Taiko no Tatsujin

johnny_ultimate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKYNv5NLxRQ

If I could pick one arcade machine to own, it'd be a Taiko one. Basically what Donkey Konga would be if it wasn't full of crappy covers of cheesy Western pop songs, an arcade Taiko no Tatsujin machine consists of two massive plastic replicas of traditional Japanese Taiko drums. Playing with two sticks, the game isn't much more complicated than hitting red (i.e. the main drum body) and blue (i.e. the drum edge) in time with the music. There are complications - larger red/blue circles require greater accuracy, yellow bars give you bonus points depending how many hits you can manage, another bonus requires you to hit red and blue in sequence as fast as you can - but mostly it's very very simple. It gives casual games a good name - no complications, just fun. Not to say it doesn't have depth - this game is crazy hard, especially on the uber-hard Oni difficulty. Hey, they have to keep you pumping in coins somehow.

What makes the game stand out, especially in the arcade, is the song selection. The reason the game hasn't made it over into the West (with one exception I'll mention in a minute) is how very Japanese it is. Visually, it's hyperactive full of wide eyed anime style mascots, Japanese symbols to represent difficulty etc... It'd be tricky to localise in this regard, but the staunchly Japanese soundtrack is the game's strongest point and the one that guarantees it'll never be given a wide release outside of it's homeland. Full of anime theme tunes (fact: every rhythm game should have Cruel Angel's Thesis from Evangelion), cheesy J-Pop, classical music, bizarre takes on children's nursery rhymes and odd Japanese techno, it's just fun discovering all the songs hidden on a Taiko machine. There are hundreds of songs to choose from in recent iterations. Most importantly, there are also loads of videogame songs - retro melodies, popular Namco compositions from the likes of SoulCalibur and Ridge Racer, and famously Mario Bros. theme too. Again, very much localised to a Japanese market (as evident by the prevalence of Idolm@ster songs :P) but that's a lot of the fun. It's a pleasing change from Rock Band et al., closest in comparison with Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.

There are plenty of home versions of Taiko, but alas all limited to Japan. The only Western Taiko release was Taiko Drum Master on the PS2, but I don't think it ever made it to Europe. Distressingly, it was also localised, replacing a lot of the content with Western songs. The Wii version is currently popular in Japan - comes with a drum controller - but the best bet for anyone interested in trying out the basic gameplay over here are the PSP and DS versions. The DS games - two released already (I have the 2nd, tonuge twistingly entitled Meccha! Taiko no Tatsujin DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken, which also has a 'hard to finish without consulting translation guides' story mode!), and one more on the way - are a naturally inferior but interesting emulation of the arcade game. Coming with two adorable Taiko styluses, the bottom screen becomes the drum. Of course, the small size of the DS screen means it's hard to get comfortable and play naturally, but it's still a very fun portable rhythm game, and the easiest way to try the game without modding consoles.

Taiko is simply a fun rhythm game, destined for obscurity everwhere except for Japan (where, incidentally, it's crazy popular). I don't think it could ever enjoy a wide success over here, but fun for those interested in importing and different takes on the rhythm genre.

Plus, how fantastic are the mascots? Very:

Retr0gamer

Always wanted to play these games, heard nothing but good things. I hear the DS one is great when played with 2 stylus's.

CiDeRmAn

I "have" it for the Wii, a bit odd if you ask me.
Must fire it up and give it another shot.

o1s1n

I was hooked on this for a while when it came out on the DS. It's great fun with two stylus sticks alright. All in Japanese but the menus are so straight forward it might as well be in English.

ghostchant

Have Taiko 2 for the DS, the little drumsticks that come with it are worth the asking price alone

johnny_ultimate

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I "have" it for the Wii, a bit odd if you ask me.
Must fire it up and give it another shot.

I'm guessing it didn't come with a drum then I'd love to try it, but not sure if it's worth the hassle of trying to import a big plastic drum.

o1s1n wrote: »

I was hooked on this for a while when it came out on the DS. It's great fun with two stylus sticks alright. All in Japanese but the menus are so straight forward it might as well be in English.

Yeah it's easy to play even with the Japanese menus, the little song snippets probably being the easiest way to pick songs in 'quick play'. The story mode is a little harder to navigate - certain parts require you to be wearing a certain costume (!) to progress and while you can easily guess one random bit left me stumped. That said, being able to dress your Taiko drum up as a train is one of the most brilliantly pointless features of any game.

ghostchant wrote: »

Have Taiko 2 for the DS, the little drumsticks that come with it are worth the asking price alone

Yeah the drumsticks rock. Looking at youtube, the best players seem to play with their thumbs, but it feels slightly wrong to play it without the two styluses!

o1s1n

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The story mode is a little harder to navigate - certain parts require you to be wearing a certain costume (!) to progress and while you can easily guess one random bit left me stumped. That said, being able to dress your Taiko drum up as a train is one of the most brilliantly pointless features of any game.

Ah right! I didn't even know there was a story mode. I thought the costumes were just for fun.

So I guess it's not actually that easy to navigate

johnny_ultimate

o1s1n wrote: »

Ah right! I didn't even know there was a story mode. I thought the costumes were just for fun.

So I guess it's not actually that easy to navigate

It's only in the second game, I think the first only has an arcade mode! Looking forward to the third entry though, only major weakness of the portable ones is a much smaller song selection than the arcade machines, so more songs (including the Ponyo on the Cliff theme apparently ) are welcome.