History VideoGame / PopnMusic

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The opening of "Schrodinger no neko" sounds suspiciously like a snippet of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' theme tune.

* SugarBowl: Uhh, yeah.

** The other is the Challenge Point system. Clearing a song will award you points equal to the song's difficulty level. In addition, you can set up to two Normas (self imposed challenges) or Ojamas (modifiers that usually take the form of an InterfaceScrew of some sort, or otherwise make the game more difficult) that add bonus points. Getting at least 125 points by your last stage[[note]]Usually, machines are set to three stages. However, it is possible, though unlikely, to run into a machine that has more than three stages, making the requirement easier to meet, or less than three stages, which will require you to play high-end songs with high-value normas and ojamas at best, and make Extra Stage UnwinnableByMistake at worst[[/note]] will reward you with an Extra Stage.

Currently, the series is up to 25 main arcade installments, along with consoles releases and spin-off releases such as ''pop'n stage'' (which plays more like VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution), ''pop'n music Animelo'', ''pop'n music Best Hits'' and ''Hello! Pop'n Music''.

''Nice play!''

* ''pop'n music Kaimei Riddles''[[note]]''Kaimei'', in Japanese, can be roughly transliterated to "elucidation".[[/note]] (2020)

* ''pop'n music Kaimei Riddles''[[note]]''Kaimei'', in Japanese, can be roughly transliterated to "elucidation".[[note]] (2020)

* ''NEW pop'n music Welcome to Wonderland!'' (TBA 2020)
** Has a new cabinet that has smaller buttons and a touch panel, with new game mechanics that take advantage of the latter.

* ''pop'n music Lively'' (TBA)

** [[SequelDifficultySpike First version in which the COOL judgement is mandatory in the game's "main" mode.]]

** [[SequelDifficultyDrop The scoring system is overhauled to be more forgiving on GREAT and GOOD judgements.]]

* BossRush: Expert Mode (known as Course Mode in ''Lapistoria'') allows the player to choose a set series of four songs pertaining to a certain theme, and then play them back-to-back, with a traditional LifeMeter that carries over between songs and will immediately give you a GameOver when it runs out. Most courses have a theme that pertains to the 'moods' of the songs, but the HELL [Version Number] courses instead force you to [[FinalBoss run the four hardest songs]] introduced in the respective version.
** ''peace'' introduces "Popperz chronicle", where instead of an original song you play a medley of the hardest songs from past installments, from ''14 FEVER!'' to ''peace''... [[OhCrap but you have to play parts of their charts as well, complete with the BPM changes.]]
*** Taken UpToEleven with the UPPER chart added in June 16th, 2020, which recreates the respective chart sections more faithfully, [[NintendoHard most apparent in the SILENT section.]]

** In one version you can play "[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Break Through The Dream]]", Complete with the characters dressing up as Simon and Kamina.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: About 10-20 new characters with every release. Check out the [[Characters/PopNMusic character page]]!
** The Character page doesn't even begin to convey just how many characters there are. One of the Official Character Illustration books for the series has over 300 pages just devoted to Character bios alone. Granted, the book covers 10 games, but for a rhythm gave to even have characters, let alone 300+, well... you can see why this trope applies. %% Pop'n fans, help us fill it out!

** The other is the Challenge Point system. Clearing a song will award you points equal to the song's difficulty level. In addition, you can set up to two Normas ({{Self Imposed Challenge}}s) or Ojamas (modifiers that usually take the form of an InterfaceScrew of some sort, or otherwise make the game more difficult) that add bonus points. Getting at least 125 points by your last stage[[note]]Usually, machines are set to three stages. However, it is possible, though unlikely, to run into a machine that has more than three stages, making the requirement easier to meet, or less than three stages, which will require you to play high-end songs with high-value normas and ojamas at best, and make Extra Stage UnwinnableByMistake at worst[[/note]] will reward you with an Extra Stage.

* SequelDifficultySpike: ''fantasia'' forces the COOL judgement in all non-Easy modes. forcing players to use the more difficult scoring system.
** SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Lapistoria'' still has [=COOLs=], but makes GREAT and GOOD judgements worth more points.

* VariableMix: Similarly to IIDX's "Scripted Connection", "neu" (Niente) has three versions based on the chosen difficulty level; the Hyper and EX versions are, [[ThatOneBoss let's just say]], a severe case of MoodWhiplash in comparison to Normal (which is a slower portion). The full, album version chains them into one song.

* BossRush: ''peace'' introduces "Popperz chronicle", where instead of an original song you play a medley of the hardest songs from past installments, from ''14 FEVER!'' to ''peace''... [[OhCrap but you have to play parts of their charts as well, complete with the BPM changes.]]
** Taken UpToEleven with the UPPER chart added in June 16th, 2020, which recreates the respective chart sections more faithfully, [[NintendoHard most apparent in the SILENT section.]]

* RemixedLevel: The remix songs are, of course, this, with MZD presiding over most of them. However, URA charts (introduced in ''8'') and UPPER charts (introduced in ''peace'') provide already-existing songs with a new set of charts, usually more difficult than before (and adding long Pop-kuns, in the case of UPPER charts).

** Taken UpToEleven with the UPPER chart, which recreates the respective chart sections more faithfully, [[NintendoHard most apparent in the SILENT section.]]

* OneHitPointWonder: The DEATH ojama (up to ''Sunny Park'') and DANGER gauge (''Lapistoria'') deplete your entire gauge upon getting a single Bad. Subverted, in that a wipeout of the gauge doesn't result in a GameOver, though you still must reach the end of the song with at least 80% of your gauge intact.

Like ''beatmania'', notes come down the screen and the object is to "hit" the notes by pressing their corresponding buttons. Hitting notes will play parts of the music, while missing notes will make the music sound not like what it's supposed to be. Instead of 5-7 rectangular keys and a turntable like ''beatmania'', ''pop'n'' uses nine big colorful buttons, requiring you to use your whole hands instead of individual fingers. Also unlike most rhythm games, ''pop'n'' forgoes having a music video for each song, instead pitting your chosen character against the character associated with the song you're playing, with separate animations for hitting or missing notes, and winning or losing.

Like ''beatmania'', notes come down the screen and the object is to "hit" the notes by pressing their corresponding buttons. Hitting notes will play parts of the music, while missing notes will make the music sound not like what it's supposed to be. Instead of 5-7 rectangular keys and a turntable like ''beatmania'', ''pop'n'' uses nine big colorful buttons, requiring you to use your whole hands instead of individual fingers.

* NintendoHard: You really think something this cute and fluffy would be ''that'' hard? Preposterous! ''Any 49'' or 50 on EX mode deserves such a title. Alongside ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'', it's considered one of the hardest commercial {{Rhythm Game}}s in existence, demanding a much higher level of skill than most other rhythm games in order to have a shot at the most difficult songs. The old difficulty scale goes from 1-43, but as of ''Sunny Park'', difficulties go from 1-50. Preexisting songs have their chart ratings increased by 6, with some exceptions, which means the maximum difficulty should be 49...but a few songs, including "Schrodinger's Cat" (Toy Contemporary), "Ongaku" (Silent), and "Shounen wa Sora o Tadoru" (Murakamo), were raised by ''seven'' levels instead, to 50, to reflect how much they stand out compared to other top-tier boss songs. While there are a lot of songs rated 48 or 49, very, ''very'' few songs are rated 50. All of this in a game series intended for younger players.

** If a song is a remix of something from another Konami game, it'll most likely have one of the characters from that game as its song character. Examples include [[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Vic Viper]] ("Gradius -Full Speed-" (Gradius) and "A Shooting Star" (Gradius II)), Afro ([[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution DDR Megamix]]), [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon]] [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Belmondo]] ("Akumajou Dracula Medley Hybrid" (Castlevania)), and [[VideoGame/GanbareGoemon Goemon]] ("Ganbare Goemon Medley"). ''Pop'n Music 15 ADVENTURE'' even has a song from ''VideoGame/MitsumeteKnight'', "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_DAiSbdTfU#t=3m44s The Man From]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_QctmDrK6s#t=3m02s Far East]]".

* BossRush: ''peace'' introduces "Popperz chronicle", where instead of an original song you play a medley of the hardest songs from past installments, from ''14 FEVER!'' to ''peace''... [[OhCrap but you have to play parts of their charts as well, back-to-back.]]

** A reboot of the series. Uses a new cabinet with smaller buttons and a touch panel.
** Uses 3D models for the characters.

** A reboot of the series. Uses a new cabinet with smaller buttons and a touch pad.

* MetaphoricallyTrue: In ''Lapistoria'', there is a HELL course named "Hell TUNE STREET" that ends the course with a lv38 "BabeL ~Roof Garden~" after the notorious lv49 "BabeL ~Next Story~". This seems like a farfetch...Aside that it is locked at 1x Hi-Speed and you cannot use HIDDEN or SUDDEN. Combined with the song itself having the slowest BPM in the game, the notes can become virtually impossible to hit and the massive note clusters can put massive stress on your vision. Unless you regularly deal with 1x speed modifiers, you are going to get ''destroyed''. And the catch is the only thing difficult about it is the locked Hi-Speed option and the disabled Hid-Sud options, the chart is unaltered and as far as No-speed modifier charts go, it's quite tame. [[note]]There are other low-speed charts such as "Houou", "Ayakashi Kakushi" or "Mush na heya" that are ''much, much worse''.[[/note]]