[PS2]Taiko Drum Master

[Homie S]

So I bought this game recently from some leftover christmas cash. I am home for two more weeks until my spring semester restarts, and I need something to keep me busy. Well, I've been playing drums for 10 years now, and I wanted to see how this game would hold up for me, thinking that I might be more inclined to play a video game about drums.

This game is pretty awesome. I really like this interface used because of the simplicity. You've got a drum pad that you hit, and the little circles roll by on the screen and show you when you should hit. It makes for a great time, and to play along with the music is also enjoyable. There are licensed tracks from major artists (Brittney Spears, Goo Goo Dolls, Good Charlette, etc), classic songs (William Tell, Hungarian folk song #5) and then some cool game originals that come from Namco.

There are up to four difficulty settings, one of which is the hardest called 'oni' and has to be unlocked by clearing other songs. Songs are cleared by pretty much being on beat and hitting most of the notes right. Other songs can also be unlocked as well.

There are 3 minigames which are related to the drumpad (ie hit the pad as many times as you can to eat the watermelon and spit out the seeds) which are fun, but can get old REALLY fast.

The really only complaint about this game is that I only have 31 songs, and after searching around there are only a couple more to unlock. Now there are supposed to be other Taiko games released later (I guess there are some in japan right now), but who knows, I think it would depend on the sucess of the game in the US.

All in all, a very fun game to play, but I wonder what comes after this.

SCORE: 8/10
Paid: 60$ USD
Worth: 55$ USD

[JackAxe]

I'm sorry. I played this at my friend's work and it felt like a poor rendition of DK's Bongo Drums on the GameCube. And then I find out that Namco put these together after making the Bong drums for Nintendo.

<]=)

[Homie S]

I'm sorry. I played this at my friend's work and it felt like a poor rendition of DK's Bongo Drums on the GameCube. And then I find out that Namco put these together after making the Bong drums for Nintendo.

<]=)

I played both. I enjoy Taiko more because I feel like I have more fun with sticks in my hands than just my hands alone (and I do both all the time on real drums).

ps: Just because Taiko came out after Donkey Konga doesn't make one more superior. As I said, I played both, and you can't say one is better than the other on concept alone, they're about the same thing (hitting stuff).

[JackAxe]

I was mentioning that because both DK Bongo and Taiko Drum were both developed by Namco. I bet if you pulled apart both units they're exactly the same tech inside. :)

I'm just overly critical about things. :) But all in all they are basically the same.

<]=)

[kp*]

I bought this game because we have Donkey Konga on our GameCube at work, and being a PS2 owner, I wanted something similar. I like them both, but I think DK's renditions of the songs are a little better (both the recordings of the songs and the drum parts). Sometimes I feel like the choices for the drum parts are based on how hard they want to make it rather than what musically makes sense with the song. I wish both of these games were a little more like a simulation in the sense of teaching you something resembling the actual drum parts in the songs, so you could learn something about playing that kind of music, instead of just making it about the difficulty and gameyness. I also wish there were different sounds than the Taiko (or have I not unlocked those???). DK has some that you can unlock, although I prefer the original bongos. But for Taiko, I wish they had a rock drum set, like snare and hi-hat, or snare and bass, since many of the songs are American rock songs and it would be more realistic than playing along with a traditional Japanese drum.

I enjoy both, but in both cases I'm a little bored with the number of songs after a while, and there's not much sense of accomplishment or rewards. It would be cool if they released the expansion games with new songs in the States.

[Homie S]

Well, I think we should take a step back for a sec. Really the main thing about these two games is having fun and feeling like you are understanding rhythm, almost a musician yourself. But the game musically can only go as far as what's availible to you in terms of varied methods of playing or different drums or what have you. Taiko and DK really can't accomplish a musical sense because it's not about the music, it's about the beat. Indeed, it would be cool to have a full drumkit to bang on, but there's no logistical way to bring that to people (although the drum machine game that konami has out is in arcades, and it is based on the same principle as these two games, except more stuff to hit). If you want to learn real drums or learn real music, then it's time to go to the music store and figure stuff out.

I do agree though that more songs need to be released. As I said, I know there are more discs in japan for Taiko (I think 3 or 4?), but they need to be released stateside, I don't want to import them and I don't have a modded PS2 to do it with either.