Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 Review

Sequels almost always never work for some reason. Maybe it’s the gaping chasm that their predecessors made that they have to inevitably fill, or maybe something changed along the way that turns out for the worse, and lets down an expectant audience. Rarely does a sequel (and sequels after that) really manage to capture the magic of the first – but when that does happen, it’s a cause for celebration.

This is the review of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! 2, the sequel that IS.

The full review after the jump!

Sequels almost always never work for some reason. Maybe it’s the gaping chasm that their predecessors made that they have to inevitably fill, or maybe something changed along the way that turns out for the worse, and lets down an expectant audience. Rarely does a sequel (and sequels after that) really manage to capture the magic of the first – but when that does happen, it’s a cause for celebration.

It’s the same with Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for the Nintendo DS. One of the first titles for the Nintendo DS, it not only took advantage of the handheld’s touchscreen capabilities, it actually CHALLENGED players to be good with the stylus – resulting in many a scratched-up touchscreen and even more battle-damaged touchscreen protectors. Not to mention the horrible wrist cramps you got from the spinners. But overall, it was THE killer app for the DS, and players wanted more.

Then along came Elite Beat Agents, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan‘s spiritual sequel and made for western audiences. Sporting an entirely new playlist filled with contemporary classics and oldies, improved graphics and the neat option of skipping overly-long intros, the world tapped, traced and spun their way into yet another campy yet well-deserved happy ending.

And now, after just months of it being announced to an eager world audience, comes the sequel that may just be able to burn just as bright as its predecessor: Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2. With more songs, more improvements and significantly MORE gameplay than the original, it snapped yours truly out of his Pokemania and cheered me on to write this review you’re reading now. Let’s not tarry any longer and get cracking! OSU!

Graphics:

Fans should be pleased to know that the graphical improvements that we all saw in Elite Beat Agents are present, if not more improved upon in this sequel. The in-game map is a moving, bustling, cel-shaded 3D version of the original, with bigger sprites for the bereaved individuals seeking your cheering services. The strong, boldly-outlined manga-style art is pretty much still prevalent in the game, and it helps to tie it all up together.

In the cheering process itself (when you’ve selected the bereaved party you’ll be cheering into hot-blooded success), the models are sharper yet there’s still some pixellation when you’re trying to make out their facial features. Thankfully, you’re not going to pay them much attention as the beats, trails and spinners will be piling on you thick and fast even on Normal Mode (and Normal’s supposed to be easy)!

One thing to note about the cheerleaders is that there’s a noticeable lag between the two at either side, and the obvious leader of the group at the center. It’s a minor quirk, but it’s certainly good to see that they’re not unnaturally in-sync anymore, like in the original.

Story:

It’s the same as OTO and EBA – you’re the leader of a group of black-garbed cheerleaders going around the city to help those in need of a good hot-blooded-cheering-to. With your rhythm, hand-eye coordination and the ability not to throw your DS against the wall in frustration of messing up that last spinner, you help people through very trying times that run the gamut of frighteningly real, to laugh-out-loud WEIRD (i.e. stopping a young boy from wetting his pants, I kid you not). These situations turn out good or bad depending on how good you tap out the beats, and they’re told through colorful manga panels reminiscent of OTO and EBA.

What’s new in this sequel is that there’s actually a rival cheerleading group roaming the city now and you’ll be playing as them in the other tracks. There’s not much different from the original group, except that your guys wear blue and you have very metrosexual hairstyles to boot.

Gameplay:

If you’ve played Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, then you already know how this goes. For the uninitiated, the gameplay pretty much consists of tapping the numbered circles that flash onto your screen in time with the song currently playing. If you tap the dot too early, too late or completely miss it at all, the life bar that’s displayed on top of the touch screen will slowly dwindle down to nothing, which at that point the game stops and you have to do it all over again. Thankfully, the option of skipping song intros have been brought over from EBA, which makes retries less annoying.

There will also be times that you have to ‘trace’ a beat, which is pretty much a sustained note that you have to follow with a stylus. It’s easy enough, until you get to the point where you have to follow that same track in reverse to complete the actual beat.

And finally comes the spinners. Evil, dreadful, horrible wrist-breaking spinners! Instead of tapping or tracing, you have to spin a disc with until the meters at both sides reach their maximum levels. To do this, one must furiously draw circles on the touchscreen with the stylus – and trust me, it’s harder than it sounds. The only redeeming factor about the spinner? You can grab as many extra points as you want if you keep spinning the disc beyond the required amount of revolutions (making for some pretty over-the-top final scores).

Sound:

This is where the game truly excels. The playlist consists of catchy, upbeat songs (with the requisite slow, melancholic number for the sombre, serious cheering part) that one can easily find themselves tapping a foot to. Although you can easily play with the Dual Screen’s speakers on at a reasonable volume, it’s much better to play with headphones on, to fully immerse you in the unique Ouendan experience.

Multiplayer:

The Wireless head-to-head play is still intact, with a few improvements here and there – but sadly, no Wi-Fi option to battle it out in a global scale. Although we understand that the inevitable lag could break any attempt at Wi-Fi gameplay, the idea of showing off your cheering skills to anyone you could swap friend codes with is just too good to pass up on. Maybe when the third sequel comes out? Hint hint, Nintendo!

Replayability:

I’m not going to sugarcoat things. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 is HARD, even in the Normal Level (and this is coming from someone who regularly beat the last stage on Insane difficulty as a quick pastime). The game has four difficulties, and beating one unlocks the other, and so on. Combined with the hidden songs which I’ve yet to unlock, it’s pretty much guaranteed that Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 will have your DS seeing hot-blooded rhythm action for quite a long time.

Final Verdict:

If you loved Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, you’ll love Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2. It offers more of the same in an improved, sleeker package and slicker presentation, and offers both newbies and veterans another cheering, hot-blooded journey that culminates into saving the world (yet again). It’s a solid sequel that stays true to what made the first game as popular as it was, and builds upon that for an entirely new experience.

This is Ryan C, and I’ve just reviewed Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2! DAI-SE-KOU!