One of the Xbox 360's saving grace in Japan has been The Idolm@ster series, the game where you take the role as a producer and guide a young girl into idol stardom. Grace be gone with the Xbox because The Idolm@ster 2, the latest in the franchise, is set to appear on the Playstation 3 on October 27. A regular edition and limited edition is set to appear on that date.


What makes this a remarkable thing is because ever since the original Idolm@ster game was first released on the 360 in 2007, fans who didn't have the means to import the region locked system had to settle for the PSP games or the DS one that only offered a scaled down experience of the main games. While the vanilla release of IM@S 2 at 7,980 yen is nothing to scoff at, you can bet that's a lot easier to swallow than getting that PLUS a Xbox 360 that you have to import. You can say what you want about the music and dancing, but you got to admit, there are very few cel-shaded games that look as good as this:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/_3VTIHyl2SA

To pour salt on the Xbox 360 Idolm@niacs' wounds, the PS3 version will get a few of the DLC released so far on disk. That speaks volumes for fans (and Namco Bandai) as that includes clothes, accessories and even songs. There is no shortage of DLC for the series in general.
You can't say you didn't see this coming, though! Besides the PSP games (that Namco Bandai generously separated into three retail games) IM@S has already debuted on the PS3 for a "concert" in PS Home. Or maybe it was timed to coincide with the Idolm@ster anime series currently airing? (how are people enjoying that, by the way?)


Those who begged high and low on publishers forums to localize the game, well, keep begging, but at least here's your chance to at least play the game if you have a PS3 on hand. (and about a hundred bucks on the other hand to buy the game, of course.)
Although we missed out on classics such as "Colorful Days" and "Ippai Ippai", we can soon share the experience with the next generation. With 100% more hamburger:

http://youtu.be/xSEyt_bNQK0


Source: Siliconera and NeoGaf via Famitsu.