Completion Notes: Osu Tatakae Ouendan 2

The Japanese love their rhythm games hard, apparently. Ouendan 2¸ much like its Japanese predecessor, ramps the difficulty of some songs up into an area that is most definitely unapproachable by the majority of the DS population. In contrast, the US entry in the series – Elite Beat Agents – was easy to the point that I completed all difficulty levels in the span of a week. This last entry in the series cramped my hand over the stylus countless times before I even reached the hardest difficulty (with the female cheerleaders) and had me fuming well into the night during ill-advised before-bed playing sessions.

The core of a rhythm game is in its song selection, however, and this was a bit of a mixed bag. Since I’m not up-and-up on J-pop and don’t have any built-in bias (as I did with Elite Beat Agents and selections from Cher and other songs I can’t stand) I grade the songs in Ouendan based purely on how fun it was to tap out the rhythm and how often I found myself hearing songs in my head and enjoying them. In this, Ouendan 2 falls short of its Japanese predecessor. I found myself trying to get through songs as fast as possible and not look back (e.g. not replay for a higher score) to the point that I’m not certain I unlocked all of the bonus songs. Even without unlockable songs in the first game I remember playing through 5 or 6 of them just for the hell of it.

B