Link's in the other post, just so you know.
I'm probably to post a separate review for all larger compilations. Anyways, I saw this game in a few arcades and decided to give it a try. This game is pretty much DDR with your hands: hit the note at the right time and in some cases the correct pattern. Alas, I failed miserably because I have the worst reflexes in the world (no wonder I prefer turn-based RPGs like Pokemon). I did get curious about the music, though like DDR, the OST would probably be packed with a bunch of shitty, sugary Asian pop music. The DJMAX series is Korean, not Japanese, but given what I heard the music selection was likely to be the same. Having no job for the summer, I had nothing better to do than listen and review.
My first impressions were absolutely true, both in the $5 in quarters I wasted at the arcade and the whole thing I downloaded. Most of this album is shitty Asian pop music with the language of the lyrics changing as much as the mood of a bipolar psychopath betting on the current 2010 World Cup, but there are a few gems. You could say the same for DDR releases, but this is a lesser known franchise. It's also funny how both the game and the Wikipedia releases do not know their genres for electronic music.
So yeah, I guess I should move on to a review of selected songs. As far as I know, besides the bonus track, the Platinum CD simply consists of longer versions of the regular CD's tracks and offers no little to no new content. There is no particular order; I listened through with my iPod on shuffle.
All tracks - All of them are relatively short, which is good news if you hate Asian pop music as much as I do (well, I hate pretty much all pop lol). Even for the good music, the shortness helps keep what you like not boring and repetitive.
First Kiss (BJJ) - Probably the first song most people play on the game (it was my first), the song's title is apt. And honestly, it's the least painful pop song on the entire album. It's not something I would listen to every day, but it's not bad at all.
SON OF SUN (Hosoe Shinji) - ....yet there's a Japanese artist on a Korean game soundtrack. Anyways, this is my favorite song from the entire album. It's a refreshing little hardcore tune that's not quite light enough to be considered hhc that provides some hope for the genre, especially since the Western scene is infested with gabber artists overusing their hip-hop and rap samples (*coughcough*MoH artists*coughcough*). The vocal samples blend in well with the music and the experience is pleasant. Incidentally, the Wikipedia article (not sure about the game) laughingly calls this "gabber".
ACCESS (SPHAZER) - A regular ol' dance track that's tolerable. It's average and a bit generic but worth a listen and certainly one of the better tracks.
STOP (3rd Coast) - Catchy, cheesy, and fun, I love this track. They should be playing this kind of music instead of that shitty mainstream hip hop 4 da gangstaz. Probably my second favorite song after SON OF SUN, this is an enjoyable listen and once you learn the lyrics, you really can't resist singing along (the lyrics are in English). SO SMOOTH MAKE A MOVE BABY....
Bonus Track (Pentavision) - Pentavision are the makers of the game, so this track on the Platinum mix is their little "Easter egg". I like the use of low beats, but this song gives me a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. I'm kind of neutral....I don't hate the song, but it's not good by any stretch. But like ACCESS, it's a head above the rest of the pack.
SuperSonic (Planet Boom) - Originally on a game called S4 League published by the same company and unknown to myself and probably most American gamers, this song is a representative of one of those shitty "add subgenre of rock or metal and mix with some speedcore" recipes. It's not quite digital hardcore, but it's certainly reminiscent of it, and unfortunately is an example of it done badly as it is so many times. Listen to Atari Teenage Riot, which is an amazing act (coincidentally coming together for a reunion tour this year), and you'll see what I mean.
Clear Blue Sky (Tsukasa) - This song is ok in small doses if you can ignore the vocals, and for this reason the shorter version that's on the regular disk is a better listen than the full version on the Platinum mix. The vocals annoyed me to some extent, but otherwise it was decent. It starts out slow...a bit too slow, but improves towards the end. Why does this remind me so much of .hack?
The Last Dance (Urbatronic) - This song is so laughably terrible, it reminds me of one of those Destiny's Child songs that was popular when I was in 4th grade. I have one song in mind, but I can't think of its name. Not that it matters or that anyone cares.
Para Q (Forte Escape) - This song is nostalgic mostly because it reminds me of Thunderdome II and therefore is probably only enjoyable to myself. Well, more like an updated made-for-music-game version of Thunderdome II. And you know what? That sounds way better than recent official Thunderdome releases.
Area 8 (SPHAZER) - Tolerable, but slightly worse than ACCESS.
Cherokee (xxdbxx) - That's really the artist name, not a Gaiafag username. Does db stand for Dubstep...? Anyways, this track is pretty decent, I like it. Nothing particular of note other than that it's an enjoyable listen.
Fury (Sugardonut) - azn lads trying to play punk, and....it's actually a short and enjoyable track. The part from 00:24-00:38 I did not like but fortunately it's not that long and this song was spared from a bad review as a result. If this were any longer, I probably would hate it as I hate most rock music and its subgenres. It's a guilty pleasure, but we all have them. Not like I replayed this over and over again.....ok fine, I did.
Oblivion (ESTi) - Elder Scrolls V speculation aside, as far as I know this is one of the most popular songs on DMT. And I do not see what the fuck people like about this, other than further proving their terrible taste in music. The violin work sounds like a dramatic cat mewing. Perhaps it's popular because weaboos and otaku (or whatever the Korean equivalent is, go check ED) find it similar to their shitty anime music.
Coastal Tempo (3rd Tempo) - STOP was good. This is not. What happened here? Sure there's some good parts about it, but most of it sounds like they literally vomited out the music and ran it through a synthesizer.
JBG (CROOVE) - Legit hip-hop. The song is merely ok, but it's far better than the crap out there today. At the very least it can serve as entertainment for any Fresh Prince of Bel-Air impersonators out there.
SIN (ESTi) - There were some good parts about this song, but then they ruined it with the piano backdrop and beats that had absolutely no synergy with the rest of the package. Same artist as Oblivion, and slightly better. Similar to Coastal Tempo, but it's still not good.
WhiteBlue (ZTS) - This is one of those songs you grow to like. This is pretty similar to some SHMUP artists and OSTs I heard (such as cityline90), so I guess I kind of liked it after repeated listens. It's average, but not stellar.
BlythE (M2U) - Similar to WhiteBlue, but I liked this mostly because they use vocal samples properly and it actually has some synergy with the music. Sure it's a sugary feminine voice but it's mixed in well with the music and I can't make out what she's trying to say which is even better so it doesn't seem like she's saying bullshit just to say it. All in all, this is relatively decent.
Colours of Sorrow (Tsukasa) - This started out as a promising (cheesy) hhc track you could find on Bonkers or HTID, but at 00:27 I was sorely disappointed. It all went downhill from there. Ugh. Since this was towards the end of my listening run, I should've noticed that the artist's other songs were shitty.
너에게 (Sweetune) (song title written as the Japanese あなたに on my copy) - I really don't care what this song's name is, as it fucking sucks. But I mention this because the male vocal sounds suspiciously similar to Raymond, who was an American part of Suzukisan. Aka Pokemon's little hip hop group responsible for such gems like Pokemon Ieru Ka Na? . That song is fucking awesome; it's way better than this shit.
It seems like I reviewed all of the songs, but I actually left out a number of them. For a quick wrap-up, here's a general summary of what I left out:
- They were uninteresting and bland
- They were mostly typical Asian pop bullshit (in addition to K-pop, J-pop and Chinese pop were represented)
- They were too awful to waste my time mentioning
I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading, if you lasted this long lol. I wonder if I should do something in-depth like this again.
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