Gitaroo Man

Pros • Up to four can play • Catchy tunes that you won't mind listening to over and over • Innovative graphical style • Truly feels like you're creating the music	Cons • All but one Vs. level must be unlocked by winning them in single player; c'mon give us a little more multiplayer action at the start • Insane level of difficulty
Bottom Line My thumb is so sore, but yet I can't stop playing. I'll tell ya, I breezed through PaRappa 2 like I had the rhythm of a Solid Gold dancer; it was too easy. Not so with Gitaroo Man, which makes me feel like I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. However, the gameplay is enjoyable enough to keep me trying endlessly and when I do finally succeed, it's a sweet sounding victory. Gitaroo Man is an awesome edition to the rhythm genre and will delight music game junkies, but some gamers will find it simply too challenging. In fact, since you must complete a level before its song is available in multiplayer, I'm taking a point off for failing to include an easier level of difficulty.

Gitaroo Man is a Japanese game, localized for the English speaking world and it shows. It's got a creative visual style, freaky and weirdly cute characters (like only the Japanese seem able to design), and intensely difficult gameplay.

Along the same lines as PaRappa or Space Channel 5, Gitaroo Man's single player game follows a story, with cut scenes between levels propelling it along. The story is similar to PaRappa's as well; you play as U-1, a sometimes pathetic kid with a dog named Puma and a big crush on a girl named Pico. With Puma's help, U-1 realizes that he is actually a Gitaroo Man--a guitar playing superhero of sorts. Of course, there is evil afoot, and in this case it's the Gravillian family led by Zowie and his cat Ming-Ming (for some reason the evil ones always have cats) who are planning to take over the universe and collect all the legendary Gitaroos. As U-1 confronts the Gravillian minions, he also comes across the lovely girl Kirah whom he attempts to woo with his tunes.

There are only eleven levels in the game, but completing them all will take you some serious time as the game doesn't begin terribly easily and quickly gets much tougher from there. The gameplay has you controlling a cone of blue colour with your left controller stick, which revolves around the action point in the middle of the screen. Lines of music can come towards the action point from any direction and you must keep the blue cone on top of the music line (eventually these will get really wriggly). On the music line are phrase bars, and you must hit one of your controller buttons when the beginning of a phrase bar crosses the action point and hold it down for the duration of the bar. Some bars are short and some are long and the resulting music that you provide by accurately hitting them adds to the background tune. You are scored for every phrase bar and can achieve, Great, Good, Ok, or Miss. It sounds more complicated than it is and it won't take long to grasp the just of the gameplay; executing it is another matter.

Each level consists of a Charge phase, where you try to amp up your power gauge by keeping time with the music, a Battle phase, and a Final phase. Battle phase has two modes, the aforementioned method of play, where every correct note you hit inflicts damage on your opponent (beware: playing poorly will empty your own power gauge), and also a Guard mode where you must block the enemy's attacks by hitting the correct gamepad button as the button symbols fly in from four directions and cross the action point (these also go in time to the music). In the Final phase it comes down to whose power meter shrinks down to nothing first. At the end of it all--if you make it to the end without draining your power gauge--you are graded on your performance and are able to unlock characters, which you can view in the Collections area of the game.

The characters are zany and I was always intrigued to see who would be around the corner in the next level. I especially like Mojo King Bee (think John Belushi as a Blues Brother performing King Bee in his bee suit) who grooves with his trumpet. The cartoonish mostly 3D style is certainly unique and there's always a lot of colourful action to watch on-screen (sometimes it's nearly distracting from the main gameplay). The voice work is very fitting to the characters and well done, but it is the music, of course, where Gitaroo Man really shines. Japanese pop band COIL is responsible and they have created a variety of musical styles, all equally well produced. You'll be tapping your toes and bobbing your head without even realizing it.

Gitaroo Man's key is that it truly makes you feel that you are producing the music with your actions and that is very satisfying. The funky tunes and quirky characters add to the fun. This is a great game and would have received top marks if not for one detail; the level of difficulty increases too steeply. I understand the desire to prevent people from whipping through the game--because they would then complain that it was too short (!). However, when the enjoyment of the multiplayer game depends on you completing the levels in single player first, Koei really should have included an "Easy" level of difficulty, rather than just "Normal" and "Hard." Nevertheless, Gitaroo Man is still sucking time from my life...all I need is some ice for my thumb and I'll beat that next level.

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