I have to say that my college years were very formative for my Gaming career. It was the time were I really immersed myself in trying to find new things to play other than the stuff I randomly picked up for the GameCube or PS2.
The world of the Playstation 2 was so vast I mostly stuck to DDR games and random games that were a ‘tie-in’ to anime that I was watching. Like the Full Metal Alchemist game. I still laugh at Travis talking about how he was going to beat himself(he voiced Roy Mustang in the game and the show) in the unwinnable boss fight but he grew so tired of hearing himself talk that he ended up taking jabs at his own acting.
Now that I’ve given you some backstory, let’s hop onto the real context of the situation. When I was in college, the DS was surging in popularity thanks to the slimmer model, the DS Lite.
Most of my friends and I really just played around and traded DS games very often. It was great to find games I wouldn’t have played normally. It also helped me find out about games in Japan thanks to friends how found means to get them.
One of the games I distinctly remember is ‘Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan’. That game was a trip. I still don’t remember if I picked this one up before Elite Beat Agents(the US based sequel). Regardless, we called it ‘Poke Poke Revolution’ and it didn’t take me long to find a copy of EBA. I think I ended up with the copy a coworker at GameStop got an event for free. He let me have it because I wouldn’t shut up about how badly I wanted to play the stupid game.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours I spent in this game. I was consistently in this game when I wanted to play something and lose myself in it. The stories were completely bonkers sometimes but that was the charm of it all. There were others that pulled at your heartstrings too. It was honestly some really unique storytelling. That’s mainly why I stuck around.
I loved playing both versions of this game. I don’t ever recall playing the sequel to the Japanese version and I’m sad. Anyway, the stark differences from the Japanese game and the US localized version made for a great experience. Both games were fantastic standalone products.
There’s a deep desire within me that wants to see a new game out of this publisher again. (I learned that they were the ones responsible for Gitaroo Man as well and it totally explains a lot of things) I don’t know if the whole world is ready for another Ouendan.
I know I am.
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