Prerelease:Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

Conception

To do: Work on intro—the GDC talk (Ouendan talk starts around the 10-11 minute mark) discusses the background and conception of the game

Ouendan Designs

An early version of Ryuta Ippongi. Notably, his uniform is open, revealing his chest; he lacks an armband; his headband is white and appears to be shorter; and his hair is less spiky.

Early versions of Atsushi Saito and Ittetsu Suzuki. Saito has glasses instead of an eyepatch, Suzuki's mohawk is smaller, and overall their faces appear much less serious than in the final.

Koi no Dance Site

Infamously, the original concept for Koi no Dance Site involved a group of people attempting to prevent a train from running over a puppy on the tracks. While this worked for the prototype, when it came time to flesh out the scenario for the final game, the developers realized they would need to show what happened to the puppy if the player failed...at which point they promptly replaced the train scenario with the office girl scenario of the final.

Interestingly the prototype uses the original version of the song, unlike the final version which uses a cover instead, in the final game only the song Melody is not a cover.

Early	Final

The first introduction of the Ouendan in the prototype, in the final game it is used as a countdown 1,2,3!

Early	Final

Early introduction of the Ouendan, it is quite similar to the final version but the character designs and background color are very different, in the prototype a light blue color is used while the final game uses red color for the backgrounds.

Early	Final

Hanada's mother trying to stop the train.

Early	Final

Ichiro scared, this animation is the one that comes out before GO!

Early	Final

Ichiro's Go! animation.

It also appears that some character designs were recycled, for example Hanada's mother and Tamura Ichiro.

Other

An early mockup of what would become the first stage, "Loop & Loop". Notably, the Ouendan appear to be holding objects while they cheer people on: the leader with fans, the one on the left with a megaphone, and the one on the right with a bass drum.

A mockup of the kind of animations the Ouendan could perform. Like the above screenshot, it appears the Ouendan were originally going to cheer people on while holding fans.

(Source: GDC 2007 coverage)

SPOnG Prerelease Screenshots

To do: Where exactly do these screenshots come from? A press release or somewhere else?

A series of early screenshots, showcasing the first two stages and the multiplayer features, were compiled on SPOnG.

Tutorial

Early	Final

Above is a tutorial sign, the text is slightly different, the Skip button is different.

Early	Final

The cheerleaders appear dancing in the first image when Kai shouts, in the final version the dance does not occur in this scene, the dance occurs when the tutorial allows us to play.

Koi No Dance Site

Old Graphics

Early	Final

The introduction is very different, the bottom screen would show the characters we help, the top screen has earlier designs of the Ouendan, and apparently the graphics are reversed on the top screen.

Early	Final

Ryuta has a different sprite, the face is very different, his arms are on the other side and the Ouendan logo is missing, the clock format changes.

Early	Final

An alternate version of Yamagata's "dejected" pose with text.

Early	Final

The onomatopoeia changes color, before it was light blue but in the final version it changes to red, curiously in the final game when selecting the mission in the thumbnail appears a capture with the light blue onomatopoeia.

Early	Final

Yamagata has most of the color drained from her sprite in the prerelease miss animation.

Early	Final

The animation when passing a sequence does not exist and is instantaneous, Junior's text seems to have changed a little.

Early	Final

The onomatopoeia used to be green, now it is red.

Yamagata standing up looking shocked. This sprite isn't seen in the final game, but does still exist in the files.

Early	Final

There are graphics that would explain how to spin, these would appear in Koi no Dance Site and possibly in all the maps when the player does not spin, in the final game this does not happen, although the graphics were not completely discarded since they appear in the tutorial of the final game.

Early	Final

Atsushi Saito's clothing design is slightly different.

Multiplayer Menu

Early	Final

• The bottom half of the thumbnail uses different scenes than the final's thumbnail. The top-right panel was also slightly enlarged in the final, partially covering Yamagata's face.
• The connection icon is different.
• The song title and "Player is selecting a song" text on the bottom screen swapped positions, and are more centered.
• The map screen has some differences: the market where Melody takes place does not exist, the train for One Night Carnival is a different color, and the hospital at the top of the map has a red cross.

Muliplayer - Racers

Early	Final

"You Win" has a different font.

Early	Final

• "You Win" appears to be slightly bigger in the prerelease image.
• The results graph has an orange-purple gradient in the prerelease image, but is simply transparent in the final.
• The letters on the graph have a font similar to the text below the graph in the prerelease image.
• Like in the multiplayer menu, the connection icon is different.
• The scene pass/fail icons show the icons from Koi no Dance Site rather than the racer icons. Koi no Dance Site uses the Monkey scenario, not the Racer scenario, in the final game. Despite the icons, the note count seems to correlate to Guts da ze!! (which does use the Racer scenario), so it's possible the icons are simply a placeholder.

(Source: Spong)

Nintendo.co.jp

A page on Nintendo's website shows off, among other info, screencaps of multiple stages.

Loop & Loop

Early	Final

• Nearly everything in the opening aside from Tsuyoshi himself was redrawn, recolored, or both. Not even Tsuyoshi is safe, though—his kneeling sprite was redrawn for the final as well.
• Tsuyoshi in the top-left panel still has his neutral writing expression at the end of the cutscene, but he switches to an annoyed expression when his family appears in the final's opening cutscene.
• Tsuyoshi's hand is behind his desk in the early screenshot.
• The "ワハハハ　ガハハハ　ギャハハハ" onomatopoeia appears to remain on screen in the early screenshot; in the final, it appears when the panel first displays, but it disappears as the panel scrolls towards Tsuyoshi's family.
• The "ん?" bubble in the bottom-right panel does not appear in the final.

Early	Final

• Like the first part of the opening, nearly everything was redrawn and/or recolored for the final.
• "しらんぷり〜" appears to have a thinner font.
• In the early frame of Tsuyoshi calling for the Ouendan, the leftmost book is red instead of yellow and the rightmost book is a darker red and lacks a title.

Early	Final

• The score counter has only six digits instead of the final's seven. This appears to be unique to this stage for unknown reasons, as even other stages on the webpage have seven digits like the final.
• The sign above the door is missing in the early screenshot.

Early	Final

• The score counter is strangely missing in the early screenshot.
• Ryuta's cheering sprite has his left arm extended as opposed to the final's right. Note that the sprite wasn't simply mirrored, as the armband shows.
• Saito and Suzuki are shown wearing armbands, for some reason.
• The Ouendan are in front of the motion lines in the early screenshot, but are behind them in the final.

Thrill

Early	Final

Ryuta's sprite still has his old shorter headband in this screenshot, but is otherwise identical to the final.