Reviews// Project Diva Extend

It all started when I was on holiday in Tokyo. Whilst scoping out an arcade house in Akihabara’s Electric Town, one particular game caught my eye. It was hard to miss - a row of colourful machines dominated the corner of the room, with a huge projector screen displaying a virtual girl with green hair dancing to the beat of some alien-sounding music.

“Mate,” my good friend Lewis declared, “This is that Hatsune Miku arcade game. I’m totally having a go.” I knew, from the queues of eager Japanese gamers wanting a go on this ¥100-per-song rhythm game, that I would soon lose him. Quite stupidly, I figured I should give it a try as well. After two plays, that was it: we were both hooked.

The game was called Project Diva Arcade, and the star - a ‘Vocaloid’ called Hatsune Miku - is quite literally the biggest thing in Japan right now, taking not only the arcade scene by storm but indeed the whole underground music industry. Vocaloid is a synthesiser - technology owned by a consortium of companies including Yamaha - that emulates a singer’s voice using computer algorithms and robotic sounds.

A by-product of this application is Project Diva, a group of fake anime singers that are licensed out to musicians and therefore make Yamaha a tonne of cash without actually having to pay anyone artistic royalties. From a business perspective, it’s absolute genius. And for otakus across the country - and young girls in the West who are catching onto the Vocaloid trend - Hatsune Miku is currently the hottest thing on the planet.

As well as the insanely popular arcade edition, SEGA is responsible for bringing the Vocaloid craze to the PlayStation Portable, the latest iteration being Project Diva Extend. The core gameplay of both will be familiar to anyone who’s enjoyed Gitaroo Man or Parappa the Rapper. Buttons come flying from different directions towards a hotspot on the screen, and you must press the appropriate button in time with the music while a CG singer dances in the background. A meter in corner of the screen must be filled up with well-timed strikes to complete the stage.



When tackling the Easy and Normal modes, you only need to worry about pressing the Circle and Cross buttons. Later difficulties throw in Square and Triangle, along with the added requirement of ninja-like reflexes and a perfect ear. At times, you’ll need to hold down a particular button, or press a direction on the D-pad with the right-coloured button. Gimmicks such as Chance Time offers the opportunity to rack up a high score and save yourself from potential failure.

The 36 songs available on Project Diva Extend are a good selection of ditzy and sugar-coasted Japanese pop songs, along with some pop rock and trance thrown in for good measure. And they’re horribly addictive - you’re bound to find at least ten tracks here that you’ll want to repeat until the end of time in hopes of obtaining the highest accolade - a ‘Perfect’ rank.

To keep the action going during your tap-fest, music videos starring your chosen Vocaloid (be that Hatsune Miku or one of an assortment of her fake male and female friends) will play out in the background. They either involve your character jamming away in a room, playing out a particular scene or performing ‘live’ on stage with glow sticks bouncing in the crowd - something that has actually been transferred to real life Vocaloid gigs in Japan (and recently Los Angeles), where a holographic CG Hatsune Miku jams with a live band.