"Even if you hate rhythm games or don't import this game is a must have!"

INTRO

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is a Japanese rhythm game made by iNis. If you are not familiar with the gameplay type it is exactly like Elite Beat Agents. In case you are curious, the name of the game translates to Go! Fight! Cheer Squad. As I write this review, Ouendan 2 is already out. I would highly recommend this one first. Now then, let me get into the game.

STORYLINE
10/10

The story is really not much of a story. Instead each level has a different story. The stories show various people (and animals) having problems throughout a series of manga panels to show the story. After awhile the person who is having a really bad day at this point needs help and they cry out for the Ouendan's help. The Ouendan are a group of cheerleaders who cheer the people on to have a good day. If the Ouendan do well in their cheering the person's day will start getting better and better as you progress. However, if the Ouendan are doing poorly cheer wise the person they are trying to help will continue to have a bad day until it gets to the point where the Ouendan have officially failed. The following scene shows the end of the person the Ouendan tried to help have their day end in a trainwreck, and you are given the option to quit now or try again. Some missions will actually make you feel guilty for failing which is one key reason why the various stories in the game are great. One of the main defining qualities of the stories is the sheer wackiness of some of them. Some are sane, sure, like in one you help a student pass some tests. Others are purely insane such as fighting off an army of mice or going back in time to make Cleopatra more attractive. The stories are awesome and one of the reasons to get this game!

GAMEPLAY
10/10

It doesn't take much to understand this game's gameplay. A nice tutorial is provided for beginners, but it is still understandable, even in Japanese. Firstly, you have music. This is a key part of the game. Music plays through all the scenarios and you must try to match your DS touch screen to make good rhythm. How you ask? Simple. Beats will go throughout the song. You hit the beats with a stylus (or something else, I can't stop you) and you'll be scored depending on your accuracy of matching beat with the music. There are two other markers too. There is a phrase marker which you simply stab with the stylus and keep dragging across a line until the end of it, and there is the spinner marker which you spin. Now these beats are all used for the music. What if you aren't getting the beats though? Well, that depends. At the top of the screen in each level there is a bar. This bar represents the strength of your cheers. If you miss beats it goes down. If you hit beats it will go up. You must keep it up or else you will fail the cheer. You need no knowledge of Japanese to play and enjoy this game which is a relief to everybody. You just need skills. This is also an excellent game due to the touch screen. Without the touch screen I can not see this game right. The game needs perfect precision if you want to succeed and the touch screen offers it. One thing to note of this is that unlike Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan 2 this game does not offer skipping in many places and you sometimes have to wait a bit for a song to start. This really isn't too much of a bother, just a little thing to note.

DIFFICULTY
10/10 For beginners
7/10 For EBA/Ouendan 2 pros

This game can be hard if it's your first rhythm game in this series. Otherwise, most of it is a breeze. The game offers two different difficulty levels to start with, but with hard gameplay and a steady stylus hand you can unlock two harder modes. The easier modes have less beats and a slower decreasing strength bar. Likewise, the harder modes have more beats, harder to spin spinners, more confusing beat patterns, and a faster decreasing beat bar to top it all off. It will offer challenges to everybody, it's just that the pros have an advantage.

MUSIC AND SOUND
10/10

This is a RHYTHM game. It needs to have good music and sound to succeed. The game offers just that. It offers a ton of Jpop and then some more. The sounds are usually in there when you hit beats varying from a whistle to a loud shout of "Osu!". There is no reason to fear this factor of the game. There are only 15 songs though, so if you are looking for a wider variety Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan 2 have 19 songs each. Still, considering that those 15 songs are in 4 difficulties that technically means you have 60 songs in this game. Just putting that out there.

LANGUAGE BARRIER?

Don't fear the language barrier! This game is almost perfectly understandable to anybody! It plays in any DS in any country (like any game from another country) and the music is catchy regardless of if you can understand it or not. Besides, when it comes down to it, if you really want a translation and are reading this review you obviously have the power of the internet to find it.

FINAL SCORING

STORYLINE:10/10 for multiple entertaining stories of other people's misfortunes that you have to fix. It's just fun.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10 for having perfect touch screen uses. This game truly uses the touch screen for the best uses it has!

DIFFICULTY: 10/10 to beginners and 7/10 for pros to other games in this series or it's english counterpart.

MUSIC AND SOUND: 10/10 for the on time sounds for beats and the 15 excellent songs to play to.

OVERALL SCORE FOR OSU! TATAKAE! OUENDAN:
10/10! It is wacky! It is fun! It has great music and rhythm!

Buy, rent, or borrow? BUY
Well, I doubt you'll find this at a rental store in your area, and even if your friends do have this game I don't recommend borrowing unless you just want to see if you'll like it first. I suggest buying as this game can take awhile to adapt to. You'll need time to get the game's full effect and to truly master it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/07