Gitaroo Man

"Brilliant"

''Home with another bruise to the ego?'' Puma said, trying to soften up U-1 a little as he trudged through the door, his knuckles leaving skin on the floor as he walked.

''Hrm.'' He replied angrily, sighing.

''That's a yes, I believe.''

U-1 shot an angry look at Puma, which allowed him a minute to reflect. But that was cut off too, as loud echoing and booming from just outside his window went off.

U-1 didn't feel down anymore. ''Puma!'' He shouted, extending his right hand. ''Guitaroo!''

Puma shifted into his alternate form and flung his tail forwards, sending the magical guitar over to U-1 quickly. His hand gripped it, and waves of energy shot over him, allowing his battle armor to cover his body. ''Let's go!'' He said as he burst out the door.

''That's more like it!'' Puma cried out joyously as he followed the Gitaroo-Man out the door.

----

Thus is the strange story of Gitaroo-Man.

The storyline follows a young boy, looking in his 2-3/4ths D world like he walked from france, named U-1. With a name like that and his nerdy appearance, he is the center of ridicule. His crush is clueless about him, his bullies include anyone with testosterone in their body, and his dog Puma even is sarcastic.

But that whole thing changes when Puma transforms into a robotic dog and flings his tail forwards, sending the magical Gitaroo towards U-1, bathing him in light before U-1, geek extraordinare, gains battle armor, a will to fight evil, and four extra feet in height.

Graphics are nothing special; It seems like Parappa the Rappa, must have had kids with overworld Tifa to create a short, not-quite-3D world around us. It looks stupid, but when you see U-1 become Gitaroo man, everything becomes incredible. Strange and sometimes poor graphics, this is not a glamer point.

Next, the music, is without a doubt, the main, best, and brightest point of this game. The hardcore rock of the first level, the fast-paced techno Japanese remix of the second level...man, I could go on, but I can't. I couldn't rate this enough. However, with the difficulty, you could hear this over and over again and keep bobbing your head to the music.

The best thing about it is that it variates. The first level, previously mentioned, gives your guitar high distortion at great quality, generating the metal feel. Next thing you know, you're fighting the Skeleton Trio with their maracas, giving an incredible mexican, acoustic guitar strum to it. Amazing.

Next, gameplay, which will require several paragraphs to go over. First, let me explain the battle system. The game is in three phases, Charge, Attack, and Final. Charge is the opening part where you excerscise your fingers to give yourself life. The second, Attack, involves you and your opponent trading blows with musical talent, you shooting purple lightning with each correctly played note, and intense motions as you move your control pad and button fingers rapidly.

Attacking is simple enough; you move the control stick to the direction of the oncoming notes, and press any button while they head to you at a rapid pace. You hold it down as long as the note shows, and let it go to press the next button. This is frantic and fun, while you hit note after note to let out one long final jam to finish it, moving the control stick towards it as it curves down and then up, as though an actual guitarist was heightening the note as he played.

Defensively, you correspond your buttons, square, circle, triangle, and X, according to the control pad's own, X from the bottom, Square from the left, etc. This is irritating to start with, because I had played enough timing games to know you start to press it just bfore, but this threw me off. It took me a while to get it down.

The game is irritating, repetitive, annoying...and, well, brilliant. Soon enough, you will be tapping the buttons as you jam to the music you are creating, unable to put the controller down if only to massage the red sores on your thumbs.

Lacking in story, but kicking in everything else, I can't reccomend this game enough. Not perfect, but sure as hell revolutionary.

Overall: A
- a bit cartoony in graphics
+ But it runs smooth!
- Repetition to the wall
+ Not a bad thing.
+++ Great, great music.
+ Revolutionary style
+ Highly, Highly addictive.
-/+ One WEIRD storyline.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/02, Updated 08/28/02