Ouenfans unite! I completely forgot that Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor was that Ouendan clone announced a while ago, but I saw it in stores a few days ago and decided to pick it up to hold me over until the next Ouendan/EBA game (which Nintendo better announce during E3).

I thought the game would be a direct Ouendan ripoff, but I was shocked to find that it actually plays quite differently. As the title implies, you're supposed to be emulating a conductor. Instead of tapping each note as it comes up, you have to slide the stylus from note to note during each sequence. Then, when the next sequence comes up, you can either lift the stylus and tap the next note, or just slide to it instead. It's a bit awkward at first since you don't get tactile feedback, and I found myself lifting the stylus often just because I was so used to Ouendan. There are no spinners of sliders, either. Instead, you'll periodically have to go through Beatmania/Pop'n Music-style scrolling note sections. They add some variety, but aren't very interesting or innovative.

Still, I'm starting to get used to the main gameplay and have found it to be an enjoyable alternative to Ouendan. I've already finished easy mode (which, like Ouendan, tends to suffer from easy note charts), and started up on the medium difficulty, which does have note charts that better accompany the music.

Speaking of music, don't expect any pop or rock. Most of the tracks are purely public-domain classical (Beethoven's 5th, Ride of the Valkyries, etc.), though the bonus tracks are of a slightly different genre. The songs are faithful representations of the originals, and there's enough variety to keep things from getting old. Unfortunately, the sound effects that accompany the notes are rather limp; I miss the deep booming drums of Ouendan.

Surprisingly, the Looney Tunes license adds a lot to the game. The story sequences are 3D re-tellings of classic Looney Tunes cartoons with enough twists to keep things fresh. They're not nearly as involving (or touching) as those from Ouendan, but Looney Tunes fans should enjoy them.

I have only one big complaint about the game: you can't skip the cutscenes. If the harder difficulties are anything like Ouendan's, I can tell this'll be annoying later on. Other than that, the game is worth every cent of the 20 bucks I paid for it.

That's the problem with Ouendan; it's pretty much the game all future DS rhythm titles need to aspire to.  Looney Tunes might be worth a shot; for twenty bucks, I'd bite.

By the way, have you heard of the upcoming Music Monstars?  It's being developed by Barcelona-based developer Novarama, and is set for release in Europe on August 21st.  DS Fanboy reports that the gameplay is a fusion of Ouendan/EBA and Jam Session and Band Bros.  Judging by the videos, that looks about right:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/06/11/musi … ks-europe/

Whoops, there's one other big problem with the game. If you pause the game during a song, your only options are to restart or quit. You can't resume playing. A really bone-headed design flaw, if you ask me.

Anyway, I've opened up the fourth difficulty which is incredibly fast yet somehow easier than Hard. Heh, just like Ouendan.

I haven't heard of it before, but it does look very interesting. Besides, Final Countdown = WIN. I am concerned by some of the double and multiple taps required, however. I don't really see how the game indicates how many taps you have to do.

That's actually pretty common in R/A games since they often consider it a form of cheating.  Can't you just close the DS to force a hard system pause instead?

Wouldn't count on that.  If the rumors are to be belived, Inis is working on the 360 game Lips.

Nope, if you close the DS the game automatically exits the stage. In Ouendan/EBA I always used to pause during the story segments to compose myself, so I'm disappointed I can't do it in Looney Tunes.

However, one thing Looney Tunes does better than Ouendan is practice mode. Once you unlock a song you can play through it in its entirety, which is very useful for some of the trickier songs.

They could be doing both!  Can we use the fast turnaround time between EBA and Ouendan 2 as a barometer for such?

Sure, they could be, but as much as I love the Ouendan/EBA series, it was starting to feel a little played out by the end of Ouendan 2.  I'd rather they try to innovate and give us something that makes us feel the way we felt the first time we played PaRappa 1, Gitaroo-Man, or Ouendan.