Robinspain
Member
Some psp games less hot
DEATH JR 2
Earlier today, at a pre-E3 event just a short cab ride away from the Los Angeles Convention Center, Konami unveiled the PSP sequel to Death, Jr. from Backbone Entertainment. Simply titled Death, Jr. 2, the new game will let you choose between playing as DJ or his friend Pandora, and you'll also have the option to play through the entire game cooperatively with a friend. Each of the characters will purportedly have quite different moves and weapons at their disposal, though we've not yet seen enough of the game to confirm this. We did get to see the pair using a number of different weapons, though.
DJ's default weapon is still a scythe, of course, and Pandora's looked to be some lethal variation of a child's cup-and-ball toy. Weapon pickups in the game will include such childhood favorites as the cherry bomb launcher, the tommy gun, the flamethrower, and the enhanced C4 hamster mark II. DJ and Pandora will be able to power up their attacks using the game's all-new "rage mode," which lets them unleash "reaper madness" and "pandemonium" moves respectively. Your enemies in Death, Jr. 2 will be every bit as unconventional as the weapons that you're killing them with, and will include armies of evil toys, robotic llamas, mutant mall security guards, and an evil waffle restaurant.
Backbone Entertainment claims to have taken the feedback that it got from Death, Jr. very seriously, and as a result you can look forward to an improved manual camera system, more advanced enemy artificial intelligence, and tighter controls. For the moment we haven't seen nearly enough of Death, Jr. 2 to comment on those claims, but we'll bring you more information on the game just as soon as we get our hands on it.
CODED ARMS 2
Coded Arms had the distinction of being the original first-person shooter for the PSP. It wasn't exactly a critical success, but it obviously did well enough that Konami is willing to throw some cash to turn it into a franchise, with both a new PS3 game, as well as Coded Arms: Contagion for the PSP. We first got a look at the game at Konami's E3 2006 press conference, but today we got to go hands-on with it for the first time.
The basic premise for Contagion is similar to the original Coded Arms. You're an elite, futuristic soldier inside a virtual-reality world. This time, you'll be taking down cyberterrorists, out to hack into military systems and steal vital data. You'll do this by first-person shooting your way through lots of different levels against all manner of gun-toting terrorists and nasty-looking bugs.
As we put our hands on the game for the first time, it became immediately clear that we were in for a familiar kind of experience. The demo level took place inside a rusty-looking enclosed environment, and around every corner came an enemy of some variety. The only specific enemies we saw in the demo were small bug creatures, large bug creatures, and relatively generic-looking soldier types. We were armed with a pistol, an assault rifle, and a shotgun, and all three weapons were fairly effective against the onslaught of baddies.
The game defaulted to what was arguably the most comfortable control scheme available in the original game, with the analog stick used for movement control, the face buttons used for looking around, and the D pad used for weapon switching. And for what it's worth, the game felt a whole lot like the first game. The action maintained a similar flow and pace, and even used a lot of the same puzzle scenarios and visual effects, like the computer code dissipation from destroyed enemies and objects. Whether this is totally indicative of the experience that the final game will have, we don't know. We just know that we got an awfully big sense of déjà vu from playing this demo.
Interestingly enough, the one thing that has been all but passed over is the one thing that was a big selling point of the original game: randomly generated levels. Konami has made no mention of them being in the sequel, and the demo we saw didn't show a hint of random generation. Considering how bad some of the randomly generated level designs in the original game were, this could be a true blessing.
Coded Arms: Contagion will make its way to stores sometime next year. We'll bring you more on the game as it becomes available.
WTF
WTF, or Work Time Fun, is basically an absurd collection of minigames. Some are funny, some are purposely mind-numbing, and others are just weird. Playing the minigames earns you money, which can be used to unlock more stuff. There are four minigames being shown at E3, each aptly named: chick sorting, cliff racing, wood chopping, and burping contest 2. There's also one "tool" called eyes. Eyes is one of the game's many unlockable bonuses and basically turns your PSP screen into...a cartoon set of eyes. Then you can hold the PSP up to your face, facing outward, to amaze and impress your friends.
Chick sorting asks you to move chicks (as in, baby chickens) into one of three piles: boy, girl, or heaven. You can identify the girl chicks by the ribbons on their heads. Sickly chicks sometimes appear, and these are the ones to send out to pasture. Or just kill them all. It doesn't matter.
Cliff racing is like a game of shuffleboard. You basically just need to stop as close to the edge of the cliff as possible.
Wood chopping tasks you with chopping wood logs. Just don't hit the babies that are occasionally put on the block for some strange reason.
Burping contest 2 is like the pattern-memorization game, Simon, except with burping trolls.
Most WTF games require just one or two buttons, so they're extremely simple, yet surprisingly compelling in their pure, numbing purity. While sorting chicks at the bustling E3 show floor, we felt a little better about the world for a little while.
LEMMINGS
Lemmings originally came out in 1991 for the Amiga and has had a loyal following ever since. Just like real lemmings, the ones in the game will have little regard for their own life and will happily walk to their death unless you stop them from doing so. The aim is to get as many lemmings to the end of the level, by building bridges, digging through land, and using other specialist skills to pass the puzzles.
Both the PSP and PS2 versions of the game feature the same 156 levels, but they boast a level editor that can be used to share custom designs between formats. Levels that you design on the go can be played on the PS2 when you get home and vice-versa.
The big feature that will differentiate the PS2 version is the EyeToy mode, in which you will use your body to help guide the lemmings, as opposed to the controller. There will be 15 to 20 EyeToy-specific levels in the finished game, and the game uses a new edge-detection technique to help with the precision needed in the game. Before you start this mode, EyeToy will compare an empty shot of the background and one with you in it to isolate your body from the image. When you play the game and use your arms to build bridges, the lemmings walk along with great precision, and you can even flick them over obstacles if you're precise. It's clearly a novelty addition to the meat of the main game, but with so many EyeToy cameras out there now, it's good to see games add modes such as this.
There are certain areas of the EyeToy game where your body is taken out of the game temporarily by a grey background, so you can't interact with the lemmings directly. In the section we saw, you had to flick the lemmings over a tree (without being too hard and killing them) and then waft them across on a sailboat by waving your hands.
Anyone who's seen Lemmings before will know what to expect, but the new EyeToy additions will hopefully start a trend that will follow in other Sony-developed products.
MONSTER HUNTER
At Capcom's booth at E3 this year, they were showing off Monster Hunter Freedom, a new Monster Hunter game for the PlayStation Portable. Monster Hunter games have always been popular in Japan, but they haven't caught on much in the U.S. Capcom's hoping to change that with their portable version of the franchise.
Monster Hunter Freedom features wireless multiplayer for up to four people, and, in a shocking coincidence, Capcom had four PSPs running the game at their booth. Although four players are available in the game world, the size of it makes it difficult to run across them unless you intentionally seek them out. You can team up with other players to take down the larger monsters, but you're unable to kill them, despite being able to swing your big-ass swords into their bodies.
Speaking of swords, the character we were using in Freedom had an absolutely massive sword with foot-long serrations on it. The entire act of swinging the blade took four or five seconds to complete, from the wind up to the aftermath of digging it up out of the ground after it hit. The mechanics are a bit clunky at the outset, but we did see other characters running around swinging slightly lighter weapons, and they seemed to be a bit more fluid in their attacks, so maybe we just picked a bulkier character than we would've liked.
Anyway, monsters are there to be hunted. We stumbled across numerous dinosaur-esque beasts that were wandering around. When killed, we were able to loot their bodies for meat and bones. We happened to be carrying around a large spit, which could be used to roast the meat and create foodstuffs. The foodstuffs had the effect of temporarily extending our stamina bars, which in turn extended our character's ability to run for periods of time. This ability was useful when we were attempting to track down the main boss of the level, a large dragon.
Like we said, there's a fairly large area available to explore, although, unfortunately, it's broken up by numerous loading screens. You have a minimap on your screen that aids in your navigation, however, so you shouldn't wind up getting lost.
When we managed to track down the boss dragon, we were unsurprised to find it quite vicious. It seems to be almost impossible to kill with your normal weapons, so you'll have to take it down with traps and bombs. We were walked through the process, which involves laying down a pitfall trap on the ground. With that done, we got close enough to the dragon to attract its attention and then lured it back toward the trap, which it fell into. While it thrashed around attempting to extricate itself, we dropped a couple of large bombs (essentially just large barrels of gunpowder), as well as a small bomb that was intended to light the larger ones. Unfortunately, the dragon was able to escape before we maneuvered through the somewhat clunky interface motions required to do all this, and before we could blow it up, it hit us with its head and knocked us right into one of the loading screens leading to another area. And that was the end of the battle, although after tracking the dragon down again, it finished us off quickly with some charge attacks and one big fireball from the mouth.
If you're a fan of Monster Hunter, or just want to hunt for monsters, possibly while enjoying freedom, then Monster Hunter Freedom might be right up your alley. You'll know soon, since the game is coming out later in May.
GITAROO MAN
It's no surprise then that when Koei announced that a remake of the game for the PlayStation Portable would be released this month in Japan, a few people got pretty excited. Even more exciting than that, though, is a recent announcement that the game will in fact be coming to the US as Gitaroo-Man Lives! We recently had a chance to rock out with an English-language build of the game and are pleased to report that it's shaping up to be a faithful remake of the quirky, colorful, head-bobbin' good time that we all know and love.
Be warned, once this music gets inside your head it will never leave.
Gitaroo-Man Lives! is a direct port of the original game, which was released to high praise and critical acclaim in 2002 on the PlayStation 2. As a result, people who played the original game will feel right at home with the distinct style, original tunes, and one-of-a-kind play mechanics in Gitaroo-Man Lives!
The game follows the adventures of a young boy named U-1 and his talking dog Puma. U-1 is a nervous, cowardly kid who is often picked on by his rival, Kazuya. That's the least of his problems, though, because U-1 is also hopelessly in love with Pico and is always trying to get her attention, usually with disastrous results. On top of all that, U-1 also inherits the legacy of the legendary superhero Gitaroo-Man. But U-1 isn't really interested in becoming a superhero. He'd rather practice his skateboarding moves to impress Pico and win her over. After some coercing from Puma, U-1 learns to play the magic gitaroo, which gives him the power to defeat even the fiercest of foes.
After a brief tutorial about how to play the game, a devil-looking character named Panpeus shows up and attempts to take the gitaroo from U-1. Thus begins a series of 10 different battles that take U-1 to the furthest reaches of the soundscape, from the funky slap bass of a disco tune, to the synthesized beats of an uppity electronica song, to the pleasant strum of a folk tune, and beyond. We played through the first five battles and were happy to note that although the music is more than 4 years old, it's still as catchy and enjoyable as ever.
Gitaroo-Man does in fact live. Seriously.
Each stage is a battle between you and one of a handful of crazy, musically themed characters. You'll fight everything from a group of flying saucers to a massive hammerhead shark to a funky trumpet-playing bee. The battles have three distinct phases, but they don't always follow the same progression. There's a charge phase, where you have to move the analog stick along a scrolling line that appears onscreen. On this line there are notes, which you have to hit by pressing the circle button. It sounds simple, but the line can get very tough to follow, and when you have to hit notes at the same time it can become quite hectic. For each note you'll get a "great," "good," "OK," or "miss" rating, depending on how well you match up your button presses with the notes onscreen. As you hit notes during this phase you'll fill up your health gauge to prepare for--or recover from--the battle phase.
In the battle phase the action gets even more intense as you engage in a back and forth with your opponent. In this mode, button icons will scroll from four directions, and you have to press each corresponding button as it reaches the center of the screen. If you miss a button, you'll lose health. To attack you have to follow the line and hit the notes just as in the charge phase. The better your performance, the more damage you'll deal to your enemy. The battle phase is the most varied part of the game because you have to quickly switch between the two modes while trying to keep time with the music. The final phase of the battle is one long attack where you get to break out with a solo jam and perform the coup de grace on your enemy.
Each battle usually lasts around five minutes, which should make the game well suited to quick jams on the PSP while you're on the go. The controls work well on the handheld too, with the major difference being the analog stick. On the PlayStation 2 the analog stick has a larger range of motion, which requires more precise movement. On the PSP, the game seems to be a bit more forgiving as far as the analog precision goes, although that certainly doesn't mean the game is easy. We did run into some brief loading times between stages on the PSP, but they weren't excessive in the build we played.
Aside from the single-player story mode there are two multiplayer modes in Gitaroo-Man Lives! There's a battle mode where you can go head-to-head against a friend, as well as a duets mode where you and a friend can team up and play against a computer opponent. From what we got to see of these modes, the songs are the same as the ones used in the single-player story, although it's unclear whether or not all of the single-player songs will be available in multiplayer.
Even on the easiest difficulty setting, rhythm game veterans will find a pretty steep challenge in Gitaroo-Man Lives!
The graphics are bright and colorful on the PSP, although the busily animated backgrounds can make it difficult to see the button icons on the screen at times. Once you get used to it, though, that isn't much of a problem. The textures are slightly blurry at times, especially when you see the characters close up, but the game still looks good thanks to its unique sense of style. In fact, you'll look forward to the breaks in the song not only because they give you a chance to rest your thumbs, but also because they give you a chance to check out all the zany visuals of each stage. The stages themselves include a crowded city square, a dark swamp, and the barren surface of the moon. Between stages there are plenty of cutesy prerendered cutscenes to move the story along. The game sounds good on the PSP hardware as well, and the songs feature full English vocals.
Gitaroo-Man Lives! appears to be a straightforward port, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing given how great the original game was. The game is still as challenging and fun to play as ever on the PSP, and it doesn't look like any sacrifices were made in the translation. It would be nice to get some new songs, but when it comes to Gitaroo-Man, we'll take whatever we can get. The game is scheduled to be released this month in Japan for all you impatient importers, and we'll bring you a US release date as soon as we can.
http://www.gamespot.com/psp/index.html
DEATH JR 2
Earlier today, at a pre-E3 event just a short cab ride away from the Los Angeles Convention Center, Konami unveiled the PSP sequel to Death, Jr. from Backbone Entertainment. Simply titled Death, Jr. 2, the new game will let you choose between playing as DJ or his friend Pandora, and you'll also have the option to play through the entire game cooperatively with a friend. Each of the characters will purportedly have quite different moves and weapons at their disposal, though we've not yet seen enough of the game to confirm this. We did get to see the pair using a number of different weapons, though.
DJ's default weapon is still a scythe, of course, and Pandora's looked to be some lethal variation of a child's cup-and-ball toy. Weapon pickups in the game will include such childhood favorites as the cherry bomb launcher, the tommy gun, the flamethrower, and the enhanced C4 hamster mark II. DJ and Pandora will be able to power up their attacks using the game's all-new "rage mode," which lets them unleash "reaper madness" and "pandemonium" moves respectively. Your enemies in Death, Jr. 2 will be every bit as unconventional as the weapons that you're killing them with, and will include armies of evil toys, robotic llamas, mutant mall security guards, and an evil waffle restaurant.
Backbone Entertainment claims to have taken the feedback that it got from Death, Jr. very seriously, and as a result you can look forward to an improved manual camera system, more advanced enemy artificial intelligence, and tighter controls. For the moment we haven't seen nearly enough of Death, Jr. 2 to comment on those claims, but we'll bring you more information on the game just as soon as we get our hands on it.
CODED ARMS 2
Coded Arms had the distinction of being the original first-person shooter for the PSP. It wasn't exactly a critical success, but it obviously did well enough that Konami is willing to throw some cash to turn it into a franchise, with both a new PS3 game, as well as Coded Arms: Contagion for the PSP. We first got a look at the game at Konami's E3 2006 press conference, but today we got to go hands-on with it for the first time.
The basic premise for Contagion is similar to the original Coded Arms. You're an elite, futuristic soldier inside a virtual-reality world. This time, you'll be taking down cyberterrorists, out to hack into military systems and steal vital data. You'll do this by first-person shooting your way through lots of different levels against all manner of gun-toting terrorists and nasty-looking bugs.
As we put our hands on the game for the first time, it became immediately clear that we were in for a familiar kind of experience. The demo level took place inside a rusty-looking enclosed environment, and around every corner came an enemy of some variety. The only specific enemies we saw in the demo were small bug creatures, large bug creatures, and relatively generic-looking soldier types. We were armed with a pistol, an assault rifle, and a shotgun, and all three weapons were fairly effective against the onslaught of baddies.
The game defaulted to what was arguably the most comfortable control scheme available in the original game, with the analog stick used for movement control, the face buttons used for looking around, and the D pad used for weapon switching. And for what it's worth, the game felt a whole lot like the first game. The action maintained a similar flow and pace, and even used a lot of the same puzzle scenarios and visual effects, like the computer code dissipation from destroyed enemies and objects. Whether this is totally indicative of the experience that the final game will have, we don't know. We just know that we got an awfully big sense of déjà vu from playing this demo.
Interestingly enough, the one thing that has been all but passed over is the one thing that was a big selling point of the original game: randomly generated levels. Konami has made no mention of them being in the sequel, and the demo we saw didn't show a hint of random generation. Considering how bad some of the randomly generated level designs in the original game were, this could be a true blessing.
Coded Arms: Contagion will make its way to stores sometime next year. We'll bring you more on the game as it becomes available.
WTF
WTF, or Work Time Fun, is basically an absurd collection of minigames. Some are funny, some are purposely mind-numbing, and others are just weird. Playing the minigames earns you money, which can be used to unlock more stuff. There are four minigames being shown at E3, each aptly named: chick sorting, cliff racing, wood chopping, and burping contest 2. There's also one "tool" called eyes. Eyes is one of the game's many unlockable bonuses and basically turns your PSP screen into...a cartoon set of eyes. Then you can hold the PSP up to your face, facing outward, to amaze and impress your friends.
Chick sorting asks you to move chicks (as in, baby chickens) into one of three piles: boy, girl, or heaven. You can identify the girl chicks by the ribbons on their heads. Sickly chicks sometimes appear, and these are the ones to send out to pasture. Or just kill them all. It doesn't matter.
Cliff racing is like a game of shuffleboard. You basically just need to stop as close to the edge of the cliff as possible.
Wood chopping tasks you with chopping wood logs. Just don't hit the babies that are occasionally put on the block for some strange reason.
Burping contest 2 is like the pattern-memorization game, Simon, except with burping trolls.
Most WTF games require just one or two buttons, so they're extremely simple, yet surprisingly compelling in their pure, numbing purity. While sorting chicks at the bustling E3 show floor, we felt a little better about the world for a little while.
LEMMINGS
Lemmings originally came out in 1991 for the Amiga and has had a loyal following ever since. Just like real lemmings, the ones in the game will have little regard for their own life and will happily walk to their death unless you stop them from doing so. The aim is to get as many lemmings to the end of the level, by building bridges, digging through land, and using other specialist skills to pass the puzzles.
Both the PSP and PS2 versions of the game feature the same 156 levels, but they boast a level editor that can be used to share custom designs between formats. Levels that you design on the go can be played on the PS2 when you get home and vice-versa.
The big feature that will differentiate the PS2 version is the EyeToy mode, in which you will use your body to help guide the lemmings, as opposed to the controller. There will be 15 to 20 EyeToy-specific levels in the finished game, and the game uses a new edge-detection technique to help with the precision needed in the game. Before you start this mode, EyeToy will compare an empty shot of the background and one with you in it to isolate your body from the image. When you play the game and use your arms to build bridges, the lemmings walk along with great precision, and you can even flick them over obstacles if you're precise. It's clearly a novelty addition to the meat of the main game, but with so many EyeToy cameras out there now, it's good to see games add modes such as this.
There are certain areas of the EyeToy game where your body is taken out of the game temporarily by a grey background, so you can't interact with the lemmings directly. In the section we saw, you had to flick the lemmings over a tree (without being too hard and killing them) and then waft them across on a sailboat by waving your hands.
Anyone who's seen Lemmings before will know what to expect, but the new EyeToy additions will hopefully start a trend that will follow in other Sony-developed products.
MONSTER HUNTER
At Capcom's booth at E3 this year, they were showing off Monster Hunter Freedom, a new Monster Hunter game for the PlayStation Portable. Monster Hunter games have always been popular in Japan, but they haven't caught on much in the U.S. Capcom's hoping to change that with their portable version of the franchise.
Monster Hunter Freedom features wireless multiplayer for up to four people, and, in a shocking coincidence, Capcom had four PSPs running the game at their booth. Although four players are available in the game world, the size of it makes it difficult to run across them unless you intentionally seek them out. You can team up with other players to take down the larger monsters, but you're unable to kill them, despite being able to swing your big-ass swords into their bodies.
Speaking of swords, the character we were using in Freedom had an absolutely massive sword with foot-long serrations on it. The entire act of swinging the blade took four or five seconds to complete, from the wind up to the aftermath of digging it up out of the ground after it hit. The mechanics are a bit clunky at the outset, but we did see other characters running around swinging slightly lighter weapons, and they seemed to be a bit more fluid in their attacks, so maybe we just picked a bulkier character than we would've liked.
Anyway, monsters are there to be hunted. We stumbled across numerous dinosaur-esque beasts that were wandering around. When killed, we were able to loot their bodies for meat and bones. We happened to be carrying around a large spit, which could be used to roast the meat and create foodstuffs. The foodstuffs had the effect of temporarily extending our stamina bars, which in turn extended our character's ability to run for periods of time. This ability was useful when we were attempting to track down the main boss of the level, a large dragon.
Like we said, there's a fairly large area available to explore, although, unfortunately, it's broken up by numerous loading screens. You have a minimap on your screen that aids in your navigation, however, so you shouldn't wind up getting lost.
When we managed to track down the boss dragon, we were unsurprised to find it quite vicious. It seems to be almost impossible to kill with your normal weapons, so you'll have to take it down with traps and bombs. We were walked through the process, which involves laying down a pitfall trap on the ground. With that done, we got close enough to the dragon to attract its attention and then lured it back toward the trap, which it fell into. While it thrashed around attempting to extricate itself, we dropped a couple of large bombs (essentially just large barrels of gunpowder), as well as a small bomb that was intended to light the larger ones. Unfortunately, the dragon was able to escape before we maneuvered through the somewhat clunky interface motions required to do all this, and before we could blow it up, it hit us with its head and knocked us right into one of the loading screens leading to another area. And that was the end of the battle, although after tracking the dragon down again, it finished us off quickly with some charge attacks and one big fireball from the mouth.
If you're a fan of Monster Hunter, or just want to hunt for monsters, possibly while enjoying freedom, then Monster Hunter Freedom might be right up your alley. You'll know soon, since the game is coming out later in May.
GITAROO MAN
It's no surprise then that when Koei announced that a remake of the game for the PlayStation Portable would be released this month in Japan, a few people got pretty excited. Even more exciting than that, though, is a recent announcement that the game will in fact be coming to the US as Gitaroo-Man Lives! We recently had a chance to rock out with an English-language build of the game and are pleased to report that it's shaping up to be a faithful remake of the quirky, colorful, head-bobbin' good time that we all know and love.
Be warned, once this music gets inside your head it will never leave.
Gitaroo-Man Lives! is a direct port of the original game, which was released to high praise and critical acclaim in 2002 on the PlayStation 2. As a result, people who played the original game will feel right at home with the distinct style, original tunes, and one-of-a-kind play mechanics in Gitaroo-Man Lives!
The game follows the adventures of a young boy named U-1 and his talking dog Puma. U-1 is a nervous, cowardly kid who is often picked on by his rival, Kazuya. That's the least of his problems, though, because U-1 is also hopelessly in love with Pico and is always trying to get her attention, usually with disastrous results. On top of all that, U-1 also inherits the legacy of the legendary superhero Gitaroo-Man. But U-1 isn't really interested in becoming a superhero. He'd rather practice his skateboarding moves to impress Pico and win her over. After some coercing from Puma, U-1 learns to play the magic gitaroo, which gives him the power to defeat even the fiercest of foes.
After a brief tutorial about how to play the game, a devil-looking character named Panpeus shows up and attempts to take the gitaroo from U-1. Thus begins a series of 10 different battles that take U-1 to the furthest reaches of the soundscape, from the funky slap bass of a disco tune, to the synthesized beats of an uppity electronica song, to the pleasant strum of a folk tune, and beyond. We played through the first five battles and were happy to note that although the music is more than 4 years old, it's still as catchy and enjoyable as ever.
Gitaroo-Man does in fact live. Seriously.
Each stage is a battle between you and one of a handful of crazy, musically themed characters. You'll fight everything from a group of flying saucers to a massive hammerhead shark to a funky trumpet-playing bee. The battles have three distinct phases, but they don't always follow the same progression. There's a charge phase, where you have to move the analog stick along a scrolling line that appears onscreen. On this line there are notes, which you have to hit by pressing the circle button. It sounds simple, but the line can get very tough to follow, and when you have to hit notes at the same time it can become quite hectic. For each note you'll get a "great," "good," "OK," or "miss" rating, depending on how well you match up your button presses with the notes onscreen. As you hit notes during this phase you'll fill up your health gauge to prepare for--or recover from--the battle phase.
In the battle phase the action gets even more intense as you engage in a back and forth with your opponent. In this mode, button icons will scroll from four directions, and you have to press each corresponding button as it reaches the center of the screen. If you miss a button, you'll lose health. To attack you have to follow the line and hit the notes just as in the charge phase. The better your performance, the more damage you'll deal to your enemy. The battle phase is the most varied part of the game because you have to quickly switch between the two modes while trying to keep time with the music. The final phase of the battle is one long attack where you get to break out with a solo jam and perform the coup de grace on your enemy.
Each battle usually lasts around five minutes, which should make the game well suited to quick jams on the PSP while you're on the go. The controls work well on the handheld too, with the major difference being the analog stick. On the PlayStation 2 the analog stick has a larger range of motion, which requires more precise movement. On the PSP, the game seems to be a bit more forgiving as far as the analog precision goes, although that certainly doesn't mean the game is easy. We did run into some brief loading times between stages on the PSP, but they weren't excessive in the build we played.
Aside from the single-player story mode there are two multiplayer modes in Gitaroo-Man Lives! There's a battle mode where you can go head-to-head against a friend, as well as a duets mode where you and a friend can team up and play against a computer opponent. From what we got to see of these modes, the songs are the same as the ones used in the single-player story, although it's unclear whether or not all of the single-player songs will be available in multiplayer.
Even on the easiest difficulty setting, rhythm game veterans will find a pretty steep challenge in Gitaroo-Man Lives!
The graphics are bright and colorful on the PSP, although the busily animated backgrounds can make it difficult to see the button icons on the screen at times. Once you get used to it, though, that isn't much of a problem. The textures are slightly blurry at times, especially when you see the characters close up, but the game still looks good thanks to its unique sense of style. In fact, you'll look forward to the breaks in the song not only because they give you a chance to rest your thumbs, but also because they give you a chance to check out all the zany visuals of each stage. The stages themselves include a crowded city square, a dark swamp, and the barren surface of the moon. Between stages there are plenty of cutesy prerendered cutscenes to move the story along. The game sounds good on the PSP hardware as well, and the songs feature full English vocals.
Gitaroo-Man Lives! appears to be a straightforward port, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing given how great the original game was. The game is still as challenging and fun to play as ever on the PSP, and it doesn't look like any sacrifices were made in the translation. It would be nice to get some new songs, but when it comes to Gitaroo-Man, we'll take whatever we can get. The game is scheduled to be released this month in Japan for all you impatient importers, and we'll bring you a US release date as soon as we can.
http://www.gamespot.com/psp/index.html
WTF indeed. EyeToy Lemmings?!?