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Important Importables: Audition Portable Review for PSP
Title: Audition Portable
Price: $48.90
System(s): PSP
Release Date: June 4, 2007
Publisher (Developer): T3 Entertainment (T3 Entertainment)
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: Spiritual successor to Bust a Groove, fun puzzle/dancing game, cute characters, ad hoc multiplayer and 67 songs.
Cons: Not a lot of track variety, can get old quickly
Overall Score: 7.5/10
Once upon a time, a long time ago, the Playstation had a wonderful, dance/puzzle game called Bust a Groove. It was similar to Parappa the Rapper, and it had players pushing buttons to make characters dance. It became a cult classic, but was possibly ahead of its time.
Cue Audition Online the spiritual successor to Bust a Groove. The campy feel of the original game was gone, but the button-pressing dance goodness lived on. In Korea, Audition Online’s birthplace, the game became so popular that it spawned a PSP version - Audition Portable. Audition Portable is essentially a pint-sized version of Audition Online and is a lighthearted PSP game rhythm fans will enjoy.
Follow the beat to be the best.
There’s no story to Audition Portable. You simply create an avatar and dance through different stages and songs to prove that you’re better than the computer. It’ll be difficult early on, as the AI dancers are pretty good, but you’ll succeed with a little perseverance and patience.
Controls are pretty simple. A sequence of arrow and buttons will appear on a line below your dancer. You have to tap those before the fourth beat of every song, and tap the left shoulder button on the fourth beat. Keep doing so successfully and you’ll rack up combos and lots of points. Occasionally red direction icons will appear on the bottom, meaning you’ll have to push the opposite direction of what is shown. Just try not to mess up, otherwise your life bar will decrease and its game over.
Could be a hit or miss for you, depending on your music preferences.
First off - Audition Portable is one of the most import-friendly PSP games you’ll encounter. Menus are in all in English, so there’s no language barrier. The only adjustment you’ll have to make concerns the control scheme - is O is to confirm actions and X is to backtrack. (Normally X confirms and O cancels.)
There are also some cute bonuses you’ll encounter. The opening FMV is adorable. There are also interesting background areas with unexpected actions (ex: ghosts in the haunted school). You’ll also see unusual NPCs. I was surprised to see my character dancing off against a Shikamaru (Naruto) look-a-like. There’s also a Juke Box mode where you can just enjoy game tracks.
As for music - you’ll either love or hate the tracks in Audition Portable. There are 67 tracks included on the disc, and there’s an abundance of Korean Pop in the game. The songs in English are all by the Euro-pop group Sweetbox. (Note: Sweetbox’s singer, Jade Valerie, did the vocals for “1000 Words” and “Real Emotion” in FFX-2.) Now, I love Sweetbox, and enjoy K-pop, so this isn’t an issue for me. Some people may start longing for more song variety as the game goes on.
Speaking of variety, avatar individuality can be a bit of an issue. There are a substantial number of clothing and hair options available (ex. 60 fashions for girl avatars and 41 hair styles), but since only some provide score boosts or boost your hit points, you’ll tend to gravitate towards those styles.
Audition Online, Parappa, Bust a Groove and music game fans will love Audition Portable.
Audition Portable is a fun and entertaining import PSP game, but it isn’t for everyone. If you’d addicted to Nexon’s Audition Online, still remember Bust a Groove or adore Parappa the Rapper games, then you’ll love Audition Portable. Even Patapon, DDR or general music game fans could learn to appreciate the title. But if you don’t have patience, appreciate foreign music or nimble fingers, Guitar Hero: On Tour may be a better way to get your portable music-game fix.
A word of advice though - if you do decide to purchase Audition Portable, go with the Limited Edition version. A while back, Play-Asia had a sale where it was the same price as the game alone, and its definitely worth it. It comes with a cell phone/PSP charm, a calendar, a mini-soundtrack CD, a notebook, a special box and the game.
COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Importables talks about how to find Action Replay DS codes for import games. If you don’t miss a single installment of Important Importables, or want to know right away when the next column is up, then sign up for the Gamertell Newsletter and RSS feed.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables talked about Simple Series DS games.
Site [Play-Asia] Site [YesAsia] Site [NCSX] Site [Himeya Shop] Site [JBox]
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Important Importables
Jenni Lada brings us information about all of the groovy new gaming imports from around the world.
if there is a red button how will u able to pass that..? like in the picture posted in this site..?
on December 30, 2008 at 09:31 AM - LINKGood question erica! A red button will have an arrow on it. You just have to push the opposite direction arrow to clear that button. So if its a red button with an up arrow, you press down instead of up.
Hope that helps!
on December 30, 2008 at 01:01 PM - LINKhow to play this game?
on January 25, 2009 at 04:40 AM - LINKcan u provide the controls..
@ wtf: Well, the game has an English Language option, so controls aren’t a problem. It’s exactly the same as Nexon’s Audition online controls, really. Press the arrows in the indicated direction, unless the arrow is red. If it’s read, press the opposite direction. Do that for the whole song.
on January 25, 2009 at 07:47 PM - LINKsay…........
where exactly would I find this game
(link would be nice)
and how do u unlock clothes(& wat else can u unlock?)
on March 7, 2009 at 12:59 PM - LINKand after filling in the arrows, wat button do I push? srry 4 da long question, i just REALLY want this….............
Hi Joey-Kunoichi,
The link in the article at the top informational grid links to Renchi, which should still have copies. Audition Portable is kind of old, so eBay may be your best bet now. You can also always have Play-Asia search for a copy for you.
Clothes, songs, hair, etc are unlocked by playing and clearing the game.
You push the arrows, then on the fourth beat press the R shoulder button to lock in/submit the sequence of arrows.
Hope I was able to help you out! :D
on March 7, 2009 at 03:14 PM - LINKThanks Jenni for the help! I searched EVERYWHERE for this game and now I can get it! Do you own the game? If so, I was wondering how hard is the game? Like, is there an option to make it easy? Do I have to play with the X’s and O’s?
Thanks again for the help… I wasn’t expecting anyone to reply so fast! Especially since I don’t know any forums on the game.
on March 9, 2009 at 12:30 AM - LINKHi again,
Yes, I do. I got it back when Play-Asia had the limited edition version (which came in a big box with a cell phone charm, date book, mini-soundtrack, calendar and the game). I haven’t played in a while, but if I remember right there are different difficulty settings. Or, at the very least, each song has a rating and when you’re playing you can choose to keep going with easier songs.
Xs and Os do come into play as the game gets more difficult, if I remember right. But they’re easy to input along with the direction buttons and the best way I can describe it is that you get used to it.
Plus there’s an all English option - that should help tons.
No problem, I’m happy to help you out. :D
on March 9, 2009 at 12:17 PM - LINKHey. Sorry to keep bothering you with this game, but I have 2 more questions. First, I know you said that you haven’t playee in a while, but I was wondering about the songs. I wanted to know if a song called “Lovely”?
I like fast songs so I think I could do it.
Also, I wanted to know if there’s ANY internet activity in the game? I know there’s a Network Mode, but what do you do in it? I don’t want to keep bothering you but I want to recommend this to a friend…...
on March 13, 2009 at 12:23 PM - LINKI’ve never encountered any kind of internet multiplayer with it. Also I don’t think the song Lovely is in the game. :D
I think there’s local ad-hoc multiplayer.
on March 15, 2009 at 07:23 PM - LINKHi!
on March 29, 2009 at 11:46 PM - LINKI’m back 4 one last time, hopefully….
So I had a question on something in ur post. I remember u said there were “cute surprises”. Now was this literal?
If so what other surprises are there?
The opening is SO fantastic. Do I get to wear that boy’s outfit?
Do I get to wear her school uniform?
I ask that because that movie is also that Korean PC version of the game’s opening as well.
Well that’s about all the questions I have, which means I probably won’t be on here as much. Thanks 4 the help!!!!
The cute surprises were the outfits you could unlock. (They’re all kind of adorable, and many boost your character’s abilities to make him/her a better dancer.) Also, one of the NPC dancers is a dead ringer for the character Shikamaru from Naruto.
I don’t have the game at my side at the moment, but I don’t think the outfits from the opening movie are available in the game.
on March 30, 2009 at 12:09 PM - LINK