Parents' Guide to

Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX

By David Chapman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Music game struggles on high notes with depth, complexity.

Game Nintendo 3DS 2015
Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Game: Screenshot #1
  • Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Game: Screenshot #2
  • Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Game: Screenshot #3
  • Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Game: Screenshot #4
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Community Reviews

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age 9+

Based on 1 parent review

mitsukik
mitsukik Adult
September 13, 2015
age 9+

Great for kids, positive messages

First off, the very concept of Vocaloid culture... All of the songs in this game were made by fans, not by Sega. With Vocaloid, anyone can contribute to the fandom by writing songs or drawing fanart, or covering songs themselves, and no interpretation is wrong. This game includes a lot of kid-friendly Miku hits in various genres made by people of all sorts of backgrounds. The Hatsune Miku concerts all feature songs made by fans, and there are even unofficial fanmade concerts. Anyone can contribute and encourages artists and musicians to interpret Miku and friends however they want. Even Americans can contribute to the culture, as English versions of Miku exist as well as English Vocaloids like Oliver and Avanna. With the simple tools in this game, this could be a great first step into Vocaloid culture. A lot of the songs in this game have very positive messages, or thought-provoking stories that can be discussed with parents, but unfortunately Sega didn't include English subtitles so they are lost on people who don't speak Japanese, unless they look up subtitles on YouTube. Piano Girl, YumeYume, and Do Re Mi Rondo are very uplifting, and Story of Evil (aku no musume and Aku no Meshitsukai) is a rather complex, thematically heavy story. There are a lot of other songs with positive messages or good stories, like Kokoro (the first Vocaloid song to ever make me cry, way back when I was a tween) and Hello*Planet. The creative tools provided with the game are very easy to use and great for kids, especially because actual Vocaloid software is expensive and needs a lot of learning to use efficiently. There's very little objectionable content compared to Project Diva, the worst that happens is an implied beheading (the sound of a guillotine and a ribbon dropping to the ground) in Story of Evil, some modestly suggestive (Japanese) lyrics in Romeo and Cinderella and On the Rocks, as well as alcohol reference in Clover Club. As mentioned in the main review, there's not much depth. More experienced players may be turned away by the more easy difficulty of the rhythm game (but some songs like Matryoshka provide a good challenge), and the My Room mode has very few things to do compared to games like Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life or even the Diva Room in Project Diva. Very great for younger Miku fans (and older ones who aren't too good at rhythm games or will play anything with Miku in it), fans of nendoroid figures, and young girls who are into anime (who will inevitably happen to be Miku fans).

This title has:

Great messages
Easy to play/use
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

HATSUNE MIKU: PROJECT MIRAI DX gives players a peek into the life of a virtual pop idol, both in and out of the spotlight. Whether it's keeping in step with the music while Miku and her friends sing onstage, going shopping for new outfits and decorations, playing fun mini-games, composing new tunes, and even choreographing dance routines, there are plenty of ways to interact with and customize these star performers.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (13):

If you've ever wondered what it might be like to be part of a pop star's entourage, this is the game for you. Your new friend lets you tag along in all aspects of its virtual life, shopping, playing, and actually teaching. It's surprisingly fun to use the sugary-sweet tunes to learn how to recognize the rhythm in music and to experiment with the basics of creating some music of your own. This makes a lot of sense in the context of the game, too, since the entire experience is based on these animated mascots for software that's used to -- you guessed it -- compose music.

The music composition only gives you a couple of musical measures, two octaves, and single notes to play with. You won't be composing the next orchestral overture here. The same can be said for the basic choreographing you put together in the the Dance Studio. Even the downtime playing Reversi or the Sega classic Puyo Puyo feels overwhelmingly light. In fact, individually, not a single feature in Project Mirai DX feels particularly deep or engaging. But the fact that all these little pieces are packaged together in one somewhat cohesive bundle should be enough to hold onto kids' attention for at least a little while, fueling any interest they might have in music as a whole.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about music. How do the musical features in the game help fuel an interest in music outside of the game? Can the skills learned in the game be applied to the real world?

  • Talk about characters as mascots. How do businesses use manufactured characters to help humanize products, and why does that make something more relatable?

Game Details

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