A 
Review by tashi
Report This Review
Mad Maestro! is a very fun rhythm game for PS2. Instead of having peppy techno pop music, however, it has classical music. Thirty-four classical songs, to be exact, and instead of playing a musical instrument, you conduct an orchestra. Mad Maestro! is a sweet game, and easy to get used for less than $5. Even in the current generation of gaming with dance pads and guitar peripherals, Mad Maestro! does not lose any appeal.
Story:
You're Takt, a struggling conductor in a town with a concert hall which is due to be demolished. A fairy comes to you and says you should perform music in the concert hall so people will like it and not tear it down. Unfortunately, you do not play an instrument, so you have to find people who do play instruments. The story is very light-hearted and silly, and good for a few giggles. Mad Maestro! is a music game, though, so the story is just there to amuse you for a little while.
Controls and Gameplay:
There's a main game menu from which you can access options and adjust pressure sensitivity on your controller. Seriously, who knew the buttons were pressure sensitive on the dualshock 2's? And why has only one game in history taken advantage of that capacity? Anyway, you can also access bonus things, like the music player, minigame stages, and free play. Lastly, the story mode can be selected from the menu, and after you've completed the game it's renamed "Memory Mode."
The story is broken up into a number of small encounters, each with the objective of coercing someone to join your orchestra. If you perform songs well enough, you'll persuade them to join your ranks. If you fail, terrible things will happen! But you can retry, so that's alright.
To play songs, you have a glowing baton ball and 4 baton points if the song is in 4/4 time, or 3 if it's in 3/4 time. You can press any of circle, square, x, or triangle, but you must press with the correct sensitivity. A red baton point means "press hard," a blue one means "press softly," and a green one means "press normally." Sometimes you'll also need to hold a direction on the D-Pad to cue a section to start playing. I started playing on normal, and failed quickly, but after beating the game on easy, I was able to pretty easily beat it on normal, too. Don't give up if the learning curve seems steep at first. It levels out quickly. You are judged by the timing of your presses and whether your pressure is correct. You receive a score for each measure, either "Bravo," "Good," "Bad," or "Baaaaaad." A angel/devil meter on the left side will fill up if you play well, and decrease if you do poorly. You need to fill the angel gauge and keep it full for most of the song to pass. It seems difficult, but it stays full once you fill it unless you miss several measures in a row. If you make any mistake in a measure, the measure will be "Bad." To get "Bravo," all four (or three) hits must be perfect, and for "Good," the hits must be accurate, though not perfect. This might seem harsh, but it's manageable.
After beating the main game on easy, you can repeat it on normal (or start with normal), and halfway through each song, a special section will occur and you'll switch to the "medley" song, which is a different song, and after playing it successfully you'll have it unlocked to play anytime. Also, you'll gain access to a bonus game, which if you pass will also be made available to play anytime. One minigame is about a duck race, another is about putting out a fire, another about dressing supermodels, and you have to conduct accurately to win in each of them. The minigames have their own songs, and the medley songs are different from the main story songs, so you can get three songs from each part of the story. The grand finale is a concert which involves 3 songs on easy, or four on normal. The last song is a new song, and if you pass it, you'll unlock it and see the credits.
Graphics and Sound:
The graphics are okay for PS2. Bright and colorful, not much for textures. The music quality is good, which is more important than the graphics, and it's nice that the volume level changes depending on how hard you press the buttons. There are a lot of well known classical songs, like Hall of the Mountain King, Flight of the Valkyries, Nutcracker stuff, etc.
Conclusion:
Mad Maestro! is a low commitment high fun game. If you like classical music or music games, you should find Mad Maestro! to be unique and entertaining. If you don't care for either of those things, you might not find any appeal in pressing a button in time with music, but since I happen to like both of those things, I'm saying I "love it."
Want to write a review of Mad Maestro!?
© 2008 PlayItReviewIt.com | About Us | Contact Us | Report a Bug | 
RSS Feed
