Review: Moero! Nekketsu Rizumu Damashii (Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2)
Great crap of craps! In the attempt to have the longest game title ever, Nintendo released (a few months ago) the sequel to its quite popular DS music game, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (roughly translated to "Yeah! Fight! Cheer Squad"). As you might expect, this game is completely ridiculous... a point hammered home when you actually see the characters who comprise said "ouendan": butch-looking dudes (yes, dudes) who sport long leather trench coats and scream manly-sounding Japanese.
How does it work? Various denizens of a city find themselves in various predicaments (illustrated by hilarious cut scenes). One kid has a crush on a girl and is challenged to a dodge ball match in order to win her heart. A tired, worn out old racehorse is running one last race and crosses paths with a robber running from the law. Cleopatra has indulged a bit too much in the starchy foods, and has to whip herself back into shape before Marc Antony comes home. You know, problems that normal people face every day. Once they realize that their problem is beyond their power to solve, they scream, "OOOOUUUENNNNDAAAANNN!" and get cheered to victory.
The Ouendan shows up and cheers and dances to a famous (I have to assume) Japanese pop song. Numbered circles appear on the screen, with shrinking outlines. When the outline is just on the border of the circle, tap it with the stylus in the order it appeared on the screen. Better timing yields more points, and keeps the Ouendan cheer meter raised higher.
Like all music games, the real point of Ouendan 2 is the songs that you tap the touchscreen in time with. Unfortunately, I don't really follow Japanese pop at all, which makes the game a bit harder to enjoy. I did recognize some of the tracks from the first game in the series (due to karaoke and such), which made it rather enjoyable and nostalgic.
You would think that if the music is somewhat unaccessible for the Japanese versions of this game, I might recommend the North American version, Elite Beat Agents. You would also be wrong, and I would probably feel compelled to hit you with a truncheon. I searched for "elite beat agents song list," and the first hit was from Game|Life, ironically enough. Check that link, and you'll see that the song list is total rubbish.
My recommendation is to grab the first Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and try out its different take on the music/rhythm genre. If you just can't get enough, go for either the true sequel (<a href="http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/ao2j/index.html" title=Moero! Nekketsu Rizumu Damashii">Moero! Nekketsu Rizumu Damashii</a>) or its spiritual brother (Elite Beat Agents).
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