Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

Ouendan is no ordinary game and it certainly doesn't have a traditional story, let that be known from the start. You take control of the Ouendan Squad, a group of male cheerleaders that look like they've raided a Nazi store cupboard for their grey, militistic uniforms, nicely finished with golden buttons running up the front. Red bands circle the leaders' biceps, with long, flowing headbands accompanying them in a similar bloody tone. They're not the poster children for cheerleading, as you may guess from this description; but judging by their performance here, they should be.

All around town, people are constantly trying to overcome their problems. Boys try to study for their exams while their family make an awful racket (a story I'm sure many can relate to). A secretary tries to catch the eye of her dashing boss despite her colleagues seemingly leading a brutal hate campaign against her. A man tries to stop his restaurant being terrorised by a calculating, conniving cat that enjoys marking its territory a little too much. All of these problems start out small and slowly snowball into bigger issues, and when things get just that bit too much, the inhabitants of the town know that they can call for help with a rousing cry of 'Ouendan!' Within seconds, the Ouendan squad will leap into action and provide support in their own unique way.

 

This is where you come in; you help the Ouendan Squad conduct their marvellous cheerleading routines by use of natural rhythm and the touch screen

 

The problems you're working towards solving with start off 'simply' enough in life terms. The aforementioned examples of the revising boy and the love-blinded secretary, in addition to the likes of a teacher trying to gain respect from his pupils, amongst others, are endearingly close to real life. While they might be depicted in a slightly more zany fashion due to the manga stylings, the problems are easily relatable, and this gives the game a strangely homely appeal, despite it being about as Japanese as you can get. This makes later events stand out even more, yet somehow they don't feel out of place

 

Being a music game, it's pretty much essential that the score should be excellent, and it doesn't disappoint. A fifteen-track mix of Japanese pop and rock fills the cartridge to its brim, none of which we've ever heard (or heard of) before. This doesn't detract from the experience in any way though and in fact makes it feel quite fresh. There are rumours of an English release, but it's likely that if it was unleashed on the English speaking world the charming music would be replaced with some abysmal Americanised music, so this is probably a case where the game should be left well alone in its current form. The sound brings up the other aspect of language that could pose a problem of sorts to players outside of Japan, that being the lyrics of the songs, but when they sound so good and fit so well into the game, what do those matter? The songs are fantastic enough to make you forget you can't even understand it very quickly; music's a universal language, after all.

It's a very replayable game too. Even after you've completed levels you'll probably want to go back and beat them again to try and best your score