Welcome to a new featured CAG Editorial, “Rare for a Reason?”, penned by our very own RockSolidAudio.
He will be sharing his opinion on rare/hard-to-find games and letting us know if they are worth a CAG’s time and money.
Rare for a Reason?
By RockSolidAudio
If you're anything like me, you often find yourself staring at an intimidatingly large backlog of unplayed video games, unsure of where to begin. Worse still, I have gone out of my way on several occasions to make sure that I obtain games that are acknowledged to be hard to find or valuable, fueled purely by the fires of being a collector and a Cheap Ass Gamer. I think we can all agree that there is satisfaction enough in the thrill of the hunt, but what "rare" games are really worth tracking down? More importantly, which of these titles are worth your precious gaming dollars? Disney Sports Football looks awfully nice on your Gamecube shelf and makes your heart swell with pride, but how much joy will it bring spinning in your system? I decided some time ago, that when this generation of gaming ended, I wanted to own all truly great and rare titles. As I finally get around to slowly playing through everything I have amassed, I would like to share with you which games meet both criteria.
Gitaroo Man
For the sake of explanation, I'm going to split rhythm games right down the middle. Those that are narrative and character-driven (Parappa The Rapper, Bust-a-Groove, Gitaroo Man) and those which are not (DDR, Guitar Hero, Beatmania). First and foremost to song selection and play mechanic, some games take the time to introduce us to their world of unique sights and sounds, and do their best to explain the motivations behind a dog rapping about karate. Since these types of games are almost exclusively Japanese-developed, they usually come with a nice dollop of wackiness - at least by our standards. The story of a kid named U-1 who can change into the sci-fi rocker Gitaroo Man simply by having his rock prowess threatened and being tossed his space guitar by his (cyborg?) dog may sound ridiculous, but it actually plays into the gameplay quite directly and really helps the game set itself apart.
Each of the ten levels involves a battle of some sort, whether it be running from a robot space shark, winning a young lady’s heart beside a campfire, or proving your rock skills to a trio of dancing skeletons. Most songs break down into several stages of battle – an introduction, several turns of attacking and defending, and a finishing outro of sorts. The attacking portions revolve around a fairly unique gameplay mechanic of following a curving line with the left analog stick, while hitting timed presses of the circle button along the way at various speeds and lengths with the music. It's a great combination of rhythm and physical movement, and thanks to the variety of great songs (more on that in a bit), feels different in every level. The rock anthems are slow and deliberate, the salsa guitar is fast and flashy, etc. - just the way it should be.
The other half of the gameplay, the defense, plays closer to a typical rhythm setup, with notes coming at you from four directions (corresponding with the Dual Shock buttons), requiring an appropriate button press when they hit the crossroads. It's a simple interface that again works really well with the variety of songs. Now that you understand the basics of both gameplay types, let me say that they work beautifully in tandem. The earlier levels split the songs up quite decidedly between them, but the further you play, the more erratically they are combined. You'll find yourself barely hanging onto a stream of attack notes, only to be barraged by a slew to defend against, and back the other way - it's fantastic. It's the only rhythm game that I know of to seamlessly combine two disparate gameplay styles with such symbiotic, sexy results.
Getting back to the game’s story, when I write that each stage is a battle, you actually SEE it play out. It's not a simple dance-off either - more in the style of Parappa, with a ton more effort thrown into the proceedings. You'll fight through various backgrounds and areas, meet new characters and challengers, and generally get a very entertaining show in the background while you duel. It's a great game to watch as a result, perfect to switch off stages with a buddy (though there is a multiplayer mode, it is ironically made significantly lamer by the lack of multiple stages and interesting crap in the background while you play). The bookending cutscenes on each level are fun, with some hilariously inconsistent text translation to boot.
Rhythm games are ultimately only as good as their songs though - Guitar Hero gets away with a pretty standard gameplay system (vastly inferior to Amplitude's even) because of a fantastic song selection (and peripheral, of course), while Technic Beat drowns in its awful song selection despite unique gameplay mechanics. Gitaroo Man has a pretty damn fantastic soundtrack, spanning several speeds and genres of both Western and Eastern origin. First impressions could easily dismiss it as J-Pop, but it goes a lot deeper and sticks in your head far longer than you'd imagine. I don't want to ruin too many of the stages by getting into more musical specifics, but suffice it to say you'll want to track down the soundtrack after a couple of sessions.
The objective problems are mostly mechanical in nature. Oddly enough, I think the menu navigation lost something in the translation, making it initially confusing to save and load your games. Also, you can't pause during gameplay without restarting the level, which is pretty annoying. Beyond that, I found the "Master Mode" that's unlocked after beating the game a bit too unforgiving for the wrong reasons (your life goes a lot quicker instead of the song being significantly harder to play), and the two-player mode gets old surprisingly fast. Beyond that, it's all gravy. Great songs, great gameplay and a presentation that oozes with character are the cornerstones of any standout rhythm game in the relatively new genre, and Gitaroo Man will have a place in history as a result. It's definitely worth tracking down (and shouldn't be too hard with the recent gamequestdirect.com reprint), and surely worth the support of an elusive full-price purchase.
Read more of RockSolidAudio's (aka Nick) work on G-Pinions.com
Not Nick...
He will be sharing his opinion on rare/hard-to-find games and letting us know if they are worth a CAG’s time and money.
Rare for a Reason?
By RockSolidAudio
If you're anything like me, you often find yourself staring at an intimidatingly large backlog of unplayed video games, unsure of where to begin. Worse still, I have gone out of my way on several occasions to make sure that I obtain games that are acknowledged to be hard to find or valuable, fueled purely by the fires of being a collector and a Cheap Ass Gamer. I think we can all agree that there is satisfaction enough in the thrill of the hunt, but what "rare" games are really worth tracking down? More importantly, which of these titles are worth your precious gaming dollars? Disney Sports Football looks awfully nice on your Gamecube shelf and makes your heart swell with pride, but how much joy will it bring spinning in your system? I decided some time ago, that when this generation of gaming ended, I wanted to own all truly great and rare titles. As I finally get around to slowly playing through everything I have amassed, I would like to share with you which games meet both criteria.
Gitaroo Man
For the sake of explanation, I'm going to split rhythm games right down the middle. Those that are narrative and character-driven (Parappa The Rapper, Bust-a-Groove, Gitaroo Man) and those which are not (DDR, Guitar Hero, Beatmania). First and foremost to song selection and play mechanic, some games take the time to introduce us to their world of unique sights and sounds, and do their best to explain the motivations behind a dog rapping about karate. Since these types of games are almost exclusively Japanese-developed, they usually come with a nice dollop of wackiness - at least by our standards. The story of a kid named U-1 who can change into the sci-fi rocker Gitaroo Man simply by having his rock prowess threatened and being tossed his space guitar by his (cyborg?) dog may sound ridiculous, but it actually plays into the gameplay quite directly and really helps the game set itself apart.
Each of the ten levels involves a battle of some sort, whether it be running from a robot space shark, winning a young lady’s heart beside a campfire, or proving your rock skills to a trio of dancing skeletons. Most songs break down into several stages of battle – an introduction, several turns of attacking and defending, and a finishing outro of sorts. The attacking portions revolve around a fairly unique gameplay mechanic of following a curving line with the left analog stick, while hitting timed presses of the circle button along the way at various speeds and lengths with the music. It's a great combination of rhythm and physical movement, and thanks to the variety of great songs (more on that in a bit), feels different in every level. The rock anthems are slow and deliberate, the salsa guitar is fast and flashy, etc. - just the way it should be.
The other half of the gameplay, the defense, plays closer to a typical rhythm setup, with notes coming at you from four directions (corresponding with the Dual Shock buttons), requiring an appropriate button press when they hit the crossroads. It's a simple interface that again works really well with the variety of songs. Now that you understand the basics of both gameplay types, let me say that they work beautifully in tandem. The earlier levels split the songs up quite decidedly between them, but the further you play, the more erratically they are combined. You'll find yourself barely hanging onto a stream of attack notes, only to be barraged by a slew to defend against, and back the other way - it's fantastic. It's the only rhythm game that I know of to seamlessly combine two disparate gameplay styles with such symbiotic, sexy results.
Getting back to the game’s story, when I write that each stage is a battle, you actually SEE it play out. It's not a simple dance-off either - more in the style of Parappa, with a ton more effort thrown into the proceedings. You'll fight through various backgrounds and areas, meet new characters and challengers, and generally get a very entertaining show in the background while you duel. It's a great game to watch as a result, perfect to switch off stages with a buddy (though there is a multiplayer mode, it is ironically made significantly lamer by the lack of multiple stages and interesting crap in the background while you play). The bookending cutscenes on each level are fun, with some hilariously inconsistent text translation to boot.
Rhythm games are ultimately only as good as their songs though - Guitar Hero gets away with a pretty standard gameplay system (vastly inferior to Amplitude's even) because of a fantastic song selection (and peripheral, of course), while Technic Beat drowns in its awful song selection despite unique gameplay mechanics. Gitaroo Man has a pretty damn fantastic soundtrack, spanning several speeds and genres of both Western and Eastern origin. First impressions could easily dismiss it as J-Pop, but it goes a lot deeper and sticks in your head far longer than you'd imagine. I don't want to ruin too many of the stages by getting into more musical specifics, but suffice it to say you'll want to track down the soundtrack after a couple of sessions.
The objective problems are mostly mechanical in nature. Oddly enough, I think the menu navigation lost something in the translation, making it initially confusing to save and load your games. Also, you can't pause during gameplay without restarting the level, which is pretty annoying. Beyond that, I found the "Master Mode" that's unlocked after beating the game a bit too unforgiving for the wrong reasons (your life goes a lot quicker instead of the song being significantly harder to play), and the two-player mode gets old surprisingly fast. Beyond that, it's all gravy. Great songs, great gameplay and a presentation that oozes with character are the cornerstones of any standout rhythm game in the relatively new genre, and Gitaroo Man will have a place in history as a result. It's definitely worth tracking down (and shouldn't be too hard with the recent gamequestdirect.com reprint), and surely worth the support of an elusive full-price purchase.
Read more of RockSolidAudio's (aka Nick) work on G-Pinions.com
Not Nick...
about showing their true potential. Takes a Baseball bat to Koei for their average Booth Babes and same 
