Pop n' music wasn't just a new mix with new songs, it also added a few new features to increase difficulty and challenge. The inclusion of the new modes and difficulties was based on how Beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution were evovling to challenge players in a more serious fashion.
New to Pop'n Music 3 are selectable modifiers like Hi-Speeds (Quick & Turbo), Hidden, Shuffle, and Sudden. These new modifiers are selected by press both yellow buttons simultaniously at the Song Into screen and hitting certain other button once a new menu pops up (Blue = Hi Speed, Green=Hidden, White=Shuffle) on top of the modifiers.
Konami also added a new difficulty, Hyper, which is similar to Beatmania's "Another" difficulty setting. That difficulty is selected but hitting both yellow buttons on the song select screen as you select your song.
Since Beatmania and DDR also had popular "Nonstop" modes for internet Ranking purposes by this time, Pop'n Music also included one. All of the Nonstop courses were played using the Hyper versions of both new and old songs and once a course was completed a password for internet ranking was given.
Pop'n Music, is aim for the young audience. The big foot panel of the DDR series were replaced is easy to press buttons.
This allowed kids a better chance of getting hits. They are game to suit different age/skill levels, on the beginner level the player only had to use a few buttons, the harder difficulty setting player had to use all the buttons.
Also the characters on the game are more child orientated as well as the music selection. |
