Gitaroo Man devs working on DS game!

[Marek]

Woo!

new, original DS action game is set to debut in the upcoming issue of Famitsu. Developed by Nintendo, the tentatively titled Ouendan makes you into a member of a support squadron. Your goal is to help out people who are in a pinch, thereby bringing peace to the world.

Ouendan's gameplay is based around a simple concept that combines the background storytelling of Feel the Magic with rhythmic gameplay. You interact with the game by touching numbered markers, called Hit Markers, that appear on the screen and slowly begin to shrink. The timing of your touches is important, as you have to strike the Hit Markers in time with the movement of a Timer Cycle, displayed at the top on the screen. Connect successful strikes together, and you build up a combo which adds to your score.

Successful play affects the outcome of the an episode that unravels on the top screen. In the game's first stage, your goal is to help Tsuyoshi Hanada study for his college entrance exams through three different situations. You start by helping Tsuyoshi study. Clear this, and the next scene has you work to make the Hanada family support Tsuyoshi in his studies. Perform well during this part, and the Hanedas, who start off being very disruptive to Tsuyoshi, will slowly start being nice to him. The third scene takes place at the Haneda dinner table. Here, you're playing to make sure that Tsuyoshi eats a balanced meal. Fail here and Tsuyoshi may overeat and end up falling asleep before he can finish studying.

Subsequent stages will feature different situations, but all based around the same simple gameplay system, with stylish comic book-style presentation for the background situations. The artwork in Ouendan is made to look like a comic, with humorous drawings and bubbles for character dialogue. Watching the action should be fun, but we'll have to get our hands on the title to see how well the simple gameplay system works in practice.

[Roderick]

What does 'set to debut' mean? On a demo disc? Announced?

And do I know gitaroo man?

[Marek]

They mean it will be revealed in the magazine.

Gitaroo Man is a really awesome rhythm game for the PS2. I'm sure the story appeals to you:

Gitaroo-Man follows the story of a young elementary student named U-1, a lonely loser with no self-confidence and no friends, save for his jelly-bean-headed talking dog, Puma. U-1 comes to learn that he is the heir to the title of the legendary Gitaroo-Man, an intergalactic superhero who uses the power of his gitaroo to defend the universe against evil. An evil alien race known as the Gravillians has been going around, collecting gitaroos in a bid to take over the universe, and it would seem that U-1 and Puma are the keepers of the only gitaroo the Gravillians haven't acquired. So U-1 travels around the universe, fighting a bizarre cast of Gravillian warriors in order to reclaim these magical instruments for the planet Gitaroo. Along the way, he'll learn about believing in himself, falling in love, and the true nature of music.

The game is really fucking hardcore motherfucking hard by the way, especially towards the end.

It's also a lot of fun.

[ysbreker]

It's fun. Hard. But fun

IT can be really cool when you watch someone else play fanatically and do every thing flawlessly. Cause then you actually hear the tunes being played

[Radijsje]

it's really not THAT hard as some make it out to be.

After you finish the regular story mode you unlock master mode, which is frigging riduclously over the top bitchin hard, but normal mode is cake for anyone that spends a week with it.

and its NOT a parappa sequel

Oh yeh, gitarooman also absolutely friggin ROCKS! now excuse me while i go off whisteling the legendary theme.

[Marek]

Videos here: http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/ouendan/movie.html