Game Review: Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP)
Overview:Finally I can beat up aliens, devils and men in bee suits with my magical space guitar on the go. Koei is releasing this PSP version of the original Gitaroo Man for the Playstation 2 (a cult hit sort of rare game, you know the type), with an all-new duet mode and two extra songs. Gitaroo Man is a rhythm game along the lines of Guitar Hero, Amplitude/Frequency and DDR, with a wacky anime flavor. You trace a moving line with the analog nub (or "nubbin" as I like to call it) and press the circle button to the beat indicated. Occasionally you change to a more DDR-style mode using all of the face buttons, but the formula stays generally the same. 10 songs in all, but is this port enough to satiate your need for portable button-pushing? Is it even worth a purchase? Read on.
Shininess:Gitaroo Man Lives! features the same art style as the original (which is logical since it is a port), a distinct line-drawn anime style and sloppy looking polygons. Needless to say I am not a big fan of the art style. To me it just looks haphazard and lazy, but apparently the lead artist is a famous Japanese graffiti artist. Go figure. The style is in the same wacky vein as Katamari, which I am sure is appealing to some people. The graphics don't really impress, but why would you be staring at the animations when you need to be focusing on that wavy moving line?
The music is fun and catchy, and the voice acting is the normal horrible anime fare. The songs are as memorable as anything on the Katamari or Parappa soundtrack, which is good because you will be hearing them over and over again as you fail each song. Repeatedly. Over and over.
Funness: I do enjoy the rhythm games. I love me some Guitaro Hero and couldn't get enough of Frequency and Amplitude. Gitaroo Man Lives! uses a very unique play system, which is admirable. Unfortunately it can be incredibly confusing at times, and gets really hard, really fast. There's a small tutorial level but then it just throws you right into the deep end. Good thing your wacky robot dog sidekick is there to help you out! Except that he doesn't help you. He just throws a guitar at you and tells you to get to it. There are a few unlockable items, which I found pretty disappointing. You can get little items for your "collection", which is just a number of drawings of the various characters. Yay? How about a couple extra songs, costumes, guitars? There really doesn't seem to be much replay value beyond getting a higher score for each song, and it doesn't even reward you substantially for that. Remember when you were little and you had to go somewhere boring with your parents and you were told to make your own fun? Basically you have to do this with Gitaroo Man. That said, some people really like the challenge of getting perfect scores in rhythm games like this, and if you are that kind of person, then bully for you. You probably avoid stepping on cracks in sidewalks so that your mother doesn't suffer a grevious spinal injury. I weep for your future.
Worthiness: If you haven't played the PS2 version or just plain can't find it, check out the PSP version of Gitaroo Man. Even though there isn't much replay value beyond completing the same songs but with a better score, it's a fun little pick-up-and-play game perfectly suited for the PSP. I would like to see more rare games being ported to the PSP (like this and the recent release of Valkyrie Profile) but maybe add something better than an ad-hoc multiplayer mode and some cruddy drawings to unlock? Thanks.
Score: 2/5 Rent it!
What say you?!