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Playstation 2
SLPM 66742
7/10/2007
Konami
$64.90 @ Play-Asia.com
After it's announcement in late February this year, pop'n music 14 FEVER! CS has had quite a bit of hype around it. The arcade version is revered by many as having one of the best and most varied song lists in all of pop'n history. It's the first version to feature a song that was destined to be cut from the consumer release. The Konamistyle limited edition set featured a pair of headphones, making the LE for 14 one of the few to have an item that some fans would actually use. And of course, it's another release for one of the surviving Bemani franchises during it's 10th Anniversary.
Personally, I'm usually pretty skeptical when a new consumer version of a Bemani title comes out. Having previously lived in an area where at least one arcade kept as up to date as possible with the arcade releases, I would tend to get pretty jaded with a particular game by the time it was released for PS2. Consumer songs and revivals are about the only things that excite me when a new title comes out for PS2. Surprisingly enough, this wasn't the case with pop'n music 14. Upon putting it in my PS2 for the first time, I was pleased to find many of the songs as enjoyable now as I did when I first played them in the arcade. No release has been that way for me since pop'n music 8 was released in 2003. Not only is the song list varied enough to be considered one of the better releases musically, a lot of the charts are also very fun to play. Even songs on difficulty levels far lower than what I would typically play are fun. I find myself spending more time on a lot of the hyper charts with a good mix of ojamas to keep it difficult and it's a blast.
Another thing pop'n 14 has that I personally haven't felt was present in the last few games is an unlock system that isn't frustrating. It plays itself in 2 parts. One revolving around ee'mall songs, and the other being a standard unlock game. In the unlock game you essentially play out the story of Fever Robo, a series of characters themed similar to Bemani Sentai and Gambler Z. When you start each game, you're given an objective to clear within your 3 songs. There are 2 difficulty levels for the objectives, but none of them are truly so difficult that it would take anyone familiar with the franchise more than a few days of casual playing to unlock the entire game. The only really frustrating part of the unlock game is that you either need a translation or knowledge of the Japanese language to understand some of the objectives given to you. For the ee'mall songs it's even easier. You play through the game and amass points which you use to purchase songs. Thankfully unlike previous games, pop'n 14 has a rather large ee'mall song list, making this feature worth having in game. It's not complete by any means, but it is a lot better than the 4 or 5 featured in each game from 9 through 13.
Honestly, my only complaint with pop'n music 14 as a whole is the limited number of revivals and CS songs. With only 4 non ee'mall revival songs and 15 consumer songs, it makes me wish they would've done more with that aspect of the song list. Granted I really can't complain too much, as the decision to make Sunshine Dance a consumer new song is something that completely blew me away and 46 ee'mall songs is more than anyone could've asked for. Still, the inclusion of half-speeds to the in game options really would've been great with some of the older songs. As a whole though, pop'n 14 features the best song list in a long time and stands to be more than entertaining enough to tide at least myself over until pop'n music 15 CS is released.
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