If you’re a fan of Hatsune Miku and have been waiting for an entry to grace your Nintendo Switch then your waiting is over. Sega has now brought the latest entry, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega Mix to Nintendo’s hybrid console giving fans a way to enjoy the music on the big screen or on the go. Does this entry bring anything new to the dance floor and is it worth your time?
Project Diva Mega Mix contains a pretty large assortment of songs for players to have Miku and her friends dance along to. There are over 100 in total in fact with a handful of brand-new ones. If you haven’t played one of these games before they play like a lot of other music rhythm games in that as the music plays, you’ll be prompted to time your button presses as they move across the screen. The better your timing on the button press or analog stick movement the better score you’ll get. Miss too many prompts though and you’ll find yourself failing the show. The game does offer different difficulty options for songs with those being Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme, and Extra Extreme so you can go with what you feel the most comfortable with and steadily improve from there. Outside of that there isn’t much more to the basics of this game.
Because this is the first entry on the Nintendo Switch though the developer has created a mode built specifically to make use of the Switch’s motion controls. This mode is called Mix Mode and will have you moving the Joy-Cons to move on-screen paddles. It’s an interesting mode and it seemed to work fine in my time trying it but I quickly went back to the standard Arcade Mode to play my music with buttons.
Now of course one of the most important things to any music game is how is the music? Well like I said the game boasts a track list of over 100 songs and you’re free to play pretty much all of them from the get go. There are a lot of good songs here although if you played Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone on the PlayStation 4 then you’ll find most of those same songs that were in that game are here too. In total I think there were around 10 songs or so that were brand new to this entry which isn’t a lot. Perhaps more will be added as DLC in the future but it would’ve been nice to see more unique songs from the get go.
Outside of playing songs you can mess around with the huge amount of customization options that are in the game. There are hundreds of items here to mix and match including outfits, different hair, and more. There is also a cool T-shirt editor where you can draw the designs yourself with the touchscreen. I’m not very good at drawing things like that but I could see how some people might be able to come up with some cool designs to customize their character with.
The presentation and performance in the game seemed to be pretty good from what I could tell. Whether I was playing on the TV or in handheld mode every song I played seemed to run fine with only the occasional dip in frame rate noticed. The load times seemed to vary though as sometimes the song I selected would load rather fast and other times it seemed to take longer than I would’ve liked. The game does boast a different visual style from past entries though with everything having a cel-shaded look to it now. The end result looked fine but when compared to the PlayStation 4 Future Tone game they don’t quite have the same level of detail.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix is a compelling entry for those looking for a version of the game they can play anywhere. It doesn’t have as massive of a track list as the most recent PlayStation 4 version does but the songs that are here are pretty good ones and you get some brand-new ones too. All of the music videos look and run fine for the most part on Nintendo’s system outside of the occasional frame rate dip and some lengthy load times periodically. If you want Hatsune Miku on the go this is a great option to add to your library.
*Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix is available now on Nintendo Switch. Reviewed on Nintendo Switch. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix
$39.39
Pros
- Over 100 songs to play from the get go
- New cel-shaded visual style looks good
- Tons of customization items to unlock
- Easy to play for any rhythm game fan
Cons
- Has less than half the amount of songs as another recent entry
- Has some occassional long load times
- Graphics aren't as detailed as prior versions
