If you’re looking for a fairly simple to understand and addictive import game, look no further than Korea. Yes, that’s right, Korea. Some of the easiest to play import games, for people who can’t understand the language, are music games and Korean developers and publishers are known for putting together some pretty great ones.

There’s a catch though – most of these good, Korean music games are commonly found on the PSP. You may find them in arcades, in the case of the Pump it Up series, or online, for example Audition, but one common tie among most Korean music games is that they appear on region-free PSP UMDs. Well, there is one more commonality – most PSP Korean music games also have an English language option.

So read on, and learn more about Audition, DJ Max and Pump It Up…

Title: Pump It Up: Zero PortablePrice: $39.90System(s): PSPRelease Date: October 15, 2007Publisher (Developer): Andamiro (Studio 9)ESRB Rating: N/APros: 117 songs, English language option, cool background videos playing while you play, online ranking, PSP wallpapers you can earn. Different arrow options.Cons: The cool background videos are too cool, and often distracting. Also the control scheme takes getting used to. Unlocking can be tedious since you must earn points.Overall Score: 7/10

If you take away anything from this review, let it be that Pump It Up: Exceed Portable and Pump It Up: Zero Portable are pretty much interchangeable. If you own Zero Portable, you don’t need Exceed Portable. These two PSP titles aren’t like DDR entries, where there’ll be different songs, patterns or mechanics. Instead, Zero Portable is more like Exceed Portable 2.0 rather than a whole new game.

This means that almost everything I said in last week’s Exceed Portable review carries over to this week. Sure, there are a few differences, and those differences are what this review will focus on. This review will essentially help you decide which Pump It Up Portable would be best for you.

Title: Pump It Up Exceed PortablePrice: $12.90 (on sale at Play-Asia – retails for $49.90)System(s): PSPRelease Date: November 30, 2006Publisher (Developer): Andamiro (Studio 9)ESRB Rating: N/APros: Very nice song selection, Korean or English language options, cool background videos playing while you play, online ranking and a video mode where you can just listen to the music and watch the videos.Cons: The cool background videos are too cool, and often distracting. Also the control scheme takes getting used to and there is no auto-save function.Overall Score: 7/10

Not too long ago, Play-Asia had a deal on a special Pump It Up bundle, where you’d receive both Pump It Up: Exceed Portable and Pump It Up: Zero Portable for $19.99. Of course I jumped on the deal, and upon receiving my shipment decided I’d dedicate a column to reviewing one of the games.

The Pump It Up games are similar to Dance Dance Revolution, except they have five markers to hit instead of four. This makes the PSP version a bit more difficult, as you would imagine. It also requires a bit of an inventive control scheme to make the whole thing work, as the game involves diagonal arrows facing UP+LEFT, UP+RIGHT, DOWN+LEFT, DOWN+RIGHT, along with a center square/circle thing…