We were piqued by the puzzlish multitasking rhythm gameplay in Noise Factory's Ontamarama before its Japanese release as Ontama. But now that it's being localized and we may actually have a shot at playing the thing, we've graduated from piqued to some degree of interest that is a little greater than 'piqued.'Siliconera's Spencer Yip played Ontamarama at E3 and wrote up a description of the game, which sounds as complicated as ever: it involves first touching a little creature of the correct color, then tapping the D-pad in the direction of a scrolling arrow. We knew that those two components were involved, but didn't know the chronology. We're glad somebody got to play it and tell us!
80Pan fans take note: this game, for once, will be keeping the original Japanese music. Is that a good thing? No idea! If it helps, we're pretty sure there was no Avril Lavigne in the Japanese version.







Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-16-2007 @ 10:43AM
hvnlysoldr said...
For a moment I thought it was Noise the Custom Robo crew. But then I read Wiki that it's a SNK company.
For as much as I don't like Avril Lavigne, Madonna, and Jessica Simpson; the EBA songs and scenarios and gameplay make them some of my favorite stages. The guilty favorites so to speak. I generally like a lot of music I hear, but I wouldn't of my own accord listen to those songs unless somehow presented Nintendo style.
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7-16-2007 @ 11:02AM
ConstyXIV said...
OUEN-err...
ONTAMARAMA!
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7-16-2007 @ 12:12PM
FlimFlammy said...
HAHAHA! Keeping the original Japanese music? I am huge music game fan so I bought this game and have already beaten it.
First off there is on only 2 stages out of 11 that the music actually contains lyrics. One of these stages is just English lyrics equivalent to what A DJ would shout out at a rave. Not actually lyrics for song. Thats why I laugh about them annoucing keeping the original music.
The other song contaning lyrics is actually 1 out of 2 songs that I actually liked and its more of a mix of Opera and French. But besides that all the other music is honestly not worth mentioning. Instead of music... its more of a string of different types of bad midis. The music severely dissapointed me. The music could have been better and this is coming from someone who played Kira Kira Music Hour.
The good thing though are the controls. They really set themselves apart from everyone else. Both halves of your brain will be working over time trying to play this game. Example: if your right handed you will be tapping and circling feveriously with the stylus while with your left hand hitting the direction pad in the correct direction and rhythm simutaniously. At first its fun, but gets really frustrating later on. the game is very short though and barely rewarding
Word to the wise, if you're a music game freak, check it out, otherwise dont really waste your time...
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7-16-2007 @ 4:54PM
k0sm0s said...
agrees with 3, I've played this game before.. The music quality is midi-like.. and only 2 songs had lyrics.. the hard part is the multi-tasking.. concept is cool but its, as 3 said, very short
btw, @3, is kira kira music hour nice?
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7-17-2007 @ 1:03AM
FlimFlammy said...
I really really enjoyed Kira Kira Music Hour! First, its really cute and female oriented, so I had to avoid any onlookers while playing in public to avoid embarrassments and defend it fun from male friends because it was so much fun. But with music games, there are no boundaries :)
The orientation of the game its self has you placing the system on its side like a book while you tap the 3 large bars with your thumb (or stylus if you prefer), the bars are supposed to represent guitar strings.
I don't recall how many exaclty but I know there are at least over 9 genres of music represented, including Japanese Traditionalism (I dont know its genre name but it was something different so I was happy)
Stages get harder and harder and there was rarely any song I didn't no become fond of. Its very fun and I recommend it. The other aspect of the game is changing the appearance of your character, from buying things from the shop or acquiring them from defeated opponents.
Also you can take you character to the various amusement parks and take pictures of your character doing silly poses (not my cup of tea, but the audience is meant for Japanese girls).
I liked it! I am gonna start playing it all over again now!
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7-17-2007 @ 8:38AM
k0sm0s said...
ok you hooked me.. going to check it out..
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7-20-2007 @ 11:25AM
Brad Mecoli said...
"it involves first touching a little creature of the correct color, then tapping the D-pad in the direction of a scrolling arrow."
It's as if millions of left handed gamers cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced...
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7-22-2007 @ 4:12AM
k0sm0s said...
@ Brad: no, you can choose to press Dpad or the 4 buttons.. I'm a left hander :D
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