"From the same developers as Gitaroo Man - you know you’re going to have some major fun with game."

Story: ?/10

To put it simply, Ouendan doesn't really have a storyline. You play as a group of three male cheerleaders (you wouldn't know if I hadn't told you >_>) travelling across the town helping citizens in trouble. Whether it's a young boy trying to win a game of basketball to impress his prospective girlfriend, two bumbling cops trying to save the city from a robot invasion, or a conductor trying to hold in his diarrhea on the bullet train, there are some pretty odd people in the city. Each stage (15) has its own unique song and story, told in an active manga format.

Gameplay: 10/10

This is where Ouendan really shines. We haven't seen much of anything like this before, and the only comparison I can think of would be to say that it's like DDR with a stylus. From the same developers as the equally brilliant Gitaroo Man, you know you're going to have some major fun with this game. It's controlled strictly with the stylus, which you must use to poke, drag, and swirl to the beat of the music. Symbols pop up on the screen one after another, and you need to hit them at the right time, which is determined by a larger circle that slowly closes around each symbol - it's not like the scrolling arrows of DDR. There is also a symbol which requires you to drag a ball across a line back and forth at the correct pace. Every once in awhile, you get the giant swirly symbol: you need to spin a wheel as fast as you can until you get enough spins to get through it. Whether you make it through each stage or not is determined by a health bar of sorts. If you miss too many beats, or can't keep up with the rythym, you lose a ton of health, while hitting everything correctly gains you a little extra. The point of the game is to get the highest score possible. The amount of points you get depends on how many consecutive symbols you've hit, and how accurate you've been. Your accuracy is decided compared to the circle closing around each symbol—the closer it is to exactly matching the size of the symbol when you tap it, the more points you get. As you finish a certain number of stages, you unlock more (the number required to do so varies). My only qualm is that sometimes it's hard to see where you need to go next because your hand can get in the way of the screen. They've tried to make it easier by placing a dotted line between moves, but it doesn't always help. The game starts off fairly easy, but gets progressively harder and harder, until it reaches the levels of near-impossibility. It's a really fun pick-up-and-play kinda game, that you'll never get bored of.

Multiplayer: 7/10

This mode consists of competitive multiplayer games, with the winner determined solely on the score/ranking you receive at the end of each stage. The muliplayer function uses the DS' Wi-Fi capabilities, but is not playable online like some of the more recent games. The game requires one copy of the game per player, so it'll take alot of cash to get the job done X-P. Gameplay here is pretty much the exact same as single player. If you're getting tired of the single player mode (ha!), multiplayer will keep you entertained for much, much longer. I was hoping for more variety in the multiplayer mode, but it's hard to be upset about anything in this game.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics aren't really a big part of this game, as you're probably paying too much attention to the circles flashing across the screen to be gawking at the visuals. At the beginning of each level, a cute (or kind of disgusting) story is told over the two screens through well drawn manga scenes. While the song is going and you're tapping away, there's usually a bit of manga action happening on the top screen, and just a basic background with your three cheerleaders dancing on the bottom screen. For what the game is, the visuals are quite well done and entertaining.

Sound: 10/10

Another really positive point for this game – the music. All 15 songs (most are covers) really fit the style of the game, and the gameplay wraps around them well. The sound was really high-quality, with very little crackling or other artifacts, which is surprising coming from the DS. The genre of music varies from J-pop to J-rock, to Japanese Rap (...) and a few lighter songs.

Captivation: 9/10

What's great about this game is its endless replay value. You could play for hours and hours on end, mastering each song and completing all the difficulty levels, and not be the slightest bit bored. It never gets tiring, and that's something very few games accomplish these days. Each difficulty mode is quite short (they average a few hours each, but it depends on how well you play), and I wish there were more songs, but I can't complain much considering how amazingly fun this game is overall.

All in All: 9/10

We are getting a completely reworked version of Ouendan in a few months, but I doubt it'll match the quality of the this title. It's getting completely americanized, which isn't always the best idea - especially for something so unique, original, and quirky as Ouendan. Being an import, it's quite pricey (you'd be lucky to find it for under $40 US), but truly worth every penny. This is *without a doubt*, a must have for anyone who owns a DS.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/06