Founding a gaming website made me open my eyes towards an exponentially wider array of games I had never previously expected I’d cover someday. Last year, I bit the bullet and played my first Hatsune Miku game. Sure, it was a mere picross puzzler, but it made me realize that that entire franchise revolving around a physically nonexistent vocaloid popstar was less cringy than my prejudiced mind had initially imagined. It was only a matter of time before I tackled one of her music-based games. Here we are folks, I’m giving Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ (gotta love those immense Japanese game titles) a go on PC. And you know what? It was pretty good.

I eventually learned out of some well-needed research that Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ is part of a wider arcade series spanning multiple iterations and console ports. This port in particular is a version of a game initially released for only the Nintendo Switch one year ago. It’s quite rare to see a PC port come out after a console one in this day and age, but I get it: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ feels right at home on a portable, all due to its pick-up-and-play mentality. There’s not much of a career per se in this game. You pick up a song, out of more than a literal hundred, play through it, get a high score, and move on to the next one. Simple, carefree.

The gameplay follows the same premise as most rhythm games out in the market. Although, weirdly enough, the one gameplay loop it reminded me the most was the karaoke modes featured in the Yakuza games, also developed by Sega. This is all about pressing the correct button whenever the respective button icon passes through a specified area. This is easier said than done for two reasons. The first reason is the fact that, unlike a game like Guitar Hero, for instance, notes aren’t tied to a specific portion of the screen. They can appear anywhere, forcing you to pay double attention to your surroundings.

The second reason is actually my main gripe with this game: it suffers from a ton of visual noise. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ is the gaming equivalent of an Akihabara skyline, featuring an immense amount of visual pollution onscreen. All of its songs are accompanied by overly detailed music videos filled to the brim with particles, flashes, fast-paced effects, and the lot. This, combined with the complete anarchy that is the note placement onscreen, create a hodgepodge of imagery that makes the act of paying attention the gameplay itself much harder than it needs to be. I’m not complaining about the graphics per se, as the videos are adorable and super detailed, but that means you will need to spend some time on easier difficulties in order to get a hold of this game’s chaotic mechanics.

It doesn’t matter if you have past experience with Guitar Hero, Donkey Konga, DDR, or any other rhythm game. I’d fully recommend spending some time on easier difficulties and on easier songs in order to get your eyes and brain adjusted to the sheer amount of crap thrown at you during a song. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ is tough, but also very rewarding. It’s far from impossible: you just need to get used to its waifu-plastered anarchy. I didn’t even mind its songlist, as it was a LOT more varied than I could have imagined. Sure, it’s all sung by vocaloids (as in, heavily autotuned software), but this game’s songlist contains rock tunes, EDM tunes, anime-esque themes, and even a FANTASTIC homage to Sega’s After Burner. It also features the Nyan Cat theme song. And now it’s stuck inside my brain forever…

Never, in my wildest dreams, have I ever imagined I’d like a vocaloid-based music game like Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ as I did. It’s a great rhythm title with a shocking amount of content, both in terms of cosmetics and songs of all genres. I also did not expect for it to be that challenging. Sure, a bit of its difficulty stemmed from the sheer amount of visual noise onscreen, but its gameplay did not pull any punches. It’s really challenging, and that’s what I liked the most from it. It also made me realize Sega could easily make a Yakuza karaoke-themed rhythm game just like this title. I’d totally buy that game.

 

Graphics: 7.5 The game itself looks sharp and adorable, but it’s absolutely plastered with too much stuff onscreen, making the act of paying attention at incoming notes much harder than it should.	Gameplay: 7.5 The gameplay per se is simple and intuitive, but the game suffers from the aforementioned visual noise problem.
Sound: 8.5 Sure, every single song in this game features vocaloid vocals, but the amount of genres covered in this title was a lot larger than I could have ever imagined. It also features the Nyan Cat theme song. I still don’t know if that was a good thing or not.	Fun Factor: 8.0 The amount of content in this game is absolutely shocking. It’s not only fun for fans of Miku herself, but anyone who’s into rhythm games. Just be aware of some visual noise issues, as well as a gargantuan difficulty curve.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ was provided by the publisher.