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Let's Play

Duration: 27:42

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Gameplay begins at 10:38

TVDJ is a cel-shaded, Japanese near-launch title for the Playstation 2 involving movies, music, mild language, and crazy cartoon antics. The game is classified as revolutionary "film action", as it combines "live action movies and infomercials" with the aesthetics of a Bemani/Rhythm game.

The story of the game deals with a host of characters who live in "Cartoon Town". The TV station, BBB (Boo's Broadcasting Base) is falling towards bankruptcy with all their top sponsors withdrawing due to their consistently low audience turnouts. Two actors at the BBB, Jack and Woody, are appalled by the "spineless" president's inability to lure viewers in and blame him for broadcasting unoriginal content (mostly Jack). Jack curses the BBB president, wishing the company would really collapse due to his poor leadership, causing them to lose to all the top prime time shows of today. While lost in thought, Jack ponders "****, that pig president. Damn, that idiot director is just making lousy ****. We need to get rid of him, but with no other directors to be found, we're at a loss...". It's at this point that he bumps into you, "the player", and realizes that he can assign you the position of a promising new director that uses the BBB's coveted "mix machine". Now you follow the lives of toon actors and their on-screen shenanigans.

The gameplay simply involves lining up segments of eight with the four primary buttons (Triangle, Circle, X, Square) and completing a certain number of scenes within a specified time limit. Triangle costs one segment point and creates the quickest movie edits. Square costs two segment points and is slightly longer. Circle costs three segment points and is a bit longer. X costs four segment points and provides the longest animation (approximately one second). Essentially, the game is about counting to eight, but this is made increasingly more complex as you unlock more features and modes.

The core game consists of four levels that become more dynamic as you clear the game multiple times, improving your status as director by giving you access to newer mix machines with more features. The story also expands as you play multiple times and the game, while simple, is perhaps slightly underrated. In the beginning, you are only allowed to edit blocks of footage with the four primary buttons, creating simple, somewhat repetitive scenes. In the second phase, (Director's Cut), you are allowed to reverse footage by holding L1 and manipulate "chance spaces" (preset brackets) which allow you to add neat effects like mosaic, inazuma (flash), and more, which adds a bit more complexity to the simple formula and it's where things get interesting, so try not to dismiss the game after the first run (you also get credits in run two as it finalizes the story). You can also unlock a another mode after Director's Cut, Free Play, which adds the "loop" feature with R1 as well as the ability to mix and match segments, music, and effects freely. Compete to get the highest scores (audience) and focus on your best timing to have the most seamless videos.

The game has nice graphics and animation for its time of release, presenting itself as one of the more stylish cel-shaded titles of the time along with Dreamcast's "Jet Grind Radio". The music is also of good quality with different themes between loops and the voice-overs are great. The game is still quite short even when everything is said and done, weighing in at a few hours, and the game as a whole feels more like an experimental mini-game than a full-fledged title, but TVDJ is still compelling enough to track down on the after market for cheap these days, though I would have felt cheated buying this back in the day brand new. This is a video showing the basic gameplay in action. Enjoy.