Mad Maestro!

"I guess "Baton Swinging Revolution" wasn't good enough."

Music has no language or even a time barrier. No matter where in the world or time the song was originally debuted, it will still appeal to those who would give it a chance. Mad Maestro is a music game that brings classical Renaissance music to the modern day TV. The classics like “Flight of the Bumblebee”, portions of “Swan Lake” and verity of other symphonies will send ample old school-ness, especially to those blessed to have a 6.1 surround system.

On a quest to save an old, desolated concert hall, a young composer by the name of Takt is out to recruit a new cast of players. With the help of a musical fairy, they play in order to restore the name of music within the walls of the concert halls before those walls are driven into the ground. I'm not sure if befriending aliens hold any correlation to classical music. Nevertheless, Takt finds himself having an intergalactic trio working the wooden xylophone. It somehow takes the seriousness of an actual classical concert away.

If the cast isn't so deep and profound, that also speaks on the behalf of the core game play. Basically, you press a button every quarter beat of the piece. After all, it is the composer's job to keep the band in tempo. To add a bit of difficulty to the button mashing, each circle representing the quarter note also indicate the amount of pressure to press the button with. A gently tap any button when the circle is blue, normally press any button when it is green, and/or mash any button when it is red. There are also directional notes and holding notes throughout the game to add more complexity to the simple art of button mashing.

This is the area where I am mostly concerned about. First off, it is obvious that sooner or later a button maybe broken over the course of playing this game that demands the player to jam buttons. Aside from other games that require the same button-mashing scheme, like Dance Dance Revolution, Mad Maestro is so relentless with its timing that you can't help but press the same button over and over again. Once one button is no longer working, that controller is useless. Secondly, I find difficulty with holding the controller. The controller gradually feels insecure within my hands after a few hard presses on the Circle button so I find numerous ways to reposition my index finger to stabilize the downward force. It seems that at the end of a few hours of nonstop extension of the index finger over the R buttons, above the Triangle button leaves my hand hurting even more.

What hurts me even more is the lack of Antonio Vivaldi symphonies. Aside from my yearning of a playable section of Vivaldi's “Four Seasons” concerto, the rest of the tracks featured are worthy of praise. The game features the best tracks from the Swan Lake ballet, Nutcracker ballet, great symphonies from Beethoven and Mozart, as well as other memorable classics. Now, for a complete audio ass kicking, the symphonies would sound more of an actual concert with a 6.1 surround sound system. I suggest that this would be a major plus for those who really love a great concert.

Now after the initial song is played and if scored enough “Bravo” scores, the stage switches to another song in a Medley Mode. In Medley Mode, the circles are now black. What this means is that the amount of pressure put on the button, doesn't not affect the score. As long as the timing is spot on, there is no way on losing. Once completing the Medley Mode, there will be a bonus game to be played at the end. Some of them are super easy and fun like “Quack Quack Racing” and “The Mysterious Dungeon”, while some are really demanding like “Lionel's Flaming Hoops” and “Alien Abduction”. Either way, all of them are still inspired by the button-mashing gameplay; however, there are a few altercations.

Aside from the last cut screen after the credits, the game primarily contains a lackluster performance, graphics wise. With some PS1-esqe graphics, I'm really disappointed. However, I don't blame the game due to the format in which this game is packed in.

The final product of the game is on a CD, not DVD, format disc. What this means to the people with a PS2 Hard Disk Drive, it will be really inconsistent with loading the disc up. At one time, the disc will load instantly after turning on the system; however, the next time may take a lot more patients as it could boast 10-20 Disc Read Errors (My highest one is 31, beat that!). Now for those who do not have a HDD installed, consider them lucky because the system won't run it too fast to read the disk.

In the end of the concert, the composer takes a bow while the audience applauds vigorously in a standing ovation. In the case of this Mad Maestro, I'd believe that the game was too simplistic in both game play and format to deserve a standing ovation. However, this after all is a great compilation of music and I will applaud greatly to its soundtrack. Bravo!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/04