Ontamarama

"Ontamawhat?"

With the success of Elite Beat Agents, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and other rhythm games, it's no surprise that many developers have jumped on the bandwagon and tried to create rhythm games of their own. Here is where Ontamarama comes in. Rhythm games are interesting in that new games must provide a different approach towards the genre. We've all seen Dance Dance Revolution and its "press this button at the right time" gameplay, so playing with the exact same formula wouldn't be much fun. And that's why we have rhythm games like Elite Beat Agents and Ontamarama which attempt to add something new and innovative to make their own games unique. Does Ontamarama succeed? Well, that's why I'm here: to delve into the game and figure that out. Just a note beforehand, readers, I'm probably going to make lots of comparisons to Elite Beat Agents (and other rhythm games I can think of) simply because it's inevitable. EBA and Ontamarama fall into the same category of "rhythm game." Therefore, to NOT compare the two would be ridiculous. Now then, let's get this review going.

Story: N/A
If you play rhythm games for the story, you'd be severely disappointed. Even though Ontamarama has a story to it, I'm not going to give it a score since the story really is irrelevant. After all, you don't play a rhythm game to experience a compelling, intriguing story. Nonetheless, Ontamarama tries. The story is simple: Some evil guy is capturing all the Ontama in the world and using them for evil purposes. You, as the hero, must seek to defeat this villain. On the way, you'll have battles with his henchmen in Ontama duels until you eventually get to duel him. And that about sums up the story for this game. Can we move along?

Gameplay: 8/10
There are two very important aspects of rhythm games that MUST be great if the game has any chance of succeeding: gameplay and music. Ontamarama is, at the core, your very basic "press the right button at the right time" game. That wouldn't be very fun, however, if they didn't add something else to it. And here is where the Ontama come in. I'm not sure exactly what the heck they are, since the game doesn't really seem to get into them, but they're these little black or white winged fluffballs who squeak when they speak. In any case, your buttons are the A, B, X, Y buttons or the Right, Left, Up, Down arrows, depending on whether you're left or right-handed. Notes will scroll across the screen and, when they get near the beat, you've got to press the corresponding button/arrow key at the right time. To make it different, your notes are "empty" at first. You've got to "fill" them up by tapping the Ontama that will pop up on the touch screen with your stylus. This means you've got a rather engaging game since you'll need to be paying attention to the things going on on the touch screen as well as the scrolling notes which you have to press on beat.

When it comes down to it, this addition of the Ontama is different enough that you don't feel like you're playing a generic rhythm game. Simply put: it works. The game attempts to vary the songs by varying the positions of where the Ontama pop up on screen. There's nothing wrong with this attempt, since it generally works well and every song is different enough without being too random. The gameplay, for Ontamarama, is perfectly fine. It's nothing extravagantly exciting and new, but it's not horrible.

Music: 7/10
Probably more important than the gameplay is the music (you're not going to play a rhythm game if its music is absolute trash). EBA succeeded in using modern hits that most people could recognize if they put some effort into doing so. DDR has a huge fanbase as far as their songs go. Don't even get me into Guitar Hero. So how does Ontamarama's music hold up? Unfortunately, not very impressively. Since the characters are wielding batons in this game, you could assume that they're conductors (as opposed to Guitar Hero's guitarists). With this in mind, I had anticipated very orchestral music...and that's not what I got. The music in this game sounds like video game music. Yes, you may say that this is a video game, henceforth the music should sound as such. HOWEVER, by "video game music," I mean the music that plays in the background of your typical platformers or even RPGs. In other words, the songs in this game don't stand out. They're not impressive. They're not horrible, don't get me wrong. It's just that they don't dazzle. I probably remember the story more than I remember the music - and that's a bad thing considering the story was so lackluster.

However, to Ontamarama's credit, they did keep in mind that everyone has different tastes in music. That means you've got some techno in here, you've got some classical, and you've even got some guitar action going on in the songs. Is this a good thing? It CAN be a good thing. However, it would've probably served the game better if they would have just stuck with one genre of music. After all, conducting a guitar solo seems kind of...odd...to me. In the end, the music in this game is nothing to be excited about it. It doesn't destroy your eardrums, but it doesn't put you into a feeling of bliss neither. It's average...much like the gameplay. HOWEVER, though the songs are mediocre, they come out WONDERFULLY. No scritchy-scratchy audio here. (Keep in mind, though, that everyone has different tastes. Though I thought the music was alright, you may think it's the best thing since sliced bread, or you might think all the songs suck. Music can only be judged by the person listening to it - I can't tell you what sounds good and what doesn't, so you should take my opinion (on the music) with a grain of salt.)

Replayability: 8/10
The main story of this game is pretty short. You can finish it quite quickly with ease, unless you're absolutely pathetic at games (or if you just have no rhythm whatsoever). However, the game encourages you to keep playing the songs (even though the list is quite small) to gain points so you can purchase unlockables in the shop. This varies from helpful boosts to bonus songs to automated Ontama-tapping on certain songs. There are plenty of things to unlock and you will have to play quite a lot to get them all. Unfortunately, with the small selection of songs, you'll probably get very tired of playing the same things over and over again. That hurts the replayability a bit, unfortunately. The good thing, though, about the unlockables, is that there's a point to them. You're not just unlocking concept art or useless things like that - you're unlocking stuff that can help you in songs and whatnot.

Difficulty: 6/10
The funny thing about Ontamarama is that there will be people who are just naturally not very good at it. You see, because you've got to be paying attention to two things at the same time, you're required to have pretty good peripheral vision. You've got to be able to spot things outside of your central focus, or else you'll get flustered very quickly (especially in the harder modes). HOWEVER, don't let that scare you for those of you who have bad vision. =P Even though peripheral vision seems to be a "requirement" to do well in this game, that doesn't mean it's hard at all. The game does lean towards the easier side, as far as the story goes. I consider this game one of those "easy to do well, hard to master" sort of games. Beating the story isn't hard at all. Doing so well that you can get a fantastic score? Not so easy. But don't worry. You'll never be frustrated with the difficulty - it's entirely too easy.

Overall: 7/10
Overall, this game is pretty average. It's got some nice things about it, and it's got some flaws. It's not a game you must absolutely play, but it's not a game you must absolutely avoid. Give it a shot if you're curious as to how it plays. But otherwise, you can live without ever having tapped those cute little Ontamas.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Ontamarama (US, 11/06/07)