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Let's all chip in and buy Karthik Bala a copy of Ouendan
Earlier today, we pointed you in the direction of Joystiq's hands-on impressions of Guitar Hero: On Tour, itself on tour as various websites tried the game out for themselves.One of those sites was ShackNews, which also got to speak to Vicarious Visions CEO Karthik Bala. And we had only just started reading when one of Bala's opening statements got our blood boiling: apparently, Guitar Hero: On Tour was developed to "see if it was even possible to do a really good music rhythm game on a handheld."Altogether now: "WHAAAAAT?!"We can only assume that Bala is totally unaware of the vast treasure trove of rhythm-based awesomeness already available on the DS -- never mind what is still to come, or even on other handhelds.
DS Daily: taking a stand
You know, we've never really felt the need to actually purchase one of the many stands available for the DS. We don't own Cooking Navi and playing Elite Beat Agents (or Ouendan) can be accomplished fairly easily by holding the DS with one of our hands and playing with the other. Then, we get an eye full of Hori's Taiko no Tatsujin stand and immediately felt the need to get one.We can't imagine what we'd use it for, so we figured we'd ask you! Who better to let us know the many uses of a DS stand than the fine folks who've been using one for awhile now. So, tell us how your DS rocks its stand.
Rock your DS's sound through the car stereo
We actually enjoy playing our DS in the car quite a bit. In fact, one of us even went so far as to enjoy playing Puzzle Quest at red lights while behind the wheel. It's a dangerous obsession that not only threatens our own lives, but those of everyone else in the world. It's the nature of the beast, we suppose. So imagine our surprise when we read this little piece and totally realized we could output our DS's sound to our car speakers, almost providing a surround sound experience. Sure, we have headphones for when we're trying to get our dual-screen on out in the wild, but sometimes they're uncomfortable. This just seems like an incredibly obvious thing we never thought of ourselves. We can totally picture playing Ouendan or Elite Beat Agents in this manner.
DS Daily: EBA or Ouendan?
We know this is a loaded question, and has been debated many times by many gamers. We want to know where our readers stand on the issue, though. So, what do you think is better -- Elite Beat Agents or the Ouendan games? And why? Normally, it just comes down to the music (American pop/classics vs. J-pop). But, is there another reason? Perhaps you enjoy the stories more when you can read them? Or maybe you like a set of characters better?If you haven't played both titles, which do you think you'd like better? And if you haven't played either, why not? Do these rhythm games just not interest you, or have you not gotten around to it yet for some other reason?
Circuit City does buy one, get one half-off
If your DS has been lacking the sustenance that new DS game cartridges provide, then you might be able to feed the beast with Circuit City's newest sale. For every DS game you purchase, you can get another game at half-off. Maybe you've been holding off on picking up Elite Beat Agents or checking out Sonic Rush, waiting for a more opportune time to purchase. Well, seems about as good a time as any to us. [Thanks, Gabriel!]
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.
Osu! Tatakae! Nodame Cantabile!
We've already helped a student pass his exams in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, and then we reunited a little girl with her dead father in Elite Beat Agents, so what's the next challenge on our rhythm-gaming plate? Turning our eyes towards Namco Bandai Games' Nodame Cantabile, it looks like we'll be conducting music with a ragtag class of students. The Nintendo DS has been home to many manga/anime licenses, so it's no surprise seeing the shoujo series appear on the handheld. Judging by what we've seen so far, the game plays like a simplified version of Ouendan. Players tap a series of floating notes in time with the music, filling up a "life" gauge with each successful hit. Missing a beat depletes the gauge, ending the level when the gauge is emptied. A flash demo of the game has been put up to promote Nodame Cantabile DS, and you don't even need to know any Japanese to play! Check it out after the post break. [Via NeoGAF]
Cheer up! More Ouendan 2 scans are here!
Every day we get to see even one more frame of Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 is a good day. Just getting an excuse to type the awesomely overblown title out makes us smile. And today we have two nice, big magazine scans to stare at. The scans show two of the new levels, and we have descriptions of the objectives thanks to the language wizards at NeoGAF, who can instantly make small amounts of Japanese become English. The first level involves Tsuyoshi Hanada, the student from the first level of the first Ouendan, and his job search. The second involves a salesman who wants to peddle sneakers in space. The screenshots from this level indicate that the rival Ouendan team will be playable! The full scans are available after the post break. Click them (rhythmically, of course) for larger versions. [Via NeoGAF]
High School Musical: from the Disney Channel to your DS
We aren't sure how to feel about the announcement of DS and Wii games based on the Disney TV-movie High School Musical. On the one hand, it they're music games, and we categorically get very, very excited about all music games. On the other hand, it's based on a made-for-television movie, which, despite High School Musical's popularity, still makes a negative statement about the quality of the property. The DS game involves dancing competitively, and creating and sharing videos of those dance performances-- it sounds kind of like Unison. We're going to have to go watch the movie now and try to sort out our feelings.
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! sequel is a go
Nintendo confirmed that the popular rhythm-based game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! will be released to a hungry Japanese public within the confines of this year. If the name is unfamiliar to you, that's probably because you know it as Elite Beat Agents, the English-localized version of the game. Nothing else more has been revealed about the game, but stay tuned to DS Fanboy for future updates as they come.See also: Metareview: Elite Beat Agents Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! comes to life
