popn music 2

After 17 years of rigorous popping and music-ing, the franchise needed to make a change to keep from going stale. It’s just not the change that fans expected.

Originally released in 1998, Pop’n Music is a rhythm video game series where you hit colored buttons corresponding to the falling “notes” on the screen. It’s an extremely popular game in Japanese arcades and is well-known for its bright colors and upbeat songs.

▼ Of course, some people liked the game a little more than others…

There were 21 iterations of the game, all featuring cute anthropomorphized animals that bopped along to the player’s beats.

But those characters had a huge makeover with the newest Pop’n Music game that was released at the end of November in Japan…

[tweet https://twitter.com/seiyuu_ant/status/671323377965993984 align=center]

popn music 1Titled Pop’n Music éclale, the newest game has suddenly changed the cat-like and rabbit-like characters into girls with cat and rabbit ears. We don’t recognize these two at all!

▼ What…who?!

[tweet https://twitter.com/ok184kex/status/667260401273278464 align=center]

Comments from Japan seem to be as confused as we are about the sudden character shift.

“When did they turn into humans?”
“…Eh?”
“This isn’t some minor face lift; it’s a huge change!”
“Wait…what?!”

Just looking at the progression of the characters throughout the history of the game makes you really wonder why Konami decided to go practically full human in this latest game. Whatever their reason, it doesn’t affect the way the game plays, so if all you wanted to do is frantically press buttons, this is still going to be your favorite game.

Source: Kinisoku
Featured Image: Twitter/@seiyuu_ant edited by RocketNews24