Pop'n Music
Encyclopedia
, commonly abbreviated as Pop'n, PM or PNM, is a music video game
in the Bemani
series made by the Konami Corporation. This game is known for its bright colors, upbeat songs, and cartoon
character graphics. Originally released in 1998, the game has had fifteen home releases in Japan
as well as many arcade versions.
and the Dreamcast, with 9 buttons. It featured an interactive user interferance.
Pop'n Music 5, Pop'n Music 6, Pop'n Music Animation Melody and Pop'n Music Disney Tunes were then released for the PlayStation, but there were no further releases on the Dreamcast. Pop'n Music 5 and 6 could be used as "key discs" to play the append discs mentioned above.
, along with an anthology version, Pop'n Music Best Hits.
. These versions are an improvement from the previous PS2 games with their more advanced interfaces and introduction of arcade accurate hi-speed mods ranging from 2 - 6. Pop'n Music 11 introduced hi-speed 5. The recent PlayStation 2 release of Pop'n Music FEVER! (14) as included hi-speed mods at .5 increments, which first appeared on the arcade version of Pop'n ADVENTURE (15).
A revised controller was also released for the PS2 at the same time as Pop'n Music 10, though it is also compatible with the original PlayStation.
The Game Boy Color
also had three Pop'n Music games: Pop'n Music GB, Pop'n Music GB Animation Melody, and Pop'n Music GB Disney Tunes.
On February 4, 2010, Pop'n Music Portable was released on PlayStation Portable. It is intended to be the console release for Pop'n Music 15 Adventure, and so the song list and interface are based on that game. A sequel, Pop'n Music Portable 2 was currently in development. This game is based on Pop'n Music 16 PARTY. DLC is confirmed to be in the game. It will be released on November 23, 2011.
When a note is played, an accuracy rating is displayed, either "Great", "Good", or "Bad". "Great" scoring notes are worth 100% of their portion of the score, "Good" scoring notes 20%, and "Bad" notes 0%. The maximum amount of points possible in any single-stage song is 100,000, and unlike beatmania or beatmania IIDX, can not be exceeded as no additional score bonuses are given. A "Combo" tally is kept of properly played notes like in other Bemani games, but always excludes the first note played; for example, if a song has 322 notes, the maximum combo will be 321. Until Pop'n Music 6, "Good" notes would interrupt a player's combo.
Additionally, in "Expert Mode", and more recently "Cho-Challenge Mode" (超CHALLENGE モード, "Super Challenge Mode"), another accuracy score is added, "Cool". This makes songs played in these modes significantly more difficult to achieve high scores on, as the value of "Great" and "Good" are decreased.
In all modes from Pop'n Music 6 and onward, after a song is selected, a splash screen that is displayed showing the character, banner, and BPM
of the song. When the player presses both yellow buttons at this screen, an options menu is displayed, where the player can edit the following gameplay options:
Like other games in the series, Pop'n Music has a "Groove Gauge" that shows the player's performance. Continually playing the notes in the song properly will cause the Groove Gauge to rise. The goal of the player is to finish the song with the Groove Gauge in the "clear zone", a red portion that represents the top quarter of the bar. When the gauge is at its maximum, "Great" notes become "Fever"- this is purely aesthetic, providing no bonus to score, and usually causes the player's chosen character to perform a different animation. If a player ends a song while in Fever mode, the character's win animation is also often different. In Expert and Cho-Challenge, "Great" does not become Fever, and instead "Cool" flashes in a similar manner to how "Fever" is displayed in other modes.
In the Challenge and Cho-Challenge Modes, players are not only scored on their individual songs, but are also given a Challenge Score. Each song is assigned a point value on a scale from 1 to 43, and at the end of a game in one of these modes, the total is tallied. On specific numbers, a player may be allowed an "EXtra Stage", an additional stage in which the most difficult charts (EXTRA or "EX" charts) for certain songs may be played and unlocked. EXtra stages use a different gauge than usual, a "Stamina" gauge similar to the life bar in a fighting game, or Dance Dance Revolution
's Groove Gauge, where complete depletion means the end of the song.
Additionally in these modes, options called "Norma" and "Ojama" may be used to add point values to the player's Challenge Score. A "Norma" is a set goal, like achieving a combo of over 200 notes, or a score over 90,000, while an "Ojama" is an active means of periodically distracting or disrupting the player, like "Dance", where the opposing character jumps to the middle of the screen to block the notes, or "Bomber", where additional Pop-kun with sunglasses are added that, when played, not only explode with an obscuring cloud of smoke, but also cause damage to the player's Groove Gauge. Up to two options can be activated at once.
Before Cho-Challenge was introduced, a player could choose to have one option selected to play for the entire duration of the song at 1.5 times the point value of the Ojama, but Cho-Challenge comes with the option "Zutto On!" (ずっとON!, "Always On"), which enables the player to do this with any two options.
Another popular mode of play is Battle Mode. Two players compete against each other on the same cabinet or controller using only three buttons (Green, Yellow, and White) to play the same note chart, and a fourth "action" button (Blue). As a player scores "Great" ratings on notes, a power meter increases near the bottom of the screen, and once it reaches a certain level, the player can press the action button. Doing so starts a minigame
along the bottom of the screen, requiring the players to alternate pressing the action button in time with the song, in addition to playing the note chart. When one of the players misses, an Ojama is inflicted on them.
Introduced in Pop'n Music 6 is Expert Mode, similar to Nonstop Mode in other Bemani series. The player selects from a pre-made course of four songs and plays through the selected course with a "Stamina" life bar that does not recover. Expert Mode was removed after Pop'n Music 18 Sengoku Retsuden.
Introduced in Pop'n Music 9 is Osusume (オススメ, Lit. "Recommendation") Mode, where the player is asked a series of questions, and the game provides an Expert course based on the player's answers. It was removed after Pop'n Music 11.
With the introduction of the e-AMUSEMENT
system in Japan, pop'n music 12 Iroha is the first game to feature "Net Taisen Mode" (NET対戦 モード, "Net Battle Mode"). This mode allows players to compete over the e-AMUSEMENT network in real time with players on other e-AMUSEMENT-ready cabinets. In Pop'n Music 17 The Movie, a CPU-emulated version of this mode has been added, similar to the "Taisen" mode found on consumer releases.
Starting in pop'n music 12 Iroha, "Normal Mode", the standard mode of play, has been removed, replaced instead by "Enjoy Mode". Enjoy Mode is a simplified mode for beginners with a reduced song list, simple note charts, and a less complex grading system, in which the player begins with 100 points and is docked one for each note they fail to play properly. Enjoy Mode incorporates many of the games licensed tracks, providing most players in Japan a mode in which they know the songs and can more easily become interested in the game.
games, Pop'n Music does not mimic an instrument in gameplay. The buttons are used to play various instruments throughout any given song. The graphics feature brightly colored and primarily solid shapes, rather than the metallic and textured interfaces of other Bemani games. Players may choose a character to play as. The songs are separated by genres like Reggae
, Disco
Queen, Spy
, or Anime
Hero, as well as common Bemani genres of eurobeat
and forms of electronica
. There are also series of songs with similar elements, like the Classic series (which are medleys of classical music) and the Powerfolk series. Each song has a variety of modes. These include Enjoy Mode (beginner and Easy notes), 5-line Mode (for 5 buttons) and Normal mode (on-beat notes and simple chords). Most songs have a hyper mode (with more notes and harder chords), and some songs have an EXtra mode (with lots of notes and complicated chords). Pop'n Music has no other visuals except for the character the player chose, an opponent character, and the scrolling notes. The characters are animated, and act differently based on the player's performance.
Pop'n Music can be challenging at high difficulty levels. The higher difficulty levels are considered by some players to be the most challenging of any music game. However, Pop'n Music also features easier content for beginners. In this way, Pop'n Music caters to a wide variety of players.
' s panel placement). It is a combination of Pop'n Music and Dance Dance Revolution
, using Pop'n-style graphics with DDR-style gameplay. The game has a bright, colorful interface and machine design, and is easy compared to most other Bemani games.
Pop'n Stage only supports one player at a time; 6-switch and 10-switch modes are available (corresponding to Pump It Up
' s half double and full double; in other words, 6-switch mode doesn't use the four outer corners).
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
in the Bemani
Bemani
is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division, or simply G.M.D., it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, Beatmania, and expanded into other music-based games.-Bemani video games:...
series made by the Konami Corporation. This game is known for its bright colors, upbeat songs, and cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
character graphics. Originally released in 1998, the game has had fifteen home releases in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as well as many arcade versions.
Arcade Versions
- pop'n music (September 29, 1998)
- pop'n music 2 (March 19, 1999)
- pop'n music 3 (September 1999)
- pop'n music 4 (March 2000)
- pop'n music 5 (October 2000)
- pop'n music 6 (March 2001)
- pop'n music 7 (November 2001)
- pop'n music 8 (May 2002)
- pop'n music 9 (December 2002)
- pop'n music 10 (August 2003)
- pop'n music 11 (March 24, 2004)
- pop'n music 12 いろは (December 8, 2004)
- pop'n music 13 カーニバル (September 7, 2005)
- pop'n music 14 FEVER! (May 17, 2006)
- pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE (April 2007)
- pop'n music 16 Party♪ (March 24, 2008)
- pop'n music 17 THE MOVIE (March 4, 2009)
- pop'n music 18 せんごく列伝 (January 20, 2010)
- pop'n music 19 TUNE STREET (December 9, 2010)
- ハロー！ポップンミュージック (March 23, 2011)
- pop'n music 20 fantasia (Under development)
Pop'n Music Mickey Tunes (2000)
Pop'n Music Mickey Tunes contain Disney music. The PlayStation port is known as Pop'n Music Disney Tunes.Pop'n Music Animelo 2 (2001)
Pop'n Music Animelo 2 is the most expensive Pop'n Music version to date, due to its song list consisting completely of anime as well as television show licensed songs. This version is also the only one with the infamous "double" and "triple" modes. These options were originally provided with the intention of allowing multiple people to play along by adding one or two more notes for every note in the chart, sometimes resulting in a chord of all nine buttons. However, it became a popular challenge for a single player to play a song in "double" or "triple" mode.First Generation
Pop'n Music 1, Pop'n Music 2, Pop'n Music 3 Pop'n Music 4 were released on the PlayStationPlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
and the Dreamcast, with 9 buttons. It featured an interactive user interferance.
Pop'n Music 5, Pop'n Music 6, Pop'n Music Animation Melody and Pop'n Music Disney Tunes were then released for the PlayStation, but there were no further releases on the Dreamcast. Pop'n Music 5 and 6 could be used as "key discs" to play the append discs mentioned above.
Second Generation
Pop'n Music 7, 8, and 9 were released on the PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, along with an anthology version, Pop'n Music Best Hits.
Third Generation
10, 11, Iroha (12), Carnival (13), and FEVER! (14) were also released on the PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
. These versions are an improvement from the previous PS2 games with their more advanced interfaces and introduction of arcade accurate hi-speed mods ranging from 2 - 6. Pop'n Music 11 introduced hi-speed 5. The recent PlayStation 2 release of Pop'n Music FEVER! (14) as included hi-speed mods at .5 increments, which first appeared on the arcade version of Pop'n ADVENTURE (15).
A revised controller was also released for the PS2 at the same time as Pop'n Music 10, though it is also compatible with the original PlayStation.
The Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
also had three Pop'n Music games: Pop'n Music GB, Pop'n Music GB Animation Melody, and Pop'n Music GB Disney Tunes.
On February 4, 2010, Pop'n Music Portable was released on PlayStation Portable. It is intended to be the console release for Pop'n Music 15 Adventure, and so the song list and interface are based on that game. A sequel, Pop'n Music Portable 2 was currently in development. This game is based on Pop'n Music 16 PARTY. DLC is confirmed to be in the game. It will be released on November 23, 2011.
Gameplay
Unlike most of Konami's Bemani series, the Pop'n Music interface is not designed to represent any actual musical instrument. Instead, it uses nine buttons, each three-and-a-half-inches in diameter, laid out in two rows. Five buttons are the bottom row, the other four being the top. Like in most Bemani games, color-coded notes (in this game called "Pop-kun" (ポップ君) and anthropomorphized with faces) fall from the top of the screen in nine rows that correspond to the buttons. When a note reaches the red line at the bottom of the screen, the player presses the button, which triggers a sound within the song.When a note is played, an accuracy rating is displayed, either "Great", "Good", or "Bad". "Great" scoring notes are worth 100% of their portion of the score, "Good" scoring notes 20%, and "Bad" notes 0%. The maximum amount of points possible in any single-stage song is 100,000, and unlike beatmania or beatmania IIDX, can not be exceeded as no additional score bonuses are given. A "Combo" tally is kept of properly played notes like in other Bemani games, but always excludes the first note played; for example, if a song has 322 notes, the maximum combo will be 321. Until Pop'n Music 6, "Good" notes would interrupt a player's combo.
Additionally, in "Expert Mode", and more recently "Cho-Challenge Mode" (超CHALLENGE モード, "Super Challenge Mode"), another accuracy score is added, "Cool". This makes songs played in these modes significantly more difficult to achieve high scores on, as the value of "Great" and "Good" are decreased.
In all modes from Pop'n Music 6 and onward, after a song is selected, a splash screen that is displayed showing the character, banner, and BPM
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of the song. When the player presses both yellow buttons at this screen, an options menu is displayed, where the player can edit the following gameplay options:
- Hi-Speed: Initially only provided in x2, x3, and x4, current versions allow up to x6 in increments of x0.5. The notes move faster, but are spaced further apart, which may make them easier to read.
- Pop-kun: This option changes the appearance of the notes that appear on the screen, emulating beatmania ("BEAT-POP"), Pop'n Stage ("STAGE-POP"), or even the icons of the opposing character ("CHARA-POP").
- Appearance: The options here affect the visibility of the notes on the screen. "Hidden" conceals the notes once they're about halfway down the screen, while "Sudden" hides them until about halfway. "Hidden+Sudden" only shows the notes for a brief sliver of the screen's area.
- Random: These options affect how the patterns of notes are processed. "Random" will shuffle the rows so patterns are slightly different- for example, all notes on one button may instead be played on another button. "Mirror" will swap the patterns horizontally. "S-Random" or "Super Random" will shuffle every note individually- however, no button will have more notes on it than in the original chart. For example, if a song has no notes on the Right Yellow button, an S-Random pattern will not place any notes on that button.
Like other games in the series, Pop'n Music has a "Groove Gauge" that shows the player's performance. Continually playing the notes in the song properly will cause the Groove Gauge to rise. The goal of the player is to finish the song with the Groove Gauge in the "clear zone", a red portion that represents the top quarter of the bar. When the gauge is at its maximum, "Great" notes become "Fever"- this is purely aesthetic, providing no bonus to score, and usually causes the player's chosen character to perform a different animation. If a player ends a song while in Fever mode, the character's win animation is also often different. In Expert and Cho-Challenge, "Great" does not become Fever, and instead "Cool" flashes in a similar manner to how "Fever" is displayed in other modes.
In the Challenge and Cho-Challenge Modes, players are not only scored on their individual songs, but are also given a Challenge Score. Each song is assigned a point value on a scale from 1 to 43, and at the end of a game in one of these modes, the total is tallied. On specific numbers, a player may be allowed an "EXtra Stage", an additional stage in which the most difficult charts (EXTRA or "EX" charts) for certain songs may be played and unlocked. EXtra stages use a different gauge than usual, a "Stamina" gauge similar to the life bar in a fighting game, or Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
's Groove Gauge, where complete depletion means the end of the song.
Additionally in these modes, options called "Norma" and "Ojama" may be used to add point values to the player's Challenge Score. A "Norma" is a set goal, like achieving a combo of over 200 notes, or a score over 90,000, while an "Ojama" is an active means of periodically distracting or disrupting the player, like "Dance", where the opposing character jumps to the middle of the screen to block the notes, or "Bomber", where additional Pop-kun with sunglasses are added that, when played, not only explode with an obscuring cloud of smoke, but also cause damage to the player's Groove Gauge. Up to two options can be activated at once.
Before Cho-Challenge was introduced, a player could choose to have one option selected to play for the entire duration of the song at 1.5 times the point value of the Ojama, but Cho-Challenge comes with the option "Zutto On!" (ずっとON!, "Always On"), which enables the player to do this with any two options.
Another popular mode of play is Battle Mode. Two players compete against each other on the same cabinet or controller using only three buttons (Green, Yellow, and White) to play the same note chart, and a fourth "action" button (Blue). As a player scores "Great" ratings on notes, a power meter increases near the bottom of the screen, and once it reaches a certain level, the player can press the action button. Doing so starts a minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
along the bottom of the screen, requiring the players to alternate pressing the action button in time with the song, in addition to playing the note chart. When one of the players misses, an Ojama is inflicted on them.
Introduced in Pop'n Music 6 is Expert Mode, similar to Nonstop Mode in other Bemani series. The player selects from a pre-made course of four songs and plays through the selected course with a "Stamina" life bar that does not recover. Expert Mode was removed after Pop'n Music 18 Sengoku Retsuden.
Introduced in Pop'n Music 9 is Osusume (オススメ, Lit. "Recommendation") Mode, where the player is asked a series of questions, and the game provides an Expert course based on the player's answers. It was removed after Pop'n Music 11.
With the introduction of the e-AMUSEMENT
E-AMUSEMENT
e-AMUSEMENT is an online service offered worldwide by Konami to enable exclusive online features in games, such as Internet Rankings and unlockable content. It is utilized by multiple Konami games as listed below, including the arcade and the PlayStation 2 platforms.- Magnetic Cards :Before 2006,...
system in Japan, pop'n music 12 Iroha is the first game to feature "Net Taisen Mode" (NET対戦 モード, "Net Battle Mode"). This mode allows players to compete over the e-AMUSEMENT network in real time with players on other e-AMUSEMENT-ready cabinets. In Pop'n Music 17 The Movie, a CPU-emulated version of this mode has been added, similar to the "Taisen" mode found on consumer releases.
Starting in pop'n music 12 Iroha, "Normal Mode", the standard mode of play, has been removed, replaced instead by "Enjoy Mode". Enjoy Mode is a simplified mode for beginners with a reduced song list, simple note charts, and a less complex grading system, in which the player begins with 100 points and is docked one for each note they fail to play properly. Enjoy Mode incorporates many of the games licensed tracks, providing most players in Japan a mode in which they know the songs and can more easily become interested in the game.
Design and Difficulty
Unlike most other BemaniBemani
is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division, or simply G.M.D., it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, Beatmania, and expanded into other music-based games.-Bemani video games:...
games, Pop'n Music does not mimic an instrument in gameplay. The buttons are used to play various instruments throughout any given song. The graphics feature brightly colored and primarily solid shapes, rather than the metallic and textured interfaces of other Bemani games. Players may choose a character to play as. The songs are separated by genres like Reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, Disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
Queen, Spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
, or Anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
Hero, as well as common Bemani genres of eurobeat
Eurobeat
Eurobeat is a form of italo-disco/hi-NRG music that developed in the late 1980s.In the United States, Eurobeat was sometimes marketed as Hi-NRG and for a short while shared this term with the very early freestyle music hits....
and forms of electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
. There are also series of songs with similar elements, like the Classic series (which are medleys of classical music) and the Powerfolk series. Each song has a variety of modes. These include Enjoy Mode (beginner and Easy notes), 5-line Mode (for 5 buttons) and Normal mode (on-beat notes and simple chords). Most songs have a hyper mode (with more notes and harder chords), and some songs have an EXtra mode (with lots of notes and complicated chords). Pop'n Music has no other visuals except for the character the player chose, an opponent character, and the scrolling notes. The characters are animated, and act differently based on the player's performance.
Pop'n Music can be challenging at high difficulty levels. The higher difficulty levels are considered by some players to be the most challenging of any music game. However, Pop'n Music also features easier content for beginners. In this way, Pop'n Music caters to a wide variety of players.
Pop'n Stage
Pop'n Stage is a dancing game based around the Pop'n Music design and songs, with ten "switches" (four diagonals and a center on each side, just like Pump It UpPump It Up
Pump It Up, commonly abbreviated as PIU or shortened to just Pump, is a music video game series currently developed by Nexcade and published by Andamiro, a Korean arcade game producer. The game is typically played on a dance pad with five arrow panels: up-left, up-right, bottom-left, bottom-right,...
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
, using Pop'n-style graphics with DDR-style gameplay. The game has a bright, colorful interface and machine design, and is easy compared to most other Bemani games.
Pop'n Stage only supports one player at a time; 6-switch and 10-switch modes are available (corresponding to Pump It Up
Pump It Up
Pump It Up, commonly abbreviated as PIU or shortened to just Pump, is a music video game series currently developed by Nexcade and published by Andamiro, a Korean arcade game producer. The game is typically played on a dance pad with five arrow panels: up-left, up-right, bottom-left, bottom-right,...
External links
- Pop'n World, Konami of Japan's official Pop'n Music site.
- Konami - Pop'n Stage Top
- Solid State Squad pop'n division, an American Pop'n Score Tracking Site
- Bemanistyle.com, Major North American Bemani Site.