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Osu! Tatakae! Quendan
While Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (which translates as "Hey! Fight! Cheer Squad") never received a Western release it is perfectly playable thanks to the import friendly DS hardware. It is basically a rhythm game where the goal is to cheer on various people that are in need of help. Only with the help of the all male cheer squad will they be able to get their fighting spirit up and overcome whatever adversity it is that they are facing. While all the text in the game is Japanese this is not such a big issue. Each level starts with a short manga style scene, which outlines the bizarre situation that the characters find themselves in. Highlights include a racehorse chasing down a robber, violinist with a case of diarrhoea, sculptor without inspiration and even police battling alien robots. Most of the stories were pretty easy to understand even without knowing the translation expect maybe the one where a salary man has to fight a giant mouse monster. Amidst all this craziness is one stand out level where you help a young man who died in a motorcycle accident apologize to his wife for a fight they had beforehand. The game opens with a tutorial but the gameplay is simple enough for anyone to grasp. The story panels are shown on the top screen while 3D models of the cheerleaders are on the bottom. Your job is to tap the numbered circles that appear in time with the beat of whichever song is playing. Some sections also require you to trace a ball that is rolling around a path or swirl your stylus across the screen to spin a wheel. It is all very simple but takes some practice to perfect. The "fighting spirit" gauge of the person whom you are helping is also shown and if this is drained before the song is over, you have failed. Missing notes or tapping them too soon will drain the gauge even faster and you are graded at the conclusion of each track. There are four difficulty settings with a unique team leader for each and if you manage to unlock the higher difficulty, you will be placed in control of an all girl squad. It will take a lot of practice to reach these modes however. The entire soundtrack consists of J-pop songs so if this is not your type of music you will probably not enjoy the game. Almost all 15 of the tracks are cover versions apparently although I did not know any of the artists well enough to tell the difference. The music does not sound too bad considering the sound capabilities of the DS but playing with earphones comes highly recommended for the best experience. The visuals are not going to win any awards but the stories are humorous and you will not have too much time to gawk at them either. It is quite funny to see how things change depending on how good or bad you are doing. None of the characters really have anything to do with each other but you will see them cropping up in the backgrounds of other stories sometimes. There is also a nice big finale, which ties everything together quite humorously. The touch screen controls are very responsive but I feared for its well-being during some of the spinning segments towards the end of the game. Overall I quite enjoyed this game and I can understand why it has such a cult following. About the only complaint I have is the wait one has to endure when retrying a failed song. It is especially annoying on the last track which ahs quite a long intro. There are a lot of helpful resources available online but to be honest I played through the entire game without making any use of these and I still thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The translations cleared up a few minor questions but it did not make any of the stories less wacky. It really is a shame that the game never got a Western release, as it deserves to be played by everyone with even a passing interest in the genre. |
TAGS: Osu! Tatakae! Quendan,
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