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Topic	The Board 8 Discord Sports Chat Rank Their Top 100 Respective Video Games part 3
Naye745 02/27/21 5:56:09 PM #231:	16. Pop'n Music [series] (Arcade, 1998) Pop'n music is probably one of the weirder rhythm games to have achieved a substantial amount of success. The rest of the series that got started in the first couple years of Bemani's existence had fairly straightforward concepts: DDR (dance simulation), beatmania (DJ simulation), and GuitarFreaks/DrumMania (guitar/drum simulation, of course). Pop'n music, though? A cartoony game with 9 big ol' hamburger-sized buttons to smack in time with music doesn't really attempt to be a simulation of anything we're humanly accustomed to. Despite this, pop'n music ended up being one of the most popular Bemani games (at least for a while), likely because it was so different. Before there were a swath of games devoted to vocaloid idols, pop'n was one of the main games to license popular anime themes and J-Pop tunes, and it put them in a colorful and attractive package for the folks who might've been a little more intimdated by something like beatmania. Of course, pop'n itself is a deceivingly difficult game - at it's highest levels, it's on par with the most difficult rhythm games out there. Both reading the patterns of nine buttons on the screen, and handling the movement along the large controller, is a lot to handle. The game's unique controller, though, makes the experience extra-satisfying. Smacking the large buttons around when you're racking up a big combo feels extremely good; it's one of my favorite tactile things in all of rhythm gaming. Pop'n's other "thing" is its vast array of wildly different music. Outside of the aforementioned anime and J-Pop covers, pop'n has a ton of distinct tunes, all (up until pop'n 21, at least) labelled with a unique genre, starting with actual things (J-POP, TRANCE, LATIN), and quickly devolving into absolute nonsense (COWBOY? HYPER JAPANESQUE 2? DRM'N FRY??? SET'S BEAN?!??). Each song comes with its own unique character (okay, some are reused or recolored in later games, but still!) that has animations for winning, losing, reaching a full life bar. And it's all rendered in the very distinct pop'n music art style (that would basically have fans losing their minds after it was changed to a more anime-like style in pop'n 22 - so much that it's basically been completely reversed by this point, and that was like 5 years ago.) that is endlessly endearing and charming. The whole game, really, is just so lovely and compelling as a package, and it's a testament to how damn good the early Bemani stuff is that series as distinct as DDR, beatmania, and pop'n all got such a thorough level of attention to their aesthetic, theme, and structure, to make them into something iconic, and not just set dressing. Also, shoutouts to Koujirou, my absolute favorite pop'n character, the best birb of all time, who I will absolutely sift through the character select screen of every new release to find and choose. My experience with the game was largely confined to a handful of plays at anime conventions and comparable events before a friend of mine picked up a full arcade cabinet around...2014 or 2015? The machine was a little old but still in good condition, and running pop'n music 16 PARTY (I didn't intentionally do this, but I'm glad this entry turned out to be #16 on the list for that reason, heh.) which he later upgraded into the most recent version, Sunny Park. (pop'n 21 - yes, every Bemani game must have an absurd name/subtitle now.) At that point I dove headfirst into the game and found myself continually surprised by the depth of gameplay, the satisfying variety of music, and the ever-present drive to get to the next level. I always find that feeling to sort of "top out" in rhythm games (I'm not obsessive enough in a certain way to care about being one of the best players in the world or anything), but I managed to get up to clearing quite a few level 46 songs (difficulty ranges from 1-50) before I just kind of moved onto other stuff. (I hadn't even totally plateaued at that point!) And per usual, sifting through this writeup made me immediately want to play the game a whole heck of a bunch. I don't have a ton else to say - pop'n is a good rhythm game, and a cute rhythm game, and I like both of those things - so I'm just gonna throw a big wall of songs that I either love or that have super memorable charts. Favorite song picks: So good!! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdz9NaHyaE [STAR HERO] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyN0-R9wAQE Be Happy! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1DiBVXuyc Goofy charts/songs: [Set's Bean] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xrBDCG3XWg [Drm'n Fry] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RxNvlfbA7U Favorite tunes: 7 Colors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs1J3ouZXhM Illumina - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95OFD0421ZA [PATHETIC SKA] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4bR56jZiCY the keel (Nu-Style Gabba mix) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL-dol-0KMU --- it's an underwater adventure ride <cite>Naye745 posted [p:951156655] in The Board ... [t:79281225]...</cite> <quote>16. Pop'n Music [series] (Arcade, 1998) Pop'n music is probably one of the weirder rhythm games to have achieved a substantial amount of success. The rest of the series that got started in the first couple years of Bemani's existence had fairly straightforward concepts: DDR (dance simulation), beatmania (DJ simulation), and GuitarFreaks/DrumMania (guitar/drum simulation, of course). Pop'n music, though? A cartoony game with 9 big ol' hamburger-sized buttons to smack in time with music doesn't really attempt to be a simulation of anything we're humanly accustomed to. Despite this, pop'n music ended up being one of the most popular Bemani games (at least for a while), likely because it was so different. Before there were a swath of games devoted to vocaloid idols, pop'n was one of the main games to license popular anime themes and J-Pop tunes, and it put them in a colorful and attractive package for the folks who might've been a little more intimdated by something like beatmania. Of course, pop'n itself is a deceivingly difficult game - at it's highest levels, it's on par with the most difficult rhythm games out there. Both reading the patterns of nine buttons on the screen, and handling the movement along the large controller, is a lot to handle. The game's unique controller, though, makes the experience extra-satisfying. Smacking the large buttons around when you're racking up a big combo feels extremely good; it's one of my favorite tactile things in all of rhythm gaming. Pop'n's other "thing" is its vast array of wildly different music. Outside of the aforementioned anime and J-Pop covers, pop'n has a ton of distinct tunes, all (up until pop'n 21, at least) labelled with a unique genre, starting with actual things (J-POP, TRANCE, LATIN), and quickly devolving into absolute nonsense (COWBOY? HYPER JAPANESQUE 2? DRM'N FRY??? SET'S BEAN?!??). Each song comes with its own unique character (okay, some are reused or recolored in later games, but still!) that has animations for winning, losing, reaching a full life bar. And it's all rendered in the very distinct pop'n music art style (that would basically have fans losing their minds after it was changed to a more anime-like style in pop'n 22 - so much that it's basically been completely reversed by this point, and that was like 5 years ago.) that is endlessly endearing and charming. The whole game, really, is just so lovely and compelling as a package, and it's a testament to how damn good the early Bemani stuff is that series as distinct as DDR, beatmania, and pop'n all got such a thorough level of attention to their aesthetic, theme, and structure, to make them into something iconic, and not just set dressing. Also, shoutouts to Koujirou, my absolute favorite pop'n character, the best birb of all time, who I will absolutely sift through the character select screen of every new release to find and choose. My experience with the game was largely confined to a handful of plays at anime conventions and comparable events before a friend of mine picked up a full arcade cabinet around...2014 or 2015? The machine was a little old but still in good condition, and running pop'n music 16 PARTY (I didn't intentionally do this, but I'm glad this entry turned out to be #16 on the list for that reason, heh.) which he later upgraded into the most recent version, Sunny Park. (pop'n 21 - yes, every Bemani game must have an absurd name/subtitle now.) At that point I dove headfirst into the game and found myself continually surprised by the depth of gameplay, the satisfying variety of music, and the ever-present drive to get to the next level. I always find that feeling to sort of "top out" in rhythm games (I'm not obsessive enough in a certain way to care about being one of the best players in the world or anything), but I managed to get up to clearing quite a few level 46 songs (difficulty ranges from 1-50) before I just kind of moved onto other stuff. (I hadn't even totally plateaued at that point!) And per usual, sifting through this writeup made me immediately want to play the game a whole heck of a bunch. I don't have a ton else to say - pop'n is a good rhythm game, and a cute rhythm game, and I like both of those things - so I'm just gonna throw a big wall of songs that I either love or that have super memorable charts. Favorite song picks: So good!! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdz9NaHyaE [STAR HERO] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyN0-R9wAQE Be Happy! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1DiBVXuyc Goofy charts/songs: [Set's Bean] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xrBDCG3XWg [Drm'n Fry] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RxNvlfbA7U Favorite tunes: 7 Colors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs1J3ouZXhM Illumina - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95OFD0421ZA [PATHETIC SKA] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4bR56jZiCY the keel (Nu-Style Gabba mix) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL-dol-0KMU --- it's an underwater adventure ride</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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