Idolm@aster has remained a Japan-exclusive series... until now. Namco Bandai has finally decided to officially introduce western gamers to the series with a English release of The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa (originally for PSP).
Unfortunately (depending on who you ask), Shiny Festa is a spin-off of the main series. That means that rather than being an idol training sim, it's just a rhythm game. And here comes the bad part: The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa Melodic Disc, The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa Harmonic Score, and The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record are only available for iOS and are $55 each. Ouch.
In any case, each game has different groups of idols and different animated sequences. There's some free DLC out for it now, and future DLC to come.
Well, maybe this gives a little more hope that Namco will localize more Idolm@ster games.
What do you think about The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa being exclusive to iOS? What about the high price tag?