DJ Max

DJ Max (Korean: 디제이맥스) is an action-rhythm video game created by the South Korean company Pentavision Entertainment. The first game of the series was released in 2004, and its main feature was two-player online battling. Then Pentavision published from 2006 six DJ Max games for the PSP.

In 2008, Pentavision announced another video-game for PC named DJ Max Trilogy, which includes a compilation of songs from three games, DJ Max Online, Portable, Portable 2, among with exclussive songs, with an online battle system, updates and more. In December 31 Pentavision announced an arcade music game named Technika with a new way of playing via a bottom 22-inch touch screen.

On March 4, 2010, a sequel to the game Technika, was published under the name of DJ Max Technika 2.

PM Studios officially announced on 25 May 2010 that DJ Max Portable 3 would be released in North America, and that they were aiming for a North American release within October 2010.

DJMax was originally in service in Korea, Japan, and China, but today the online service is available in every country, and games are available to buy on e-shops.

Gameplay
The player must press their keys in time with one or various instruments of the melody, to make the notes sound as indicated by scrolling symbols. There are various types of key patterns, depending of the game, which are from 3-Key, up to 8-Key (depending of the game), and also three basic difficulty levels called easy, normal and hard. There is a special difficulty level called "SC" (Super Crazy) for certain songs. In almost every version, as notes are played with perfect rhythmic accuracy, a "fever gauge" will be charged. When it is fully charged, "Fever" can be activated to multiply the combo, varying between x2 and x5 or more depending on the accuracy of each note pressed. Players can play by themselves in Training Mode, or challenge with other online players through the Battle Mode. In addition, players can customize their avatars, game skins, note symbols by unlocking them. Avatars, gears and notes have their unique stat modifiers, like DefUP, AUTO, and others. On the PlayStation Portable versions, Players are presented with 2-Button, 4-Button, 6-Button, 8-Button and 4-Button FX. The latest PSP version DJ Max Fever introduced two systems called Entire Control System and Auto Correction System from DJ Max Portable Black Square. The songs in this version are picked from 1st and 2nd versions with 1 new song.

Series

 * DJMAX - PC (2004)
 * DJ Max Portable - PSP (2006)
 * DJ Max Portable 2 - PSP (2007)
 * DJ Max Portable Clazziquai Edition - PSP (2008)
 * DJ Max Portable Black Square - PSP (2008)
 * DJ Max Technika - Arcade (2008)
 * DJ Max Trilogy - PC (2008)
 * DJ Max Fever - PSP (2009, North America)
 * DJ Max Technika 2 - Arcade (2010)
 * DJ Max Portable Hot Tunes - PSP (2010, Japan)
 * DJ Max Portable 3 - PSP (Fall 2010)

Differences with other rhythm games
Excluding Technika, and Technika 2, the style of playing is quite similar with Konami's Beatmania. The main features that characterize DJ Max playing style are:


 * There are long notes which make the combo grow when keeping pressed.
 * Depending of the difficulty and key mode, you will have to play different instruments during a song.
 * There is a "fever" system that when it is activated allows you to multiply the combo. (*)
 * There are green notes which make sound the background instruments. (*)
 * There are long notes which are played by moving the analog stick. (*)
 * There are various genres of music.
 * Every song has an exclusive video-clip, but in PSP versions some songs can not incorporate its own video-clip due the limited space of the UMD.
 * The number of keys is selectable.
 * There is an unlock system that allows you to unlock songs and more stuff.
 * There is a mission mode in where you can play song sets to unlock exclusive stuff.
 * The game saves the combo, the accuracy average and the missing notes of every pattern played.
 * Every key you press will make a sound depending of the song, the key, the difficulty and the position on the song.
 * Additional key strokes will not make you losing points.

(*) Not in every video-game.