Im@s Corner: THE iDOLM@STER 2

The first true sequel to the original Idolm@ster videogame was released for Xbox 360 on February 24, 2011. The game was also made for the PS3 on October of the same year.

THE iDOLM@STER 2's setting is the same one of the Dearly Stars videogame, with the main mode involving 765 Production studio's attempt from the Producer to win the Idol Academy title by creating a succesful unit of 3 idols, rivaling 876 Pro's girls (from the aforementioned DS title) and 961's all-male idol unit Jupiter. As such, the main unit-raising mode has its 'number of members' quota fixed to 3, with solo/duet/quintet performances available in the game's brand new Stage For You! mode.

As stated before, this Idolm@ster game was released for Playstation 3 towards the end of the year, featuring more songs/content on the base disc on top of the original Xbox 360 release's DLC catalogs, expanded with exclusive DLC content in form of songs, stages and guest idols. Among these, the most notable feature is Hatsune Miku as a guest idol with the inclusion of the songs Melt and World Is Mine.

The songs from the 2nd main Idolm@ster videogame have bridged the path between Taiko gaming's 2nd and 3rd main generation of games, with the latter half making its debut with the Must Songs Blue Album game.

	-Im@s 2 songs-

	The world is all one!! SMOKY THRILL Kyun! Vampire Girl Nanairo Button Honey Heartbeat ～10 Stars Mix～ THE IDOLM@STER 2nd-mix MEGARE! Little Match Girl Alice or Guilty

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Im@s Corner: THE iDOLM@STER Dearly Stars

Released on September 17, 2009 for Nintendo DS, this is the first Idolm@ster game of the '2nd Vision' line of games, building up the gaming universe from the previous games' story. It's also the only currently-released game of the series on Nintendo systems.

Dearly Stars is yet another spin-off title of the series, in which players take the role of one of the three new aspiring idols on their journey to join the 876 Production talent agency and become popular idols themselves. Gameplay-wise, it's the same formula as the one of the main-line titles, only with the difference of handling one of the three newcomer characters on their Story (or the returning Stage mode). All the idols from the previous games also appear in the title as already-affirmed celebrities affiliated to 765 Pro.

The main features of this game lie on the Nintendo DS console's capabilities, allowing to play a cheering mini-game with up to 16 players -both locally and online- and a Download Play option for demo versions and exclusive interviews to the newly-introduced idols. If the game is put into a Japanese Nintendo DSi, it's also possible to acquire extra outfit parts by scanning selected QR codes.

As the game marks the debut of only 4 songs, Dearly Stars' presence into Taiko gaming is the weakest from the franchise yet, with the song "HELLO!!" as its only representative.

	-Im@s Dearly Stars songs-

	"HELLO!!"

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Kokushin Chronicle Lyrics

Composer: Drop
Lyrics: Giu (祇羽)
Vocals: Yura Hatsuki (葉月ゆら)

Across Japan: Taiko Team Loves You! Here's a Letter to Prove It

The love for Asian Donders is so immense that we are breaking the implied "no DonChare in December so no unlock on January 1st" rule with the long-lost Koibumi 2000, supposedly not unlockable and the third in Asia ver. to be free of Japan ver.'s usual locked titles.

And to close the year's final Facebook post, the Team briefly recounts the year's song additions, tournaments and Ranking Dojo-ing, and hopes to have been a good year provided to the Donder audience. Thank you and wish for more years to come!

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Im@s Corner: MASTER SPECIAL Albums

The MASTER SPECIAL album series was released between December 2008 and March 2010, consisting of 10 different albums brought by Columbia Music Entertainment.

Unlike the previous MASTER ALBUM series, this one follows three main themes of song-grouping criteria against the trend of making new solo albums for each of the idols. The first two releases, 765 "Colorful Days" and "961 Overmaster" predated the iDOLM@STER SP series of games' two opposing talent agencies, featuring full-length previews of 765 Pro and 961 Pro's main themes from the aforementioned family of PSP titles. The MASTER SPECIAL albums numbered from 1 to 6 each feature solo performances of the respective two cover idols, while the season-themed "WINTER" and "SPRING" close the circle by offering brand new songs performed by the whole idol cast.

Regardless of each of the album releases' theme structure, the composers involved in the songs' creation face both recurring names to the franchise and new Namco Sounds faces who are known the most for some of their work in other franchises; from the Taiko grounds, for example, we can spot many songs composed by Masubutchi Yuuji, AJURIKA and Linda AI-CUE!

With L・O・B・M making its debut for the third Taiko Wii videogame, all the other MASTER SPECIAL tracks are featured in Must Songs Red Album, as that game's unlockable tracks.

	-MASTER SPECIAL songs-

	L・O・B・M Otome yo Taishi o Idake!! Genki Tripper Reimei Starline livE Next Life arcadia ALRIGHT* Flower Girl Mythmaker Jitensha Shocking na Kare L'isola

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Im@s Corner: MASTER ARTIST Albums

The MASTER ARTIST album series is a collection of both returning and new Idolm@ster songs released between July and October 2007 and published by Columbia Music Entertainment, with each of these featuring exclusive songs and alternative takes of tracks about their respective cover idol.

This album collection is made of 11 releases, with the first 10 being entirely dedicated to talk/solo performances of one of the iDOLMASTER arcade/console games' idols. The last album (MASTER ARTIST FINALE) features instead group performances of the 10 idols and recurring 765 Production clerk Kotori Otonashi (音無小鳥) providing some talk/solo singing tracks. Most of the songs' composers are in-house Namco musicians, including both core contributor to the series and "external" big names such as Go Shiina.

With I Want and Kirame Kirari being the first of the MA tracks getting ported on Taiko, the remainder of the available songs made their debut to the drumming franchise thanks to the Must Songs Red Album game.

	-MASTER ARTIST songs-

	I Want Kirame Kirari Furufuru Future☆ Meisou Mind Me ga Au Toki Start→Star→ Tonari ni... Futari no Kioku Kosmos, Cosmos Ippai Ippai Sora

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Im@s Corner: THE iDOLM@STER SP

Released on February 19th, 2009, THE iDOLM@STER SP is actually the title of a series consisting of three differently-subtitled games for Playstation Portable: Perfect Sun (パーフェクトサン), Missing Moon (ミッシングムーン) and Wandering Star (ワンダリングスター).

Gameplay-speaking, the three games play the same as the main-series Idolm@ster game, with the added bonus of being portable for the first time. What's different, however, is that each game has its own storyline to be explored in the titular Story mode, each featuring 3 returning idols from the 765 Production studio and one extra idol that joined the rival 961 Production, as part of the Project Fairy unit. As mentioned before, the core Im@s experience -grouped in the Free Mode- is the same for all three games, featuring all the idols and songs in the PSP game trilogy. DLC content is also shared between games, with a purchase in one of the titles being valid on the other two as well.

The Idolm@ster SP games' debut songs are not a huge bunch, mainly due to the fact of some of the songs making their debut as Live for You! DLC tracks weeks earlier than the SP games, and vice-versa.

	-Im@s SP songs-

	Overmaster Colorful Days(12 Colors)

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