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Trailerama for Atlus's new rhythm game
We still kind of can't believe that Atlus has decided to localize Ontamarama. We're not used to this post-Guitar Hero US in which companies think it's a good idea to release rhythm games. We are, of course, happy with the development, as we have an insatiable hunger for rhythm games. In fact, we actually stopped playing Elite Beat Agents just now to write this post. We're crazy enough to be vaguely curious about Boogie, even.We can't expect Elite Beat Agents quality out of every game, so we'll focus instead on the bizarre multitasking and aggressive cuteness found in Ontamarama. If anything, the circle-then-tap gameplay reminds us of the drag-and-activate mechanic found in Technic Beat, at least conceptually.
Joystiq on Ontamarama
The more we hear about Ontamarama, the less like an inconsequential game for kids it sounds. We've already established that it has a challenging control scheme, but this rundown of the game's controls by Fanboy BFF Ludwig Kietzmann is the most detailed yet. Will we have the intelligence and dexterity required to manipulate the touch screen and the d-pad at the same time? Probably not? Will we enjoy trying and failing? Indubitably!After posting all of these favorable impressions from friends and colleagues, we want to be able to post our own impressions! Even some of our commenters got in on the act last time, telling us about their experiences with the Japanese version of the game. You guys are killing us. But thanks for your comments! But killing us.
Siliconera checks out Ontamarama
We were piqued by the puzzlish multitasking rhythm gameplay in Noise Factory's Ontamarama before its Japanese release as Ontama. But now that it's being localized and we may actually have a shot at playing the thing, we've graduated from piqued to some degree of interest that is a little greater than 'piqued.'Siliconera's Spencer Yip played Ontamarama at E3 and wrote up a description of the game, which sounds as complicated as ever: it involves first touching a little creature of the correct color, then tapping the D-pad in the direction of a scrolling arrow. We knew that those two components were involved, but didn't know the chronology. We're glad somebody got to play it and tell us!80Pan fans take note: this game, for once, will be keeping the original Japanese music. Is that a good thing? No idea! If it helps, we're pretty sure there was no Avril Lavigne in the Japanese version.
Ontama shows random Dreamcast influence
This is probably more of a coincidence or an unintentional influence than anything else, and there's always the possibility that we're imagining things, but doesn't Ontama's protagonist Beat look somewhat familiar? He looks like a cross between Sonic Adventure-era Sonic (look at the poses!) and Jet Set Radio's main character, also named Beat. Well, if you had to pick two games to resemble, you could do a lot worse than these, both of which had fantastic art. The actual game, a rhythm-puzzle thing that we totally want, doesn't look like anything else. We've got new screens after the break.
We can't resist looking at Ontama again
We knew we were going to blab about Ontama more. Sure, it'll probably turn out to be a mildly interesting game for children, but until we find out for sure we're going to continue on the OMG RHYTHM GAME tack. Here are a few things we learned from watching the video again and from poking around the recently updated website, making full use of our terrible Japanese language skills.Not only does the game involve tapping directions on the D-pad rhythmically while circling blobs on the touch screen, it also involves blowing into the microphone. For something that seems to be for young audiences, it certainly has a lot going on. Also possibly of interest: J-pop fans may (or may not-- we have no idea!) be pleased to hear that Ontama contains music from a group called 80 Pan.And, via Insert Credit, a little background on the developer Noise Factory: they used to be an internal SNK team who developed fighting games for the Neo-Geo. The fact that a fairly hardcore fighting game developer is working on this is another reason to think that quality gameplay might be found in here.
Follow the bouncing ball with Ontama
Ontama is a new rhythm game for the DS. Which is, really, all we needed to know for our hype-generating machine to go into full power. In case you hadn't noticed, we tend to get worked up about the music games. Rather than telling little mini-stories like Elite Beat Agents, Noise Factory's new game seems to be a somewhat more stripped-down, arcade experience, with characters that seem to be limited to describing gameplay. We don't exactly know how the game works, but we can tell that you touch little round creatures (probably the Ontama themselves, since that translates to "sound balls" or "music balls") to send them into icons on the top of the screen; you then hit directions and buttons that correspond to those icons at the right moment, like Parappa the Rapper. Enjoy the trailer after the break, and see if you can figure out a little bit more of what's going on.
