You may remember that at the end of 2012, some trademarks were filed by Namco Bandai that pointed towards a possible Western release of the Idolm@ster series in both Europe and the US. Well today Namco Bandai has indeed released three Idolm@ster games but hold your horses. These games, originally released on the PSP in Japan, have now been released on the iOS without any actual announcement from the company and they cost $54.99 a piece.
There are three games here and each one of them contains pre-rendered music videos using the 3D models from The Idolm@ster 2 video game and anime cutscenes from The Idolm@ster anime series. The titles have been re-named into English and placed on the iTunes store, with Idolm@ster Shiny Festa Harmonic Score, Idolm@ster Shiny Festa Melodic Disc, and Idolm@ster Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record.
Each of these three games feature different idols and a special half hour OVA that has been given English subtitles as well. It is interesting to note that despite the fact that purchasing all three of these iTunes games would cost $164.97, it is actually cheaper to buy these on the iOS than simply trying to import the original Japanese PSP releases. However one can’t help but wonder if the iOS was really the best place for such a high-priced, low-profile release when the PSP/Vita likely would have been a more viable option.
