Thank goodness for games like Gitaroo-Man, I say. Ploughing through countless shooters, football games and RPGs every day is amusing to a point, but variety is the spice of life as they say and Gitaroo-Man comes equipped with a fully stocked spice rack. Evoking memories of Parappa the Rapper whilst maintaining a unique, addictive edge, the game gives the PSP a classic rhythm-action title despite being an optimised port from the PlayStation 2 version.

Set in some bizarre vision of Japan, the story centres around a young guy bizarrely named U-1. U-1 finds himself often teased and bullied, as well as ignored by the object of his affection, a young girl called Little Pico. The main part of the story starts as U-1’s pet dog teaches him to play his guitar via demonstration on a tennis racket (hey, we’ve all done that before haven’t we). From there, U-1 realises that he is the newest incumbent of the Gitaroo-Man gene and that it is up to him to save the world.

The main aim of Gitaroo Man Lives is to progress the story by defeating a sequence of ‘bosses’ by playing music, much in the way in which progression in Parappa The Rapper was earned. However, the methods of battling it out in each stage differ vastly to the techniques used by Sony’s favourite rapping dog.

Each battle is basically divided into three sections. The first of these is called ‘Charge’, and presents the player with a line that fluctuates in direction across the screen as music plays in the background. The player is tasked with following the direction of the line by holding the analogue stick in the correct direction whilst tapping and holding the circle button where the game prompts. The second stage of battle involves a similar technique but also another which acts as a defence from enemy attack. This sees each of the four face buttons flying towards the centre of the screen and the player having to press each corresponding button in time to block the attack.

All this time, a health bar ticks down for both yourself and your enemy depending on success in attack and defence. Once you have reduced your enemy to a set level of health the battle kicks in to its final stage, which replicates the ‘Charge’ portion and has the player frantically swishing at the analogue stick and tapping the circle button to finish off their enemy. Having done so, the accuracy in which the level has been passed is totted up and the player is given a score and rank, with high-ranking scores being rewarded with bonus unlockables.

It might sound reasonably simple, but the game soon ramps the difficulty up and sees lines veering wildly from left to right and defence buttons being flung at the player in abundance. Whilst the tutorial mode and the first couple of levels will probably see progress achieved first or second time, later levels require numerous attempts by all but the direct inheritors of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar skills.

Despite that, you’ll keep playing and enjoying the game right through to the end. The peculiar nature of the characters is enhanced hugely by the brightly coloured cartoon graphics, which look fantastic on the PSP screen. Interspersed with these are some great FMV sections that tell the unfolding story, and backing the whole lot is a crazy, hyperactive soundtrack with a number of different styles for you to try to jam along to.

Overall, Gitaroo-Man just needs to be experienced. The experience might not be a particularly long or varied one, but it’s rich in enjoyment. The off-kilter escapades of U-1 and his supporting crew might not have sold by the bucket-load when it was released on the PSP’s bigger and older brother, but this time around you have to hope that the guitar wielding super hero gets the recognition he deserves.