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Gitaroo Man

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Gitaroo Man is a rhythm video game developed by iNiS and published by Koei for PlayStation 2 . The game features visual production by Mitsuru Nakamura and an original soundtrack by Japanese band COIL. The game was released in Japan on June 21, 2001, in North America on February 18, 2002 and in Europe on June 21, 2002. A port of the game for PlayStation Portable , titled Gitaroo Man Lives! , was released in 2006.

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28-549: Gitaroo Man follows a young boy named U-1 who is often picked on by his rival Kazuya and passed over by the girl of his dreams, Pico. One day, as U-1 is suddenly attacked, his talking dog Puma transforms and gives him a weapon known as the Last Gitaroo, which transforms U-1 into the legendary warrior Gitaroo Man. After defeating many enemies, sent by Prince Zowie of the Gravillian Empire, and obtaining their Gitaroos, Puma brings

56-432: A more confident person. Gitaroo Man is a rhythm game in which the player character, U-1, faces against various opponents in musical battles. In each level, both the player and opponent has a life bar, with the player tasked with depleting the opponent's life bar and reaching the end of the song without running out of life. With some exceptions, each level consists of three main phases; Charge, Attack, and Guard, followed by

84-447: A parade in stage show with more than 100 cosplayers on Saturday's night. The show starts from 6:30pm until 8 pm and it is hosted by Yunmao Ayakawa and Tatsumi Inui from the production team company CURE World Cosplay, with background music by DJ & MC: WAN. The participants are members of Worldcosplay website with a few international cosplayers who won contests in countries like Spain, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey,

112-460: A reluctant U-1 to Planet Gitaroo, which had been invaded by the Gravillian Empire. Upon arriving there, U-1 befriends a girl named Kirah, only to later discover that she is Zowie's gladiator. Refusing to fight her, U-1 uses the power of music to convince Kirah to stand up against Zowie. Obtaining all eight Gitaroos, U-1 becomes the True Gitaroo Man and defeats Zowie, after which he returns home as

140-527: A well-known cult classic. Since then Yano has developed a number of other music video games including the Ouendan series. The Ouendan games have been criticized as unintelligible to Western markets due to its emphasis on Japanese Ōendan culture, however despite this Yano has created Western-targeted localizations such as the Blues Brothers -influenced Elite Beat Agents . Most recently Yano has created

168-552: A young age and he earned a major in jazz studies at the University of Southern California . He has spent time playing saxophone in Tokyo jazz clubs. In 1996, Keiichi Yano co-founded the production company, iNiS , and began development of video games. His first project was the early music video game , Gitaroo Man for which he acted as lead programmer. The game enjoyed only moderate sales, however it received critical accolades and became

196-630: Is a video game trade fair and convention held annually in September in the Makuhari Messe , in Chiba , Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and Nikkei Business Publications , Inc. The main focus of the show is on Japanese games, but some international video game developers use it to showcase upcoming releases/related hardware. The duration of

224-500: Is a game for up four players, where players battle against each other in two teams playing Gitaroo Man's parts and his opponent's parts respectively. Not all songs are available in the mode, and some songs are altered to provide better balance for both players compared to the single player mode. The PSP version additionally features Duet Mode, in which two players can play co-operatively ad hoc in two exclusive new levels; "Metal Header" and "Toda Pasion". The Gitaroo Man Original Soundtrack

252-635: Is a port of the game released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on June 8, 2006, in Europe on September 29, 2006, and in North America on November 14, 2006. Along with local Ad-Hoc multiplayer and additional difficulty options, the game adds a new Duet mode, in which two players control Gitaroo Man and Kirah in two exclusive new stages, "Metal Header" and "Toda Pasión". These levels may also be played alone if

280-553: Is an audio CD released in 2001, containing the majority of the songs found in the PS2 video game Gitaroo Man . While it is missing the background music played during the Collection viewing and the Masters' Play versions of songs, it does have four "Ropeland" remixes of certain stages. Gitaroo Man One ( ギタルマン ワン , Gitaru Man Wan ) , a budget trial version of the game, was released prior to

308-530: The karaoke game , Lips Yano is personal friends with fellow music video game pioneer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi , and Yano's contributions to the world of music video games have gained him notability as one of the pioneers of the genre. Aside from music games, Yano has worked on a number of other utilities such as the NFactor2 (a Realtime 3D Engine), the MixJuice Interactive Music Engine, and

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336-433: The 2012 Tokyo Game Show is geared towards introducing emerging game developers from Asia. This area is designated for merchandising of game-related goods. Vendors include Konami and Square-Enix. This area focuses on games for smart devices ( smartphones and tablets ) and social games. Despite record numbers during TGS 2012, many large companies had a smaller presence. For example, Microsoft , which previously had one of

364-471: The 2012 show bringing in 223,753. The busiest TGS was in 2016 with 271,224 people in attendance and 614 companies had exhibits. The event has been held annually since 1996 and was never canceled, however the 2020 and 2021 editions were online only as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic . The 2022 edition returned to in-person exhibits. The 20th anniversary of TGS was celebrated in 2016. The 2016 attendance record

392-511: The Harmony and End phases at the end of the level. During the Charge and Attack phases, players follow a "trace line" using the analog stick, upon which red "phase bars" will appear. By pressing and holding down the button at the start of a phase, timing it to its appearance at the center of the screen, and releasing the button at the end, the player plays music. In the Charge phase, successful notes restore

420-602: The North American and European versions of Gitaroo Man were produced in very low quantities by Koei and, as a result, have become somewhat rare; it is regarded as a cult video game. Around November 2005 in North America, copies of Gitaroo Man began popping up in GameStop game stores. This was due to a reprint by GameQuestDirect, similar to their previous reprints of PlayStation RPGs Persona 2 and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure , both of which were previously very rare. The game

448-527: The US, and China and others. This is the main business area and is not open to the public. The Cloud/Data Center is dedicated to improving infrastructure and environment of social and network games. The Tokyo Game Show has featured a Mad Catz -sponsored Street Fighter tournament since 2014. The competition is part of Capcom 's official Pro Tour , making it a qualifying event for the Capcom Cup . The 2016 event

476-584: The event is four days. The first two days of Tokyo Game Show are open only to industry attendees (business) and the general public can attend during the final two days. The first Tokyo Game Show was held in 1996 . From 1996 to 2002, the show was held twice a year: once in the Spring and once in Autumn (in the Tokyo Big Sight). Since 2002, the show has been held once a year. 2011’s show hosted over 200,000 attendees and

504-403: The full game's Japanese launch, on April 5, 2001. It features the original TGS trailer, alternate versions of some of the game's songs, an art gallery mode, and a mini game starring Puma. Each copy also included three collectible cards with which players could play rock paper scissors . Gitaroo Man Lives! , known in Japan as Gitaroo Man Live! ( ギタルマン ライブ! , Gitaru Man Raibu! ) ,

532-502: The handheld's Ad-Hoc is activated. According to the game's designer Keiichi Yano , the game was commercially successful in the United States, where it sold more copies than it did in Japan. Edge awarded the game a score of 7 out of 10; the game was later included in that magazine's staff- and reader-voted "Top 100 Games" list published in July 2007. Despite a number of positive reviews,

560-664: The largest booths, was absent in 2012. Social and mobile gaming surged, filling the gap. Microsoft returned to the show in 2013 with the release of the Xbox One . The PC area houses major Japanese computing companies, showcasing products such as Japanese desktop and notebook computers. This area showcases new games that are aimed at a younger audience. Companies such as Taito and Sega are housed there. The Game School area showcases information on Japanese universities and colleges offering information about digital art, animation, computer programming, and other programs of study related to

588-476: The player will no longer take damage. After each level, players are given a rank based on their performance, with good ranks earning items for the collection, which unlocks character bios. Masters' Play is an additional mode unlocked after clearing the game once. In this mode, gameplay is harder as more complex notes appear, the "trace line" becomes more complex with more twists and turns and thus harder to follow and players take more damage from mistakes. Versus Mode

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616-457: The player's health, whereas in the Attack phase, successful notes damage the opponents whilst missed notes will hurt the player. During the guard phase, players must hit corresponding buttons as they reach the center of the screen to avoid attacks from the opponent, taking damage should they miss. Unlike the player's life, which ends the game if depleted, the opponent's life bar indicates the progress of

644-474: The player. Most levels are split up into different sections, which can have multiple variations on each playthrough, and the player must damage the opponent enough to move onto the next section. Otherwise, they will have to repeat the section until enough damage is dealt. At the end of a level, players play through the Harmony phase, which is similar to the Attack phase, and keep on playing til the End phase, at which point

672-573: The video game industry. These booths also display student work. It houses colleges such as Numazu Professional College of Information Technology and Tokyo Designer Gakuin College. This is the main area in the games convention where most of the sales and business transactions between companies and consumers are carried out. Companies housed there include Nikkei Business Publications . The Tokyo Game Show attracts many cosplayers . Cure, Japan's largest cosplay community website, hosts Cosplay Collection Night,

700-616: Was also reissued in Europe around this time. Blake Fischer reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation , rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "The genius here isn't in any bold gameplay innovations; it's that it delivers a fun, well-rounded package that is beautifully crafted." It was a runner-up for GameSpot ' s annual "Best Music on PlayStation 2" and "Best Game No One Played on PlayStation 2" awards. Tokyo Game Show Tokyo Game Show ( 東京ゲームショウ , Tōkyō Gēmu Shō ) , commonly known as TGS ,

728-428: Was held in 2008. Among former and current judges are Keita Takahashi and Simon Carless . Keiichi Yano (video game designer) Keiichi Yano ( 矢野慶一 , Yano Keiichi ) is a Tokyo-based video game designer and musician responsible for a number of music video game titles including his most famous game, the 2002 cult video game , Gitaroo Man . Yano has been involved in music (especially jazz music) from

756-568: Was the first to not be sponsored by Mad Catz, as the company got in severe financial trouble during its 2016 fiscal year. Sense of Wonder Night (SOWN) is a presentation session held yearly at the TGS for showcasing innovative and experimental computer games mainly made by small game studios and independent game developers from all over the world, similar to and inspired by the GDC Experimental Gameplay Workshop . The first edition

784-808: Was topped by 2018's attendance of 298,690 people. The TGS layout varies per year. Such as in 2015, Tokyo Game Show showcased eleven exhibition areas consisting of business, general public, education and other areas to buy merchandise. The General Exhibition Area is the heart of the show, taking up the largest amount of space, and is held where digital gaming entertainment or any related products or services are showcased. Many well-known companies such as Bandai Namco Entertainment , Capcom , Sony Interactive Entertainment and Square Enix have demo areas here, in addition to emerging companies. This area covers gaming devices such as headphones, controllers, furniture and other devices associated with home-use gaming consoles and portable gaming devices. An exhibition introduced at

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