No, obviously. You don’t need a PlayStation 3 to play Mad Maestro. Your PlayStation 2 with your PS2 DualShock controllers will play this just fine.
If you want to play on a PS2 emulator, though — you’re gonna want at least the controllers from the PS3, as it is only with a PS3 controller, with its USB connector and its pressure sensitive face buttons, that you’re going to have any chance whatsoever of playing Mad Maestro in its normal mode.
But we’ll get to that.
In Mad Maestro, you play a lonely conductor who wants to save his local concert hall, that is due to be torn down because nobody appreciates music anymore. He is gifted a magical baton by a fairy, and must use these new powers to help out where he can using the power of conducting classical music!
It’s a little like the amazing Elite Beat Agents, in that way. (Elite Beat Agents is the rhythm game to which all other rhythm games must be compared, and found wanting). A boy wants to attract swans with his flute playing, but a storm is moving in. An acrobat in a circus is discouraged because so few people come to her shows. A man wants to surprise a woman with a declaration of love. In all of these things, the only thing that can save them is the Mad Maestro, his magical baton, and the orchestra that suddenly appears when he starts counting the beat.
Your job is simply to press a button in time with a ball bouncing between four circles (for 4/4 pieces) or three circles (for 3/4 pieces and waltzes). The circles will move toward each other to signal a faster tempo, and further apart for a slower tempo.
Sometimes an arrow appears in a circle; pressing the equivalent D-Pad button at the same time you count the beat cues an orchestra section to take the lead for a measure. The colored borders to the circles signal the volume of the phrase; harder is louder.
This is why you need that PS3 controller. It’s the only controller that lets you play the game, using the PCSX2 emulator. Very few PS2 games used the button sensitivity; this one, and Metal Gear Solid 3, are the only ones I know of. I’m lucky I still have the PS3 for White Knight Chronicles and Final Fantasy XIII set up. With a little bit of effort, I got one of those PS3 controllers working and jumped into the game.
The musical selections are all (so far) well-known pieces. I haven’t finished the game, but so far, there haven’t been anything I don’t think I haven’t heard before. Everyone has heard these pieces, even if they don’t know the names.
And if the Mad Maestro just kept to one tempo, this would be an easy game. That might work for Elite Beat Agents or Unjammer Lammy, but the Maestro doesn’t believe in easy songs.
I’m not sure what kind of maniacal musical genius you have to be to get perfect scores in this game; I’ve never managed better than a “C”, and I can usually master a rhythm game in a few tries. In this, I’m doing the best I can.
As you help people, they begin to hang out in your apartment and accompany you on your conducting missions as members of the orchestra. You can even call them back to perform on stage in “Free Play” mode, where you can perform the music to an appreciative audience.
There’s a few other modes. You can replay a level just as you did the first time. You can just sit back and listen to the music. You can record your Free Play session and play it back. There’s lots of ways to enjoy the Mad Maestro.
If you’d like to play the game but don’t happen to have a PS3 laying around, you can try “Child Mode”. It’s the same game, just without worrying about how hard you press the button. Not since Cello Hero has there been a rhythm game so utterly devoted to teaching an appreciation for classical music.
I bought this game years ago and was devastated when I found out I couldn’t play it on anything but the original hardware. Things have improved since then, and I’m very happy I can finally play Mad Maestro!
