Review: Maestro! Green Groove

It’s been awhile since I’ve played anything for the DS, and even longer for the DSiWare service. Then just the other day, something on there caught my eye. It was a game that mixed the elements of a rhythm based music experience with that of a traditional platformer. Throw a little bit of classical music into the mix, and you got one of the most unique downloadable titles that this system has to offer. Maestro! Green Groove is an interesting experiment that ends up being a unique type of game that gamers from all walks of life can play.

Developer:Neko Entertainment
Publisher:Neko Entertainment
Genre:Platforming, Rhythm, Music
Platform:DSiWare
If you like: Rhythm games, classical music, and platforming games

Here is the lowdown, you are Presto, a Maestro! at classical music, and your alter ego Staccato is fighting with you to gain the attention of a pretty girl named Bella. Staccato becomes jealous of Presto, and casts a spell on him to mute his musical abilities. It is now his job to travel from stage to stage collect the sounds that he has lost, and to ultimately defeat his arch nemesis and get the girl. It’s a predictable setup, but for what this game has to offer, it works.

So how can he collect the sounds you might ask, well here’s how it works. Each stage has a certain song that you have to get a certain grade in order to move on to the next one. The level is set out like a guitar, with certain lines that have to be strum at a specific time to keep Presto from falling. There are also items to collect, and enemies to defeat to keep the beat going as well. Don’t rush through a decision though, because strumming a note the wrong way will make a red note appear, get too many of them and the games over. Every action is performed through the use of the stylus pen, and it works perfectly. There was never a time when the controls weren’t responsive, and when I missed a note it was usually because my timing was off.



The visual style here is simple, but very beautiful to look at. Every level is bright and vibrant, and extremely detailed. What steals the show here is the soundtrack, and that is because you are basically responsible for either making each song sound as beautiful as they have always been, or ruining them to the point where if the artists were still alive they would come over to your house and punch you in the face. Classical music may not be everybody’s cup of tea nowadays, and for what it’s worth, I don’t listen to much of it myself, but there’s something about the way it is presented here that

My favorite aspect of this game is the boss fights, which play out like a game of simon. A sequence of banging on the drums, and strumming the guitar are played on the top screen, and then Presto has to copy those actions on the bottom screen in order to deal damage to his opponent. As easy as this might sound to do, there are quite a few times in which there is so much to do that it can become quite frustrating. Don’t give up though, because the hard work will pay off in the end, trust me on this one.

For the seasoned gamers out there, Green Groove has enough replay value to keep them coming back for quite some time. Once you complete each level in the game, it becomes unlocked as a part of a tracklist, in which you can go back to anytime to try and improve your overall ranking. There is also a free play mode that allows you to play through each level without the hassle of worrying about high scores, rankings, and so on. The five dollar entry free will go a long way here, especially for those who chose to play through the game more than once.



Maestro! Green Groove is a perfect example of why more people should be playing DSiWare games. Everything about it just screams originality. Combining genres can sometimes be a recipe for disaster, but in this case, the end result is something truly special. Anyone looking for a challenge should not pass this one up. (A)

 - Matt H.