Ontamarama

Nintendo exclusive

Ontamarama (おんたま♪おんぷ島へん Ontama Onputouhen) is a rhythm game published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Japan in July 2007, and in North America on November 6, 2007. The game uses both of the DS's screens, touch functionality, and the microphone during game play.[1] The story revolves around colorful spirits called Ontama, who live on a tropical island and can create music. The player must quickly capture Ontama with the stylus while keeping up with the beat.

Released: 7 July 2007
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Genres: Rhythm
Developers: Noise Factory
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Country: Japan
Age ratings: ESRB E

About

Ontamarama is a rhythm game published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Japan in July 2007, and in North America on November 6, 2007. The game uses both of the DS's screens, touch functionality, and the microphone during game play. The story revolves around colorful spirits called Ontama, who live on a tropical island and can create music. The player must quickly capture Ontama with the stylus while keeping up with the beat.

Keywords

music and rhythm
western published japanese games

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Ontamarama's gameplay is a combination of games like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and Elite Beat Agents. The player must hit a D-pad direction as it passes through a circle, similar to DDR, but with the stylus. Each arrow has a color and will only register if enough colored energy is stored. To store energy, the player must touch colored Ontama that move across the touch screen.

Black Ontamas may appear and block the colored ones, and some Ontama need to be touched twice. Blowing into the microphone allows the player to clear the screen of all Ontama, but this can only be used a limited number of times.

Story

Taking place on a tropical island, the focus of the story are the Ontama spirits. Someone steals the Ontama by hypnotizing the island's people. Beat and Rest, the main characters, are both "Ontamaestros" and they attempt to free the Ontama by battling the islanders in musical fights.

Ontama are colorful musical spirits that exist in the world of Ontamarama, a peaceful world of beauty and natural rhythm. Ontama are extremely precious to the people there because their playful nature and soothing music bring happiness to everyone; Ontamaestros devote their lives to study the Ontama and learn how to orchestrate them to make music.

Development

According to Atlus USA, Ontamarama was a worthy project for them to take on because "it stood out as a lively and fun game that is easy to learn, yet challenging to master."

The North American version of the game has almost all the same songs as the Japanese release. However, a few songs had to be dropped due to licensing issues.

Reception

Ontamarama received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. IGN felt that the gameplay was too complicated, but that the game had plenty of charm. Aaron Kaluszka, a reviewer from Nintendo World Report, said, "Ontamarama is certainly no Elite Beat Agents, but its style of gameplay is definitely unique." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one seven, one four, and two sixes, for a total of 23 out of 40.