"San, ni, ich!"

I don't remember how I came across this game. I think I saw a picture of the boxart on IGN and liked the way it looked. Maybe I heard someone on Gamefaqs mention it. For a long time after, I knew what Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! was, but held off on buying it because of the higher price it would cost to import it. As time went on, I heard nothing but great things about the game. So when someone on the boards recommended an ebay seller who was selling the game for cheap, I decided it was time to try it out. Paying significantly less than most people did from importing it from Lik-Sang and Play-Asia, I got my package in only 2 days. After owning and obsessively playing the game ever since, I can say a few things about it.

Graphics

The graphics in Ouendan aren't super amazing. In fact, sometimes the jagged edges around characters drives me nuts. But the art style of the game is perfect. Aside from the dancing cheer squad on the bottom screen, the pictures in the game are all manga panels. They too have the jagged edges, but you won't care. The funny character drawings, frightening facial expressions, and way the panels slide and shake conveys the story beautifully, even without you knowing Japanese. The color theme of the game seems to be black and red, which happens to be one of my favorite color combinations, so it's very pleasing to the eye.

Gameplay

I'd hope if you're here you already know what Ouendan is and the basics of the gameplay. But in case you're somehow here on accident, I'll briefly explain. Ouendan is a rhythm game, sort of like Dance Dance Revolution. Instead of scrolling arrows, however, circles with numbers in them appear on the screen in different locations. A thin circle closes in on the numbered circle, and you poke the circle with the stylus as the thin circle reaches the numbered circle. Basically it's like hitting a DDR arrow as it passes through the arrows at the top of the screen. Occasionally a circle will resemble a freeze arrow from DDR, with a trail behind it. In this case you simply keep the stylus on the path until it ends. And even less often you'll come across a giant circle, a sort of turntable that you simply spin as fast as you can. As simple and odd as it sounds, it plays out brilliantly and is just amazing. Much like in DDR, the more complicated songs use the numbered circles to go along with the lyrics of the song, making it seem almost instinctive as to when you should hit the circles. Sometimes you can almost close your eyes and just hit the circles according to what you hear. Playing along with the song and knowing you're contributing to the cool beat is very pleasing.

Sound

The sounds in the game would basically be the songs of the soundtrack and the drumbeats and whistles that go off when you hit a circle. The drumbeats and whistles are a mixed bag, sometimes adding to the song and sometimes just sounding annoying. But the soundtrack is a different story. Comprised of 15 Jpop hits, they perfectly accent this highly Japanese game. Not only are the songs good, but many people may recognize some of them from Morning Masume, or as theme songs from anime shows, such as Ready Steady Go from Fullmetal Alchemist. Going back to what I said in the gameplay section, often times the circles go along perfectly with the beat or lyrics of the songs. This has a very nice effect and shows they put time into the circle placement.

Other

A few other things in general. The controls in the game are spot on. So if you're losing, it's because you stink. Also, as far as difficulty, length, and replay value, the game is set up like this: You begin with two modes, Easy and Normal. On each mode you can play through the set of 15 levels. When you've beaten the last level on Normal, you'll unlock Hard mode with a new cheer squad leader. If you manage to beat the last level on Hard mode, you'll unlock the fourth Insane mode led by some female American cheerleaders. Good luck on that. As far as how long all of this takes, let's just say the levels start out ridiculously easy and work their way up to throw-your-DS-at-the-wall hard. You'll have to play some levels dozens of times to get used to where the circles are and improve your reaction time. When you get stuck on a level, you won't be able to put your DS down until you've beaten it. And after all four modes, you can always go back and try to improve your rankings from a C or a B to an S by having better timing when hitting your circles. As far as import friendliness, the game is pretty much all in Japanese, but the menus are easy to navigate and the manga panels explain the story so well you won't need to read anything. Language barrier is NOT an excuse to skip this game.

This game is awesome. It's probably one of the best if not the best DS game out to date. Now if you hate Jpop or DDR, you might not be too into this game. But most gamers are open enough to enjoy a rare gem when it comes along. And this game is definitely worth your time. It will last you a long time, it's insanely fun to play, and when you can pull off Ready Steady Go on Insane mode then you'll feel more accomplished than someone who can do Max 300 without missing a beat in DDR. And the songs are so good, even once you beat it you'll have no problem picking it up and replaying some levels just for some fun. Alot of work went into this game and it shows. It's definitely worth a purchase in my book.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/06