Not too long ago I did a first look at a specific Superstar game. I have now been playing more of them and fairly frequently so I wanted to make an all encompassing review of the series.
The Superstar games are rhythm mobile games with each individual game connected to a specific company. Each company has it’s own group of artists in the game, so for example Superstar JYP has the artists under that company such as Stray Kids, GOT7, Twice, and Itzy. And this is how I ended up downloading six different games.
I will start with what all the games share. Mechanically they are all the same, tapping or holding in time with the song playing. There are three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard. In my opinion the jump between easy and normal is pretty significant, as I excel at easy and struggle with normal. It is also really dependent on the song, as a ballad will be slower and thus easier than a dance track.
The games have daily and weekly missions you can complete, which is ultimately what keeps me playing regularly. You get rewards for completing the missions like rhythm points and diamonds, which are in game XP and currency. You get cards for all the members of groups that can help boost your score on songs, and XP is used to upgrade those cards. It is also an added fun aspect to collect the cards and try and complete specific sets, because sets also give bonus XP. A lot of my focus in the games is getting complete card sets for my favorite artists and leveling them up.
The games also have events in game, both ones that are around a specific artist and also events that are shared across all of the games. By completing event missions you get rewards, and when it is about a specific artist the rewards can be cards for that artist and limited edition. Events are always fun to check out and try to complete.
Now for some difference, as there are some discrepancies beyond just the music they have in game. I’ll start with the noticeable UI differences, as the interfaces between them can be different. The older ones haven’t had their UI updated to match the newer. This doesn’t effect gameplay at all, but I do wish they all shared the same UI system as the JYP and SM games.
The league systems are different throughout the games as well. All of the games have a weekly league that ranks you by your top 5 artists you’ve played that week. Only some of them have the superstar league where you play the designated songs every day to get ranked. Weekly leagues are also tiered so you’re competing against a set few, but the superstar leagues are against every player. The league system is what really makes it a competitive game, but it is easy enough to ignore if you just want to have a chill rhythm game like me.
I have also found that the newer games still have some bugs to work out when it comes to the timing and accuracy of your taps. They do have a system to troubleshoot and it will adjust to your timing so it is closer, but I still find issues with it sometimes. Especially when I compare my skill level between the older ones and the new ones, where I can get all super perfects in the former but can never in the latter.
Overall I really enjoy the Superstar games and play them a lot. I am surprised that I have still been playing to be honest because I usually don’t stay active with mobile games for long. But the games are so active with events and the leagues that it has kept my attention.
UPDATE 3/17/2021: As of March 2021, JYPNation and SMTown have both updated their UI to the latest version.
Do you enjoy rhythm games? Share you favorites in the comments below.
I played these games once but now deleted it 😁
Btw it was so fun to play!!