A childhood game, as well as a hurdle I had the personal need to overcome for years. I could never beat it, understandably so. Finally I conquered the number 1 game on my list of personal vendettas, and was surprised by how much it holds up. Great art style, fun characters, and an absolute 10/10 soundtrack. Only complaints I have would be the length, as well as the lack of a large deep story. Its a very short game, you could probably beat it in about an hour if you mastered it. This doesn't allow a very intricate story to be told, but it's stuck with me my whole life regardless. It is overall inspiring and uplifting, but it requires a damn steady hand and cool head to get through, the difficulty curves here are steep as hell.

unfortunately will have to try to pick this up again at a later date, was already falling in love with its vibes and gameplay, all the characters are incredibly charming and expressive and the way it actually works is completely unlike any other rhythm game i've played. but much like parappa the rapper, this game cannot work on a modern display due to overbearing input lag, found myself missing on so many notes that should have been hits just because i wasn't playing on original hardware on a CRT, so hopefully i can find this for less than like $100

oh how cruel are the hands that life can deal us. how much fun i was having making my way through the first 6 stages of gitaroo man. enjoying its totally bizarre style, incredible music, and central gameplay mechanic unlike anything else i had ever played with. alas, it was not meant to be. as my PS2 copy tried to load up stage 7, right as the midly nonsensical story was beginning to find some feet to land on, right as i was already ready to put gitaroo man on my all time favourites list, and right after a slow jam stage where U-1 seemed to win over the heart of a very cute girl, tragedy struck. stage 7 would not load. the 'now loading' message was stuck playing ad infinitum. and despite numerous resets, and despite doing the old toothpaste trick, nothing i tried worked. i merely had to sit and accept the loss i had been dealt. a copy of this game is far from the cheapest thing in the world, and prices for them are increasing in my native UK. for the time being, i might just have to accept this as goodbye. thank you for the tragically brief yet incredibly memorable time you gave me, gitaroo man.

Gitaroo Man seems like a simple rhythm game, but it has a surprising amount of story for the time and genre, rivalled by games like Parappa the Rapper, Space Channel 5, and iNiS's later works, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents. While Gitaroo Man lacks some of the polish of those games, it makes up for it with heart and soul. It delves into teen angst, overcoming the odds, and finding the courage to embrace your individuality, in the messy and chaotic ways that a shonen writer would. It helps that its eclectic soundtrack is full of bangers, and to this day, The Legendary Theme is one of my favorite themes ever used in a video game.

Koei did an okay job at localizing the game in English, but its quality is still questionable. Part of me wishes there were subtitles as the audio balancing is all over the place, and some dialogue is near impossible to make out during levels. The game can also be chaotic during the actual rhythm sections, with way too much going on in the background while you're trying to focus on hitting notes. If you plan on playing this, I would also add a photosensitivity warning as the game regularly employs flashing lights that can worsen depending on the in-game camera.