So what exactly is THE iDOLM@STER? Started from an arcade game, this game is all about raising a girl into an idol. Choose a girl, costumes for her, songs for her, take her into a lesson, promote her, take her into an audition and make her appear in TV. Simply put, it's an idol managing simulation game.

Gameplay: To be able to enjoy this game, you'll have to understand Japanese. Everything in the game is in Japanese, and there are a lot of communication between you and your idol, entirely in Japanese. The game starts with you as a producer, choosing your idol and meeting her for the first time. And you start talking with her. The communication feature in this game is kind of like in Dating Simulation games, where there are three responses to choose from. It's really hard in this particular game, since you're only given literally 5 seconds to read, analyze and choose a correct response. There are many ways to say "Good Morning" to your idol, and they'll react accordingly. Great communication leads to great memories, which could boost your idol's audition score. Sometimes you're also required to do something, such as wiping a dirt of your idol's face. After that, you choose a costume and the debut song. And you go for a meeting with her and that ends the first week. This game is limited into 52 weeks, where you have to raise your idol into a A-rank idol (or maybe a S-rank idol) in 52 weeks. The second week, you'll take her into a lesson where you can raise one or two of her stats. There are only three stats in this game, by the way, Visual, Voice and Dance. Low stats may result in an "accident" when your idol is appearing on the TV, such as when your Voice stat is low, your idol may forget the lyrics to the song she's singing. The third week gets you into an audition. Actually, the first three weeks in this game are just tutorials of the gameplay system. After that, you are free to choose the schedule of your idol. Promotion, Lesson, Audition, or take the day off. The audition is online, too. And there are tons of DLC, new clothes and songs to buy from the XBOX Live Marketplace to make the game replay value higher. You may also give your e-mail into the game, where your idol would contact you to start the game and play it. Also, to be able to complete the game and get all gamerpoints, you have to make all idols successful. Which means you have at least 468 weeks of in game time to spend with your idol in order to complete the game. And after finishing the first 52-week cycle, you're able to start the game with a combination of more than one idols. Different combinations make different results, so this game would keep you playing for years.

Music: The Music in this game have a broad spectrum of Japanese pop, from ballad to dance. It's really awesome, and each song is themed into an idol. And some idols like some songs better than other songs, so you have to find out their personality and the song's personality to pick a great song that your idol would enjoy. All of the songs in this game are catchy and fun to listen to. They've even made even more songs and are releasing albums in the real world (featuring each idol in this game). To this date, dozens of albums have been released.

Graphics: It's perfect for a game like this. The idol's character movements and expressions are natural, and is not robotic at all. 2D background graphics made the game colorful, and 3D stages are really smooth. The art is really enjoyable, especially if you like anime.

Overall: Believe it or not, this game is why I purchased a XBOX360. I had lots of fun playing it for over a year, completing 52-week cycles with different idols. Everytime I start to play the game, I set my mind to make my idol a S-rank idol in 52-weeks. And then I enjoy a 52-week with my idol. It's really addictive.

If you can't read Japanese, don't even bother playing this game. Look for THE iDOLM@STER: Live for You!, since that game is more English-friendly. But this game is more fun, in my opinion. This game is about making a successful idol. In THE iDOLM@STER: Live for You!, your idol are already successful and you have to arrange live performances for them, while doing a rhythm "game" as their fans. It's really great for making videos, nothing else.