Gitaroo Man Lives!
The cult hit is back, but did it survive the transition to a handheld?
Published: November 14, 2006
It's doubtful that KOEI, purveyors of all things hack and slash, though that developer Inis' (who more recently worked on Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and it's US version Elite Beat Agents) Gitaroo Man would be the kind of underground hit that it was. In fact, I know they weren't ready for it because the game has reached cult status almost exclusively on the back of rhythm action fans getting hooked after just a few minutes of playing it (usually when an enthusiastic friend busts it out), and then the realization that KOEI didn't run off enough copies.
Though the game has since seen a re-release that killed the exorbitant eBay secondary market, it's still not one of those things you can walk into a local game store chain and find just sitting on the shelf -- at least not on the PS2. There's a good chance that you'll find Gitaroo Man Lives! tucked into the PSP section, though, if your local games store is down, and that would be the point where you start throwing elbows and flying kicks to make sure you grab the copy before anyone else, because GML!, for the decidedly hardcore, is a must-have.
For those that missed out on our preview, I'll do a real quick recap: you're Yuuichi (aka U-1), a sheepish, nerdy little dude with the hots for one Pico. Being nerdy, U-1 is apparently quite used to getting ragged on by Kazuya, the local bully. Luckily, U-1 has a little sum-sum that not even he knows he has, but Puma, his faithful talking canine, helps him quickly come to grips with the fact that he is in fact a guitar-wielding, universe-saving, honest-to-goodness hero. Yeah, sure, it's the all too famous story of the downtrodden outcast finding out he has it within himself to overcome adversity, but, well, there's guitars man. No, wait gitaroos.
See, there's these things called Gravillains, and they're out to control the universe. Their only real competition are the wielders of the Gitaroo, the mysterious space guitar that has the power to defeat them all by rocking their faces straight off. Thing is, the Gravillains' leader, the eyeshadow-sportin' Zowie (who, yes, could very easily be a Bowie clone) has defeated seven Gitaroo Men in the past, and now has seven of the eight Gitaroos needed to take over the whole freakin' universe. Now, as U-1 quickly learns his place in the universe (and notices that space girl Kirah is a dead ringer for Pico and thus is worth saving), he must take on top Gravillains in musical duels.
This is done in three basic phases. First, the Charge Phase serves as a way to get to know the song and is a bit of warm-up for the duel between GM and his foe (or foes in the case of three skeletons a little later into the game). Charged up, things move to the Attack/Guard Phases where GM and his opponent take turns throwing a handful of streams of music or random notes that come flying in from the four sides of the screen in an effort to weaken the other guy (or guys). With the Gravillain hurt enough, things move into the final, blistering Harmony Phase that delivers the final face-melting solo.
In all parts of the song (which can wrap around as many times as it takes to weaken the enemy), the goal is simple enough: just ride out a twisting line of patterned presses of the Circle Button and then weather a handful of face buttons flying in from the sides of the screen. There are times when the two are mixed, but for the most part it's just learning to play along with the song.
Though the game has since seen a re-release that killed the exorbitant eBay secondary market, it's still not one of those things you can walk into a local game store chain and find just sitting on the shelf -- at least not on the PS2. There's a good chance that you'll find Gitaroo Man Lives! tucked into the PSP section, though, if your local games store is down, and that would be the point where you start throwing elbows and flying kicks to make sure you grab the copy before anyone else, because GML!, for the decidedly hardcore, is a must-have.
For those that missed out on our preview, I'll do a real quick recap: you're Yuuichi (aka U-1), a sheepish, nerdy little dude with the hots for one Pico. Being nerdy, U-1 is apparently quite used to getting ragged on by Kazuya, the local bully. Luckily, U-1 has a little sum-sum that not even he knows he has, but Puma, his faithful talking canine, helps him quickly come to grips with the fact that he is in fact a guitar-wielding, universe-saving, honest-to-goodness hero. Yeah, sure, it's the all too famous story of the downtrodden outcast finding out he has it within himself to overcome adversity, but, well, there's guitars man. No, wait gitaroos.
See, there's these things called Gravillains, and they're out to control the universe. Their only real competition are the wielders of the Gitaroo, the mysterious space guitar that has the power to defeat them all by rocking their faces straight off. Thing is, the Gravillains' leader, the eyeshadow-sportin' Zowie (who, yes, could very easily be a Bowie clone) has defeated seven Gitaroo Men in the past, and now has seven of the eight Gitaroos needed to take over the whole freakin' universe. Now, as U-1 quickly learns his place in the universe (and notices that space girl Kirah is a dead ringer for Pico and thus is worth saving), he must take on top Gravillains in musical duels.
This is done in three basic phases. First, the Charge Phase serves as a way to get to know the song and is a bit of warm-up for the duel between GM and his foe (or foes in the case of three skeletons a little later into the game). Charged up, things move to the Attack/Guard Phases where GM and his opponent take turns throwing a handful of streams of music or random notes that come flying in from the four sides of the screen in an effort to weaken the other guy (or guys). With the Gravillain hurt enough, things move into the final, blistering Harmony Phase that delivers the final face-melting solo.
In all parts of the song (which can wrap around as many times as it takes to weaken the enemy), the goal is simple enough: just ride out a twisting line of patterned presses of the Circle Button and then weather a handful of face buttons flying in from the sides of the screen. There are times when the two are mixed, but for the most part it's just learning to play along with the song.
