With Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX being the first title in the Project Mirai series that released worldwide, fans of both Vocaloid and the Hatsune Miku video games were pleased, especially since the game is a much improved version of 2013's Japanese exclusive Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2.

Project Mirai DX includes newly created real-time animations, one new song, slightly modified charts and exclusive new higher-difficulty charts for six of the tracks.

In other words, if you happen to have a Japanese 3DS and were thinking of getting Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 then you might as well skip it and jump right ahead to Project Mirai DX instead.

When starting the game, you can choose your Vocaloid partner-of-sorts -- between the main six of Miku, Kaito, Len, Rin, Luka or Meiko. Afterward, you will be able to choose a room for your partner. Luckily, if you change your mind, you can always go back and change it at your leisure.

Your desired partner and room have no effect on your gameplay experience so freely choose whatever you like. However, each room will feature a different background song, so that’s something to take into account. I personally went with Kaito and the Japonica room.

When choosing through the 47 songs (a lot less are available when starting the game), you have the control option of either Tap Mode or Button Mode, as well as control over the difficulty.

As their name suggests, the difference between Tap Mode and Button mode is that the former uses the stylus and the second screen. Tap Mode will have two or three different colors depending on the difficulty. Naturally, you must tap the color that the game displays.

In Button Mode, you will have to press the A, B, X, and Y buttons as well as the arrows the as display on the screen. Funnily enough, the buttons are also displayed in the bottom screen as it would in Tap Mode, so you can technically use tap mode if you wish.

Even at the highest difficulty, the game isn’t much challenging. To add, the game is much easier when playing through Button Mode so I didn’t enjoy it as much compared to Tap Mode.

However, unlike most rhythm games which require you to just hit as many notes as possible, in Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is more about pressing the notes as accurate as possible to get the best score.

While this game concept certainly made songs easier to complete, it is certainly more difficult to master them and get the highest score possible. You will have no problems hitting the notes as they go, but you will have no problems hitting the notes as they go, but it is certainly difficult to perfect your timing.

I personally enjoy classic concept in rhythm games as shown in games such as in the Project DIVA series but doesn’t mean I enjoyed the game any less.

The game has plenty of soundtracks that I enjoy and I sometimes played some levels multiple times just to listen to the same song again. My personal favorite has to be “The World is Mine.”

There's also tons to do aside from the main game such as watching the music videos, remodeling your home, buy clothes to dress up your character, and even go to the dance studio to create your own dances.

When going out, players can access the entirety of the game's extras such as the Mirai Theater, which allows you to play through the 47 songs as well as watch videos to your heart’s content. Watching videos allow you to pause, forward or rewind as you like and even leave comments. Overall, a very enjoyable feature.

Through AR Station, you can summon the characters into real life. There will be two type of cards: you can use Live Cards to summon the character to perform the song displayed on the card and with Character Cards, you can summon the characters into the real world, allowing them to hang out and lounge around.

Luckily if you didn’t get the Launch Edition, you can download the AR cards and print them through the game’s official website.

Mirai Estates, another mode, gives players the option to acquire new rooms for their partner. You can also live the high life by renting a penthouse room or taking a plane trip overseas for a summer vacation. When vacationing in the Mirai Resort, your partner will occupy themselves with beach-specific activities.

You can also visit the department to buy clothing for your partner, items to put in your room, or even buy food for them to enjoy, as there's plenty of thing to buy with the money that you earned through playing the game.

A lot of times it feels like the rhythm portion of the game is the secondary gameplay while taking care of your partner is the main purpose, as you'll be playing through songs for the sole reason of earning money to use on your character. To an extend, it feels like you're playing Animal Crossing or Nintendogs but with Vocaloid characters.

In addition, the game also offers another mini-game called Puyo Puyo, featuring the Project Mirai cast. If you aren't familiar with Puyo Puyo the game is similar to Tetris, in which you must match Puyos of the same color to score. It's a fun distracting mode to take a break from the musical and sim aspects.

In the Dance Studio game mode, you will be able to create both simple and advance sets of dances in which later can be seen during “Showtime” in the sage that you desire.

The title also features an alarm which you can set to whatever time you desire and you're able to pick from any tune created through Dance Studio. Obviously, your 3DS needs to be opened as the feature doesn’t work in sleep mode.

While I do enjoy the Project DIVA series on PS Vita more, you certainly can’t go wrong by picking up Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX as it’s still a great rhythm game with plenty of extra content that extends its replay value. It’s definitely worth having in your 3DS library, whether you’re a rhythm-game or Vocaloid fan.