Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, iNiS’ first venture into the rhythm genre after the Gitaroo Man series, is an unusual but brilliant game, and is among the best released on DS, or any platform, in the last two years.
Its gameplay, which consists of little more than poking numbered dots and dragging across lines in rhythm in sequential order, steals the show, as it is wholly original and the layout of the targets is expertly designed in every level on every difficulty. Generally the weakest mechanic in the game is the spinner, a disc that pops up on the touch screen that you have to draw circles on repeatedly to pass, but it’s used infrequently and never lasts too long, and doesn’t end up holding the game back too much, if at all.
Maybe the most important part of any rhythm game, the difficulty curve, is handled wonderfully in Ouendan. The easiest setting can be completed even by people who have never played a rhythm game before, normal is a good starting place for veterans of the genre but newbies to the series, and hard and insane mode really are incredibly challenging, even for people who have mastered the previous modes. Completing the final stages in the game on insane mode is a feat few gamers will achieve, but it’s very possible for anyone who works hard enough for it.
The highlight of Ouendan is the endgame, which is truly among the best in all of gaming. Set to the gallant rock epic “READY STEADY GO” by L’Arc~en~Ciel, the ouendan is cheering on not one person striving to complete a comparatively menial task, like the rest of the stages in the game, but everyone in the world as they work together to stop an incoming meteor from ending life on Earth. The game takes a chance here by taking itself completely seriously for a few minutes, and astonishingly succeeds.
Its cut scenes are lightly animated manga strips, and are bright and beautiful. They’re text-heavy, but easy to understand even if you don’t know a lick of Japanese, and are often laugh-out-loud funny. It’s these breaks in the action, along with the J-pop, rock, and hip-hop tunes, that gives Ouendan its charm, and really help set it apart from other rhythm games. It’s Japanese quirkiness at its best - weird, just confusing enough, cute, and never annoying.
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan is a standout title on DS, not just because the gameplay is fun and engaging and it has huge amounts of personality, but because it’s one of the handful of DS games that really couldn’t be played on any other platform. And, most importantly, is truly an emotional experience, the same of which cannot be said about the majority of other rhythm games.
