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E3 06: Gitaroo-Man Lives! Hands-On

We spent some time rocking out and getting funky with a PSP remake of one of the best rhythm games of all time.

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LOS ANGELES--Recently GameSpot named Gitaroo-Man for the PlayStation 2 one of the top 10 rhythm games of all time, putting it right up there with games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. It's no surprise then that when Koei announced that a remake of the game for the PlayStation Portable would be released this month in Japan, a few people got pretty excited. Even more exciting than that, though, is a recent announcement that the game will in fact be coming to the US as Gitaroo-Man Lives! We recently had a chance to rock out with an English-language build of the game and are pleased to report that it's shaping up to be a faithful remake of the quirky, colorful, head-bobbin' good time that we all know and love.

Be warned, once this music gets inside your head it will never leave.
Be warned, once this music gets inside your head it will never leave.

Gitaroo-Man Lives! is a direct port of the original game, which was released to high praise and critical acclaim in 2002 on the PlayStation 2. As a result, people who played the original game will feel right at home with the distinct style, original tunes, and one-of-a-kind play mechanics in Gitaroo-Man Lives!

The game follows the adventures of a young boy named U-1 and his talking dog Puma. U-1 is a nervous, cowardly kid who is often picked on by his rival, Kazuya. That's the least of his problems, though, because U-1 is also hopelessly in love with Pico and is always trying to get her attention, usually with disastrous results. On top of all that, U-1 also inherits the legacy of the legendary superhero Gitaroo-Man. But U-1 isn't really interested in becoming a superhero. He'd rather practice his skateboarding moves to impress Pico and win her over. After some coercing from Puma, U-1 learns to play the magic gitaroo, which gives him the power to defeat even the fiercest of foes.

After a brief tutorial about how to play the game, a devil-looking character named Panpeus shows up and attempts to take the gitaroo from U-1. Thus begins a series of 10 different battles that take U-1 to the furthest reaches of the soundscape, from the funky slap bass of a disco tune, to the synthesized beats of an uppity electronica song, to the pleasant strum of a folk tune, and beyond. We played through the first five battles and were happy to note that although the music is more than 4 years old, it's still as catchy and enjoyable as ever.

Gitaroo-Man does in fact live. Seriously.
Gitaroo-Man does in fact live. Seriously.

Each stage is a battle between you and one of a handful of crazy, musically themed characters. You'll fight everything from a group of flying saucers to a massive hammerhead shark to a funky trumpet-playing bee. The battles have three distinct phases, but they don't always follow the same progression. There's a charge phase, where you have to move the analog stick along a scrolling line that appears onscreen. On this line there are notes, which you have to hit by pressing the circle button. It sounds simple, but the line can get very tough to follow, and when you have to hit notes at the same time it can become quite hectic. For each note you'll get a "great," "good," "OK," or "miss" rating, depending on how well you match up your button presses with the notes onscreen. As you hit notes during this phase you'll fill up your health gauge to prepare for--or recover from--the battle phase.

In the battle phase the action gets even more intense as you engage in a back and forth with your opponent. In this mode, button icons will scroll from four directions, and you have to press each corresponding button as it reaches the center of the screen. If you miss a button, you'll lose health. To attack you have to follow the line and hit the notes just as in the charge phase. The better your performance, the more damage you'll deal to your enemy. The battle phase is the most varied part of the game because you have to quickly switch between the two modes while trying to keep time with the music. The final phase of the battle is one long attack where you get to break out with a solo jam and perform the coup de grace on your enemy.

Each battle usually lasts around five minutes, which should make the game well suited to quick jams on the PSP while you're on the go. The controls work well on the handheld too, with the major difference being the analog stick. On the PlayStation 2 the analog stick has a larger range of motion, which requires more precise movement. On the PSP, the game seems to be a bit more forgiving as far as the analog precision goes, although that certainly doesn't mean the game is easy. We did run into some brief loading times between stages on the PSP, but they weren't excessive in the build we played.

Aside from the single-player story mode there are two multiplayer modes in Gitaroo-Man Lives! There's a battle mode where you can go head-to-head against a friend, as well as a duets mode where you and a friend can team up and play against a computer opponent. From what we got to see of these modes, the songs are the same as the ones used in the single-player story, although it's unclear whether or not all of the single-player songs will be available in multiplayer.

Even on the easiest difficulty setting, rhythm game veterans will find a pretty steep challenge in Gitaroo-Man Lives!
Even on the easiest difficulty setting, rhythm game veterans will find a pretty steep challenge in Gitaroo-Man Lives!

The graphics are bright and colorful on the PSP, although the busily animated backgrounds can make it difficult to see the button icons on the screen at times. Once you get used to it, though, that isn't much of a problem. The textures are slightly blurry at times, especially when you see the characters close up, but the game still looks good thanks to its unique sense of style. In fact, you'll look forward to the breaks in the song not only because they give you a chance to rest your thumbs, but also because they give you a chance to check out all the zany visuals of each stage. The stages themselves include a crowded city square, a dark swamp, and the barren surface of the moon. Between stages there are plenty of cutesy prerendered cutscenes to move the story along. The game sounds good on the PSP hardware as well, and the songs feature full English vocals.

Gitaroo-Man Lives! appears to be a straightforward port, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing given how great the original game was. The game is still as challenging and fun to play as ever on the PSP, and it doesn't look like any sacrifices were made in the translation. It would be nice to get some new songs, but when it comes to Gitaroo-Man, we'll take whatever we can get. The game is scheduled to be released this month in Japan for all you impatient importers, and we'll bring you a US release date as soon as we can.

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