This is quite possibly one of the greatest games of all time, it changed my life. When my grandmother was dying in the hospital from cancer I told her to play this game so that she could at least experience one last joy on this earth. Literally one day later she is well enough to leave the hospital and her cancer is now in remission. If this game hadn't existed my grandmother would be dead right now. Also when I have something stuck in my head from school, I just play this game and my brain erased the memory I had that won't go away. Also, my hair grew back, my mortgage was payed off, my **** grew 2 inches, my dead dog came back, and my wife came back to me! If this game never existed, none of this would have happened. Thank you DJ MAX PORTABLE 3!
This installment was the sole inspiration for Konami's later released Sound Voltex series.
While a great game with varied OST, its progression system is what makes you grind your teeth at times. To unlock content you have to earn exp. points. Perhaps, way too many exp. point to the point where you would essentially want to use cheats to unlock more content early and it's understandable.
Other than that, it's a visual and sound treat for all rhythm game lovers.
I've been fan of the DJMAX games since the first release (please note that officially title is written "DJMAX" without a space in between DJ and MAX. Or at least that's the case in Korea and in Europe) but I think that DJMAX Portable 3 is probably the worst game in this series.
It lacks lots of modes and features from previous games. For example ability to watch music videos and listen the soundtrack. United States and Korea releases both were plagued by bugs. Most of them have been already fixed. However in United States release gameplay balance was tipped off by patch but it's not necessary a bad thing for inexperienced american gamers. US version also isn't as supported as well as KR version. For example ranking sites are different and there are various differences in functionality.
DJMP3 is not as much fun to play as the previous games such as "DJMAX Portable 2" and "DJMAX Clazziquai Edition" which where never released in Northern America. I think that the best title in the series is the "DJMAX Portable" which is the first PSP title in the series.
DJMP3 music is pretty good for a DJMAX game. But at the same time they fall in a pit of being too generic common music. What makes DJMAX Portable unique is that most of the songs are well designed and they are also highly experimental music from genres which probably still haven't reached mainstream popularity. DJMAX Portable 3 doesn't include much experimental music and instead offers well designed mainstream trance, pop and rock. DJMAX Portable 3 artists are still mostly korean and japanese talents but to my surprise there were also songs from DJ Keri included. She is a female DJ from United States. Other sound design is high quality but it leaves for a hi-fi enthusiast like myself still craving for something more. DJ "Mr. Funky" has done good job and probably one of my favourite composers from now on in the series.
The graphics are probably best of the series. Every new DJMAX Portable has improved graphics and graphical quality. DJMP3 has been beautifully visualized but at the same time there's a carefully thought balance between live video and drawn animations. Its on pair with the Black Square if not better.
Gameplay like I probably already mentioned is just bad. Basically it's still the familiar DJMAX but changes in leveling, collecting items and gameplay modes make it feel like you've been betrayed by your wife. I should probably start with saying that in DJMP3 all the best songs are locked from the start. That's ok and I don't mind that I get new songs when I level up and its actually good idea to keep gamer interested in game. But designers have made it so that you only get really tiny amounts of experience points from playing the game. They artificially make game unnaturally long. DJMP3 has about 100 levels and new songs start to appear randomly (selectable lottery box after you've gained new level appears) after level 50. Its annoying and not fun at all. US version tried to correct this by adding 10% more experience points but it probably made it just more annoying for gamers playing in hard mode. And hard mode... its been ruined in a weird way. US version on normal is about as easy as KR on easy. However US hard mode is as hard if not harder than KR version hard mode. This is probably caused by some kind of bug but I really don't know about that. Collecting experience is hard also because you're not able to access all gameplay modes. For example if you play on normal, and want to collect more experience you could select harder button mode like 6B. New turntable system changes this into more annoying chance. 6B is not available from the start. You have to unlock it for normal mode.
...
I think I'll leave this review here and instead rewrite it and publish it on my blog... But you get the generic idea why I don't like DJMAX Portable 3. it's not very hard game but it's annoying to play for various reasons.
DJMAX Portable 3 tries. It really does. But where the previous games in the series had amazing song lists and tight gameplay, Portable 3 fails to live up with a fairly ho-hum selection of songs and charts that fail to impress. Not that it's all bad. The selection of songs does include a few goodies like Waiting for the Sun and Cosmic Fantastic Lovesong. But songs like Become Myself just leave a bad taste. And it doesn't help that the game has a full 10 less songs than most others in the series. The new mode, remix mode, would be a welcome change but the timing just feels a bit off for remix sections and a lot of the choices for the spliced-in songs are pretty terrible which ruins the flow of the original song. Overall, it's not a bad game. There's a decent amount of content and challenge. Portable 3 just doesn't do the series the full justice it deserves.