SEGA Miku Rhythm Game Headed for iOS

According to a new website, SEGA and Crypton Future Media are planning to release a rhythm game called Miku Flick for iOS featuring Hatsune Miku. In this game, hiragana characters scroll horizontally across the screen in time with the lyrics and the player has to input these kana using what is known as “flick input”. The game will be available on March 9, 2012 (i.e. Miku day) for 1200 JPY, but there will be a play test session with SEGA at Tokyo Dome City, a short distance away from the Miku concerts on March 8 and 9 in the Tokyo Dome City Hall.

This “flick input” is very similar to the Japanese Ten Key input system that comes native with iOS. Japanese hiragana is often arranged into ten rows of five columns each, with the rows roughly corresponding to the consonant sounds and the columns corresponding to the vowel sounds. For the input system, the player would press a finger down on the key corresponding to the row and then slide his/her finger if needed to select the column. The column corresponding to “a” requires no sliding and the “i”, “u”, “e” and “o” columns correspond to sliding left, up, right and down, respectively. Releasing the finger will then enter the selected character. For example, to enter “ni”, one would have to push down on the “na” button and slide to the left. An “easy mode” will be present for people unfamiliar with this input system.

From the screenshots, it appears that the game will give the player an onscreen cue as to which direction to slide as well as highlight which character the player should be trying to input. The screenshots also hint that the game will feature songs such as Koisuru VOC@LOID, World is Mine, Time Limit, Aikotoba, PoPiPo, Romeo and Cinderella, StargazeR and Anata no Utahime. Featured costumes other than the default Miku outfit include the “Natural” model on the Aikotoba screenshot, the “Jersey” model on the PoPiPo screenshot, the “Heart Hunter” model on the World is Mine screenshot, the “Star” model on the Time Limit screenshot and the “Snow Miku 2012” model.

According to the specs listed on the site, the game will be a single player game available for the iPhone 4/4S, iPod Touch 4G and the iPad/iPad 2.


7 thoughts on “SEGA Miku Rhythm Game Headed for iOS”

    1. Anyway Android or iOS, we’re out of luck: remember that those morons at Apple are segregating the iTune store per country, therefore no way to purchase it outside of Japan 😛

  1. I reeeeaaaaly don’t understand why this was no simultaneously developed for Android.  Even in Japan its at least roughly the same number of Android users as iPhone users.  Is it because the Android Market doesn’t segregate purchases by region, unlike the iTunes store?  Why would SEGA care if overseas customers/fans could buy the game??  ARGH, I don’t understand business logic …

  2. Believe it or not, there are more iOS user in Japan than Android user and iTunes Music Store and iTunes App Store are incredibly popular than Android Market in Japan.  So, there you go, logic is: develop the game for the most popular one and then see the demand, if there is higher demand for Android, then port to Android, if not, leave it where it is and let it make money…

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