Ontamarama (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Kevin VanOrd
• Reviewed on: 12/06/2007
• Released on: 11/06/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Ontamarama (DS) Review

Ontamarama is, for lack of a better description, very Japanese. It features an odd mix of frantic tapping and DDR-style button beating, rounded out by crazy-cute anime characters who spout crazy-cute dialogue. It's weird, often fun, and a unique take on the rhythm genre that could work only on the Nintendo DS. Yet the foibles that make it so amusing also make it occasionally frustrating. Additionally, it's a limited package with a very short story mode and no multiplayer, which is an option it absolutely begs for. Yet for all of its idiosyncrasies, Ontamarama is an entertaining game that scratches an admittedly kooky itch.

To be successful at Ontamarama, it helps to have outstanding hand-eye coordination. There's just a ton of stuff going on at any given moment. First, you have to handle the D-pad mashing that is standard to most rhythm games. A series of arrows flows from right to left at the top of the touch screen, and as each arrow passes through the circle in the top left corner, you hit the D pad in the appropriate direction in time with the music. Sound easy? Think again.

You see, you've also got bouncy, bubbly creatures known as ontama that pounce onto the touch screen. Before you can clear an arrow, you need to fill it with an ontama of the matching color by tapping it. This doesn't sound particularly challenging in and of itself, but coordinating the two activities gets to be quite a challenge as the screen fills with ontama and the arrows really start to fly. It's the gaming equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time, and it isn't always an easy task to separate the activities of your left hand from those of your right hand.

However, Ontamarama doesn't stop there. Sometimes long arrows need to be filled in by a group of ontama, which is best accomplished by drawing a circle around them. This isn't always a perfect solution: Your circles need to be very precise, and in the game's most frantic moments, that precision moves past the realm of challenging and into frustrating territory. Some ontama are fat and need to be tapped twice. You can also blow into the microphone to fill your onscreen arrows, or hold a trigger to draw multiple circles, which are necessary tools during the biggest flurries of arrows and ontama.

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