Review: Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (NDS)
If you're not familiar with 2005's import phenomenon Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, get yourself over to Gamestyle's review now and read up on why it's one of the best games to hit the DS. iNiS created an engaging and accessible rhythm game for Nintendo's touch-screen wonder, and its catchy tunes and whimsical stories still resonate to this day. November 2006 saw the arrival of an American equivalent on US shores, complete with localised music and all new characters and scenarios, but only now is there a true follow-up to the original. The J-pop is back; the cheer squad is back; and there's a real giant cat loose in the city.
Not much has changed on a fundamental level. Your cheer squad is once again on a mission of helpfulness, dancing to enthusiastic Japanese pop songs, and giving courage to the townspeople to overcome their problems. Once again, circles, sliders and spinners appear on-screen and must be tapped, dragged and circled in time with the music to keep the target's 'cheer-meter' high enough. It's such a wonderfully upbeat premise that you won't be able to help but smile. The music is in a similar vein to the first game, perhaps ever-so-slightly toned down in terms of craziness, but there are some real growers in here, and the on-screen prompts match the music intuitively.
Accompanying the Ouendan team this time is a rival cheer squad, wearing blue uniforms as opposed to the standard black, and sporting their own emblems. This doesn't really make much of a difference to the game as they'll simply take over for half of the songs. A nice touch is that there is an equivalent character for each difficulty level - a new recruit, a veteran and a leader (with varying hairstyles!). Oh, and the final group of characters have their own equivalent rivals too, though it's nothing all that surprising.
Ouendan is often described as a very hard game, and it certainly takes a lot of practice, conditioning and quick reflexes to beat its hardest settings; but it's also incredibly accessible thanks to its direct interface and logical colour coding, plus has difficulty modes to accommodate all players. This is particularly true of the sequel, which starts by giving you a pointer that guides you to each circle when you first start the game. By the very end, that notion will seem quite laughable, as you'll be instinctively tapping quick rhythms to patterns that emerge smaller, faster and more complex than ever before.
Ouendan has that way of getting you 'in the zone'. For all the flashy pyrotechnics and zany comic book sequences occurring on the top screen, your entire attention will be focused on the touch screen, observing, remembering and concentrating on nothing else, while the world around you ceases to be. You may hum, your foot may tap, and people around you might think you're crazy, but so what? If you stick with it, you'll be achieving seemingly super-human feats within this little world, and feeling quite pleased with yourself.
Technical improvements have found their way into Ouendan 2, carried over from Elite Beat Agents. You can save replays, re-watch the last section of a song if you fail it, and skip introductions. Three bonus songs make their way into the game (unlocked after achieving a sufficient score), wireless multiplayer has been expanded to include single-cartridge mode and the rumble pak is also supported. All very welcome features.
Essentially, Ouendan 2 is Japan's answer to Elite Beat Agents (even the final level is spookily similar). With that in mind, it's not quite as essential a purchase as the first one was two years ago. All the menus and stories are presented in Japanese, and although that's not a problem, some of the meaning gets a bit lost. Kidnapped pop stars and frustrated hairdressers are all simple enough, but Gamestyle isn't too sure what's going on with the old man and his dog, nor with the school girl choir. Either way, EBA and Ouendan 2 are easy enough to get hold of, so if you'd prefer one over the other, you've got that choice. Gamestyle is extremely happy with Ouendan 2, and with a game this upbeat, who wouldn't be?
Rating: 9 / 10
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