Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (3DS)
Nendoroid figures are a rather successful line of quality plastic figures that typically depict recognizable characters from different types of media in a chibi art style and since its creation in 2006, quite a lot of them have been made of the characters from the virtual idols made for the Vocaloid line of voice synthesizing software. In fact, Hatsune Miku, the most recognizable Vocaloid diva, has not only been one of their best selling figures but received a wide range of variations, so if a video game was to decide to use Nendoroid figures for their art direction, it’s perhaps little surprise it would be one starring Miku and her supporting cast.
Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is actually an updated version of the second game in this rhythm game series, the original and its sequel only receiving a Japnaese release before an updated version provided a chance to bring it overseas. It is an extension of a larger series though, the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA having plenty of other entries but they focus on the Vocaloid characters presented with their usual appearances. The Nendoroid look leads to Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX definitely leaning into the adorable look of its characters more than the series might usually, but it does so rather effectively while also not completely avoiding other types of appeals, the music featured for you to play along with rather varied and the music videos starring the chibi characters going for different emotions than just trying to make you fawn over their cuteness the whole time.
Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX features almost 50 songs created using the Vocaloid program’s distinct sound, the artificial voices not trying to past fully for human and giving many of the songs a sort of techno tinge regardless of their genre. The rare male voices shake it off a little better, but the technological sound is certainly part of the appeal in many tracks and lends itself well to the fairly common peppy pop songs in this collection. All the songs are in Japanese with the subtitles being romanized Japanese as well, but there are smatterings of English peppered throughout the lyrics of some tracks and the instrumentation and composition can still make it easy for certain songs to quickly get stuck in your head. Having well defined rhythms definitely helps towards the playing along aspect of the experience, and while you need to unlock the songs by playing other ones first, the game does try to keep the more advanced and sometimes almost hectic tracks as unlockables so you don’t dive into something too advanced early on.
During play you’ll either be pressing buttons or touching colored regions on the bottom depending on your preference, but the actual indicators for what to hit and when to hit it appear on the top screen. On this screen though a music video will be playing underneath the button prompts, and these videos are actually fairly easy to watch even if you’re focused on the all important prompts because the game has rather wisely spaced them and sized the symbols to not block too much while still being readable. A few songs will be more about a Vocaloid character dancing on a rather fanciful stage. For Sweet Magic, an already bouncy song performed Kagamine Rin, she’s dressed like a chef and dancing around on a stage made of gingerbread cookies while Gaikotsu Gakudan to Lilia has Hatsune Miku in a frilly red dress to dance with skeletons in dapper suits. These stage performances will sometimes have fairly elaborate backdrops with more focus on the appearance of the singer/dancer, the Nendoroid aesthetic giving them large heads with easily read expressions, but even with these proportions they can have fairly varied dance moves with a good deal of personality.
Perhaps more impressive though are the tracks that move away from that presentation style into something aiming to tell more of a story. A big standout is Aku no Musume, the tale of a haughty queen whose selfishness leads to a peasant revolt that can easily be understood with the artistic backdrop that mixes storybook simplicity with intricate royal designs. Kagamine Rin disappears into the role even if you can’t understand a word being said and the music itself moves along with the plot well to follow its highs and lows and even back up the prideful behavior of the queen, but more compelling is the fact that there is a sequel song that shows the perspective of a loyal servant of hers and how he acts during the events. These two songs do tie to a wider Vocaloid setting and many of these songs are actually adjustments of existing music videos into this specific art style, but that often means they had quite a lot of strong material to work with and a wide range of tones and presentation formats to work with. 1925 lets you see different Vocaloid characters all tackle a romantic and nostalgic street car story, LOL -lots of laugh- is just a silly theme park trip, *Hello, Planet. is a video game inspired trip for a naive robot in a post-apocalyptic world, and PianoXForteXScandal has MEIKO play the role of a dashing thief on the run. Softer songs, fast-paced rock music, elegant duets, and even just a song about being a playful kitty make for a wide range of tracks that all have their own appeals and some interesting background videos to watch, and for the most part they do map rather well to this game’s approach to rhythm action.
When playing a song in Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX you’ll mostly be watching a line on the top screen that guides your eye with its continuous movement, symbols appearing on the line that will eventually line up with a ring indicator that rides the line. When the ring reaches a symbol, you need to hit the right button or part of the touch screen to earn points and stay alive, the player losing life if they miss and potentially ending the song prematurely if they can’t keep up. Notes can be hit with various levels of precision to earn more points and earn combos to increase those points as long as you’re close enough to the intended time, and with a white ring shrinking in towards symbols to help you get the timing right there is enough to the basic visual clarity to ensure you can keep on beat fairly well. In touch screen mode the important part of the symbols are their color, the touch screen having different regions for blue, pink, and yellow notes, although depending on the difficulty it might just be two colors or one. Tapping the right colors in rhythm is the challenge here while the button mode instead has you utilize A, B, X, and Y, the letters color-coded as well but you’ll need to be quicker since the button mode songs often have you hit more notes than the touch equivalent. Both play methods also feature parts where you need to hold down a note for a while and release it at the right time and there’s a point where you either spin your stylus or the control stick on held notes, but the button mode also has a few rare moments where you need to press a button and direction at the same time to try and make it a touch more difficult. Both modes are enjoyable and properly test your ability to keep up with the songs being played, and having both options plus different difficulties for them gives you reason to replay songs beyond setting high scores, but there is a bit of an issue with the line system that holds it back a touch.
The line that moves across the screen to make symbols appear is usually pretty utilitarian in its movement, not trying to cover too much of the screen so you can watch the video and the symbols on the line need to be spaced enough they don’t overlap and hide useful info. Sometimes though it does get a bit more creative, focusing more on an interesting visual than practicality. This can lead to moments like when it make a few small loops and the symbols start to cover each other up a bit, a problem when there are moments you might need to hold down a button for a very short period but you can hardly see the indicator for that held time with the notes squashed together so closely. Other times the line might end up straying a little too close to the edge of the screen so a symbol isn’t fully visible or only really appears rather close to when you need to press it, although thankfully these can usually be quickly adjusted to if you’re attentive. The only times it really feels like it might actually trick you are during songs like Amatsu Kitsune that feature a sudden tempo change that isn’t really shown too well by the line, but these rare stumbles are perhaps better counterbalanced by the moments the line decides to be thematic. In a duet like Cendrillon, the vocal lines of Miku and KAITO are represented on different lines that weave into each other to swap off or join up for the parts they both are singing. reverse rainbow uses the already rainbow-colored indicators for spins along with rainbow-shaped line sections, but a few times a line will even just appear to draw a quick picture like some airplanes in Tricolore Airline that have no indicators on them to cause problems. Sometimes the indicators will be at odd angles like when one song uses a set of boxy steps for the line, but these aren’t too hard to accomodate and don’t distract from the simple rhythm test at the heart of the gameplay.
While the rhythm gameplay is where you’ll find Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX at its most interactive, there is actually a rather fleshed out feature involving interacting with a Vocaloid character of your choice. There are six characters available and you can swap between them as you like, giving them each their own room with different visual designs like something futuristic or one that leans more into traditional Japanese decor. With the rewards you earn from doing well in the rhythm game portion you can buy them many toys and pieces of furniture for their room and watch them interact with them. You can buy them the different outfits they wear for their music videos to instead wear around the house, you can purchase them snacks they will react to, and you can play against them in games of Reversi where they actually act like they’re thinking about their moves or you can have them be your character in a small Puyo Puyo color-matching puzzle game as well. There was a lot of work put into making sure these room segments, despite being less interactive for the most part, were still worthy of player attention with the characters having a wide range of actions and expressions so buying them something to play with actually has the pay off of seeing them use it and enjoy it. It’s a lower stake reward system than unlocking things like Super Hard variants for songs by doing superbly and it’s a fine way to relax between some of the more demanding tracks, and with things like the $100,000 Mirai Resort trip to work towards you get something that is worth building up to because you know the game will put in the work to make it seem like the character is on a vacation rather than just standing in a new backdrop. It is somewhat simple still, they’ll spend some time puttering around and idling between actions and you can’t fill the rooms with too much at one time, but there is more to this rhythm game than just a few songs to play along with, especially since you can also do things like leave comments on the music videos other players can see or create a dance routine for the Vocaloids to perform.
THE VERDICT: Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX keeps its rhythm game action simple to follow and yet still suitably challenging. By keeping your considerations limited to a small set of buttons or touch screen interactions, you also get to more easily enjoy the wide range of music videos styles without your ability to play along being disrupted. With a good selection of music tracks that are both catchy and varied and background visuals you’re able to enjoy, the actual gameplay only ever really stumbles when the line you follow gets a bit too creative and those moments are few and far between. Instead, you can play the songs how you like and earn points towards helping your Vocaloids look cute in their Nendoroid inspired designs or have fun with the fruits of your labors.
And so, I give Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX for Nintendo 3DS…
A GOOD rating. You’re not going to be asked to do anything too complex with how you play during a song, but Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX does a good job mapping its straightforward play so it can be a challenge to do well. It is a bit of a shame the music line being more indulgent at times can disrupt that solid note distribution and lead to a hiccup here or there, but it is more entertaining to see it being a bit creative than it is bothersome to have a moment or two during a song where you’re thrown off. Considering the songs are made to be replayed on different difficulties and across the two modes it also means you will be able to accommodate things like the initially unexpected tempo shift in Amatsu Kitsune, but what helps this game be more than a collection of quality songs is the game allowing you to appreciate the music videos while also keeping its gameplay side suitably involved. You will need to be watching the symbols closely but the Nendoroid designs lend themselves well to big readable expressions and movements you can easily see without having to focus on them. Be they story songs, well choreographed dances, or just adorable stage shows, there is a good range in both the sound of what you’re listening to and how the Vocaloid characters engage with it, and while Miku herself definitely takes the stage more than others like Luka, there are also variants where different singers can perform the song and you can at least spend time with each of the characters if you do have a particular favorite over in the room segment of the game. The rewards you can spend your points are do have many reactions to witness as well although it can almost feel more like watching your chosen idol is more like a mix of a pet sim and a dollhouse, but the love put into the visual presentation ensures it is still amusing and entertaining to see how they behave when presented with different items or activities. It would be nice if you could better customize things like the room, but already the characters have such a wide spread of outfits and behaviors that it’s hard to complain about the offerings. Some more interactivity could help like being able to directly present something like a toy to the character for immediate responses, but there is something appealing about popping over from music mode and finding the character seemingly living their own life.
Aesthetically, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX realizes its chosen adorable appearance excellently and still it can manage a range of music videos including some like tragic tales and elegant waltzes that would seemingly be incompatible with the chibi look. A game full of performances like Aku no Musume could be more compelling and perhaps using the music line’s shape in more creative ways that impact the gameplay positively instead of negatively could push this format further, but keeping the rhythm is balanced well with appreciating the game’s devotion to its personality and visuals and so its fairly familiar formula for gameplay isn’t holding it back but instead letting its concept come to life surprisingly well.