I’m not an avid fan of the Vocaloid meme but I must admit that Project Diva has had my undivided attention for quite some time now (approximately two months and counting).

It’s cute, it’s challenging but more importantly, it’s great fun. The game can be categorized under a rhythm game like patapon but instead of battling zigotons and monsters, you try to score points by continuing your button combos 😀

The object of the game is simply, press the buttons on the screen before the required time expires….. That might sound complicated so here’s some screens. Once you see them they’re pretty explanatory.

Pretty simple right? All you need to do is build up your combo up to the end of the song and you’re done. The gameplay is simple, there’s no doubting that but it’s challenging as well and subtly so (save for a few tracks that have really insane difficulties :D). How challenging? Project Diva puts up several subtle obstacles that make the game quite harder than it looks. Let me enumerate them below:

1. You have a cute vocaloid character dancing infront of you while you’re trying to hit the right rhythm. It’s either very annoying or very distracting.
2. As you progress through the game, and continue to unlock characters, items and costumes, you also unlock higher difficulties for each track
3. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with a song, you usually end up trying to sing along, lose concentration and end up missing your beat and loosing the stage (this happens to meet quite a lot)
4. Once you unlocked the PV mode for a song (usually completing a track’s hard mode), you’ll end up watching what’s happening in the background and repeat the events of number 3 🙁

Of course if you play games with great concentration, the items above won’t bother you. If you’re into moe (which is probably the reason you’re also playing the game) then be forewarned 😀 The game is challenging, fun and addicting.

If you need a list of unlockable items, costumes, songs and characters just head to the Project Dvia Wiki.

If you still don’t have the game, you can download it via our list of free PSP games. There’s also a translation patch available so you’ll be able to navigate the menu (if you haven’t noticed, Project Diva is all japanese) better. Have fun 😀