At this year's E3 show, Atlus was showing off—as is their wont—a number of titles you just can't get anywhere else. The biggest headlines were probably generated by the announcement of the sequel to the highly popular Wii installment of Trauma Center, but the one that drew the most attention from me was Ontamarama. I found it rather hypnotizing to try to figure out, let alone play; likely touching off the same nerve that led me to my Ouendan addiction. Since Atlus' Ontamarama is a localization of Japanese release Ontama: Onpu-tō Hen (and that was, in fact, exactly what was on display at E3), I decided to get my hands on that release and give it a more in-depth look.
If you've read the previews (including my own impressions), you're likely aware that Ontamarama requires you to juggle two tasks simultaneously: tapping the little colored dudes (Ontama) as they appear on the touch screen and pressing d-pad directions (or the A/B/X/Y buttons, for the lefties) in time with the music as notes indicating which button to press scroll leftward atop the same screen in a manner reminiscent of Taiko Drum Master. The idea presented by the game is that the Ontama are captive; your taps free them and enable you to "conduct" them (by hitting the notes) against your enemy.
Ontamarama layers a number of ideas atop that, beginning with the core concept: each tapped Ontama fills in and enables a color-corresponding note; without tapping the Ontama, your timely button press will count for naught. You only have to match the rhythm with the scrolling notes to keep up your combos; Ontama can be tapped at any time. However, you'll find it to your advantage to invent a complementary rhythm while you're dealing with the Ontama; if you're haphazardly tapping away you'll find yourself losing the rhythm, especially in the higher-level stages.
The first new challenge the game will throw at you is holds—long notes. While notes are normally short, circular, and clearable by a simple d-pad or button push, the longer ones require you to hold your thumb down and release it when the cue is complete in a manner similar to long notes in Daigasso! Band Brothers—and you're graded for both the attack and release. On top of this, you can't just fill these cues with a single Ontama; each will fill only a portion of the bar until you've got them all.
The second thing you'll see as you progress are white and black Ontama. Neither fills notes. The white Ontama are effectively bonuses; just tap them whenever you can. The black Ontama are an entirely different matter, though; tap one and you can kiss both your combo and a significant portion of your "performance %" (effectively, health) stat goodbye. They're hard to avoid, as they're moving around on the touch screen, trying to obstruct your taps on the Ontama you need to free.
The first of your special moves will help you get rid of those little guys is the "swing". In reality, it's not so much swinging that you're doing as much as it is sliding; you can swing an Ontama simply by dragging him under your stylus across the screen. When you let up on the stylus, you'll free that Ontama as normal, so it's not of much use on normal Ontama; but if you drag a black Ontama off the screen, you'll vanquish it without taking a hit.
The other moves are strictly for point-scoring. First off is circling, which is done exactly like you think it is: draw a circle around an Ontama to capture it. Of course, it's rather pointless to circle a single Ontama, but it's definitely not pointless to circle several at a time—you'll get yourself a multiplier for when the time comes to conduct the notes you filled. Circling can be a little tricky, especially considering that the beginning of the game you have a very limited ink supply to circle with, and if you circle through an Ontama, you'll free it immediately rather than group it with the others. You'll also need to only circle Ontama of the same color, or you'll not free any of them.
I may have just said it was pointless to circle single Ontama, but... I lied. In conjunction with the "hold" move it can be quite valuable. Holding L lets you draw lots of little and big circles all over the screen, then releasing them all at once when you let up on the button—giving you a multiplier for all that you released. The same-color rule still applies here, but only for a single circle; so you can circle two differently-colored Ontama, one after the other, and release them both for a 2x multiplier.
There's one more panic move you can use if you find yourself falling behind: you've got a set number of times you can use a "breath" move to free all the outstanding Ontama at once. Just blow into the mic. You don't get a multiplier for using this move.
And that's the gameplay. The above gameplay comes in several game modes, including a story mode where you'll set out as either a boy or a girl out to save the universe through the power of conducting—and you can go through it multiple times at different difficulty levels. A free play mode lets you tackle any of the levels you've already cleared for scores and grades, and gives you a buyable option to have the Ontama automatically freed or conducted so you can concentrate on the other aspect. Finally, a challenge mode pits you against sets of songs in a row.
As you play through, you'll earn points you can spend in the shop on various things, including more ink for circling, additional chances to use your breath move, and the above-mentioned semi-auto options for free play. There are even four unlockable songs to buy for use in free play.
Ontamarama, last we heard, is set to hit stores in October, and is rated E by the ESRB so everyone can play (though it'll likely be too hard for the younger set). As is the typical case with Atlus releases (Trauma Center: Second Opinion excepted), it's likely to be difficult to find at retail; so if you're interested, you might want to consider picking it up from Amazon or the like.
If you've read the previews (including my own impressions), you're likely aware that Ontamarama requires you to juggle two tasks simultaneously: tapping the little colored dudes (Ontama) as they appear on the touch screen and pressing d-pad directions (or the A/B/X/Y buttons, for the lefties) in time with the music as notes indicating which button to press scroll leftward atop the same screen in a manner reminiscent of Taiko Drum Master. The idea presented by the game is that the Ontama are captive; your taps free them and enable you to "conduct" them (by hitting the notes) against your enemy.
Ontamarama layers a number of ideas atop that, beginning with the core concept: each tapped Ontama fills in and enables a color-corresponding note; without tapping the Ontama, your timely button press will count for naught. You only have to match the rhythm with the scrolling notes to keep up your combos; Ontama can be tapped at any time. However, you'll find it to your advantage to invent a complementary rhythm while you're dealing with the Ontama; if you're haphazardly tapping away you'll find yourself losing the rhythm, especially in the higher-level stages.
The first new challenge the game will throw at you is holds—long notes. While notes are normally short, circular, and clearable by a simple d-pad or button push, the longer ones require you to hold your thumb down and release it when the cue is complete in a manner similar to long notes in Daigasso! Band Brothers—and you're graded for both the attack and release. On top of this, you can't just fill these cues with a single Ontama; each will fill only a portion of the bar until you've got them all.
The second thing you'll see as you progress are white and black Ontama. Neither fills notes. The white Ontama are effectively bonuses; just tap them whenever you can. The black Ontama are an entirely different matter, though; tap one and you can kiss both your combo and a significant portion of your "performance %" (effectively, health) stat goodbye. They're hard to avoid, as they're moving around on the touch screen, trying to obstruct your taps on the Ontama you need to free.
The first of your special moves will help you get rid of those little guys is the "swing". In reality, it's not so much swinging that you're doing as much as it is sliding; you can swing an Ontama simply by dragging him under your stylus across the screen. When you let up on the stylus, you'll free that Ontama as normal, so it's not of much use on normal Ontama; but if you drag a black Ontama off the screen, you'll vanquish it without taking a hit.
The other moves are strictly for point-scoring. First off is circling, which is done exactly like you think it is: draw a circle around an Ontama to capture it. Of course, it's rather pointless to circle a single Ontama, but it's definitely not pointless to circle several at a time—you'll get yourself a multiplier for when the time comes to conduct the notes you filled. Circling can be a little tricky, especially considering that the beginning of the game you have a very limited ink supply to circle with, and if you circle through an Ontama, you'll free it immediately rather than group it with the others. You'll also need to only circle Ontama of the same color, or you'll not free any of them.
I may have just said it was pointless to circle single Ontama, but... I lied. In conjunction with the "hold" move it can be quite valuable. Holding L lets you draw lots of little and big circles all over the screen, then releasing them all at once when you let up on the button—giving you a multiplier for all that you released. The same-color rule still applies here, but only for a single circle; so you can circle two differently-colored Ontama, one after the other, and release them both for a 2x multiplier.
There's one more panic move you can use if you find yourself falling behind: you've got a set number of times you can use a "breath" move to free all the outstanding Ontama at once. Just blow into the mic. You don't get a multiplier for using this move.
And that's the gameplay. The above gameplay comes in several game modes, including a story mode where you'll set out as either a boy or a girl out to save the universe through the power of conducting—and you can go through it multiple times at different difficulty levels. A free play mode lets you tackle any of the levels you've already cleared for scores and grades, and gives you a buyable option to have the Ontama automatically freed or conducted so you can concentrate on the other aspect. Finally, a challenge mode pits you against sets of songs in a row.
As you play through, you'll earn points you can spend in the shop on various things, including more ink for circling, additional chances to use your breath move, and the above-mentioned semi-auto options for free play. There are even four unlockable songs to buy for use in free play.
Ontamarama, last we heard, is set to hit stores in October, and is rated E by the ESRB so everyone can play (though it'll likely be too hard for the younger set). As is the typical case with Atlus releases (Trauma Center: Second Opinion excepted), it's likely to be difficult to find at retail; so if you're interested, you might want to consider picking it up from Amazon or the like.