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Pop n' Music

Pop'n Music
Pnm logo.png
pop'n music series logo
Developer(s) Bemani
Publisher(s) Konami, Konami Digital Entertainment
Platform(s) Arcade, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, PlayStation, PlayStation 2
Release
  • JP: September 28, 1998
Genre(s) Music, Rhythm
Arcade system Bemani DJ-Main
(1st to 3)
Bemani Firebeat
(4 to 8)
Bemani Viper
(9 to 14)
Bemani PC
(15 onward)
Display Raster, standard resolution, horizontal

Pop'n Music (ポップンミュージック Poppun Myūjikku), commonly abbreviated as Pop'n, PM or PNM and stylized as pop'n music, is a music video game series in the Bemani series made by the Konami Corporation. The games are known for their bright colors, upbeat songs, and cute cartoon character graphics. Originally released in 1998, the series has had over fifteen home releases in Japan as well as many arcade versions. Despite the console and arcade releases only being officially released in Asia, it is also popular in other countries and Pop'n Music arcade machines can be found around the world.

Unlike most of Konami's Bemani series, the Pop'n Music interface is not designed to represent any actual musical instrument. Instead, it uses nine buttons, each three-and-a-half-inches in diameter, laid out in two rows. Five buttons are the bottom row, the other four being the top. Like in most Bemani games, color-coded notes (in this game called "Pop-kun" (ポップ君) and anthropomorphized with faces) fall from the top of the screen in nine columns that correspond to the buttons. When a note reaches the red line at the bottom of the screen, the player presses the button, which triggers a sound within the song.

When a note is played, an accuracy rating is displayed, either "Great", "Good", or "Bad". The maximum amount of points possible in any single-stage song is 100,000, and unlike beatmania or beatmania IIDX, can not be exceeded as no additional score bonuses are given. A "Combo" tally is kept of properly played notes like in other Bemani games, but always excludes the first note played; for example, if a song has 322 notes, the maximum combo will be 321. Until Pop'n Music 6, "Good" notes would interrupt a player's combo.

Each song is represented by a character, and players are represented by characters too. The player can choose a character by pressing both yellow buttons on the mode selection screen, but as of Pop'n Music 19 TUNE STREET, the character selection screen automatically pops up after choosing a mode. The default player characters are anthropomorphic rabbit Mimi and anthropomorphic cat Nyami.

In all modes from Pop'n Music 6 and onward, after a song is selected, a splash screen that is displayed showing the character, banner, and BPM of the song. When the player presses both yellow buttons at this screen, an options menu is displayed, where the player can edit the following gameplay options:


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