So what is Ouendan? Well, at its simplest it’s a music rhythm action game much like say Parappa the Rapper or Gitaroo Man. It comes of little coincidence that Ouendan was developed by the makers of the latter-mentioned game, and boy doesn’t it show. The story behind the game is equally as crazy as Koei’s guitar themed PS2 classic. You follow the actions of a dark trench coat-clad male cheerleading team whose sole purpose in life is to help people in their time of need by dancing and cheering them on to the sound of the some of the catchiest Japanese rock & pop you’re ever likely to find.
There are 15 stages in total, all of which have their own unique story to tell via some impressive looking comic book-like cutscenes. The earlier levels have you helping a Gym teacher gain the admiration of his students or helping a father win over the respect of his daughter, while the later stages have you drumming up support for an election candidate and even battling alien invasions. All through the power of song and dance of course! While the text is all Japanese, the beautifully presented cutscenes woven throughout several intervals in each stage make understanding what’s going on a breeze and actually produces genuine humour and even emotion at times.
Eating and drinking has never been so crazy.
The actual gameplay itself is exclusively controlled with the touch screen. The aim is to time your stylus taps in time with the music in relation to the ever shrinking outer circle around the hit markers spread all over the screen. The markers are numbered, so following the right order is key. Hitting the marker when the outer circle is exactly on the edge rewards you with 300 points, while less accurate beats produce 100 or 50 points, or even a "miss", depending on your timing. The premise sounds simple, and that’s because it is, but it’s by no means easy. Quite the opposite, in fact, as even the initial Easy mode offers a stiff enough challenge to a novice. Things are developed further when you have to drag the marker back and forth over the screen in all kinds of shapes and lengths, while on the harder settings you start seeing multiple markers overlapping each other too. There are also some ‘spinning’ sections mixed in too where the player must spin the on screen disc as quick as they can to amass a few extra thousand bonus points.
Ouendan is a game that encourages the player to strive for perfection due to its harsh combo system. For every subsequent marker you hit it forms a combo. The larger the combo, the bigger the bonuses and of course, one mistimed tap with the stylus and the combo is broken and the bonus starts again; so perfectly completing songs is key to gaining higher ranks. Upon finishing a stage you’re presented with a line graph of your performance along with an overall rating. This is incredibly handy as it shows you the areas of the song you need to work on. If you’re going through a certain part of a song missing the 300s and only getting 100s then you’ll know about it. With the tough rating scheme and the stiff difficulty throughout, Ouendan has plenty of longevity packed inside it.
So we have an idea of how it plays, is it actually any good? Well, Ouendan starts off marvelously. It's initially charming and rather good fun to begin with. The songs are quirky and relatively catchy and the eccentric cutscenes can be quite funny - but then it starts kicking your backside. You then decide that you should practice some more and music games are often easier once you know the songs a little better. But with time and practice, those innocently catchy songs slowly become embedded into your brain. You'll be at work all day and you'll have the 'One Night Carnival' song running through your head on loop. Of course, just when you've forced that out of your mind, another one creeps in.
Each song is wonderfully presented with comic-book style cutscenes.
So you beat it on Easy, then you get to the final stage 'Ready Steady Go' on Normal. You say to yourself ‘Seeing as this took multiple attempts on Easy, this is going to be hard isn't it?’ Oh yes, of course it is. But you try, try and try until finally everything falls into place and you finish it; and what a feeling of sheer satisfaction that is. Few games reward such persistence and determination these days, and it’s in rewarding the player that Ouendan excels at the most. On beating Normal, Hard mode then unlocks. Even these once pleasant and somewhat pedestrian songs now become devilish and sinister in their pace and design. The hit markers now appear quicker and are far higher in numbers, but in turn play out much more naturally with each beat along with the vocals perfectly complimenting the on screen commands.
You now look back and wonder why on earth you were stuck on that final song on normal mode for so long such is the swiftness and precision you can play the game at now. Much like many gamers had 15 years ago when they played Tetris on their Game Boy’s, not only is the music constantly stuck in your head, you now have dots with numbers on them painted behind your eyelids, visible every time you shut your eyes. That is what makes Ouendan the best game on the DS and also puts it up there with the best on all formats so far this year.
There are a few minor grumbles we have with it. The final stage is arguably a little too hard in comparison to the other songs, and you’re going to need 2 copies of the game for multiplayer, but other than that it’s hard to find fault. Not only is it great fun to play, not only does it grow with your ability with near perfection, it is a game that you can’t help think about when you’re not even playing it. Only the very best games do that. A PAL release is unlikely, so for those interested I would strongly recommend importing while the game is still widely available, but should the game ever get a PAL release, few people would blame you if you bought it again, it’s that damn good.
Loading...
