The Idolmaster Shiny Festa
Three rhythm games with anime episodes from The Idolmaster franchise.
The Idolmaster Shiny Festa is a series of three Japanese rhythm video games developed by Namco Bandai Studios and published by Namco Bandai Games. Originally released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on October 25, 2012, they were the first games in The Idolmaster franchise to be localized into English, with iOS versions following on April 22, 2013. The games feature an original video animation episode produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Atsushi Nishigori.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Namco Bandai Studios; A-1 Pictures (animation)
- Publisher
- Namco Bandai Games
- Producer
- Yōzō Sakagami
- Genre
- Rhythm game
- Modes
- Single-player
- Series
- The Idolmaster
- Platforms
- PlayStation Portable, iOS; PlayStation 3 (Shiny TV)
Facts from the source article.
Development and release
Series producer Yōzō Sakagami attributed the development of a rhythm game to two reasons: he wanted to make songs from the franchise's albums that had not appeared in its video games accessible in that form, and he wanted an Idolmaster game with a lighter feel that allowed the player to hum along while playing. The rhythm game genre aligned with these desires, leading to Shiny Festa. The team chose the PlayStation Portable for its simplicity, and used pre-rendered videos to allow all thirteen idols to appear together.
The note icons float toward the screen's center to draw the player's attention to the background videos. The anime scenes were directed by Atsushi Nishigori and produced by A-1 Pictures, which also created the 2011 anime adaptation. Yōsuke Toba, Aniplex's producer for the TV anime, learned of the plans for anime material in Shiny Festa during production of the TV anime's final episode and did not inform Nishigori until later. Series director Akihiro Ishihara said each anime episode was initially planned to be about ten minutes long, but Nishigori extended each to its current length, feeling shorter episodes would not be fun. Three teams created the three episodes, and Nishigori noted this encouraged competition among them.
Reception
The PlayStation Portable versions of Shiny Festa moved 119,132 copies during their debut week, making them the top-selling video game in Japan for that period. Famitsu awarded the PSP editions a collective score of 32 out of 40. In 2013, the game’s animated sequences took first place in the Game Animation category at the third Newtype Anime Awards. Critics widely felt the title caters to longtime fans while remaining inviting to newcomers, especially those introduced through the anime.
Jeff Chuang of Japanator noted that fans of the franchise’s music get twice the enjoyment, while colleague Elliot Gay saw the anime content as deliberate fanservice. Reviewers highlighted that the gameplay, though straightforward, grows challenging, particularly on Master difficulty. Famitsu’s writers pointed out that the simpler controls become tougher at higher levels. Both Gay and Chuang agreed the basic mechanics gain appropriate difficulty on harder settings, and ASCII Media Works’ Lipton Kumada observed that added variations like simultaneous and long notes increase the challenge.
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