Prior to the advent of systems such as the Nintendo Wii and DS, if you had told me I would be reviewing a game about cheerleading, I would have labeled you as one daft fellow, but here we are in 2009 and there are a handful of games available based on the competitive activity. That’s not an attempt to discredit cheerleading, but it goes to show you how gaming has evolved in leaps and bounds to involve different demographics, which I am quite pleased with. Apparently, Namco-Bandai had some luck with its first attempt in We Cheer, that, recently, the Nintendo Wii has been graced with a sequel. With rhythm-based routines to more than 30 tunes, We Cheer 2 is leaps and bounds beyond what you are probably expecting going into the title and, for the most part, it nails motion-based rhythm better than most Wii titles, however, there are a few nagging issues that still hold the series back from its full potential.

Right off the bat, it should be expected We Cheer will attract the attention of the young female crowd and, as such, there is a lot on offer to appeal to this demographic. The licensed tunes are appropriate selections one could easily imagine being grouped with cheerleading routines, the title emulates using pom-poms and the squad customization options will allow players to set up a number of different aspects to their liking. I’m going to imagine there will be some people out there that wouldn’t be caught dead playing We Cheer, but, in that regard, this title plainly isn’t for that crowd. What you’ll get with We Cheer 2 is an improved version of the original, so if you enjoyed the first entry or are just curious about the title, you won’t go wrong with the sequel.

The title’s presentation is very serviceable, offering up some unique, cartoon-styled characters that animate well, which is key, considering the game’s movement is based upon rhythmic actions in time to music. Owners of the first title may recognize a lot of recycled materials re-appearing in We Cheer 2 and the character models aren’t the most detailed (although this sequel adds in male cheerleaders for the first time), but you’ll see a lot of color and interesting venues, especially when you add in the nods to classic Namco franchises such as Pac-Man and Tekken (Panda appears in the game’s training mode). There aren’t very many voice samples in the title, but what is provided serves its purpose with those sticking with the game being able to know what to do via some of the verbal cues. The title’s sound effects are standard fare as well, but this is to be expected as in a music/rhythm-based title, the music is suppose to take the stage and this is thankfully the case in We Cheer 2. The music plays cleanly in-game and there are enough recognizable tunes to appeal to the title’s demographic.

On the basis of gameplay, players are essentially getting the same experience as featured in the original title, however, a lot of care has seemingly gone into not only expanding the experience, but also improving on the playability of the series. We Cheer 2 makes the motion controlling much simpler than in the first title – button commands no longer have to accompany motions, the timing is more lenient with new indicators letting the player know if they need to motion faster or slower, the conditions to have stunts and extra movements for bonus points has been relaxed and there are now three difficulty levels per song that includes an easier difficulty setting. We Cheer 2 also makes the single-player progression a free-form affair allowing players to choose songs and venues instead of sticking them specific routines in order to advance. Still, there is a Squad Challenge that mixes in a “story” that has players trying out for a squad and moving on through competitions. Through the course of performance, players earn experience and cash in order to unlock items or purchase customizable goods respectively. In the grand scheme of things, there is a ton to do and uncover in We Cheer 2 and anyone hooked on the game will easily be coming back for more.

Overall, the game is easy to get the hang of and being able to wield one or two Wii Remotes to simulate a pom pom gives the gameplay motions some credibility. There are some accuracy issues with the motion controls, however, which become clearly evident on the hardest difficulties. If Namco-Bandai wants to continue with the series, from here on out, Wii Motion Plus will have to be a must as there will no doubt be some instances where players will feel there were cheated on a motion input. On the other hand, though, the control is mostly sufficient for the forgiving easier levels and when you look at the bottom line, the core audience of the title will most likely not care they are not getting perfect scores in every routine. The motions all make sense given the context of the cheerleading routines, the upbeat routines will give players a mild workout and We Cheer 2 serves as a simple, yet entertaining rhythm title that succeeds on a lot of fronts.

Players will probably spend most of their time in the single-player mode, which, while it has a lot to unlock, will most likely only hold most dedicated players over for a couple of hours. There are multiplayer modes that span basic score competitions, but also a couple of modes that play out as being similar to hot potato and survival. The span of modes gives the title a bit of variety, but some of the battle mode aspects aren’t quite as fleshed out, especially considering there are certain animations that stick players with the “potato” (which is a rapidly-filling balloon) while time whittles down. Regardless, We Cheer 2 could easily be tossed in to any slumber party as it features enough material and multiplayer possibilities to be tossed around among a group of friends.

Sure, the title clearly isn’t for everyone, but when you drop the cheerleading gimmick from the game, you are left with a respectable rhythm effort. While the original title seemingly didn’t win over too many fans, there has been enough additions and improvements crafted into We Cheer 2 to recommend it over the original entry and a number of other less than stellar music game efforts on the Nintendo Wii. While it is still rough in a handful of areas, especially in its control, We Cheer 2 features colorful and lively visuals, an appropriate soundtrack and it’s fun to play with others. I can’t recommend the title to everyone, but if you even have a remote interest in cheerleading or this title, it should prove to be a satisfying experience.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

Reprinted with permission from Diehard GameFAN

While Guitar Hero and Rock Band rake in mountains of cash today, the music game scene wasn’t always so available or … “normal.” Early music game efforts were always cast as niche in nature and this situation wasn’t any different in 1997 when Masaya Matsuura stepped on to the scene to pioneer the genre with the iconic Parappa the Rapper (even though his company got its true start in the genre with the little-known title Tuninglue in 1996). With my first tastes of Parappa and Tsunenari Yada’s Bust a Groove, the late ‘90s marked a turn where rhythm gaming became my all-time favorite genre of video games, so it’s no surprise any time a Matsuura-san project is announced, my attention is immediately perked. Without an original music game release from Matsuura and artistic talent Rodney Greenblat in the U.S. since 2002 (NanaOn-Sha’s 2003 Mojib Ribbon never released outside of Japan), the duo garnered a lot of attention when it announced the development of Major Minor’s Majestic March.

The title fits into a lineage of quirky and original titles produced by NanaOn-Sha, moving on from the rapping and jamming of gangster dogs and punk lambs to bring players into a whole new music game universe. Opting for motion controls and taking charge instead of button tapping and following the leader, Major Minor’s Majestic March takes both the company and players into a whole new territory. Unfortunately, while the game exudes originality and charm, in the end, it can’t overcome the lack of depth and uninspired controls that plagues this title.

True to the Matsuura-Greenblat team up, Major Minor’s Majestic March lines up a crazy host of anamorphic characters and thrusts them into a universe where music reigns supreme. Conveniently, the game’s cast lives in a town where all anyone wants to do is play instruments in a marching band, something that just doesn’t interest Major Minor, the title’s feline protagonist. However, feeling the pressure to carry on his family’s long linage of grade-A drum majors, he looks to his best friend, Tom, and a family heirloom baton for inspiration. As Major Minor begins to use the baton, the duo quickly finds the spirit of Great Great Grandma Gladiola (GGGG) inhabits the heirloom and from there, the expected, “humble beginnings to greatest drum major in the land” storyline carries out.

Unlike titles such as Parappa and Lammy, Major Minor’s storyline revolves around a very small circle of main characters. Since the only characters who ever speak are a narrator and GGGG, very few of the characters, most importantly the main character, recieve a chance to shine. The lack of interest in the characters is a huge blow to the game’s story as the plot details are shuffled through storybook-style, providing players with uninspiring stills and virtually no animation. On its own, Major Minor’s tale serves its purpose, throwing out the usual tale of hope and dedication. However, when compared to NanaOn-Sha’s previous efforts, the title lacks the quirkiness, character development and satisfying progress found in Parappa.

As expected, the single-player story is the major focus of the title. There are other modes included in the game, which allows a second player to grab a Wii remote and participate in co-op or versus modes. Those wanting to test their tempo skills have extra difficulty options available once the story mode is cleared. Progressing through the various difficulties allows players to discover more band members to add to their viewable character gallery. Players that make a career out of leading their band can also track their progress to see how many steps they’ve marched and other various statistics.

Visually, the game is true to Greenblat form, bringing his unique style to the Nintendo Wii for the first time. Not having to abide by the Parappa theme, Greenblat’s characters are able to enjoy 3-D rendering this time around and the results are enjoyable for the most part. Major Minor is one of the most colorful games you’ll play outside of Katamari, making it a real attention grabber. Through the course of the story, players will see a number of quirky environments such as a track and field stadium filled with insects, a live factory, a neon-lit downtown city at New Year’s Eve and Major Minor sometimes even finds himself underwater. While the title does has a vivid and unique look, a lack of variety in the game’s characters and simple animations drag the game’s visuals down quite a bit when in motion.

As expected, the game’s true shine comes from its deep audio. In marching band tradition, the game is filled with medleys comprised of familiar material from composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Phillip Sousa, Julius Ernst Wilhelm Fucik and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky along with a few traditional compositions, original scores and … Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. Although modern well-known artists won’t be found in Major Minor, the selections are as true to the source as you can get outside of college fight songs and sports anthems.

The true execution of the game’s audio, however, comes along with the game play mechanic of band recruitment. While in most stages, Major Minor only starts with Tom and his brothers stroking out on the drums. The player is then tasked with adding more members to the band as he marches. While the compositions begin with bare-bones sound, by adding in a variety of different instruments and bolstering the member count, the music produced by the band differs according to the variety and number of instruments involved at that point in time. With a full band and proper performance, players will be guiding a professional sounding procession; however, a small band with poor performance will produce a weak-sounding whimper.

Outside of the game’s music, though, there is hardly anything more offered audibly. The game’s narrator appropriately reads along with the story and during game play, players will have GGGG’s grisly voice barking commands through the Wii remote’s speaker. In the end, however, musical preferences aside, Major Minor delivers during game play with quality audio that suits the situation.

Once players dive into the game play, there is little more to the game’s control than thrusting the Wii remote up and down while occasionally pointing it to the left and right. Under the surface, however, the rhythm mechanics of the title make things a little more interesting. As the drum major and leader of the band, the player begins by moving the remote up and down to establish a tempo. Once the pace is set, the procession begins and it is up to players to maintain a steady tempo to keep the band in check. The goal is in finding a happy medium because if a band member feels the tempo is too fast, they will eventually grow tired of keeping up and leave the band. On the reverse, if the tempo is too slow, they will become bored and drop from the group.

While keeping the tempo and leading the band to the finish line is the main staple of the game, players will also encounter animal friends and power-ups along the path. Each item along the path is also activated in time to the music, with a green exclamation point appearing over it as Major Minor approaches them. If the player is able to match the timing with a waggle to the left or right, they will either add another member to the band or pick up the item that appears.

Items are represented by square icons, which do not reveal the item until a split second before they can be picked up. So while there are items such as tempo-steadying jellybeans, mood-stabling sunshine and more, the game challenges players to not pick up bad items that drive band members away from the group. Also in the vein of negative items, some of the animal characters aren’t what they seem as sometimes the nefarious Eggplant Fox will disguise himself to trick players into recruiting him. If the deviant joins your band, he will purposely provide a bad performance that will drive members away unless players can find items to drive him away.

With so much going on at once, players will most likely find Major Minor’s Majestic March to be a little intimidating for their tastes and that’s a fair conclusion as the title does throw a lot at its players. Tackling the story mode, players will unlock access to harder difficulties which litter the path with more and more penalty items. This tasks players with not only the game’s steady rhythm, but also quick reflexes and details that will try to take your attention off the baton. The thought of motion controls might shy players away with the concern of inaccuracies. However, as long as you can abide to strict rhythm windows, the controls actually work quite well as I experienced very few inaccuracies through my Major Minor romps.

Seeing very forgiving timing windows in current music games, many players might be taken aback by the accuracy required in the game’s waggling and, as such, this might put the game just out of the reach of the more casual and younger crowd the game’s presentation is most likely to attract. Players can get a little help in co-op where one player controls the tempo and the other recruits. Story progression is strictly limited to one player though. When you boil the game’s premise down, though, Major Minor is nothing more than waving your arm up and down repeatedly for a couple of minutes at a time. Even though mini-segments such as calling halts and doing waggling drills try to break up the marching, they still amount to little more than waggling the remote in a slightly different fashion. While you can get into the game and add a little flair into your movements, it’s no doubt the premise will be appealing to few, even with Greenblat’s signature art adorning the game.

Even if you do get sucked into the premise, however, players will quickly find there isn’t a whole lot to do in terms of the number of songs and stages offered. Similar to Parappa, Major Minor only features seven stages, and most players will be able to dive through the game’s story in less than an hour. This puts the weight of replayability on the shoulders of one’s desire to shoot for better performances in a stage, tackling the same stages at a higher difficulty or heading into the game’s simplistic multiplayer modes. If you’re willing to do the same seven stages over there is a little replayability to be found, but the amount of goods to go back to is paltry.

Yes, there are goals to shoot for such as completing the character gallery and running a five-star performance through each stage, but chances are very few players will have the drive to stick with the game beyond the initial story progression – if they don’t become frustrated or bored with the title before even that point. Even though Major Minor’s Majestic March arguably stands as 2009’s most original title and features some satisfyingly unique visuals and music, its lack of depth, variety and appeal drag Major Minor down heavily. Deep down there actually is a small bit of fun to be had with the title, however, this will most likely only be realized by a very niche crowd of music game and/or Matsuura loyalists.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 2 of 5

Even though Matsuura and Greenblat have teamed up once again, players looking for a Wii title that rivals the charm and game play of Parappa the Rapper will be disappointed in NanaOn-Sha’s latest production. Music gaming purists that are keen to the Eastern style of rhythm games should be able to dive in for a game play or two, but it’s unlikely many gamers will jump at the chance to hoist a baton up and down for an hour – the incredibly short time it takes to finish the game’s main story mode. Major Minor’s Majestic March gets a hearty nod for its unique styling, appropriate music and great originality, however, its flat game play mechanics and lack of variety and replayability make it tough to wholly recommend.

Ever since the early 1990s, there were two franchises, which if they were to ever cross would serve as the ultimate fan boy’s fantasy come true. While back before the turn of the century, these two iconic figures had a world of difference in their platforms and companies, fast forward a good 15 years and, my, how things have changed. While this wasn’t exactly how I pictured Mario and Sonic’s first team-up, the dream has finally become a reality we can all reach out and pluck from store shelves. While Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was originally announced a little too close to April Fool’s Day for comfort, SEGA definitely wasn’t fooling around on this fun and accessible addition to the Nintendo Wii.

While on the surface, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games may seem to match up too close to the flocks of other mini-/event-based collections plauging the system, SEGA wisely dodges the bullet with enough extras and game play mechanics to keep the game fresh and frantic. The game’s menu divides the title up very similar to many other sports titles, offering up modes where players can tackle one specific event, take part in a collection of events, compete in circuits, face off against challenging missions or play other mini-games. While the olympic-inspired events are the heart of the title, Mario & Sonic’s feature set definitely doesn’t disappoint with a 16-character roster, options to use Mii characters and more than 20 different events.

The sound advice to offer to first-time players is to stretch those arms and warm them up before stepping up to the block as nearly all of the game’s events rely on the constant drumming of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to build speed, whether it be for running or in preparation of a jump or throw. Fortunately, other game play mechanics intermingle with the drumming to not only wet what would otherwise be some dry game play but also provide incentives such as speed boosts during the events. While the player feverishly drums the controller, they will also have to focus on key points of timing and accuracy as jumps and throws in events such as long jump and javelin throw will have them flicking the remote and nunchuck with finese - flick too hard and jumps and throws will go out of control.

All of this culminates in the game’s main attraction, the circuit mode where players will compete against a CPU roster in an attempt to score big and take home a trophy while unlocking additional game content such as new curcuits, events and emblems. As the game progresses, players will eventually break into “dream events,” which add a dash of “Mario” to the game play - fencing now has special moves, running now has Mario Kart items and table tennis becomes a high-scoring, trick-shooting affair. The dream events truly take the game up a notch, deviating from the norm of everyday athletic competitions and are a true blast in the game’s already competitive multiplayer mode.

Overall, the game operates very well, with only a few knacks in its presentation. Mario & Sonic spares no expense in making the character models look fantastic, with smooth signature animations and a recognizable cast of voiceovers. However, some of the environmental stadium aspects of the title do not match up to the character quality and the animation used in the instant replays loses some frames, resulting in jerky, uninteresting videos. The music and sound fit the bill, with the expected generic tunes akin to the Olympic games making an appearance, but the real audible treat comes in the form of unlockable music tracks from games of Mario and Sonic’s past.

Since the Nintendo Wii’s titles demand high quality in control, Mario & Sonic thankfully passes the test. The title handles control quite well and does a good job mimicking the activities of the events in tow. While drumming serves as the majority motion, players will also find themselves swinging the remote in circles, using different motions for a variety of swimming strokes and even using dead-on accuracy of the remote and nunchuk while imitating the bow firing of archery. Little extras such as clapping motions to fire up the crowd before attempting an event add to the novelty and detail implemented into the title’s controls. A few of the game’s commands utilizing the A button such as fencing’s parries and table tennis lobs seemed to give our players a few stutters, but, overall, the game does as the player deamands.

Mario & Sonic also manages to push out some decent longetivity by offering up a ton of accomplishments to tackle for one player at a time and, of course, the star of the show is in the game’s potentially endless multiplayer interest. The challenge of competition is the title’s fuel and it serves it out in spades with 10 challenge missions per character, more than 15 circuits, emblems awarded for specific achievements and an online worldwide record leaderboard. While it stinks that there is no direct game play via Wi-Fi, players can constantly put their records to the test by comparing them to other players worldwide in a real-time leaderboard. Offline, however, there is no shortage of challenge with some brutal missions, serious curcuits and multiple levels of mini-game challenges and the best part is all of those challenges go toward unlocking even more game content.

While Mario & Sonic’s premise might not stand out as original - both on the front of being a mini-game based Nintendo Wii title and an olympic sports title - SEGA pulls out some great innovations and replayability and the franchise mash-up alone should serve as an interest point to anyone who knows what a video game is. Not only does the title feature a familiar concept to draw in more casual players, it’s easy to play and the dream events kick the sports up a notch for players who want a little more “oomph” to the game play. As long as your arms can take it, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games delivers some serious game for solo players while instigating some of the most competitive game play yet to be concieved on the Nintendo Wii.

GemuBaka Final Review Rating: 4 out of 5