A Great Rock n' Rolla!: Gitaroo Man

Back in the year of 2002, A.D. a video game was unleashed upon the American public. The game was called Gitaroo Man. And it was pretty fantastic.

I was probably around twelve or thirteen when I first bought and played Gitaroo Man. Now, Gitaroo Man's a rhythm game, and I had little interest in the genre at the time. What pushed me to buy the game despite of this was the glowing review the game got in Game Informer magazine (Issue #107, page 78...look it up). Game Informer was the primary religious text of my early teen years and what they said was the Truth with a capitol "T" unless proven otherwise. OK, that and the fact that one of the reviewers began his review blurb with "Don't write this off as 'more weird Japanese crap.'" Well, I was a huge fan of weird Japanese crap both good and bad (still am!), so I figured I'd just have to check this title out. I took a trip to GameStop (if Game Informer was my teenage Bible, then GameStop was a house of worship!) and picked up some shrink-wrapped, certified grade-A weird Japanese crap for my gaming pleasure.

I took my game home, fired up the PS2, delighted in the anime style opening cutscene, and promptly got my ass handed to me as soon as it came time to play. But no matter. When I was a kid I had an almost masochistic attraction to video games that were just a touch beyond my ability. I would play the same level repeatedly 'til I got to where I wanted to be. This single-minded intensity would go into overdrive if I knew what I needed to do, but just couldn't execute it perfectly yet. A good game lets you see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it makes you sweat to get to this light. Well, Gitaroo Man did just that for me and it did it perfectly.

The game is deceptively simple, it's really just all about timing button presses that are set to the rhythm of whatever song is playing in the background of any given level. On paper this sounds easy, but it can be tough to keep your cool when icons start flying out from all directions. Once you hit that spot when you have truly mastered a tough song though, it is extremely rewarding.

I recently dusted off my PS2 and gave Gitaroo Man another go, almost a decade after I had initially played it. From an adult perspective, Gitaroo is way more forgiving than I initially thought. Stages that took me hours to master when I was younger, I now pass on the first try. Whereas the game initially took me months to beat in my youth, I can now whip through it in a handful of hours. The fun factor has not faded however, and the advanced "Master's Play" mode still makes for some cruel and punishing (in a good way) gaming.

It would be a tragedy if I were to end this post without talking about the look of the game, so here goes: Gitaroo Man looks fantastic. With it's bright colors, eccentric character design, and witty humor, playing Gitaroo Man is like spending hours playing the greatest Saturday morning cartoon that was never made. The game's story, too, is drenched in cool, cute, and wit. Following the adventures of a nerdy loser named U-1 and his talking dog/mentor named Puma, the game chronicles U-1 as he gets in touch with his superpowered Gitaroo Man alter-ego, saves the world, and gets the pink haired girl of his dreams. Oh, and all this is set to a diverse set of original songs all done in different musical styles.

Interestingly, Gitaroo Man has reached a sort of cult status over the years. Apparently not many copies of the game were printed during its initial run, so used copies of the game now fetch between thirty to fifty dollars on sites like Amazon.com. I know paying that much for an almost ten year old game is a bit painful, but if you can part with the money Gitaroo Man's a whole ton of fun.