drinks, non-dairy, and (ironically) juices, they'd have a strong menu.  Ditch the Jamba Juice themed store layout and try something futuristic, maybe heavily vector based graphics with a lot of varying black/white/blue hues.

I'm hoping this plan backfires on Starbucks and causes a lot of people to leave.  I'm getting sick of struggling franchises manipulating their products as a means to fix themselves.  It will be interesting to see if there is any fallout from this.  I have heard already from a couple of my friends that they're calling it quits and going to some of the other coffee shops around here because their drinks got jacked up 30 cents as well.  Plus I keep reading a lot of comments on the internet from other people deciding to call it quits due to their drinks being brought up in price.  It should be interesting if anything does result from this considering there hasn't been a lot of press regarding the price increase.  As for me, I just wanted to rant about this because I think it's not a nice thing they've done to their consumer base.  For me this is an excellent opportunity to go and try someplace else since I was so locked in that routine of going there before or after work.

So I read this article on Sankaku (watch out, site is NSFW)-
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/10/11/why-manga-doesnt-sell-overseas/
I find this an interesting read because I used to purchase Manga, but stopped a few years back.  I wanted to write up a little entry in response to this but not leave a comment on that article.

The last Manga I recall purchasing was Kamichama Karin vol.5, which was also amusingly where I stopped with that series.  It was being published by Tokyopop and it was made by my favorite JPN artist at the time, Koge Donbo.  What I really liked was the humor in the stories, and the artstyle was top-notch in comparison to some of the other titles on the manga aisle.  It felt like you were getting a lot of bang for your buck purchasing her works.  I felt Tokyopop really changed the manga scene a while back by reducing the prices and keeping them in Japanese format.  Yet they managed to screw themselves over by putting forth the idea that Americans are capable of making mangas, and they went on a campaign finding trashy style Americanized anime novels to mass produce.  Regardless, it was still 10 bucks a book which really was a pain in the butt to deal with.  I read manga in high school but not on a frequent basis, I'd usually end up just buying one novel a month because of the price.  What ended up happening was I'd purchase a manga, read through two chapters each night, then I'd bring it with me to school once I completed it (either to re-read sections, or study the art style).

Today, manga has no place in my life because of the price tag.  The medium is a bit lost amid everything else I can spend my time with, especially with how easy it is to find stuff on the internet.  However that's just me.  Why carry a manga in my pocket when I can bring around my PSP or iPod?  The reasons listed in that article aren't entirely on the ball with how things go here in the states.  Assuming a person couldn't access the internet to download manga and anime, look at how the medium is presented here in the first place.  Stores are very reluctant here to stock up on manga, the best you can find is usually an aisle dedicated to the craft.  Even then, that aisle is filled mainly with mainstream titles that have appeared on television, or just titles that publishers think will sell here.  For instance, you're not going to find a series like Kodomo no Jikan being published in the states simply because they want to play it way too safe.  There have been times I've combed through a manga aisle only to find nothing because shit all looks the same.

Even if you found something, you have to wait a couple months before you get the next translated volume anyways.  So you really have to either select from a series with a number of volumes already out, or just complete one you like over a lengthy time period.  Granted you could jump around and read a variety of series, but that just goes back to price again.  Why shell out so much money when you could use it a bit wiser?  You can usually get an anime DVD for 20 bucks in a store, or if you're lucky, less since some come in bundles.  In my case I'd rather go for the anime since you could rip it to your computer and put in on your iPod/PSP and watch it over and over again.  But even then, 20 bucks for a 4 episode DVD is pretty ridiculous.  Plus the anime DVD aisle is suffering from the same fate as the manga aisle, nothing but mainstream and very few interesting titles.

The only way to make manga thrive in the states would be to somehow lower the price, or give more incentive to purchase the product.  But even then, just the handling of anything coming from Japan to the states has forever been poorly handled.  So it's hard to find anything of quality since most of what we get is what companies assume we want: ninjas and more pirates.  Dubbing on animes are terrible, animes and mangas that are too explicit are getting censored, shit keeps getting changed in the process of bringing it over that it's no longer the correct product.  Right now the only people I can think of who probably are purchasing translated manga would be American Otakus, high schoolers with little income, and the occasional 4kids watcher who likes X anime and must own all of X anime's products.

Once again, another update to the ongoing list it seems (all of these are PSP releases).

Phantasy Star Portable 2
-I already know I WILL buy this game once it comes out in the states.  If Sega for some reason refuses to bring it over, I'll most likely import it.  Either way, I am getting this game somehow.  Actually I'm thinking of getting the demo once it comes out on the JPN PSN so I can check out the character customization.  The first PS portable was a great game but with a ton of problems.  Looking at what's been done this time around, it appears a lot of these problems are being corrected.  This game is arguably shaping up to be the best game released on the PSP to date.  The ability to create your own character, awesome graphics, fantastic boss battles, multiplayer ONLINE, being able to form parties with friends and chat with them on PSP; aside from the heavy hack-slash nature of the title, it wouldn't make sense not to get this game.

Persona 3 Portable
-The title alone is enough to get excited about, but so far I'm not sold on it yet.  So far there have been some major improvements looking at videos and screenshots, however I'm not liking what I'm seeing here and there.  Navigation around town and interacting with people is kinda MEH.  They've taken the Phantasy Star Portable approach by just taking screenshots instead of rendering areas for you to explore.  Which I wouldn't mind so much had they not slapped your main character onto the side of the screen for no reason.  Plus some scenes which were emphasized more through the animations in the PS2 version are getting shafted it appears.  New music for the female protagonist storyline sounds awful so far, especially the new battle music.  I probably will purchase this game if it comes over stateside, but I'm not really too excited about it considering I've played the PS2 version.

Pop'n Music Portable
-What's with all the P titled games?  Anywho, not a lot of information on this one yet other than it's another one of Konami's music games they refuse to bring over stateside.  So far it looks like a greatest-hits sort of game made portable.  I love that the songlist is rather large, like 80 songs or more, however I hope they are decent.  There looks to be a storymode as well which could be a pain in the ass for people like me who are planning on importing the game.  Especially if all the content is required to be unlocked in that.  This is definitely an odd move for the series considering it's supposed to be played on big-ass hand sized buttons, however logically it makes sense to put it on a portable medium.  Since the series gameplay wasn't designed to represent any real musical instrument at all.  I've always wanted to try this game out but didn't want to plug an expensive amount of money importing it, so this should be fun.  Maybe if we wait long enough, we'll see a PSP DDR Portable sometime =/  They'll make it for the gameboy and the iPod touch, yet not on the PSP.

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble
-The demo for this is actually on the JPN PSN; I should probably download it, but this is another title that has caught my eye.  It looks very similar to Yakuza on the PS2 so I'm hoping it's decent enough to play.  It's coming out next month stateside, so I'm looking to get a hold of it since Atlus is bringing it over.  Which means it might be over-the-top translated which could be good or bad seeing as how ridiculous this game plays out.  I think the most troublesome thought I'm having is that I want this to be a portable Yakuza, but it may end up not being like that.  That's really the only real thing drawing me into the game is that thin amount of hope.

To update on first list:

Let's Tap (Wii)
-This was a fun game but I've stopped playing it because
1) It's on the Wii. 
2) All the games are arcade style and lose their appeal over time.
3) No life bar on the rhythm game made it less challenging.

Pangya: Fantasy Golf (PSP)
-Got this and was pleasantly surprised. 

Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite (PSP)
-Got this and really haven't been that pleased with it.  Way too challenging, and I'm not having a lot of fun with it despite all the positive aspects of the game.

Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
-Got this and actually had a decent time with it.  Not the greatest PSP game of all time, but definitely keeping it in my collection.

Duke Nukem Triology (PSP)
-Shit got pushed back to Q1 of next year D:

Tekken 6 (PSP)
-Decided I'm not going to get this next month.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (PS2)
-Probably will get this game after I sell off a few PS2 games on ebay.  Most likely I'll just wait and see if the PSP port of the game is coming stateside.

Ever since I got my PSP 3000 this year I've been really happy with it.  It fits comfortably in my side pocket, the battery life lasts more than enough to get some gaming in on the go, and the games I have for it are amazing.  When the PSP Go was announced I was a little turned off to it due to the fact I just recently purchased the 3000 model.  However reading into it I realized I made a safe purchase and that the Go wasn't even worth upgrading to.  I really don't mean to bag on Sony but I think the PSP Go is a nice piece of hardware, but it's just going to waste with how they've set up their solution to gamers.  Here are some thoughts and opinions I wanted to write down regarding the Go.

// Digital vs. Hardcopy
This seems like a no-brainer to me.  Because no plan is in place to allow UMD owners to swap or transfer their games to the PSP Go digitally, current PSP owners have no reason to move toward the digital change.  However, if PSP games sold in store came with both the UMD and a code to redeem for a digital version, we might be moving in the right direction.  At that point, it wouldn't matter what PSP you owned, you could still play the game.  Also if you didn't like the game, you could just sell/trade in the UMD to get something else and not feel like you got cheated.  Of course it could be argued that a person might just buy the game, use the redeem code and sell the UMD or give it to a friend.  From a company stand point, I can understand being angry that the game won't sell as many copies if consumers are doing that.  Then again with the new digital downloads, what's stopping two-five people from sharing a PSN account anyways and paying only once?

// Buying digitally + returning for credit
Probably a really bad idea, but it covers complaints people could have about not being able to do anything with their digital copies.  Let's say you buy a 20 buck game off the network and didn't really enjoy it.  You have no other option than to delete the game since you can't return it or sell it to a friend.  What if you purchased a game digitally, you were offered a trade-in value for the game.  So let's say that 20 buck game had a trade-in value of 10 bucks, when you're done playing the game, you de-activate the game from your PSP, it gets deleted from your download list, and you get 10 bucks credit added to your account to spend on new titles.

// Price tag for $50
Reasons aside for why Sony marked their PSP Go at $250, I think it would have been wiser to sell it limited time for only $50 before jacking the price up.  That number is low enough to screw with the Nintendo DS sales and other portable devices, because I can't imagine those companies wanting to take a large hit as well just to discourage people from buying a PSP.  For those who pre-ordered for the $250 pricetag, maybe throw them $200 worth of downloads or something.  The thing is, the price is currently to expensive and a game of logistics.  Why buy the Go when the 3000 model is capable of doing what it does + more?  Why shell out money for a device that costs almost the price of a Wii and PS3?  For someone like me, I have no reason to get the Go since none of the games I play on my PSP are available on the PSN network.  I'm sorry, but the whole reason I bought a PSP was to finally play a more affordable version of Idolm@ster.  

It sounds crazy to suggest selling the Go for that low, and it's obviously not going to bring in money for Sony selling the device for that cheap.  However imagine all the people who are going to go out and purchase it due to that price tag.  I bet sales of games and accessories for the handheld would dramatically increase as a result by selling it that cheap.  It'd probably be more comforting to game designers knowing they're designing for a platform a lot of people own that's for sure.  Understandably consumers would get pissed off and sales would decline once the price goes up, but in that short period the device would become incredibly accessible.

// PSP Communications Network
I'm actually curious as to why the PSP doesn't have some sort of gamers network established.  The PSP has the ability to connect to the internet, so what's stopping Sony from making some sort of communications program available other than Skype present on the device?  Even if it was just a basic core texting service, being able to send messages back and forth at a leisurely pace would be amazing.  Skype is nice if you want to chat live, but in certain settings, it's just not convenient.  Imagine a high school setting where you jump from class to class; it's not possible to keep your PSP on with WiFi going all day since the battery will die fast.  However, it would be much different if you could turn your PSP on and send messages over an internet connection in short bursts.  Yes, technically the PSP could connect over the internet and use a WAP enabled e-mail address that wouldn't strain the device.  And yes, technically creating user profiles could be considered ripping another page off the Xbox.  However, with a portable device that has an extensive library of multiplayer games, it seems illogical for the handheld to not have some form of way to communicate with gamers you meet up with. 

This technology could even be advanced further in quite a scary way if you think about it.  Imagine if stores like Gamestop or Starbucks setup kiosks where you could connect your PSP to them.  Using your PSP you could transfer over your profile to the kiosk and basically leave your name there telling other people that not only were you there, but what sort of games you play.  Maybe have a way to plug in the region code number off the box without having to type it out or risk people putting inappropriate messages there.  Other PSP users then could walk in, see your name, see that you play a multiplayer game they own too (like Monster Hunter or Phantasy Star), then send a message your way asking you to meet up at the store to get some games in.  Stores could benefit from the kiosks too by adding their own wallpapers, themes, even downloadable games/menus, etc.  Heck, even Konami could integrate the kiosk technology into their Dance Dance Revolution cabinets, sell a DDR portable game, and create a new way to revive the DDR scene.  To seal the deal, if PSP accessible WiFi was present on these, it would have the whole communications network come full circle in it's ease to connect with others on the go.

- - -

These are just my thoughts on the matter.  Always arguable of course.

So this is an update to the list I made earlier.  Mostly just keeping an eye on PSP games right now.  Next couple of months are sadly a bit dry for the system (actually all systems look pretty much in a dry spell) although that gives me some time to catch up on other PSP titles I've been working through:

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines (PSP)
-This game caught my eye but I'm not 100% sold on it yet.  I'm not that impressed with how the graphics are being handled, especially after seeing what the PSP is capable of after playing games like Monster Hunter and Dissidia.  However, there aren't a lot of screenshots to shift through so it's not possible to get a good glimpse of the game.  It could actually play well and look beautiful enough to stay in par with it's Xbox/PS3 counterpart.  It's not coming out till mid-November though so something new could come up in the next two months.

Harvest Moon: Sugartown (PSP)
-I've played a Harvest Moon game before a long while back on the GBA but didn't really enjoy it.  The farming was pretty interesting, but everything else felt bland from the characters, the world, story, etc.  It just felt like work without any sort of reward or motivation to keep going.  Because of that experience I've avoided the series and haven't really kept tabs on it.  Out of curosity, I looked up this title since it's coming out sometime before the end of the year, and was actually quite surprised with what I saw.  I really liked the art style and characters, and some of the gameplay looked entertaining.  A poor dub would really kill a game like this though; here's hoping they do something a la Klonoa with the voices.  I'm still looking for my Radiata Stories clone on the PSP; here's hoping this could be as close as I can get.

Duke Nukem Triology (PSP)
-Still keeping an eye on this game although information is still pretty slim on the triology.  From what it looks like, Critical Mass (the first in the triology) isn't coming out in September as it was stated everywhere.  Now some places are saying December or just Q4 for when it's supposed to show up.  So who knows when it'll come out assuming it even does this year.  This could be good or bad for the series considering how dormant Duke Nukem has been for years.  If the game is fine-tuned and turns out to deliver a really wonderful experience, then the extra wait is worth it and the series could step forward again.  If it turns out to be exactly what has been shown in screenshots, then it's going to turn away an audience that has sat waiting patiently with false hope.  They might as well at that point just port the 3D version to the PSP and call it quits.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP)
-This remake simply looks classic all over with it's 90s anime style look and 2D art.  Screenshots look promising so far but the battle system definitely looks questionable.  Can't really say much since there are so many factors involved like the dubbing and the gameplay that I don't have a clear picture yet.  If it does play like the original then I could easily look at the original to get an idea of what this is.  So far so good, but it's quite a wait since it comes out in December.

I could make this review really concise by just saying Monster Hunter is popular in Japan; end of story.  Though that doesn't explain a thing about what I experienced so I'll have to elaborate that statement.  After spending a full week pounding through this game, all I can think about is how this game doesn't fit in to well here in the states.  Unfortunately I don't know where to start in explaining my argument so I'll just start from the basics.  I was originally looking for this game out in the stores back when Pangya PSP came out but couldn't find it.  So I ended up ordering it alongside Pangya off the internet.  I played both games when I got them but ended up spending more time with Pangya because it trapped me with it's addictive nature.  It feels very similar to what I did when I got Yakuza 2, I put it aside for a while because I was more occupied with Dance Dance Revolution X but ended up loving the game once I got more into it.  I was hoping maybe after a while when I came back to Monster Hunter, and spent some more time with it, I'd probably end up with another classic like I did Yakuza 2.  Unfortunately I can't really say the same.

My first impressions of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (MHFU) were pretty good, although puzzling.  The game is incredibly beautiful with some decent environments that feel almost realistic and authentic.  When you're traveling through these places, you'll see every little detail, and no place just looks slapped together or randomly generated.  They look crafted and handbuilt with care, even though most areas are purposely made wide and large to allow for large creature battles.  Load times are amazing since you can do a data install, allowing you to traverse from place to place on the map without having to wait long.  Same when you start up quests, it feels almost instantanious that you're out on the field ready to go.  This obviously makes good use of the battery since I found with the data install on it was really only killing 8% of the battery every hour of play.  So from the start, MHFU has the makings of a good portable game with great graphics, small loading times, and low battery usage.  Even though the game is a repackaged improvement of previous installments, it's full of a bunch of snags that really just killed the experience for me.

To start, MHFU has no storyline you follow other than the obligatory intro story to explain who you are, what you're doing, and why you're doing it.  After that you just do quests, kill things, and gather items.  That pretty much sums up the main gameplay, all you do is hunt and gather really so it does become a bit repeatitive.  The game I feel is very much like a portable MMO, with no real goal, you just play it for fun or play it multiplayer with friends.  Which is probably the main problem or benefit of this game is that it's designed to be played with multiple people.  Yeah it can be played single player, but the experience if anything is like filler; just something to occupy your time while waiting for a new game.  The only point to play the game alone is to get better armor and weapons, get access to new areas, etc. which is alright but not very rewarding.  I'm not saying the game is bad, it is pretty enjoyable and challenging to play, I just feel like this game caters toward a certain demographic.



In Japan this game makes sense, or in any area with a high density of people who don't often get to scale mountains or run through swamps while in the city.  You're bound to find someone who plays because the conditions are more ripe to run into someone who has a copy of the game.  However when you're like me in a small town where no one touches their PSP, it's more of a challenge to find another player than it is to kill your first Khezu in the game.  It would have been nice if alongside ad-hoc, online infrastructure could have been used, but that won't happen because that service is offered currently only in Japan, via a PS3 PSN network add on.  So if you have a PS3 and are willing to get a Japan PSN account, you'll definitely find more players but that just gives more reason as to why this game is popular in Japan.  The opportunity to connect with more players just hasn't arrived statewide, so it's a much more lonely experience than the game pans out to be based on it's box description "You're Never Alone."

I should probably mention the controls since they're a mess to get used to.  Analog stick for movement much like Phantasy Star portable, which I gripe about because I wish I could swap that with the d-pad to handle camera work instead.  All the buttons do a variety of things and sometimes you're pressing multiple buttons just to perform an action, so the controls really become a test of memorization.  The controls aren't bad, they're just hard to get used to at first, especially while performing make-or-break gameplay decisions.  The one thing that has become tiring to deal with are the animations to everything.  Whether you're drinking a potion, eating an item, pulling your weapon out, etc. there is always an animation associated with it.  Your character wastes so much time doing these stupid animations that it can really screw you over in a tight spot.  I don't see why the character for instance can't just eat a well-done steak and throw the bone away.  Instead there's these added on animations where the character will pat his stomach and the game announces your stamina increases.  In the middle of a battle this is terrible, especially if you're trying to heal.  It forces you to run away from the action just to take care of some basics to survive.  Which would be okay but even when you run off, smaller monsters can follow you and intrupt this.  It would have been more handy in my opinion if there were some elevated areas where you couldn't be touched, but that could have make things too easy by allowing you to sit up there and shoot at things.

I can continue on with the negatives, like the poorly put together menu, the bizarre aztec looking font that seems out of place, etc.  Or even with what could have helped the game like a story mode, more complex environments to navigate etc. but there's not much point.  MHFU is still a pretty good game despite a lot of things that could turn people away.  You're able to customize your own character to a degree, and the characters and monsters come across pretty realistic in their personalities.  The soundtrack is pretty good, especially since you don't have to listen to some theme play while traveling through the jungle or snow really adds to the atmosphere.  Although it doesn't offer much beyond the few tunes which you'll probably find yourself humming here and there after you play a session of the game.  The game is essentially endless, with tons of quests to do and places to go, so it makes a decent time killer while on travel or when you're out and about.  The difficulty might be cranked up a bit too high, and with it's almost do-what-you want attitude, it's easy to get puzzled on the whole point of the game.  However with what the game offers, it's worth it to give it a try.

// Overall review in a nutshell:

Gameplay - 3
Music - 3
Replay - 4
Graphics - 4
Difficulty - 5

// Overall Score - 19 - A Game
(Highest score possible is 25 with AAA score)

I'm both angry and happy with Pangya golf, and it's funny to see how consumed I've been with this game for the past several weeks.  At times it's been so annoyingly challenging, yet so rewarding at the same time that I've just been at a lost for words.  Now let me say that I really didn't think I'd be that interested in this game in the first place.  I'm not a big fan of golf, plus I haven't really played golf to an extent other than mini-golf.  I have played some videogame golf, like the minigame in Yakuza 2 where you drive the ball, plus whatever that experience was that I had with Neo Turf Masters on SNK Arcade Classics.  Despite all these obstacles, Pangya did a nice job of keeping me interested as well as introduce basic golf mechanics.  Which I think should be commendable in a game which takes a classic, often unappealing sport but keeps it fresh and interesting for a new crowd.

Now the one thing I love about the game is how addicting it is.  There are 16 characters to unlock and a ton of outfits and accessories for each character.  Along with clubs, items, and rare items you can only get randomly through the Papel Shop, you're going to be playing a lot just to get the money required to unlock stuff.  I love games that reward you like this because it encourages you to try and get better at the game to earn more money, as well as keep you playing.  While the game is mostly a one player experience, it doesn't fall short on that end.  There aren't a lot of modes, which is okay since the existing modes are solid, but some creativity would have been nice.  I would have loved to have seen some sort of mode where you just drived balls to see how far you could shoot them, or hit moving targets.  There is a multiplayer mode but it is ad-hoc tournament, meaning you need people around you locally.  Also it's tournament fashion meaning you can't see what your opponent looks like, you'll just see where they land their ball.  For single player, you have License modes which offer a ton of challenges you must play to unlock different tournaments.  Then there are those tournaments you can play which are very worth unlocking and playing due to the rewards that get handed out in them.   There's also a very lengthy Story mode which will take you probably 20-30 hours to get through alone.

Story mode is where you unlock all the characters, so you're sort of forced to play through that just to get them.  While it's a pain in the butt to work through, the plot is entertaining enough to balance things out.  The story is told in a very linear fashion and the game requires you to play from one character to the next, which can be a pain if you're trying to unlock a character specifically.  It also becomes questionable considering some character paths in episode 2 don't really connect to others, and it leaves you wondering why you couldn't play that episode out of order.  If you've played DDR X's story mode, then Pangya's story mode should feel awfully similiar.  Most of the episodes just involve you meeting a character an challenging them every chapter.  I was really hoping for something other than this but very rarely would the game branch out and be clever.  Since episode 1 for each character were mainly to introduce who the characters were, I think it would have been more effective to have those episode chapters be score missions or something else where you just played Pangya as you went.  As opposed to just all the random versus matches you have to end up doing.  Another thing that's often annoying are the CPU characters and how they play.  Sometimes they'll do rather poorly, either getting bogeys or making bad moves allowing you to get some easy wins.  Other times they're very malicious shooting eagles or making expert moves with their plays that screw you over or force you to constantly replay a match.  I really wish there had been some option to control CPU difficulty to fix this problem.

One thing that's very noticable while playing the game is the music.  Now while the music itself isn't that spectacular, it's not so terrible that you want to turn it off or lower it.  The opening themesong is really nice, albeit you'll probably just want to hear it on occassion as opposed to each time you turn on the game.  What I do appreciate is that Tomy left the Korean lyrics in the song as opposed to just putting an instrumental track in it's place.  Considering it's common place with Namco and how they remove the lyrics in all their Tales of intros, I was sort of expecting the same done here with this Korean port.  Actually looking through the game and comparing it to the Korean version, almost everything was pretty much left alone.  All you really see is the translation, which is another interesting point.  The translation was well done and the dialogue was entertaining, but there were several noticable gramatical errors like words missing, or some sentences repeating words.



The graphics are quite a mixed bag across the board.  The menu interface is so beautifully done and organized, it works amazingly well.  A lot of the character models look nice in the game and come across very exceptional for the system.  However some menus look pretty slapped together and some character models just look too plain.  There are also a bunch of graphic bugs and glitches that spoil the experience a bit.  The rendered fields often flicker or the camera clips through the ground or wall, breaking the fantasy look and feel and reinforcing the matter that this is just a game.  Which is kind of sad considering how nice some of the golf fields look.    While they might not be the most beautifully crafted areas seen in a PSP game, they still have their own bright and unique charm that they feel very alive.  There is also a large variety of them that half the time you play, you'll feel like you're golfing on new turf which is nice.  Camera control was quite nice as well considering it allowed you to pan the golf course, although it would have been more appealing to me if you could walk your character across the field.  Maybe let them sit on the benches, swim in the water, etc.

The manual that came with this game was a disappointment.  It was a mere 3-4 pages of basic information looped over again in different languages.  Understandably the tutorials in the game showed you how to play, but it would have been nice to have more information about the techniques and what they did rather than just how to execute them.  Maybe even some character bios or explaining the clubs a bit, but I can see why it was left so short.  This sort of game is a gamble so I imagine the manual was kept so short to reduce costs.  Speaking of techniques, there weren't really a lot of them, so it was a bit dissappointing that you couldn't perform some crazy shots.  I guess it is to keep it as close to golf as possible, but it would have been nice to have seen the opportunity taken here to really expand the creativity.  Like taking turns for instance in versus matches, that really bothered me because I couldn't skip watching what my opponent did.  Sure it's nice to see what the opponent looks like or what they did, but if I really needed to see where they landed, I could just check on my turn.  Plus I really didn't learn anything from watching them other than what not to do on occassions.

One last grievance I have involves how constantly the game checks the UMD.  I find an hour session kills 25% of the battery on my PSP-3000, which isn't that great be honest.  While you can play this game on the road, it's probably only best in quick bursts or for a short session.  If you sit around for two hours playing this game, you'll lose half your battery life, which could suck if you're on a long road trip, etc.  If you're hooked up to power you're probably fine, but I'd hate to imagine what would happen if someone sat down playing dress up with the characters for an hour with no AC power.  Considering it searches the UMD each time you slap on a different piece of clothing, that'd be quite an excessive drain than usual.  I also found for some reason, most likely as a result of this constant checking, the game can sometimes twitch and do odd things as well.  For instance, if I jerked my PSP too suddenly while it was searching the UMD, the game would pull up the home menu and stop the music in the game.

While Pangya probably isn't the best game I've played, it does a good job at what it does and was worth picking up.  There's a lot to do and a lot to unlock, it's definitely a game I can see myself playing for a long time.

// Overall review in a nutshell:

Gameplay - 4
Music - 3
Replay - 5
Graphics - 3
Difficulty - 5

// Overall Score - 20 - A Game
(Highest score possible is 25 with AAA score)

The music game genre is one which interests me a lot.  Actually something I could type up or put a damn good video together for which I'd love to do.  There are a ton of games I would love to play in this genre but some would require some time and money to get it going, so it's not worth it.  So I've gotten a chance to get completely caught up on all the music games that were announced or presented at E3.  Quite frankly, not really excited for the new stuff coming out.  Even though some things look pretty awesome I'm not really that impressed with what was shown.

DJ HERO
I've been put off with both Guitar Hero and DJ Hero because essentially they are clones of a much more refined experience Konami introduced in the late 90s.  Considering Konami still releases GuitarFreaks and Beatmania in Japan, the Hero series seems more of bold step to market the niche series here in the states.  I honestly feel the Guitar Hero series got lucky with all the hype it received thanks to every media outlet jumping on it once a couple bands started pluging how cool it was.  Regardless, I think I'm more dissappointed Konami just rolled over and died in response to these games rather than try and fight back.  Now Konami did release Beatmania a couple years back in the states, but it was such a half-ass release with a poor song selection that it didn't draw the amount of attention it should have.  I'm curious to why they didn't release GuitarFreaks & Drummania, but instead released Rock Revolution which was just a watered down Rock Band clone.

Which I guess leads to DJ Hero.  I've looked at the demos, the controls, and all the explainations for the game.  I have to admit, it's pretty clever and complex for what they've done.  It really looks like they tried to create a new experience rather than clone Beatmania.  Although I'm not 100% sold on the concept.  There looks to be a lot of emphasis on the freedom of creating the track, but I wonder how much of it requires you to follow the specific path they've drawn out.  If it's like the other Hero games, most likely when it gets released there will be a demo set up at the local Best Buy, so I'll probably try it then.  I'm really curious as to what will happen if this game takes off.  I mean Rock Revolution is obviously a clone to ride on the success of Rock Band, so I have to wonder if Konami would try again with Beatmania to ride on the coattails of this game.

Dance Dance Revolution

This is the most confusing direction I've seen the series go in quite a while.  From the looks of it, this release will be the same across all platforms (considering all versions shown had the same songlist) rather than be just another release number like X2 or Universe 4, etc.  I'm curious to how the final songlist will look because that will make or break the game.  From what was on show at E3, nothing looked that great to be terribly honest.  I guess the simple title is what makes this so confusing.  Is it an attempt to streamline the series much in the way Tiger Wood's golf game is streamlined across all platforms as one object with different controls?  Or the call to the simple title is another attempt to just restart/revive with a simplistic start?  I just don't know, but so far nothing looks good.

The PS2 title looks like it could easily be called X2.  It just looked like a slightly improved version of X but with more cartoony graphics rather than the psuedo-gansta feel X tried to go for last year.  Even though the interface wasn't so great graphics wise, the song selection and character selection was awesome last year, which made X arguably much better than some of the previous installments in my opinion.  So far no new characters or outfits have been shown or announced, nor any new stages, which means all that's new right now is the music.  From what's been shown of the 9 songs, only Taking it to the Sky by U1 was the only interesting piece to me.  Ice Ice Baby should have been in X to compliment U Can't Touch This, and the other songs just look added to capture the general audience.  Too much rehashing going on, from where things are at, I won't bother picking up a copy of this game.

POP'N MUSIC

AKA this is not Pop'n music.  Check the screenshots, this isn't Pop'n music, it's like a DJ game or something now.  Now, Beatmania, Rock Revolution, and Beat'n Groovy are all games that showcase what happens when you break to far away from or water down an experience that could have had the potential.  These were released by Konami in the states, but here with Pop'n music, the core appearance and gameplay of the original game released in Japan gets crushed and replaced with unexplainable changes.  I've always wanted to play this series, but this looks watered down compared to how the arcade and PS2 versions looked in Japan.  Originally it was meant to be a music game to play on dates, and it's not supposed to represent any instrument in the slightest.  Now it looks like some sort of family fun casual party game where you DJ the music.  I can understand it going on the Wii since the cute bubbly graphics compliment something like the Wii, but the controller is going to be a hard sell, it's 9 hand-sized buttons.  Once again, it will probably come down to music, but if this if full of licenses without including some known songs that either jumped onto DDR or are just popular in the series in general, then I don't know how this will work.  Are the changes a result of the poor reviews received from Beat'n Groovy?

I just don't know, but these are just my opinions on these upcoming games, all of which I think are supposed to come out this year.

Here are some games I've been keeping tabs on:

Let's Tap (Wii)
-LETS TAP, LETS TAP!  CHOOSE YOUR TAPPING GAME!  LETS TAP, LETS TAP!  CHOOSE YOUR TAPPING GAME!  Even though I hate the Wii because all the games for it just gimmick the hell out of the controls, I'm willing to make room for this gem.  Despite it being another notch in the minigame belt, I love the innovative use of the controller here to pick up vibrations to input commands.  The music mini-game looks alright, the stacking game looks good, the running game looks decent, and that's enough for me to pick this thing up.  Might not be the best game on the planet, but it looks like a staple fun game for the Wii.

Pangya: Fantasy Golf (PSP)
-This actually looks fairly good for being a golf game.  The artstyle used in the game (as well as the music) both look and sound good from what I've seen.  It definitely looks casual and just feels like a game to take on the go and play in small bursts.  I'm willing to give this a shot assuming a lot of content doesn't get altered or removed in the translation.  I've never really played golf before, but this seems like a decent entry as opposed to picking up say Tiger Woods golf or a generic golf Wii game.

Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite (PSP)
-I've never played Monster Hunter, but I've heard of it, but I'm not really chomping at the bit for this.  From what I gather, this is the pinnicle entry that is just loaded with a ton of weapons, armor, monsters, maps, etc.  Graphics definitely look good, gameplay is a little questionable.  If all the monsters fight the same and not a lot of strategy is involved, this could get old quick and just feel like filler while waiting for another game to arrive.

Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
-I'd have to be an idiot to pass this up because it's basically a fighting game mixed with Zone of the Enders style combat from what I've heard.  Both of those alone scream this belongs in my collection, so I'll definitely be picking it up.  Unfortunately the wait has been unbearable, and having to wait till late August is putting too much of a block.  At this point there's nothing new to learn about the game.  All that's left is just having to wait for this thing to pop out and put PSP sales through the roof.

Duke Nukem Triology (PSP)
-I've been anticipating a new Duke Nukem game for a long while so it's awesome to see it's in the works.  From what I've seen, nothing to exciting yet, but I would assume it's still being worked on.  Environments looked nice but gameplay looked a bit clunky.  I'm really hoping it stays true to it's roots with progressive levels but word is that it could be sandbox or whatever.  There's still no official date, but supposedly some point this year one of the three titles will show up on PSP and DS.  I'm hoping this turns out alright.

Tekken 6 (PSP)
-Latest Tekken I've played was Tekken 4 I think, and that was terrible so I stuck with Tekken Tag.  So I haven't played an entry in the Tekken series for a while so this might be a good start to just catch up here and see how it is.  This is looking fairly good character selection wise, as well as just the presentation of everything else.  It'll probably be worth picking up but I'll have to see once an official date is set.  If it were to magically show up at the arcade, I could get a preview like I did Blazblue, but only time will tell.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (PS2)
-I've been enjoying the first Mana Khemia a lot, it should be interesting to see what this one is like.  Looking at screenshots and videos, there are a lot of changes that have been made, not all of them for the better though aesthetically speaking.  I need to wait a bit to hear some of the voice acting as well as get more information in general to see if gameplay has been improved.  This is the only PS2 game that looks interesting so far this year, it would be interesting to see if it can dethrone Persona 4.  Considering that game is often referred to as the last greatest PS2 game to be released for the system.

I've been playing Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) for years, and this November marks at least my 7th year of being interested in this series.  I started back on a DDR 4th mix cabinet and later got my own metal pad and went through stepmania and the PS2 releases.  While lately I haven't been playing as intensely as I have in years previous, I still make time each month to get a couple rounds in at the arcade or at home.  While I have been a fan of the series for a while, my interest is starting to fade and I'm considering calling it quits toward the end of this year.  Unless this year's PS2 release keeps the series alive or a PSP version gets released.  So because geocities is shutting down, I want to copy and paste together my reviews for all the versions I've played and keep them here for storage purposes.  I wish I had one for Konamix and DDR X but I never got around to writing them up and probably won't.  Looking at them, they're not as fluid as I'd like but that's because it was a different format.

DDR MAX

Information:
Released on October 29, 2002, DDR Max was the first DDR game available for the PS2 system. It introduced Freeze arrows, the groove radar, Oni mode, and is the only DDR game in America that doesn't have dancing background characters as an available option.

My Opinion:
This is probably the best DDR game I own in my collection. The song list really takes me back to the earlier days of DDR when it used to be fun to play and where it wasn't all about challenging songs or who had the highest score.  Standard DDR gameplay. Gameplay is still the same as always, although despite the introduction of Oni, there really isn't much beyond main gameplay to be excited about. Which is perfectly fine, however if something else was included such as solo gameplay or endless mode, it would have made gameplay perfect.  Once you unlock everything, the songlist is a total of 71 songs. I really love a lot of the music included on this version mainly because it contains a lot of classic songs I've played either in the arcade or songs I'm just familiar with from previous releases. My favorite song on this version is Midnite Blaze and I'm glad it made it on here from the DDR PC release. With the exception of a few songs, this mix is completely different from the arcade release which can be disappointing because there were some good songs on there that still haven't been included into a USA mix.  Lots of replay value! Unlocking everything takes plenty of time and encourages this. Even once you have everything unlocked, the songlist is still really good where it's fun to replay songs over and over again without getting bored or wanting to switch over to another mix.  I'm not a big fan of the way DDR Max looks. The color scheme is supposed to match with the fire motif present throughout the game, but it's way too bright and not really anything to be impressed about. While the layout incorporates ideas introduced in DDR 5th mix Japan, it's still not refined enough as it later came to be in future releases. So in comparison, it looks really terrible, however the ease of the interface is what redeems it.  While there are several challenging songs, the songs are fairly balanced where you won't be pulling the hair out of your head because you can't pass a song. The difficulty of the game comes mostly from having to learn how to play with your feet rather than your hands.

Gameplay - 4
Music - 5
Replay - 5
Graphics - 3
Difficulty - 4

// Overall Score - 21 - AA Game


DDR MAX 2

Information:
Released on September 23, 2003, DDR Max 2 was the second DDR game available for the PS2 system. It introduced Beginner mode, endless mode, featured music videos, and brought back nonstop courses and dancing characters.

My Opinion:
I remember playing the arcade version of Max 2 back when I used to work at the bowling alley. I didn't like it at first because the songlist and features were a huge jump from the 4th mix machine I was used to, but after playing it over and over again I really came to enjoy a lot of aspects of the game. DDR Max 2 for the PS2 sort of captures those memories but doesn't do as good as a job as I would hope.  Standard DDR gameplay again. It's a shame Oni mode was replaced with Nonstop mode because I remember the challenge the Oni courses brought in the arcade release. It seems weird to me that they introduced Oni Mode in the previous DDR release then got rid of it in the next release. Beginner mode is interesting since it features two characters that got introduced in the arcade BG movies. Although it puts me off that you can't select them as a BG dancing character. Speaking of which, they cell shaded the characters which made them look awful, and there's really no point to playing with them as they turn off on certain songs. I don't understand why they were included as the Max2 theme was designed without them being included. They appear crowded on the screen and don't blend well with the BG videos. While it's nice to have Endless Mode, the songlist isn't great enough to the point where you'd want to play it.  This game features 69 songs, but repeats several from the previous release. Which is okay, but several of the repeats are terrible (Silent Hill and Secret Rendez-vous are two songs that I've had enough of seeing). While there are several really good new additions to this mix (such as Try 2 Luv. U and Days Go By), there are several really awful and bland additions as well (Forever Sunshine is an example of this). When I play this mix, I usually only play a handful of songs before switching over to another DDR game. What I find interesting about the song selection though is that there are several songs on this mix that I normally select in the arcade. For instance, Super Star is one song I like to play in the arcade due to the movement involved on the standard stepchart combined with the weird presentation that occurs with the song background.  Very little unfortunately. Several of the song selections are great but once you get through them, there isn't much left so you'll end up playing them again. Which is alright if you like to listen to the same song over and over, but when you have other DDR games in your collection, there's no point to just limiting yourself to what's on here. It's just like at the arcade; why limit yourself to a few songs when there are hundreds of others on the machine?  The graphics on this mix are much improved from the previous release. The whole theme gives the feeling of a dance club with the dark colors and a nighttime feel. Several of the songs add to this feeling which is a nice matching (Let's Groove and Spin the Disc for instance). Plus the danger gameplay warning adds to the feeling by implying you're being kicked out of the club for being a terrible dancer.  With Beginner mode, the game isn't that hard to play anymore, especially when they show you what to do on the screen. There are several challenging songs in the mix, but they're just remixes of previously challenging songs.

Gameplay - 3
Music - 3
Replay - 3
Graphics - 5
Difficulty - 3

// Overall Score - 17 - B Game

DDR EXTREME 2

Information:
Released on September 27, 2005, DDR Extreme 2 was the first PS2 DDR game that was not based off an arcade release. It was also the first PS2 DDR game to introduce a new unlocking system, first that offered online play, and also the BPM meter. It shares a similar interface with the Japanese PS2 DDR Str!ke release.

My Opinion:
This was the first DDR Game I purchased for the PS2. Seeing as I enjoy DDR and I had a PS2, it was odd that I didn't have a game in my collection. I decided to purchase this one first because I heard a lot of good praise for it, and for the most part, it is a fairly decent DDR game.  Gameplay for this game has changed slightly in comparison to previous releases. In previous releases, songs unlocked after playing X songs or after doing X in the game to unlock it. Extreme 2 unveiled the Dance Master Mode, which was basically a giant map filled with song missions. As you completed missions, you could move forward on the map, unlock things, etc. As you played, you earned points which could be used to purchase what you unlocked. Definitely an innovation over previous releases although it was troublesome at times.  This game has a total of 74 songs. A few have been repeated from previous games, and several were taken from the Xbox releases, but overall it has a nice selection of music to pick from. The song selection on this game is really what got me to purchase it. I would probably give it a 5 but the inclusion of a lot of really terrible songs and cuts turned me off. For instance, As the Rush Comes and Silence both are decent songs but they just faded them out toward the end. If you've never heard the full versions of the songs, it wouldn't bother you but since these songs have been played everywhere it's hard to let it go unnoticed.  Most of the replay value is now spent in playing for points to purchase items unlocked. I see two big things that add to replay value, the first being Dance Master Mode. The challenges can be really hard at times and you may find yourself replaying the missions over and over just to pass and move on. The second thing that adds to replay value are the character costumes. They cost a whopping 100,000 points each. Considering on average a song will give you 1,000 points each time you play it, and 30 costumes to unlock, you're going to have to play 3,000+ songs in game mode just to pay for them all.  The graphics for this game are a major improvement over the static images found in previous releases, however I have some problems with it. The overall look and feel of the game comes off like an exercise machine to me. It feels like I could walk into a gym and expect this title to be on a DDR setup in the corner and it wouldn't look out of place. The gameplay screen is more open and permits for the dancing characters, however they don't exactly work with the background movies, and at times, it looks better with them off. While there are several new characters to pick from, and several favorites that were included, once again, the beginner dancers which show you how to play aren't selectable. Going back to the costumes which are available for purchase, all they really are is just the same outfit in a different set of colors. For example, Princess Zukin, instead of being red, her unlockable outfit is Blue. I don't know why they even bothered, I think they should have just added more characters.  Most of the difficulty comes from the Dance Master Mode, but that's about it in terms of difficulty. Beginner mode is still here to keep things easy so there isn't much of a challenge for new players. There are some difficult songs on the mix, but most likely you've played them in the arcade already.

Gameplay - 4
Music - 4
Replay - 4
Graphics - 3
Difficulty - 3

// Overall Score - 18 - A Game

DDR SUPERNOVA

Information:
Released on September 26, 2006, DDR SuperNOVA (DDR SN) came about as the next PS2 release for DDR. While not boasting a lot of changes, the game features an all new songlist for the PS2, new background characters and dancers, and Battle Mode.

My Opinion:
After the Japanese release of DDR Extreme, the game just died. No new arcade releases came out since that mix, and the only new content was really being found in the xbox releases. The PS2 releases were playing catchup and introducing content found on old arcade releases along with terrible new songs meant to appease new fans to the series. DDR SN to me looked like an attempt to revive the series. However, DDR needs a lot of work to get back on track.  Of course gameplay is still pretty much the same and retains everything fans of the series are familiar with. The unlock system is similar to the last release (DDR Extreme 2) but improves greatly on the system making it more interesting. I played this release a lot with my family and I noticed that some of the beginner charts are watered down versions of the basic charts. It makes me wonder how much of a rush they were to put this out or if maybe that's what they were trying to do. Which is a re-occurring problem with this release wondering what was intentional or pure laziness in creation. My biggest complaint with gameplay is the select screen after style selection. You're offered five different modes for no reason. Tutorial makes sense, along with All Music, but the three difficulty selections in between are pointless. The game doesn't start you on that difficulty, all it does is arrange a handful of songs for the player that could fit the category. The only difference between one of these selections and All Music is that you have less music to pick from and you get the game over screen at the end. It seems to me it would have made more sense to combine all three and call it "Arcade Mode" and just label All Music as "Event Mode."  Unfortunately, the home version doesn't contain all the songs found on the arcade release. Which doesn't make a lot of sense since the American audience isn't playing catchup anymore with the console releases. My guess is it was done to keep content available for future releases which is understandable but a bit annoying to think about. However, I feel the selection is still pretty good. The game features 74 songs total once you have them all unlocked. Plus no more challenge chart only songs so you get some good use of space in the selections. What is interesting though is the inclusion of five "boss songs" which are the bright red songs on the song selection wheel. It's an unusually high number considering most of the previous releases had only two.  Following in DDR Extreme 2's footsteps, DDR SN's replay value is mostly geared in earning points in paying for stuff in the shop. Then after that it's about the same as it would be in previous releases. Battle Mode is an interesting addition but the announcer for it is intrusive and annoying. The mode isn't really balanced and doesn't take difficulty into consideration. Plus I found it's hard to get a two player game going on any of the Advanced modes so having it separated from the gameplay menu doesn't help.  A huge improvement over the last console release. The new dancing characters are unique improvements over their original character models. The backgrounds are pretty amazing as well, although it's a little disappointing that most of them are just recolored versions of one stage. The art style used is very sophisticated, pretty dark but very much appropriate since there's a lot of emphasis on being in outer space in the game.  All the difficulty in the game can pretty much be found in the Stellar Master Mode which is pretty difficult for unlocking content. The same can be said for the "boss songs" as well, especially Chaos which features stop and go step-chart action. Paired up with Battle Mode, the game gives several features to constantly keep challenging you.

Gameplay - 4
Music - 4
Replay - 3
Graphics - 5
Difficulty - 4

// Overall Score - 20 - A Game

DDR SUPERNOVA 2

Information:
Released on September 25, 2007, DDR SuperNOVA 2 (DDR SN2) was the most anticipated release in the DDR community after players saw what was on the arcade version. Naturally this release was to be an improvement over the previous installment however many fans of the series were disappointed with the release after they saw the content.

My Opinion:
I was looking forward to this release when it was announced much like everyone else interested in the DDR series. The arcade version was revealing a lot of content that the community was hoping to see in the console release. Everyone had their own hopes of what would be in it as well as what could be expected of it. Sadly while this was a decent release, the hype really tore this game apart.  Looking at DDRSN and DDRSN2, there's really no difference between the two titles. All that changed really were the songs, two new characters, the unlock system, and the graphics. If you're a fan of the series or new to DDR, the experience holds about average, but there was nothing really in this game that was worth noting. Too much stayed the same between the releases and sadly a lot of stuff in the arcade version was not present in the console version. For example, the secondary outfits, new characters Julio & Alice, tons of songs, tons of noteskins, the Zukin wars challenge, etc.  The most disappointing was that a lot of songs that were expected to be in this release were not. The most argued exclusion amongst the DDR community were the "planet" songs found in the arcade release. The default songlist contains a lot of songs geared toward attracting new people to the series which got a lot of negative opinions. A lot of those songs I didn't particularly care for either however there were a few good picks in there. Almost the rest of the unlocks in the game were songs that were leftover from DDRSN arcade, and a few that were new from the DDRSN2 arcade.  Like any other DDR game, there's a lot of replay value just in unlocking everything and then having fun with what you've unlocked. I tend to go from game to game when I play DDR so if you do have several DDR games already you'll find it adds some refreshing new content to what you have so it doesn't become repetitive.  I was disappointed that there were no new stages and a couple of the characters from the arcade were left out, however I do enjoy that Yuni was in this release. While you had to unlock the character, Yuni was a good addition to the game. The interface and graphics were still pretty nifty and had this futuristic feel to it, but it wasn't as impressive as I felt DDRSN was with it's dark style.  Oddly enough, only a couple songs had challenge charts, and one boss song was repeated from the last release, so there wasn't a lot of challenging songs in this release. There were some heavy hitting songs but nothing that caused a serious headache to get through. I felt it was pretty average in difficulty, and even if you were new to the series here I don't feel you'd be overburdened. I think that's actually a good way to describe this release, in that it was just mainly average.

Gameplay - 3
Music - 3
Replay - 3
Graphics - 4
Difficulty - 3

// Overall Score - 16 - B Game

- - -

Once again, just linking to youtube because they could be embedded haha, so thanks to those who need thanking.  I've really enjoyed the DDR series, but it just no longer is keeping up with the times.  I really think a lot could be done to save this series but as of now it's just being crushed by other music games.  It should be interesting to see where this series will go in the future.

I never really looked into the DJ MAX series due to the high resemblance it has to the Beatmania series.  Remove the turntable from Beatmania and there's not really a whole lot of difference between the two other than the platforms for which you can play them.  It's very similiar to the Pump it Up vs. DDR arguement, two different series with similar aspects in the same genre.  Much like how Guitar Freaks and Guitar Hero look the same, one did come before the other one even though one is more popular than the other.  Originally a PC game, this series jumped to the PSP and it's headed to the arcade in a different format, but the PSP version stays close to how it's played on the PC.  I decided to give this series a chance though much like I gave Pump it Up a chance when it came out in the states on the PS2.  I had some mix results, but overall it's a decent game, it's just put together in a really sloppy fashion.

Gameplay isn't much to talk about since it's your standard fare for a music game.  If you've ever played a music game before you can easily figure this game out.  In DJ MAX notes fall from the top of the screen and you catch them by pressing the appropriate buttons.  Green notes you have to hit to keep the music going, and long notes you have to holddown for a while.  You have several different modes to pick from, the basic being 4 buttons, then it progresses to 5 buttons, 6 buttons, and even 8 buttons.  When you begin playing, you have to create a DJ profile to keep track of scores and unlocks.  There's a leveling up system which uses a guage that fills as you play more songs, with unlocks at certain levels.  A lot of things are unlocked from the start, a majority of the rest requires you play to unlock them.


I think overall if you like music games, you will definitely enjoy DJ MAX Fever.  If you have a PSP and don't want to import the Korean versions, this is a very good way to get involved and try it out.  It's very flashy, and it has some pretty decent songs to pick from.  However there are a lot of problems I found with the game including bugs people have discovered while playing.  One of the major problems I have with Fever is the same I had with Pump it Up Exceed when it was released in the states.  The graphics don't feel coherent in the slightest and there's just too many different styles and directions of artwork.  Each video has a different style with the background animations that some appear more fresh, others feel like earlier tagged on versions.  Several things look cluttered as well both as a result of the art as well as just unnecessary things like disk accomplisments.  Comparison purposes, take a look at DJ MAX Classiquai and compare it to Fever and you'll see how ugly the game really looks with both it's organization and interface.  While the graphics aren't necessarily bad, the different art styles used don't flow together and aren't presented well.

Graphics aside, there are a lot of strange choices I felt were made in the game.  In Album mode there are a ton of songs listed that aren't even playable in the game.  To make it worse, you can listen to the song in Album mode, so the songs are on the UMD, just not playable.  This wouldn't be much of a concern to me if the songlist was much larger than it is.  Normally with a music game, the songs need to be licensed to play, so it can be understandable for a song to be on the disk and not playable (similiar to Butterfly existing on the PS1 DDR release, just not playable in the game).  It seems odd to me that you can listen to them in this mode, just not play with them in the game.  Other problems I have with the songlist is that some songs only have one difficulty or such a low level of difficulty that some songs become uninteresting to play due to lack of challenge.  Along the same lines, when you go to select a song, each one has two loading screens for some reason.  With Taekwonburi for instance, the first screen is a static image of the duck with Korean text dictating the song title, then it cuts to the second one which is in English and has animation.  There are mistakes and bugs all around as well.  In Collection, there is a section for unlocking pictures.  A majority of the pictures I've unlocked already have been mistitled, or the image says it's from a song, but it's labelled as part of another song.  Also one of the gears called the Ruby Spinal Gear causes the game to freeze up forcing you to restart it.

There are also some other really bizarre choices made.  The game manual included is almost useless as it won't even dictate what buttons to press to play or what certain things in the game will do.  You have to experiment to figure it out which also leads to another problem.  There's something in the game called auto-correct which as titled, automatically corrects a mistake.  So if for instance you were playing 4 buttons and you press the circle button when you were supposed to press the left arrow button, it will count it as correct.  When I was first trying to figure out the controls, this was confusing because I could hit any button and it would take it.  It is helpful though to a beginner, and exploitable if you don't want to twirl the analog stick for the rainbow colored notes.  At the same time, it just lowers the difficulty a bit making it not that hard to hit the notes.  Although the game does offer some difficulty and makes up for the auto-correct feature with missions which mostly require accuracy rather than correct button pressing.

Even though those complaints don't seem like much, having content not playable and a glitchy looking game can be quite dissappointing.  Plus it's a game that really likes to drain the battery from what I've experienced.  I notice an hour session on my PSP-3000 can kill a little over 40% of the battery sometimes.  It would have been nice to have an option to export song previews to the memory stick that way it doesn't have to constantly twirl the UMD.  Despite all this, the game does have a lot of positive aspects like good solid gameplay.  Also some neat options like ad-hoc play and the ability to export pictures unlocked in Collection for use as wallpapers on your PSP.  It's not a game you can sit around for hours playing, but it's not that terrible of a game either where it's not worth picking up.

// Overall review in a nutshell:

Gameplay - 4
Music - 3
Replay - 3
Graphics - 3
Difficulty - 4

// Overall Score - 17 - B Game
(Highest score possible is 25 with AAA score)

Edit: Thanks to the people who uploaded those videos.

I’ve read multiple times that if you don’t know Japanese, you shouldn’t play Idolm@ster because it‘s text heavy.  I do not agree with this statement after playing through Idolm@ster for the PSP.  I think anyone with a little dedication and desire to play can figure this out without having to speak the language.  Thanks to the PSP version, now anyone anywhere can affordably get a hold of the Idolm@ster experience and bring it with them wherever they go.  Although you can’t exactly walk into a store and buy yourself a copy, it’s not that hard to find it online from someplace like eBay or Play-Asia.  Because PSP games aren’t region protected you can pop the UMD in any PSP and it will play.  Which is a much better alternative than buying a Japanese Xbox just so you can play the game.

Before I continue please note:
I wanted to actually put something together that could help at least enough to the point where someone who was lost could look at and get an idea on what to do.  A lot of the things in the game don’t require an explanation, and I’m not going to explain things that you should experiment and find out on your own.  Also, I’d really love to make this a whole guide on how to play, but I don’t have the time to flesh it out to include every little detail.  I've spent way too much time on this already, hopefully more research will help you out.


What you need:
-Recommended PSP system 2000 or higher with firmware 5.05 or higher (If you can’t access the internet with your PSP to update your firmware, press the update firmware option below the UMD symbol since the game comes with a 5.05 update)
-Idolm@ster UMD (Perfect Sun, Missing Moon, or Wandering Star)
-Memory Stick Pro Duo to save data

Things that can help while playing but not necessary:
-Understanding of Katakana
-Notebook or paper to take notes
-Joining the website project-imas.com for extra help


SECTION 1 // Basic run-down of the Main Menu
Once the UMD loads, you’ll see several intro screens.  Press start or the circle button to skip these to reach the main menu.  Before you can access the menu, the game will load data off the stick.  Generally, press circle when OK is shown to reach the title screen; then press start to reach the main menu.  Here are your options from top to bottom:

::Story Produce
Raise one of three idols over the course of a year.  Story Produce mainly differs from Free Produce in that you have deadlines for ranking up.  Story Produce also includes a lot of content involving the rival competition 961 pro, which means there are different auditions like Rival Auditions/Ultimate Idol Competitions and storylines that you won’t find in Free Produce.
::Free Produce
Raise one of three idols over the course of a year.  In this mode, you have 52 weeks to reach your goal.  Much less demanding than Story Produce, in Free Produce you can focus more on what you want to do whether it be stylist appointments to unlock items, or just playing the mini-games.
::Office Mode
To use this mode, your WLAN switch must be on at all times.  Office Mode allows you to compete via ad-hoc in auditions with other people or you can go against the CPU.  You can also trade excess items you have with other people.
::Album
In this mode you can view any pictures or videos you take during TV appearances for your idol.
::E-Mail
Requires you have the mail address purchased from the 765 Shop.  As you play through the game, if you have that idol‘s address, you will receive e-mails from them which you can read in this mode.
::765 Shop
You can browse through the catalog of the online store and purchase new songs, outfits, etc. here.  Generally you will need a Japanese PSN account on your PSP to purchase these items although it’s possible to get them from other regions that have them in their store.
::Options
Allows you to change various parts of the game such as adjust volume, etc.


SECTION 2 // Story Produce
When you select Story Produce, a menu will pop up with 4 options.  Some of them will be grayed out if it is not possible to select the choice.  The first option is to continue producing an idol you started in this mode.  The second option is to produce a new idol that you are not currently producing.  The third option is to delete a saved idol data.  The fourth is to delete your producer data.  When you start the game, if you don’t have any producer data saved, you’ll be prompted to put in your name.  Use the L and R tabs to cycle through options, X to undo, circle to input the selected letter, and triangle to make a space in the name.  There is a menu of options to the right of the letters, the bottom two choices below the PSP button symbols are in order: randomize your name, and below it is to confirm your name.  Filling your name to the character limit will automatically place the cursor on the confirm choice.  Once you input your name, you’ll be prompted to confirm this really is the name you want to stick with.  Select the left option and press circle to confirm.

After putting in your name, you will eventually get to pick the idol to raise.  Keep in mind while the Xbox version let you produce any out of the 10, the PSP version only allows you to take your pick of the 3 featured on your version.  So make sure you do some research before you purchase; research the characters, listen to how they sound by searching for video clips, or even ask around and get opinions.  Or you can just purchase all 3 versions and save yourself the trouble of figuring it out.

*Note: Throughout this guide, the PSP version uses a “Promise” system.  Basically if you make any appointments or promise to do something, if you don’t do make do with the promise, you face penalties like lowered stats, etc.

HOW TO PLAY:
The game plays out on a day to day basis.  Each day is essentially one day of one week.  There is a rhythm to each day and as the day progresses, you make choices and selections to help your idol progress.

-Morning Routine:
// Your producer name and the number of weeks that have passed so far will be displayed
// The current time in the game will be displayed (usually says 9am)
// The number of weeks left till deadline to rank up, followed below by amount of fans required to rank up will be displayed.  Once you reach the amount of fans required, you must pass the Ultimate Idol to reach the next rank by the time the deadline is up.

-Getting ready for the day:
// Mail Check
If you don’t have any mail to check, this part will be skipped and you will be taken to the morning greeting.  If you do have mail, it shows up in your box.  To read any messages, press the circle button when on a selected message.  Almost all the messages request confirmation to do the event stated.  Press the circle button while reading a message to confirm.  These are the types of mails you will get:



:: Fan (ファン) - These e-mails help or mess with tension.  You can’t respond to them, but you can open and view them.  If your idol’s tension is really low, these can sometimes help bring it back up.  There are also some fan mails that lower tension a lot, so really just open these at your own risk.
:: Stylist (スタイリスト) - These help you in unlocking clothes and accessories.  When you confirm these e-mails, make sure to take note of everything in parenthesizes in the mail.  If you confirm an appointment with one, make sure to pick it when the option displays on the desk section of the schedule.
:: 961 Pro - These are for rival auditions and only show up in Story Mode.  When you confirm these e-mails, you must attend the next rival audition when it shows up on the Produce section of the schedule.  Rival auditions net you a lot of fans real easily, as well as grant specific items you can only obtain by going through these auditions.
:: Magazine Writer (雑誌記者) - These help increase your image level, but I think the increase doesn't take place until you win an audition.  When you confirm these e-mails, make sure to take note of everything in parenthesizes.  If you confirm an appointment with one, make sure to pick it when the option displays on the desk section of the schedule.

// Morning greeting with the idol
Your idol will greet you in the morning and you must respond back to her.  This is completely random, even selecting the same choices on responses in future greetings won’t always net the same result.  Just press or don’t press any of the options and hope for the best.  Depending on the response, your idol’s tension will increase, decrease, or stay the same.



// Request from the idol
Immediately after the greeting is finished, your idol may go into a conversation requesting something she wants you to select and do off the schedule.  This doesn’t happen all the time, but I’ll include this in case you’re wondering why you have to select another option.  You have two choices here, if you select the left option, you deny the request and your idol loses a little tension.  If you select the right option, you better make sure you complete the request that was asked, otherwise your idol’s tension meter will drop terribly the next week you meet.

// Idol Report with the president
After talking with your idol, the president of the company comes out to chat with you.  You’ll then be shown your Idol Report.  It displays all your idol’s stats and their current standings.  There are 9 stars on the bottom of this report; these are linked to auditions, and they light up once you complete the matching audition.  The three colored stars refer to the Master auditions, and the 6 blue stars refer to the Special auditions.



// Schedule
The schedule is essentially a menu that lists all the activities possible for the day of the week you are currently on.  The day is divided into 3 blocks, morning, daytime, and night, and all activities are given a block count.  What you do here is select items you want to put in the schedule by highlighting them with the d-pad and pressing circle to put them on the schedule.  Press X to backtrack and remove items.  There are two pages listing items you can put on the menu, Produce and Desk, press L and R to cycle between them.  If you see an arrow pointing at an item on the menu, that is usually the recommended thing to do for the day.  Here is a list of all the items that should show up:



-Produce:
::Rival Audition (3 blocks)
Only appears in story mode and only if you confirm the audition during mail check.  Generally it’s placed at the top of the menu.  It is highly recommended you select this and attend the audition if it is present on the menu, otherwise there will be penalties.  These work like a regular audition except you can’t pick the location, and you don’t talk to the judges before you go on stage.
::Ultimate Idol (3 blocks)
Only appears in story mode and only if you reach the amount of fans required to rank up.  Generally it’s placed at the top of the menu.  You can do this audition at any time as the deadline counts down, just make sure you get it done by the time the countdown hits zero.  Once you reach rank A, the option will show up but only select it when you’re ready to beat the game.  Works like a regular audition except there‘s a story and dialogue at the beginning instead of meeting with the judges, and you can‘t pick the location.
::Lesson (1 block)
Lessons increase idol stats (vocal, dance, visual); here you pick one of the available 6 lessons and do a more time restrictive version of it.  When you select a lesson, you need to confirm your choice, and after that, your idol will then give you two choices.  The left option is to do a self lesson, where you set a time to return to the game as opposed to manually doing the lesson.  The right option is to just go ahead and do the lesson manually.  Just select the right option with the circle button, leave the left option for later on when you’re more familiar with the game.  Lessons increase in difficulty depending on your idol rank.



::Hard Lesson (2 blocks)
Like regular lessons, the time limit to complete the lesson is longer though, and it gets progressively challenging as you progress in the mini-game.
::Promotion (2 blocks)
These are interesting because they are pretty much like visual novels.  What will happen is a menu of promotions will display and then you pick one to do.  You’ll then take part in a conversation with your idol where questions pop up that you have to answer.  I definitely recommend using a cheat guide for this to ensure you answer all the questions correctly, because a perfect communication here will net you 5 memories, as well as restore tension.  This is also the part of the game that has some controversy because some communications involve touching the girls.  In some cases, it’s just giving an idol a high five, wiping away tears, or even pointing out food on a girls cheek.  However because there isn’t a limitation to where you can touch, people tend to go for the boobs.
::Audition (3 blocks)
Even though this is the core of the game, they’re hard for me to explain, but once you do several of them you‘ll have your own interpretation.  When you select audition, it’s going to take the whole day.  You’re first offered 3 choices before the audition.  Press square to change your idol’s clothes and accessories, press triangle to change the song, or press circle to go straight to the audition.  You can change your idol’s outfit as much as you like, it even increases tension if you do change it, so definitely do that before you go off to an audition.  Don’t bother changing songs (see explanation in desk below) because you should really only do that once you’re prompted on the schedule.  If your producer rank is high enough, if you press circle you may be prompted to select whether you want to have your idol do the audition on her own or if you’ll do it manually.  After you leave the office, you’ll arrive at the select audition screen.  Use L and R to cycle through the categories, and use the d-pad and circle to make a selection.

Auditions have several indicators.  The color indicates the judge you'll need to appeal to the most (Red for Vocal, Yellow means Visual, etc.), and the crown number indicates how many idols can win that audition.  Special auditions can only be played once and will gray out after you compete in it.  When you select an audition, it’ll display a roster.  If you want to join that audition, press circle to put your name on the roster.  You’ll then see a scroll by of all the contestants in the audition you’re about to attend, and then you’ll see your idol being asked a question by a judge.  This is random much like the morning greeting and does the same thing (lowers or increases tension), just pick one and hope for the best.  You’ll then speak with your idol before she goes out on stage.  Just like the morning greeting, pick another answer and hope for the best.



Auditions are done in three segments.  Each segment has 9 blocks and a flashing light indicates what block you are currently on.  As the light flashes in a block, you must make an appeal to one of the three judges before the light stops blinking in the block.  If you time it correctly, pressing the appeal button as it lights up nets you a "just appeal" which gives you more points then normal.  Each segment you have to make 9 appeals to three judges.  Each judge has a star value that they hand out  for that segment (2 stars for the lowest, 3 for the middle, and 5 for the highest).  Your goal is to make enough appeals to each judge in a segment where you land as one of their top 3 for the segment in order to earn their stars.  If you land in 6th place for a judge, you get -1 stars as a penalty for not appealing enough to that judge.  Only way to describe it is to imagine three empty glasses.  As you make the appeals, you are basically pouring points into these glasses.  The glasses are checked at the end of the segment, and you’re ranked based on how many points you poured into them in comparison to others.  As you can guess, whoever is handing out 5 stars is usually the judge everyone is appealing to, so you want to make sure you hand out enough points as appropriate.  30 stars is the max you can earn in an audition.

Pressing Triangle launches a "memory appeal" which starts up a roulette.  You must land on a "good" square in order to earn points (press triangle again to stop the roulette on a square).  Memory appeals hand out a large amount of points to all three judges.  As your producer rank increases, you can eventually do multiple appeals, allowing you to appeal to multiple judges at the same time.  If you win an audition, you’ll be treated to a TV performance where you can take pictures or save a video of the performance.  During the TV performance, your idol may have accidents, resulting from either being low level, from hitting "bad" on the memory roulette, or getting a negative star from a judge, etc.  Accidents reduce fans obtained, which can only be counterbalanced by using idol appeals.  Press circle during a performance to have your idol appeal to the audience and increase fan count.  Pressing X will hide the menu and cameraframe, pressing L & R buttons will toggle camera angles.

When you return back to the office, at the end of the night you will unlock an item given by a fan for winning the audition.  Some items can only be unlocked by playing Rival auditions and Special auditions.  If you don’t rank that high, you can lose tension and fans you’ve accumulated.  You can also suffer other penalties as well, so if you didn’t do so well, there is always the option to press the home button and leave the game and come back to try again.

::Day Off  (3 blocks)
Gives the idol a day off to recover and increase tension.  Really only a good idea to select this if prompted.


-Desk:
::Stylist Appointment (1 block)
Only appears if you confirmed the appointment.  You’ll be asked who you’re supposed to meet up with today, and you need to provide an answer that appeared in the parenthesizes of the mail.  Get it right and you randomly unlock two items (clothes, accessories, or a mix), get it wrong and you miss out on unlocking new content.
::Reporter Appointment (1 block)
Only appears if you confirmed the Magazine Writer’s appointment.  You’ll be asked questions and you need to provide answers that appeared in the parenthesizes of the mail.  If you provide the correct answers, image level will increase, if you don’t provide the correct answers, nothing happens.  I never really do these because I don’t see the point in it, so I can’t give a good description, it’s probably a better option than stylist once you unlock all the items though.
::Change outfit / accessories (1 block)
To be honest, this is absolutely a waste of a block.  Before auditions, you’re given the option to change your outfit and accessories multiple times, it makes more sense to just do it then.  However if you desperately need to do this, select this option.  To tell what clothes and accessories will do to your idol’s stats, look for the Dance (ダンス), Visual (ビジュアル), or Vocal (ボーカル) Katakana written on the item description.  Clothes and accessories will generally boost the stat listed and give a secondary boost to another stat not written on the item.



::Change Song (1 block)
You can only change the song your idol performs 5 times during the game.  Change the song only when the game recommends to do so on the menu.  Song selection also gives temporary bonuses to your idol stats, so when you change songs, expect your stats to switch around.  Also make sure not to pick the same category twice.  To tell what category a song is in, look for the (ダンス), Visual (ビジュアル), or Vocal (ボーカル) Katakana buried in the song description.  The game recommends you change the song every 11 weeks.  It will eventually start punishing you by lowering your idol's stats if you refuse to change it.

End of the Day:
After you finish all items off your schedule, the president will talk to you and display a pyramid showing your rank and how many fans you earned during the day.  The number that decreases below the pyramid indicates how many fans you have left to earn in order to rank up.  You’ll then be asked if you want to end the game; select the left option and press circle to end the game, select the right option and press circle to continue.  The game will then save and send you to the next week if you continue.  If you end the game, your idol will most definitely pop up asking you to hold up and wait.  A date and time (usually 24 hours away from the time you are currently playing) will show up.  Your idol is basically asking you to promise to return the next day and play at the requested time.  This can be a pain in the butt, so to avoid this, choose not to exit the game, and just press the home button on your PSP after the game saves.



SECTION 3 // Free Produce
When you select Free Produce, a menu will pop up with 4 options just like Story Produce.  They are exactly the same as with Story Produce.  The only difference between this mode and Story Produce is that you have no deadlines for ranking up and the Rival and Ultimate Auditions are not present.  Actually anything involving the Rival idols is just not present here.  You must also set a goal early on in the game to reach by the time the 52 weeks are up.  Aside from that, the structure is pretty much the same as what’s listed in Story mode.

One thing to keep in mind is the ending.  In Story Mode, the game ends with you doing 3 Ultimate Idol competitions and defeating your rival.  In Free Produce, you play a final concert mini-game.  You basically select a location and one of the 5 songs you produced.  It's easy to figure out how to play it, pretty much use memory roulette to increase the voltage if you need it.

SECTION 4 // Office Mode
If you don’t have your WLAN switch on, the game will not let you into this mode.  I also believe you have to play through some of Story Produce before you can access this mode.  This mode is the whole reason you should get the game.  In this mode you can select any character, dress them up how you like, then pick any song, and do an audition.  It's fun, easy, and nothing to worry about.  Once you enter Office Mode, 14 rooms will be displayed and you will be prompted if you would like to be automatically dropped in a room, or if you would like to manually pick a room to go to.  Left option is Auto, the right option is Manual, select using the d-pad and press circle to confirm your choice.  If you select Manual, you must use the d-pad to select which room you would like to enter.  The numbers displayed on the right of the room name indicate how many people out of a possible three are currently in a room.

Once in a room, the idol you are currently producing (or the last one you selected in Office Mode) will appear and greet you.  The room number will display in the bottom left corner and if you are in a room with other players, their idols will display next to yours.  Empty slots are indicated by ???  The menu for Office Mode is in the top left corner and it starts with the option “Audition” selected.  Here are the menu options in descending order, starting with that selection:

::Audition (オーディション)
Selecting this option will take you to the Audition menu.  The first option is to create an audition, the second is to join one that has been created.  If you select the first option, you’ll be presented with a list of all the possible auditions to create (including the Master auditions and Special ones).  Select the one you want and press circle to confirm your choice.  Once an audition is created, it’ll display to the left of the screen; press circle to join in and select the left option to confirm.  I have yet to try out multiplayer with anyone on this, but usually the audition begins with computer opponents once you confirm.  I imagine if there are other people, you must wait for them to join in the audition to begin.  I also assume the auditions are only for people in the room, but I’d need verification on that.  TV performance will only display if you get first place.

::Settings (セッティング)
Selecting this option will take you to the Settings menu.  This menu has three options; the first lets you change idols, the second lets you change the clothes and accessories the idol is currently wearing, and the third lets you change the song the idol will perform.  In Office mode you are not limited to just the three idols featured on the version you have, you can select any of the 9 idols from any version, as well as any of the rival idols once you have them unlocked.  When selecting an idol, you have three tabs for each version of the game.  Use L and R buttons to cycle through these tabs.  Each tab displays all the idols from the listed version that you can use in Office Mode.  All versions have general usage idols, meaning you can still select that idol even if you haven’t produced them in Story or Free produce modes.  Keep in mind their stats are very basic.  For rival idols, you must use their basic usage file since it is not possible to produce those idols in Story or Free produce.  You must also unlock the rival idols first before you can use them here (also note that rival idols can not use any other outfits except their own and DLC extend outfits so far, accessories work no problem though).  Tabs also display save data of produced idols, and idols you are currently producing for selection.  If you are currently producing an idol, I’ve noticed you can not select their general usage version.

::Present
Here you can select clothes or accessories you have unlocked to give as presents.  You can only select items you have extras of (more than one of) to give away, while items you only have one of in stock will be grayed out.  Use the triangle button to toggle between outfits and the accessories.

::Producer Data
Not really sure the importance of this mode, appears to mainly allow you to view or change producer data.

::Action
A sub-menu should appear next to this option when highlighted.  It’s pretty much a soundboard for the currently displayed idol which is kind of fun.  By pressing circle on any of the items on the sub-menu, you can watch and listen as the idol speaks the phrase.

::Status
Simply displays the idol’s current stats, press X to exit.  I’m not sure if it displays just your stats all of the stats of the idols present in the room.


SECTION 5 // Album
All the idols are listed here in tabs.  Any pictures or videos saved on your memory card can be viewed by selecting their tabs.  Press the L and R buttons to cycle through the different idols listed.  Press the triangle button to cycle between pictures and videos while on a tab.  Use the d-pad to select items in a tab, and the circle button to view a selected item (press X to exit viewing a picture; if watching a video, it‘ll prompt asking if you want to end.  Select the left option and press circle to confirm for that).  Pressing the square button will pull up a quick menu with three options.  The first option asks if you want to do a slideshow of the contents of the tab you are currently on.  The second option asks if you want to do a slideshow of all tabs starting from the current tab you are on.  The third option asks if you want to delete the item in the tab you currently have selected.  To exit Album mode, press X and select the left option to confirm. 

SECTION 6 // E-Mail
This requires you purchase an idol’s address to receive messages.  Don’t use this mode if you can’t read Japanese.  The e-mails sent to this mode should all be just text.  If you do go through with the purchase, avoid purchasing addresses for idols you don’t have since you can‘t unlock the messages if you can‘t produce the idol.

SECTION 7 // 765 Shop
This mode is not really convenient to use in my opinion.  While you can browse and purchase items in the PSN catalog in this mode, it’s easier to just connect to the PSN network and shop directly from there.  Since you have to create an account on the network and add funds there anyways, might as well shop and install from there then load up the game.  Regarding purchasing songs, it’s best to search for a video online to hear what it’ll sound like when the idol sings the song, rather than purchasing and regretting later.

SECTION 8 // Options
There are three categories of options.  The first listed is game options, the second listed is audio options, the third listed is stage options.  When you exit Options by pressing X, you will be asked to confirm the exit.  Select the left option and press circle to confirm.  The game will then save all changes you made.

-Game Options
::Option to skip TV performances entirely.  Default is view performances.
::Option to set TV performance appeals to Auto or Manual.  Default is Manual.
::Option to Auto or Manually save data.  Default is Auto save.  If you have Auto save off, at times where the game would have saved automatically, it will now prompt if you want to save.
::Option to change the casual outfit of your idol to either the PSP Casual (A) or Xbox Casual (B).  Default is New Casual (A).  Casual outfit refers to the outfit your idol always wears when not wearing the workout outfit or the audition outfit.

-Audio Options
::Option to optimize sound from headphones or speakers.  Default is headphones.
::Option to increase/decrease Song volume.  Default is maxed out.
::Option to increase/decrease Voice volume.  Default is maxed out.
::Option to increase/decrease BGM volume.  Default is maxed out.
::Option to increase/decrease SE volume.  Default is maxed out.

(note: samples will play to show the change the increase or decrease will do)

-Stage
This applies to Office Mode.  Here you can select a custom background to appear during TV appearances.  Custom backgrounds really just allow you to put up a background picture behind your idol while she performs.  Normal is the default option, which means a background image won’t be displayed and you’ll see the whole stage.

---

Credits:
Let me thank project-imas and every place online that has provided useful information that I’ve made mention of in here.  I don’t want to take full credit for all the info here in the slightest, but it would be hard to go over this whole thing and pick out who and what to thank for.  So overall, to all the Idolm@ster players out there, thanks!  Also, if any of this made sense or provided help, then I’m glad cause it’s quite a lot to take in @_@

Images taken from - http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/cs/list/idolmaster/sp/
-digi162

I've been itching to put a game review on my journal, and I figured it'd be best to start with something that has kept me occupied for a while.  I've decided to start with Phantasy Star Portable since it has garnished some mediocre reviews across several sites.  Now while I definitely agree that Phantasy Star Portable may not be the best game out there, it's not as awful as it's made out to sound on some of these reviews I've read.  Actually, Phantasy Star is right now my game of choice anytime I'm at Starbucks or on the run with my PSP.  It's been really enjoyable to just get a warm drink and kick it in the corner for an hour with this game.  So even though it may not be up there with some of the other greatest games for the PSP, it's still a fun way to spend time.

Let me start by saying that I throughly enjoyed the Character creation aspect.  When I first popped the UMD in, I almost spent two hours just going through all the different races, checking out hairstyles, facial expressions, etc.  Even though I stuck with the generic male character, with further playthroughs I'll definitely give the other types a try.  This is honestly where the game shines, because there's so much you can change here whether it be weight, height, eye color, eye type, voice, and the list just goes on so much that it's hard to list everything possible.  Even after you get your character designed, makeovers in the game allow for more hairtypes not available on the default list, as well as other changes you can do with your character.  Since the game currency flows almost like water, it's impossible to be strapped for cash to make any changes you want.  Sadly a lot of these selections won't matter much since the camera is panned out most of the time, not allowing for full detail, however it's nice to have them.  After you create your character, you select a partner machine which doesn't play much of a role in the game other than being the best party member you can add to your team.  They are predetermined appearance wise, but you can choose their battle strategy.


Now gameplay is probably hit and miss.  Instantly it reminds me of a MMORPG, but it definitely has this old PC game feel to it.  What I mean is it's very dungeon crawler in it's feel, very similiar to a lot of the earlier RPG games in the 90s.  Most of the gameplay involves selecting missions from a list on each planet, whether they be story related mission or free play ones.  These are usually 10-20 minutes long a piece, and after you finish a mission you return to main menu for the planet.  While the earlier missions in the game aren't much to talk about, as you gain more types of weapons, and learn some arts to link to weapons, gameplay will feel better.  Unfortunately story missions can be a pain due to your party members.  They will stick way too close to your character and they don't behave how you'd probably like them too.  Fortunately in free missions you can just get rid of them all and go it solo which improves gameplay.  It's probably best to bring the partner machine along though since it's a lot smaller than the main character, and is programmed to do the strategy you asked it to do.  In my case, my partner machine just orbits around my character like a moon and just attacks enemies.  While multiplayer Ad-hoc is possible with this game, I'm not exactly sure how entertaining that'd be especially if all players are at different levels.

Along the lines of difficulty, this game isn't that hard to pick up and it's not going to leave you frustrated.  Boss battles are wonderfully done and several offer a good challenge (especially if going solo), but nothing you'll lose sleep over.  Controls take some time to get used to, especially since there's no pausing in the game which really forces you to use the palette for items and weapons.  Fortunately there's a lot of good music to accompany you while you go through these missions, so even if the difficulty isn't there, the presentation is still fun and worthwhile to play.  The music throughout the game is fairly good as well, and I love the remix of the themesong that was used for Phantasy Star Universe.  It's the first video I link here, but in the game, you have to wait at the title menu before you can view it.  Speaking of which, Phantasy Star Portable really is a port of sorts of Phantasy Star Universe, and the game definitely plays at time like it's referencing that story.  I don't see it as a problem due to how the voice acting and the plot itself feels very much like a corny B movie.  It's not over the top awful thankfully, it just doesn't come across as anything spectacular or worth taking seriously enough to learn what happened previously.

One thing I've found interesting is how effectively the game uses the battery.  I think this may be more of a result of using the PSP 3000 to play it on, but I have no way of checking to figure out what exactly is going on.  It might simply be that Phantasy Star doesn't read from the UMD as frequently as other games.  For comparison purposes, I've noticed an hour session of DJ MAX Fever kills about 25%+ of the battery charge.  With Phantasy Star Portable, I've noticed it takes two hours to almost knock out the same amount.  Today even, I played an hour session of Phantasy Star and was surprised that it only ate away at 8% of the battery charge.  Not bad considering how beautiful the graphics and environments look, you'd think that it'd take more battery power just to have all that display or read off the UMD.  Also, loading times are really decent, nothing really that horrible to put up with at all.

There are some things that could have made the game better in my opinion-
-Having people out in the environments that you can talk to.  It feels too weird to be travelling over large expanses of land without other people present, especially with all the locked gates and doorways you encounter.  Since enemies are predetermined at spots, it wouldn't feel out of place.  It could have also added a little variety in story missions either by adding small fetch quests or trying to find certain people to progress the story.
-Dump the cheap screenshot looking cutscene characters and add either really beautiful 2D art or render the characters in an area with small animations.  That would probably work better and give more of the impression of being there and speaking with the other characters.
-Improve the main menu appearances for each planet, either by adding animation similar to the OP in the game, or taking a different approach.  Same could be said with planet selection, the worlds are too evenly spaced, it doesn't appear natural while making a selection.
-Improve on the lock-on control when going against enemies
-Improve party control and AI with party members
-Allow movement controls to be swapable with the directional buttons
-Swap out that confirmation sound; you can get used to it but it's not pleasant.

// Overall review in a nutshell:

Gameplay - 4
Music - 4
Replay - 4
Graphics - 4
Difficulty - 3

// Overall Score - 19 - A Game
(Highest score possible is 25 with AAA score)

Note: My apologies, I'm just going to link to these videos as references.  Also these are just my personal favorites, not stating that these are the best games ever, etc.

This is a list branching from a different list, but it's essentially a list of some of my favorite games I wanted to share.  It's amazing what's out there but these games I felt were really enjoyable.  Each game I've left a little blurb and a link to a video I felt was relevant.  So here's the list in order from most favorite:

1. Radiata Stories

I love Radiata Stories; it is the best RPG I've ever played for so many reasons.  It's simplistic, it's very light hearted and comical, it has a great cast of characters, there's just a lot I really like about this game.  The art style and the music is wonderful and the world you explore is well put together.  It's really a combination of everything I love about RPG games rolled into one.  The battle system is really the only downfall because of it being hack and slash, but the ability to form a party from a large cast of characters makes up for it to some degree.  I also like how the game splits into two parts as you progress; it gives you some replay value which is nice.

2. Yakuza 2

I put this game aside for a bit after I first got it which was a mistake.  This turned out to be one of the best games I've ever played.  What I love about this game is that it's well put together with the graphics, plot, music, just everything.  The choice to leave the Japanese vocals in really gives it the look and feel of a subtitled television drama, and the cities look really authentic.  This is one of those rare games where I actually look forward to the fighting because you can bash people's faces into walls, hit them with bikes, just go absolute nuts.

3. Shadow of the Colossus

I'm pretty sure this game is up there on a lot of people's lists and it's pretty obvious why.  I remember walking out of the temple for the first time and just being shocked at how much space there was to explore.  Everything about this game is done to such a grand scale, it's unbelievable and impressive.  Probably the most beautiful game ever for the PS2, there were times I just stopped and got off the horse just to look around at the environment.

4. The Idolm@ster SP Perfect Sun

Despite being completely in Japanese, this game was the sole reason I bought a PSP.  I really loved the songs and the characters when I first caught sight of them in 2007, so it was finally nice to get a reasonable import without having to buy an Xbox.  This game is great, I love how challenging it can be at times, and how rewarding it feels when you win an audition and just fight the odds.  I've taken so many notes just to make sure I make stylist appointments correctly or I pass posing lessons with high marks, I've even restarted the game multiple times during auditions to avoid failing.  I just love how involved this game requires you to be.  Once I unlock everything, Office mode is going to be the reason I'll continue to come back to this game.

5. Zone of the Enders 2nd Runner

This game feels like an anime turned into a videogame.  It's really well done, the particle effects are amazing, the gameplay is fast and solid, and the music is just really good.  My only complaint is controls aren't as fluid and the game is really short.  It's a really tough game at times, I remember having some trouble with some aspects, but it was just an excellent game overall.  It's very different from some of the other games I've played and it's just one of those games I like to jump back to with the extras like versus mode and missions.

I just got done watching a recording of Moorpark's City Council meeting for April 1st and I'm infuriated.  Or perhaps a better wording of it, just appalled at some of the things said and brought up at the meeting.  Here's just a small list of some of the things that made me yell at the TV:

-The whole topic of a plastic bag ban.  I'm really glad it was tossed aside in favor of more higher regulation of the matter to push it back on the agenda, but it was an inappropriate topic to even bring up in the first place.  Moorpark doesn't have a lot of businesses and a lot of businesses are even leaving Moorpark, why would you want to set more already absurd standards on businesses in the area?  Regulating currently existing establishments by setting up a law to ban plastic bags spells disaster, it could make and break whether or not a business would want to set up shop in town.  I also didn't quite understand the following suggestion to make Moorpark the first in Ventura to jump on that if the headwork was done to permit the practice.  What if it remained that way and it ends up isolating the town from potential business interests?  It was such a weird matter to see discussed.

-Seed and Sod debate?  SERIOUSLY?  This was dragged out for so long, it should have been a simple answer.  Honestly you could put sand there and it wouldn't matter, the kids just want to see the skatepark open, they don't care what kind of plantlife is growing around it at all.  Worse case scenario, put sand down, wait for the hype of the skatepark to go down, then come back and seed the place in early spring so it catches the rain.  If not, just sod it so it looks nice on grand opening, then come back later if it's spotty and seed it.  Seeding it and dancing around it seems like too much effort, and there wasn't a plan established anyway from what it looked like, just take the easy route and sod it than fix it later.  It's just grass.

-Why didn't anyone just turn down the Welcome to Moorpark sign proposals?  There were too many complaints, it was obviously not planned out hearing how they were going to place the one sign on Princeton, and to be honest, it's just not needed.  It was presented in a very bully like tactic as well, the guy mentioned there were more than the two designs and that these were considered the best.  If the goal was to get it built, it would have made more sense to introduce all the designs than just picking which one doesn't look the worst of the two.  This town isn't that big in comparison to it's neighbors anyways, it just seems like a waste of money considering what else this town could really use.  Also the term no one used but should have been mentioned, it's called branding, when you have a set of standards to establish your identity.

It was really dissappointing to watch.  I feel almost obliged to watch the next one or attend it live if possible just to see what other weird stuff will pop up.

It's hard to write this up since I don't claim to be an expert on the topic nor do I have the qualifications, but I wanted to write about the kind of technical errors a person could make while job hunting.  I'm not talking about career type jobs, but more of the building block type like fast food or sales.  Over the past several months I've seen tons of applications and people looking for jobs, especially with the economy the way it is.  It's rather interesting the little mistakes people make here and there because they don't realize the problem with it.  The following is a list of things I don't think are common knowledge, but I'm really not that interested in spending much time with a search engine to verify.  If anything, just my own tips I would recommend to anyone.

Most of these apply to fast food places, but a lot of them I imagine apply to other sales jobs, etc.

// Ask for or turn in an application after 2pm
Different places open at different times, but generally there is a rhythm to a restaurant.  In the morning is opening which is a bad time to ask because everyone is usually focused on food prep, getting the place ready, going down checklists, etc.  After that is lunch-rush where for a couple hours, the whole restaurant only wants to focus on customers.  I say after 2pm is the best time to go because it's usually down-time for any restaurant and your request for an application won't be a grievance because they'll have the time to cater to you (you also won't be holding up a line).  Whether it's to get you an application printed up or if you want to ask them any questions, this is probably the best time to ask.  I've had to personally turn people away who come during lunch, stand in line, and then ask for an application when we don't have any.  It's just not reasonable to walk away and print one up when there's a line of people to be handled.

// Don't ask for an application with another person present
To this day, I don't understand why people asking for applications do this.  I've seen the gambit of variations to this, like people coming in with their lovers, or a group of friends all asking for applications, but honestly, there's just no excuse for this.  If you can't ask for an application without someone there by your side, it says a lot about you.  I'm not really happy either about parents who ask for applications for their kid or worse, turn them in for them.  Why would a place hire your kid if they're not willing to get the application on their own?  That could backfire because it's possible to mark the application when you hand it to them to indicate the situation.  You'll see it come back with the mark and the employer would know that the person had their parent get the application for them.  It's probably illegal to do that since it's discrimination, but it's in the realm of possibility considering the world is so strange anyways you never know what you might face.  If you don't have the courage or willpower to get it on your own, it speaks a lot about you as a person.

// Don't say your availability is less than 3 days, or write down insane hours
That availability thing is a trick question really on an application, although it does help weed through the applicants.  Depending on what the place is looking for, it can really harm or help you.  Say for instance a store just needs someone to run only a Sunday shift and no other days during the week.  If a person files an application saying they're available only on Sundays, they might be considered for the position.  If someone writes down they're available all days of the week, they might not be considered because there's a chance they'll demand more hours or quit after a few weeks once they find another job.  It's a catch-22 really on a weird scale.  If a place just needs more help during lunch, and you list only night hours, chances are you won't be considered.  If you list weekend hours only but they need someone to work the nights during the week, you might not be considered.  If a place has a help wanted sign up, it's really easy to ask and figure out what days they're hiring for.  Usually you can get an answer like, "We need someone during lunch hours" or whatever the hours may be.  Although that's sort of pushing it anyways, you'd have to really get a conversation going to learn that information..

// Do some research, be a customer
If you work register or any position where you meet the customers at a restaurant, you generally get an idea of who is a regular, who is a first timer, etc.  I think it's really bad to walk into any fast food place and ask for an application if you don't frequent it.  Especially in hard times where EVERYONE is asking for a job, it just adds to the problem if you want money from a place, yet you don't buy anything from them.  You might as well apply at Starbucks and tell them you hate coffee during the interview.  There are enough people out there with their hands out, at least show you're not just looking for a job for the sake of having money.  Research really is the key and it's a pain but it will let you know if the place will really hire you or not.  For example, stop by during lunch and dinner and see how busy they are, or try things off their menu to get a taste for the food they serve.  Imagine how foolish you'll look if you did get called in for an interview, but you've never tried anything on their menu.

// Don't bring a briefcase with you in the store
Seriously, don't.  It's really common for solicitors to carry a briefcase with them with info about their products.  Because the body behavior of a solicitor is the same as a person wanting a job, you can easily get labeled as one as you walk in the door unless it's common for people in the place to carry one which would be odd for any sort of minimum job.  This is a hard one to verify, and it's not really that important, but this is something for me based off experience I'd keep an eye out for.

// Don't call back after X amount of time asking about your application
I've heard from a couple people saying this works, but you won't believe how annoying this really is.  Especially when people call back during lunch rushes because they want to know the status of their application.  Or they just KEEP on calling back insisting you hire them for X reason.  When you turn your application in, just let them know they can call you any time and you're available asap, and that's about all you can do.  If you give them your cell number it helps because it at least allows you to keep applying for jobs.  If they like your application and they're looking to hire, it's their choice if they want to pick you.  If they don't, then they're either holding onto it or you just don't meet the criteria.  If a place is looking for someone with 2 years sales experience for instance, and you don't have that experience, it really doesn't do any good to call to try and persuade them to hire you anyways.  It's not worth it to call back in my own opinion because it really doesn't do any good other than to let you know what you did wrong.

// Don't ask for the manager / person who's hiring unless prompted
This isn't the 90s where it was top hat to do this crap.  Unless a place states on their wanted sign/ad/etc. to speak with the manager, just don't ask for them.  Even if you do, at least state the reason you're looking for them when you ask for them.  For instance, I had placed a complaint at a restaurant before and they asked me to come by and talk with them.  So when I did, I at least told the person helping me the reasons why I was there and wanting to talk to the manager rather than just demanding to see them.  If a place isn't hiring, and you're asking for the manager just because you think it'll increase your chances to get a job, you might hit a wall.  Especially if you're carrying a briefcase, you now are looking and playing the part of solicitor by asking for the manager without explaining why.  If anyone asks to see the manager I usually do the smart thing and inquire what they want to see the manager about so I can help them.  There's no reason to step around the employee you're talking to especially if you're just going to be handed an application.

// Don't make demands / have an attitude
SERIOUSLY you are in no position to make demands while job hunting.  Don't ask for pens to fill out the application, don't ask for a business card for the place, don't ask for anything tangible really beyond the application itself.  Worse demand I ever got from someone looking for an application was when they were asking me questions and demanding me to speak louder.  I can understand requesting someone to repeat something over again, but there's a polite way to go about it.  Attitude can play a huge role before you even get an interview.  If you come in with a bored expression on your face and ask for an application without even saying thanks, there's no way you could get hired.  Point of the matter is it's impossible to tell who does the hiring at a place unless they told you.  You might be thinking you're dealing with an employee when in reality they could be the manager or whoever is in charge of hiring.

// Don't leave anything blank
It's amazing some of the things people leave blank.  In some cases it makes sense, but you should provide a reason for leaving it blank at least.  For example, if you don't want to put your social security number down, at least list you can provide it on request.  If you've never worked a job before, listing that on the application might help since the person looking at it would have to assume it if you left the spot blank.  The worse I've seen was someone leaving the availability section blank.  Employers get a ton of applications, it's not worth their time to call the person to find out information that was left blank since they can easily skip to another one.

- - -

I was really hoping to make this a list of 10 but oh well this will do for now since I spent way to long on this anyways.  Of course to restate, this is just my opinions regarding the whole hiring process from being on the inside.  If somehow someone actually took the time to read this and wanted to argue with me on some points, I'd be pleased that someone actually took interest in this.  I just wanted to write this down since customers have decreased and people asking for jobs have increased lately where I work.  I handle a brunt of it and it's getting a little annoying seeing people disobey proper etiquette or even not showing something as simple as manners.

GOOD LUCK

While getting food at the Moorpark Marketplace tonight, I noticed Red Brick Pizza's window's were covered with some familiar brown paper.  Not the "Oh hey we're remodeling" paper, but the "Damn it, we're closed" type I'm familiar with.  I'm looking online and they must have closed recently because I'm not seeing anything.  Hopefully I'm wrong, but this looks exactly like what happened to me when I lost my job last year, so I would have to assume they're closed.  They're not listed on the official website anymore, and they had a health inspection toward the end of 2008 (If no search results were found, it would have meant their records were pulled if an inspector came by).  Plus I've been in that area a lot, so I can't imagine it closed months ago.  This really goes back to what I wrote regarding the marketplace in that the competition there is really rough and made worse with the economy.  This makes me worry a little more about the other businesses in there.  It's a shame to see businesses go like that since it's more than just a place to get food.  It takes a lot of money to run a resteraunt as well as time and investment.  Essentially this place was someone's life, and it's pretty much gone which is awful.  I really hope the people who ran it will be alright, as well as all the employees.

This is a little concerning considering Garlic Jim's Pizza wants to open up shop in the Campus Plaza across town.  I don't know their progress since if you go there there's just an empty building with an old memo posted regarding liquor sales.  If they were to start working on it right now it wouldn't be ready until winter I imagine.  Red Brick closing makes the second pizzeria around here to close recently which is interesting to note.  Sans Pizzeria in the Simi Valley Town Center closed just a while back, so this makes another.  Speaking of the Campus Plaza, the folks working on Chronic Tacos are putting a lot of work in on their place.  It's been a long wait but it'll be exciting to finally get a chance to try it.  Also to note, there's a mini-mart next to Starbucks in the plaza that strangely doesn't have a name.  It's listed as Circle K on the marque listing all the businesses but the website says it's a 7-11.  However I'm impressed with a lot of things they sell.  Specifically, a drink they have called Aloe.  It's from a company called Dena and it's sold in a square shaped bottle of sorts.

Hard to make a depressing topic more interesting, but really this is concerning if the trend continues.

   

I'm a supporter of the Mountain Gate Plaza, and I'm sure I'm not alone in the support.  I've done a ton of web searches and found a lot of comments on blog articles and newstories arguing how the Mountain Gate Plaza should see some sort of revival of the area.  It's amazing all the underground support this place receives, and I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who hope that some great things will arrive to put this place on the map again.  I'm looking at what I've typed up here and it's way too brief a history and doesn't go into as much detail as I'd like, but I wanted to write an entry detailing what I recall about the Mountain Gate Plaza since it was a part of my childhood that has kept with me all these years since I still visit it today.  Almost 50 years old and still running, the Mountain Gate Plaza in Simi Valley has changed a lot since it's beginnings in 1963.  Originally titled Larwin Square Plaza, the place was home to several stores and a movie theater.  Not a lot of stores remain from the original days aside from Larwin Liquors which interestingly enough, has the same exterior architecture that matches an old picture of another Larwin plaza located in Vallejo California.  Most of my memories of the Mountain Gate Plaza come from the 90s, back at what could be argued as it's peak.  Times have changed since then, and a lot of businesses that used to exist here have since left.  From what I can recall of the plaza, this entry will be a brief overview on what used to be here in the 90s, thoughts on why several businesses have left, and where the plaza stands today.

The Mountain Gate Plaza in the 90s used to be host to many big names of the time such as Michaels, Crown Books, and Sizzler.  It also had a bunch of establishments that were popular by word of mouth, such as Shakey's Pizza, Family Fun Zone, and the Hawaiian Ice vendor.  The plaza was known for being both an indoor and outdoor strip mall, with exterior shops surrounding an enclosed area which housed the Edwards 7 movie theater.  Several satellite stores banked the road, Including Kinkos and Acapulco restaurant.  I believe the 90s saw an addition to the plaza, with construction of a newer area east of the existing section.  This end saw new places like Home Depot, several fast food stops, and strangely enough, a new movie theater built for more capacity that was titled Edwards 10.  Overall there were a lot of shops and hardly any vacancies.  During the 90s, the plaza was the place to go as a kid since there was so much to do so close to home.  I believe this sets the scene for what happened next.  Toward the end of the 90s and into the new millenium, the plaza eventually fell apart.  Unfortunately the reasons for why a lot of the places left are unknown, but with conjecture and a little research, I think I can piece together what happened.  So here's my opinion on why a lot of the businesses had left which may actually have to stand corrected: 



(Family Fun Zone was located to the left in this picture, while the movie theater was located at the end of this hallway)

The first thing I recall going was the Edwards 7 theater which was the one located in the interior section of the plaza.  I think everyone had a feeling this would happen back in the day considering the Edwards 10 theater was built literally right next to it on the east end.  So now a major reason for going inside the interior area of the plaza had been stripped away, which must have affected the stores also in the interior section.  This is a common scenario in business, if a place people frequent dissappears, the stores surrounding it which may have relied on the place to bring in customers become affected.  This may have been the case considering the inside area is no longer accessible, meaning that all the businesses in the interior section went under or eventually left.  One can only guess what happened but it would be interesting to hear from people who had businesses here back then.  In the late 90s, Crown Books went bankrupt and the store in the plaza eventually went away as a result.  The arcade / ticket game place which was Family Fun Zone I'm guessing must have had trouble with the videogame revolution of the 90s along with plaza changes perhaps.  Console gaming has always been accused of keeping people from the arcades, so I wonder if this must have had some effect.  I don't know the true reason why it left, but the arcade eventually went away as the new millenium came.  The Sizzler located here was either victim to the bankruptcy the chain experienced in the late 90s, or was one of the 21 stores axed in 2001.  Or it just naturally went out of business which could have happened.  Shakey's Pizza dissapeared after the time they closed off the interior section of the plaza from what I remember.  Not a lot of clues are left around to figure out what happened really unless somewhere were to ask around.  As much as my curiosity for this holds, I don't have a reason to even ask let alone do anything with that information.

    

Other stores I think just moved to other locations.  For instance, Michaels had relocated over to the new Marketplace Plaza in Moorpark which opened around 2003.  Kinkos, which used to exist where Starbucks currently resides, I assume must have relocated down the road.  According to Simi Valley's local paper called the Acorn, the plaza was over 50% vacant by the time 2004 hit.  I think eventually this place became forgotten as the Town Center opened up toward the end of 2005 just right up the street from it.  Cut to today, some new places have made their way in, including Valley Produce Market, the 5 Dollar Bookstore, and the 99 cent store.  New changes are on the way though supposedly.  Google searches for the Mountain Gate Plaza reveal Sierra Vista clinic will be going in where the theater used to be, although sources state it was supposed to come in 2008 but it has not yet.  Also as part of the construction, the interior section (as pictured in the above shot taken through the door windows) is supposedly going to go away which makes sense considering the hallway entrance on the southern end was changed when a furniture store opened up in that spot.  Also interestingly enough, ideas to turn the other half of the vacant Home Depot lot into a train station dot some webpages.  That was actually a clever thought considering the railroad really is right behind it and the only other station is on the eastern end of town.  No matter what happens though, I'm looking forward to what the future brings to this place and I hope all goes well for it.

An interesting link containing a few pictures of how the place used to look - http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/3017.html
All the images used on this entry were taken by me as part of a photoshoot of the area.