Fantastic time-waster but a ground-breaker
This is the original game that started what seems to now be a craze of these types of games in Japan, its like taking the dating sim style of game that is still popular, but putting a lot more depth and purpose to the game. The game lets you choose from 11 different girls and starts you on the road to making a pop star out of an inexperienced young girl. You play the role of producer of the idol group, and if you're familiar with idol groups from Japan, you'd know just how important the producer/manager is to the group, and this game gets into all of that detail.

You have to decide what clothes they wear, you have to find the right things to say and do to make the girls happy as well as the fans at the same time. You have to make the schedules and itineraries of activities for the girls including TV appearances and live concerts, send them to singing and dancing lessons, you have to send them to multiple auditions to raise their public awareness; you name it, if it involves management of a pop idol, this game has it covered.

For overseas users, the game requires a lot of Japanese knowledge, not only spoken but a lot of reading as well. The game is almost entirely menu-based besides a few of the mini-games, but if you can understand your way through the game well enough, you'll probably have a good time. Also keep in mind the game is very time-consuming, and it takes at least around 10 or more hours to finish a career with one of the girls.

The Idolm@ster
For a videogame, the iDOM@STER is legendary. Not so much because it tackles a subject matter unheard of in this medium - a producer tasked with transforming 10 girls into national idols. Or, that it has spawned CD singles, radio dramas and various cute merchandise since its late 2005 debut in Japanese arcades. But because it left my younger brother impressed: "How come the grpahics so real?" The cartoon dollies' uncannily natural animation had clearly resonated with him. Mind you, this was the same young person who walked in on me during a Gears of War multiplayer match only to stand dispassionately as I tore two humans apart with a shotgun. before silently retreating to his preferred creature comfort, Maple Story. Now that I had his attention, I might as well conduct an operation hook, line and sinker. Off to a gruelling six-player audition we go!

Passing the audition - an exercise infusing, rhythm-based action with the realtime resource rationing of Football Manager - led to a stunning song and dance, which my brother watched with a pleasant glint in his eye. Careful not to startle my prey, I gently motioned for him to give it a try. "No thanks; I don't know Japanese," he amicably replied before turning away. What audacity! At least let me explain how entirely possible it was to enjoy the game without knowing a word of Japanese.

After all, the language of achieving a dream (in this case holding a concert at Tokyo Dome) through good time management, proper emotion control, and resetting the Xbox 360 when you mess up, is universal. Do not be intimidated by its bucketload of foreign text; just refer to an online guide (such as one from GameFAQs.com).