A playthrough of Eidos's 2002 rhythm music game for the Sony PlayStation 2, Mad Maestro.
Played though the story mode on the normal difficulty level.
Mad Maestro was one of the few games that Eidos elected to translate and bring west under their "Fresh Games" banner, which was created in order to bring some of Japan's more niche PS2 titles to the English speaking world. Unfortunately, Fresh Games didn't last long despite the generally good quality of the games (this, Mister Mosquito, Legaia 2, and RType Final were their only games released), but at least we did get a few fun and quirky titles before the label bit the dust.
Mad Maestro is a music game a rhythm game, more precisely based entirely on classical music. The game is loaded with wellknown classical pieces by the likes of Wagner, Liszt, Strauss, and Mozart (among many others), and you play as Tal, a travelling orchestra conductor who has the power to help others with his magical baton.
Yeah, it's a super hokey setup, I know, but the "plot" is good at creating some ridiculous set pieces that tend to be pretty amusing to watch unfold (if you can watch them and focus on the prompts at the same time!): a man has to placate his tickedoff girlfriend, a fashion designer falls to pieces before a show when someone upsets him by screaming at him, a camera crew races to get the big scoop during an alien invasion it's all absurd and playful in an undeniably Japanese way, and the visuals all carry it well. The music is also very good. Despite being rendered by the game as it plays (just like the older systems), the synthesized orchestra sounds quite good, and it reacts dynamically to the player inputs. It's much better than you might expect for a game that relies almost exclusively on music in the public domain.
The makeit or breakit point in Mad Maestro for most players will likely be the controls and the difficulty level. This one will make you want to tear your hair out it isn't forgiving in the slightest and this is largely due to how you play the game. As the little baton icon bounces around the notes, you have to hit the buttons to match the timing and beat. It doesn't matter which button you hit, since they all do the same thing. How hard you hit the button is what makes a difference. Mad Maestro makes extensive use of the PS2's pressuresensitive buttons to determine the volume as you conduct. If it's red, smash it. If it's blue, just barely tap it. It sounds simple, but it can be insanely confusing at times trying to nail both the rhythm and note strength at the same time. Practice makes it much easier, but this one is definitely the hardest rhythm games I've ever played. If you mess up, and the orchestra will start to squawk and blart like kiddies in a fourth grade band concert, and it doesn't take many mistakes with the fiddly controller buttons before you are forced to start again from the beginning of the song.
If only they had released the baton controller in the US, too!
Mad Maestro is a lighthearted game thatI really enjoyed when it was new, and I still do now. Your mileage is likely going to depend on your threshold for frustration, but if you le classical music and a stiff challenge, this is a really nifty, obscure title that'll keep you entertained for quite awhile.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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