oh how cruel are the hands that life can deal us. how much fun i was having making my way through the first 6 stages of gitaroo man. enjoying its totally bizarre style, incredible music, and central gameplay mechanic unlike anything else i had ever played with. alas, it was not meant to be. as my PS2 copy tried to load up stage 7, right as the midly nonsensical story was beginning to find some feet to land on, right as i was already ready to put gitaroo man on my all time favourites list, and right after a slow jam stage where U-1 seemed to win over the heart of a very cute girl, tragedy struck. stage 7 would not load. the 'now loading' message was stuck playing ad infinitum. and despite numerous resets, and despite doing the old toothpaste trick, nothing i tried worked. i merely had to sit and accept the loss i had been dealt. a copy of this game is far from the cheapest thing in the world, and prices for them are increasing in my native UK. for the time being, i might just have to accept this as goodbye. thank you for the tragically brief yet incredibly memorable time you gave me, gitaroo man.