Rhythm games come and go in popularity, but they never die. Long before Konami were a shell of themselves, they were considered the undisputed king of the music gaming genre. Their Beatmania series never really took off outside of Japan, but it did provide the inspiration for another successful franchise - DJMax. The series began as a PC game accessible exclusively in Korea, China and Japan but when it made the move to PlayStation Portable the game truly made its worldwide debut. Although North American and European gamers weren’t given access to all the releases that followed, many simply opted to import them. After all, rhythm titles are known for being easy to pick up and play regardless of your knowledge of another region’s language. DJMax made another Western appearance with DJMax Technika, but that’s a touch screen focused version which is quite different from its origins.

Fans and newcomers alike are now being treated to the ultimate version of DJMax with DJMax Respect on PS4. It’s a shame it only took over ten years for this game to become a reality. This experience brings together the whole series by offering up over 140 songs in the base package. This means the entire soundtracks of DJMax Portable and DJMax Portable 2 have been reprised here. Of course, there are forty brand new songs exclusive to DJMax Respect. The amount of songs included is enough to make any fan drool, but if anyone needs even more tracks (which of course they will), then DLC is on the way. These DLC packs, set to be released in all regions, are going to add in the soundtracks of DJMax Portable Clazziquai Edition, DJMax Portable Black Square, all the Technika games and so much more. Suffice it to say that folks won’t be left wanting more music after all this content drops.

The music ranges in genre from classical to K-pop, jazz to dubstep, and everything in between. Some of the original PSP tracks sound a bit corny these days, but they’re still enjoyable to listen to. One of the surprisingly neat aspects of DJMax Respect is that all the background videos were given the HD treatment. Aside from playing Technika tracks at the arcade, it’s a new experience to see these visuals at 1080p and running at 60 FPS. The only annoyance about these videos is that it’ll take a few hours before you can even watch them. During installation the game is playable but no songs will feature their respective videos until it’s finally complete on PS4 (which takes a couple hours). Fortunately, this is only an issue players will have to go through once.

Gameplay follow a very similar formula found in most other rhythm games. A number of notes fall from the top of the screen to the bottom. As they reach a specific point, the player must hit the corresponding note on their controller to be successful. Unlike most other games of the genre, however, even the easiest tracks are still a little challenging. Players brand new to the world of DJMax may find themselves failing out of every single song initially! After a bit of practice they’ll be able to play through a larger chunk of the four button mode tracks. Amazingly, this is only the start. The best players work themselves up to increasing button modes until they’ve mastered eight button mode and aced each song on its hardest difficulty.

DJMax Respect offers a handful of modes to keep folks entertained. Arcade mode tasks players with completing three songs in a row without failing. Freestyle mode is best for two local players to hop in and compete for dominance. An included Mission mode forces players to complete a certain set of tasks, such as attaining a specified max combo amount. Finally, there’s an Online mode which is accessible to anyone with PlayStation Plus. If desired, there’s also a Ranking mode where professionals can go to challenge other highly skilled players online. The community of online players might not be massive, but it is incredibly devoted.

At the start, there are only about forty songs unlocked in DJMax Respect. Attaining more is simple: keep playing music! These unlocks are tied to the achievement system as well. For example, get an “A” on ten songs and something will unlock. Or achieve a certain combo amount collectively to unlock something else. Although some of these achievements pertain to tough things like completing songs in 8B mode, as stated earlier, all are also unlockable by simply playing enough tracks. Things are always being unlocked so it never feels like you’re stuck, either. Aside from song unlocks there are also different bits of gear to change up your screen. For example, the note graphics can be changed to cats if you want to make the screen a bit cuter.

Anyone who played DJMax in the past probably wishes that this game could have also been available on Vita or even Switch. There’s currently no word of a portable version coming out, but we can always hope. After all, the series has spent most of its life on portable devices so it feels a little weird to be stuck on console. Of course, it’s also exciting to see DJMax Respect on the big screen. Despite being a simple game overall it shines thanks to running on PS4. On handheld, the Respect-exclusive backgrounds and step charts could possibly cause slowdown.

Closing Comments:

DJMax Respect is an excellent package for rhythm game fans to pick up, regardless of having played the series before or not. It’s absolutely loaded with tracks and a strong difficulty curve, meaning that players are regularly being challenged to do increasingly difficult tracks. 140 songs is more than enough, but there will soon be a cavalcade of DLC for those looking to stockpile even more music. With so much content right out of the gate, rhythm lovers will find themselves coming back to DJMax Respect again and again.