Darkhorse4Life
October 9th, 2008, 05:43 PM
Updated 10/14.
Hey all, I'll do my best to post what I think are good strategies for getting the achievements for this game. Any input or help is greatly appreciated.
A few notes on this game, it looks to be a worldwide release and seems to have been contracted out for development and published by Konami. For those aware of the Japanese only series Pop'n Music, this is mostly a port of that game but with a few changes. Most notably:
-The graphics and art styles are distinctly less like normal Pop'n Music Art Styles, and more centered around American culture this time around.
-The notes (I think in Japan they are called Pop Kuns?) do not disappear when you hit them
-The Japanese game is played with a rather large controller with with large push buttons. This version is played on the xbox 360 controller (and has, in my opinion, a kind of odd control scheme much like DJMax).
Song list:
Lala Moore - We Two Are One
good-cool feat. Aundrea L. Hopkins - Gotta Get My Groove On
dj TAKA feat. Erika Mochizuki - Moon
Sakurai Yasushi feat. Kudo - Missing Cat
Waldeus Von Dovjak - R.C.
Orange Lounge - 100Sec. Kitchen Battle!
猫叉Master - Beyond The Earth
Ryu☆ - Starmine (pop'n mixx)
A few other odd things to note:
-The ranking scale goes up to 8 notes in difficulty, but as far as I can see the hardest ranked song is only a 3 note difficulty, which is strange
-When playing in 5 key mode it looks as if there are two buttons (one on each side) that are locked. However as far as I can tell there seems to be no way to unlock a 7 key mode, which is strange.
-Online xbox live gameplay seems to be limited to 3 keys, so it looks like you can't play 5 key over live. I think this is consistent with the Japanese releases of Pop'n music in the arcade and otherwise.
-The leaderboards only seem to list points cumulatively earned in ranked matches. There is no "career" or "individual song" scoreboard
-It seems you can unlock a new control scheme by entering the Konami code at the title screen. This will unlock a scheme that uses the A button as the middle (orange) note and then LB and LT, RB and RT for the left and right "wing" buttons respectively. Give it a try to see if its a control style you prefer.
ACHIEVEMENT GUIDE:
Music Maniac:
This one is easy enough, you just have to complete the 9 songs that the game has. You can do this in either 3 button or 5 button mode. Essentially you start with only a few of the songs unlocked and you must progress through unlocking the rest by beating the currently unlocked songs. The ratio of unlocks looks to be 1:1 per song. A completion would be a passing score at the end, although it will be fairly obvious since the game would tell you if you passed and with what grade.
Normal Clear:
This is the same as "Music Maniac" although it is specifically for 5 button mode.
Easy Clear:
This is the same as "Music Maniac" although it is specifically for 3 button mode. It is confirmed that you have to play each mode separately although it looks like you can play 5 key first and then go back and play all the songs on 3 key and it should still pop the achievement.
Entertainer:
This is easy enough once you get a hang of the control scheme. You need to hit a "combo" of 100 notes in a row, aka you have to hit 100 notes in succession without missing one. A "great" or "good" should count.
Ranked Veteran:
For this one you have to play 100 ranked xbox live matches. From what I can see you can only play 3 button over live, which is unfortunate. My guess is since another achievement requires a "win streak" that a lot of people will be quitting out of these so you might be better off finding a buddy to boost the 100 matches. I have no idea if you have to finish the whole song for it to count or if you can quit out early, but my guess is you have to finish the song. I will personally be boosting this with a friend. A thought about boosting: Since you can pick a particular song when you host AND when you are searching for a game, make sure you and your boosting buddy are consistently picking the same song. Pretty sure you can back out if you don't get the ranked game you want so this shouldn't be too hard to boost.
Dance Pwnage:
Again, you have to play a ranked xbox live match by over 5,000 points. This should be pretty easy to boost with a buddy or you could try it legit, up to you.
Dancin' All Night:
You have to play all the songs in Endless Mode. I believe you have to play these on 5 key, but essentially if you can beat them it's the same as playing them from Arcade (same note patterns etc.). If you can do the "Normal Clear" achievement, you can do this.
Ranked Master:
You have to win 10 ranked xbox live matches in a row. Again, you could try this legitimate, but chances are good it will be tough to keep up a 10 game streak unless you are very good at this game. The easiest way to do this is boost with a friend. I'm pretty sure I will be boosting this.
Ranked Match Newbie:
Win an xbox live ranked match. Just one, so you could try it legit or just boost it. Your call.
Veteran Dancer:
It is confirmed that you must get 10 million points cumulative in the ranked online mode only. Other modes will not count toward this total. The bad news is this translates to a lot of ranked games played depending on your skill. The good news is this seems to count wins and losses, and the game keeps a running total for you. Obviously boosting with your friend will get you consistent matches, but playing randoms is just as good considering losses still count toward your point total. This is really just a huge grind. You will get your 100 ranked games achievement on the way to getting this achievement.
Dance Master:
You must get 90,000 on every song in Arcade mode. This will be tricky for non-vets in the music gaming genre. You must do it on 5 key, and your pretty much going to want to only make a few misses or "boos" (only 1 or 2) as well as keep your "goods" versus "greats" to a minimum (in the teens or under 10). You have to get pretty close to getting the whole song down to get this. As a music gaming vet I've only found one of the songs particularly tricky and that is because it has two parts with triple note hits (you'll have to use two fingers on one hand, unless you figure out a more crafty way that I haven't thought of). That particular song is 猫叉Master - Beyond The Earth.
Superstar:
This is by far the hardest achievement. It has been confirmed you must complete all songs on 5 key while getting 100% "great"s. No "goods" or otherwise. This should total to a song score of 10,000 or a grade of SS. You cannot complete this achievement on 3 key since even receiving a full "great" combo on 3 key will not net you a perfect score of 10,000. The reason this is so difficult is because the timing window is so tight on "great" versus "good". Needless to say, very few people have this on mygamercard.net. Only people with extreme patience and a lot of music skill will be able to get this. Personally I have only been able to get the 100% SS on 3 songs :(. It is doable though as a very select group of people have it.
Any other thoughts please post here.
Hey all, I'll do my best to post what I think are good strategies for getting the achievements for this game. Any input or help is greatly appreciated.
A few notes on this game, it looks to be a worldwide release and seems to have been contracted out for development and published by Konami. For those aware of the Japanese only series Pop'n Music, this is mostly a port of that game but with a few changes. Most notably:
-The graphics and art styles are distinctly less like normal Pop'n Music Art Styles, and more centered around American culture this time around.
-The notes (I think in Japan they are called Pop Kuns?) do not disappear when you hit them
-The Japanese game is played with a rather large controller with with large push buttons. This version is played on the xbox 360 controller (and has, in my opinion, a kind of odd control scheme much like DJMax).
Song list:
Lala Moore - We Two Are One
good-cool feat. Aundrea L. Hopkins - Gotta Get My Groove On
dj TAKA feat. Erika Mochizuki - Moon
Sakurai Yasushi feat. Kudo - Missing Cat
Waldeus Von Dovjak - R.C.
Orange Lounge - 100Sec. Kitchen Battle!
猫叉Master - Beyond The Earth
Ryu☆ - Starmine (pop'n mixx)
A few other odd things to note:
-The ranking scale goes up to 8 notes in difficulty, but as far as I can see the hardest ranked song is only a 3 note difficulty, which is strange
-When playing in 5 key mode it looks as if there are two buttons (one on each side) that are locked. However as far as I can tell there seems to be no way to unlock a 7 key mode, which is strange.
-Online xbox live gameplay seems to be limited to 3 keys, so it looks like you can't play 5 key over live. I think this is consistent with the Japanese releases of Pop'n music in the arcade and otherwise.
-The leaderboards only seem to list points cumulatively earned in ranked matches. There is no "career" or "individual song" scoreboard
-It seems you can unlock a new control scheme by entering the Konami code at the title screen. This will unlock a scheme that uses the A button as the middle (orange) note and then LB and LT, RB and RT for the left and right "wing" buttons respectively. Give it a try to see if its a control style you prefer.
ACHIEVEMENT GUIDE:
Music Maniac:
This one is easy enough, you just have to complete the 9 songs that the game has. You can do this in either 3 button or 5 button mode. Essentially you start with only a few of the songs unlocked and you must progress through unlocking the rest by beating the currently unlocked songs. The ratio of unlocks looks to be 1:1 per song. A completion would be a passing score at the end, although it will be fairly obvious since the game would tell you if you passed and with what grade.
Normal Clear:
This is the same as "Music Maniac" although it is specifically for 5 button mode.
Easy Clear:
This is the same as "Music Maniac" although it is specifically for 3 button mode. It is confirmed that you have to play each mode separately although it looks like you can play 5 key first and then go back and play all the songs on 3 key and it should still pop the achievement.
Entertainer:
This is easy enough once you get a hang of the control scheme. You need to hit a "combo" of 100 notes in a row, aka you have to hit 100 notes in succession without missing one. A "great" or "good" should count.
Ranked Veteran:
For this one you have to play 100 ranked xbox live matches. From what I can see you can only play 3 button over live, which is unfortunate. My guess is since another achievement requires a "win streak" that a lot of people will be quitting out of these so you might be better off finding a buddy to boost the 100 matches. I have no idea if you have to finish the whole song for it to count or if you can quit out early, but my guess is you have to finish the song. I will personally be boosting this with a friend. A thought about boosting: Since you can pick a particular song when you host AND when you are searching for a game, make sure you and your boosting buddy are consistently picking the same song. Pretty sure you can back out if you don't get the ranked game you want so this shouldn't be too hard to boost.
Dance Pwnage:
Again, you have to play a ranked xbox live match by over 5,000 points. This should be pretty easy to boost with a buddy or you could try it legit, up to you.
Dancin' All Night:
You have to play all the songs in Endless Mode. I believe you have to play these on 5 key, but essentially if you can beat them it's the same as playing them from Arcade (same note patterns etc.). If you can do the "Normal Clear" achievement, you can do this.
Ranked Master:
You have to win 10 ranked xbox live matches in a row. Again, you could try this legitimate, but chances are good it will be tough to keep up a 10 game streak unless you are very good at this game. The easiest way to do this is boost with a friend. I'm pretty sure I will be boosting this.
Ranked Match Newbie:
Win an xbox live ranked match. Just one, so you could try it legit or just boost it. Your call.
Veteran Dancer:
It is confirmed that you must get 10 million points cumulative in the ranked online mode only. Other modes will not count toward this total. The bad news is this translates to a lot of ranked games played depending on your skill. The good news is this seems to count wins and losses, and the game keeps a running total for you. Obviously boosting with your friend will get you consistent matches, but playing randoms is just as good considering losses still count toward your point total. This is really just a huge grind. You will get your 100 ranked games achievement on the way to getting this achievement.
Dance Master:
You must get 90,000 on every song in Arcade mode. This will be tricky for non-vets in the music gaming genre. You must do it on 5 key, and your pretty much going to want to only make a few misses or "boos" (only 1 or 2) as well as keep your "goods" versus "greats" to a minimum (in the teens or under 10). You have to get pretty close to getting the whole song down to get this. As a music gaming vet I've only found one of the songs particularly tricky and that is because it has two parts with triple note hits (you'll have to use two fingers on one hand, unless you figure out a more crafty way that I haven't thought of). That particular song is 猫叉Master - Beyond The Earth.
Superstar:
This is by far the hardest achievement. It has been confirmed you must complete all songs on 5 key while getting 100% "great"s. No "goods" or otherwise. This should total to a song score of 10,000 or a grade of SS. You cannot complete this achievement on 3 key since even receiving a full "great" combo on 3 key will not net you a perfect score of 10,000. The reason this is so difficult is because the timing window is so tight on "great" versus "good". Needless to say, very few people have this on mygamercard.net. Only people with extreme patience and a lot of music skill will be able to get this. Personally I have only been able to get the 100% SS on 3 songs :(. It is doable though as a very select group of people have it.
Any other thoughts please post here.