Impressions on Ontamarama

Every year Atlus has a surprise game on their list. Last year it was Touch Detective, this year it’s Ontamarama. Before E3 I bet most people didn’t know about Ontamarama since it is fresh in Japan too, Ontamarama was released last month. There are Ouendan-like elements in Ontamarama, but Ontamarama is not an Ouendan clone. A musical bar on the top of the screen has colored notes floating from the right side of the screen to the left. Each color corresponds to an arrow on the D-pad that you need to press when it scrolls in the empty circle on the left. Before you can press the button you need to poke one of the happy looking Ontamas on the touch screen to drain musical energy. You end up using both hands in Ontamarama and there is a slight learning curve when picking up the game.

I was surprised when I was told Atlus is keeping all of the original songs in Ontamarama. Expect a mix of J-Pop and happy eurobeat with English menus when Ontamarama comes out later this year.