"Almost the worst game I've ever played."

What else can I say but, "yawn..." ?

This is just another one of those "Parrapa the Rappa" wanna-be failures that, like the million different clones that have followed it (Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, et al.), is more rewarding in the garbage then in the console.

The gameplay, like all the other ones, is "Can YOU press the right button at the right time?"... in other words, if you're simply alive, you'll be able to excel at this game. Getting "good" is only a matter of wasting the time to memorize the songs, and THAT'S where this game ultimately fails. A game about music, requiring you to waste your time to memorize its songs, better make sure that its songs are interesting and memorable. I don't even know where to begin with how terrible the music is in this game. I never really understood the appreciation for games like Guitar Hero, and DDR, but they at least have songs that people will enjoy. In this game, it's all like J-pop, techno, anime-theme-songs that sound like they were just thrown together with no particular relation to the story. Oh, and, did I mention that the story is terrible as well?

The story leads you down a path to try and save the "ontamarama", which are little musical creatures that look exactly like Chinese "steamed-buns". In true Atlus style, all dialogue between characters is essentially you saying "Stop", bad guy saying "No", then you saying "I will defeat you", and then cue the battle. If the dialogue was completely removed from the game, and all that was left was a series of duels, the game probably would've worked much better since you wouldn't have to waste your time and thumb-energy pressing the A-button to skip over it.

The graphics are about the only thing this game has going for it, and it's likely the only reason people will dish out the money to buy it after scoping out the back of the game case. Anime fans will certainly appreciate the character designs, and what's going on on the top-screen seems like it might be interesting, but it's hard to tell since your attention is forced on the bottom screen throughout the game. So, even here, the game kind of fails.

Multi-player seems like it might have been fun, but you HAVE to sit through the terrible story-mode before unlocking it. WHY? After wasting my time with that, I was so disgusted with the game that I haven't touched it since.



The low-down:

Game-play: 2/10
Story: 1/10
Sound: 3/10
Graphics: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/08

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