To put it simply, Ouendan doesn’t really have a storyline. You play as a group of three male cheerleaders traveling across the town helping citizens in trouble. Whether it’s a young boy trying to win a game of basketball to impress his prospective girlfriend, two bumbling cops trying to save the city from a robot invasion, or a conductor trying to hold in his diarrhea on the bullet train, there are some pretty odd people in the city. Each of the fifteen stages has its own unique song and story, told in an active manga format.
Gameplay
This is where Ouendan really shines. We haven’t seen much of anything like this before, and the only comparison I can think of would be to say that it’s like DDR with a stylus. Ouendan is from the same developers as the equally brilliant Gitaroo Man, so you know you’re going to have some major fun with this game. It’s controlled strictly with the stylus, which you must use to poke, drag, and swirl to the beat of the music. My only qualm is that sometimes it’s hard to see where you need to go next because your hand can get in the way of the screen. They’ve tried to make it easier by placing a dotted line between moves, but it doesn’t always help. The game starts off fairly easy, but it gets progressively harder and harder until it reaches the levels of near-impossibility. It’s a really fun pick-up-and-play kinda game that you’ll never get bored of.
Multiplayer
There are multiplayer options, but the only one I’ve tried is just a straight versus mode. If you’re getting tired of the single player mode (ha!), multiplayer will keep you entertained for much, much longer, or at least until your buddy destroys you .
Graphics
The graphics aren’t really a big part of this game, and you will probably be paying more attention to the circles flashing across the screen rather than gawking at the visuals. At the beginning of each level, a cute (or kind of disgusting) story is told over the two screens through well-drawn manga scenes. While the song is going and you’re tapping away, there’s usually a bit of manga action happening on the top screen and just a basic background with your three cheerleaders dancing on the bottom screen. For what the game is, the visuals are quite well done and entertaining.
Sound
Another really positive point for this game is the music. All 15 songs (most are covers) really fit the style of the game, and the gameplay wraps around them well. The sound is really high quality, with very little crackling or other artifacts, which is surprising coming from the DS.
Replay Value
What’s great about this game is its endless replay value. You could play for hours and hours on end, mastering each song and completing all the difficulty levels, and not be the slightest bit bored. It never gets tiring, and that’s something very few games accomplish these days. Each difficulty mode is quite short (they average a few hours each, but it depends on how well you play), and I wish there were more songs, but I can’t complain much considering how amazingly fun this game is overall.
All in All
Do to the odd nature of Ouendan, I can almost guarantee we will never see it on our shores, which is really too bad. Being that it’s an import, it can be quite pricey (you’d be lucky to find it for under $40 US), but it's truly worth every penny. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! is a must own for anyone who has a DS.
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