Product Description

Gitaroo Man is an entirely new type of music rhythm game, in which your instrument is actually your weapon in the fight against evil. Unlike traditional music games that simply require the player to press buttons in rhythm with onscreen actions, Gitaroo Man makes players use both the analog stick and controller buttons at the same time, thus manipulating the onscreen characters with jumps, ducks, and attacks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6705 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: THQ
• Released on: 2002-06-21
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gitaroo Man is the latest addition to the Bemani (Beatmania) genre. Taking on the role of the implausibly named U-1, you discover, via your talking dog, of course, that you are the last Gitaroo Man and thus are destined to save your planet from the evil Gravillian family armed with a Gitaroo, which is essentially a musical instrument (in your case a guitar) doubling as a weapon.

Each level consists of you battling a member of the Gravillian family and is split into Charge, Attack and Guard sections. Attacking and charging involves rotating the analog stick while well-timed button presses charge your energy bar or attack your opponent. Guard mode is frenetic as symbols fly towards the middle of the screen while you press the appropriate button to avoid taking damage. The action can switch from attack to guard in a split second, which ensures chaotic gameplay. Each levels uses one or all of these modes in differing order, which shakes up the often rigid routes that Bemani games can take.

The graphics have a pleasing colourful Japanese cartoon style but the constant background action can sometimes obscure vital onscreen info. Crucially, the music doesn't grate on repeated plays and the interaction between your button bashing and the guitar works really well. Gitaroo Man benefits from the rethink of the usual control methods (and the overactive imagination that thought up the bizarre characters & locations). This probably won't convert non-Bemani fans but those who are into rhythm games will love it.--Jonathan Winter

Customer Reviews

An ok game but far better rhythm titles out there
Gitaroo Man is an ok game it can be hard on some levels the best thing about the game is the music because it really has some good tracks. The graphics are another good point about the game. If you like your rhythm games then your going to love this. But myself I am more of a Parappa The Rapper fan and Guitar Hero

love this game
I don't review many things but I just had to say that this is one of my all time favourite games ever. I got it a few years ago after seeing a very brief review in a gaming magazine and thinking "thats looks crazy and cute" and it is. I also played a demo I got free of the second level which took my AGES to get through, but when i did, I would play the demo every day after school because I loved it so much.
When I finally got the game I whizzed through the first two levels, then got really stuck on level 3. After that I decided level 4 was impossible and nearly returned the game, but luckily my dad convinced me not to. Eventually I progressed through the game. It took me so many times to get through the final level, but when I did I was so happy as I think I'd been playing it for about a year maybe more (with huge gaps where I didn't play it for ages though) to complete it. Then the Master levels opened up. First one is easier than last levels of the normal game, but I've only ever got through master level 2 once, and I've lost the memory card with that particular game save (I've played it through more times than I can count), so I'm still stuck on it! but i still love it,I don't think I could ever get rid of it like I do with alot of my games. The musics really cool (my favourite is on level 8), the only bad things are that theres only 10 levels (although as I've already said it takes a while to get through and you can play it over and over,and not including the master levels), and there isn't a sequel.(gitaroo man lives for the psp is exactly the same game but has one extra multiplayer level I think)
but it!!

Are you a god of rhythm games?
If the answer is no then this game may well not be for you. Gitaroo man isn't just insanely hard it handles it's difficulty very badly. Just clearing levels to progress is extremely challenging. You actually have to learn some of the songs, which I kind of dig, but it also sometimes not a lot of fun. This game really needed the normal difficulty to be easier to allow joe average to enjoy the game and relied on the difficult modes to feed the challenge seekers.

Aside from the difficulty the menu system is truly appalling. There is no autoload/save so you have to manually load your save every time. Sometimes getting to a point where you can get back to the menu means waiting through multiple loading screens, which exacerbates the no auto load because if you accidentally start without loading you have to go through three loading screens before you get to a point you can go back to the menu and load your save game. The intro section for most levels is far too long and the longest ones seem to be for levels where hitting the first note is most important. my final gripe is a relatively minor one, there is no Japanese language option, this really would have added a lot to the experience.

This game does have some positive points too. The game play, aside from being too difficult is great and puts a nice twist on the usual format. The presentation is fantastic (especially if you like weird Japanese games). I really enjoyed the music which has made when I have played well very satisfying and finally this is a reprint of a game which had become quite rare and if like me you are a game nut that has been looking for a copy for a long time it's pretty exciting.

This is a potentially great game where for me the experience was mired by the difficulty and tainted by a poor menu. Yet it is a game I'm glad to have in my collection. I really don't want to put anyone off Gitaroo Man just warn about what you are getting into.