More Fun Than You Can Shake A Stick At

BrokenPipe writes "When I was in Japan last summer I bought a PlayStation 2 in anticipation of a game that was just released a couple of weeks ago. It is only available in Japan and it will probably never be released in the US. It is called "Taiko no Tatsujin". The game has been in the arcades in Tokyo for a while but it has just been released for the PlayStation 2. Apparently it is the number 3 game in Japan right now and many places are sold out. Luckily, mine arrived this past Monday. So what is the hype all about? Well, the game is based on Japanese traditional drums which are called 'taiko' drums. Basically, you need to drum along with a song, hitting the drum at just the right moment. Most of the songs are either Japanese pop songs (J-Pop) or more traditional Japanese songs. It is a great game for all ages. The official website is here." For more information, here are several more sites to puzzle over: one, two, three, four, five.

Comments

Sounds like another game

[StevenMaurer]

This isn't the first game of this type by far.

It looks like a knock off of Samba de Amigo for the Dreamcast. In that game you have to buy maracas and shake them to the music.

you never know

[mad_cow]

Innovative and interesting games not making it out of Japan for one reason or another has plagued the console market for a long time. Often, it does boil down to interested consumers having to order in the import to play on their foreign or modded (the best legitimate use of mod chips) machines, but Fresh Games (heavy flash site) hopes to change things. An excerpt from their site:

The Fresh Games label was created because there is a wealth of incredible games that come out in Japan and, for whatever reason, are not sold in the US and Europe. A lot of people are importing these games, but we wanted hardcore gamers everywhere to be able to buy these games at their local store without having to deal with mod-chips and exorbitant costs. On the surface these games are very "Quirky" or "Odd" but when you get beneath the surface, you realize that the game-play is outstanding, the depth these games have to offer is incredible, and the polish and attention to detail that is put in to them is obvious.

Video Games are an art form in Japan and we wanted that represented here in it's purest form. Not another character based sequel, not another movie license, not another "extreme sports" game. That's what we call the corporate formula. We wanted to break some rules, and break some of the barriers that exist in this industry in regards to "What type of games do people really want to play?". Many of the major magazines wrote that games like Mad Maestro and Mister Mosquito were brilliant games, and it was a shame that these games would never see the light of the day outside of Japan, where they are both top 10 selling titles. We agreed that they are brilliant and decided to take a chance by releasing them here.

Not that this means that we'll see Taiko no Tatsujin brought over, but you never know.

Re:VARY interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Dance Dance Revolution was an arcade game that was very big in South Korea a couple years ago. Many said it would cross-over to US but it never really happened.

Not been to an arcade recently? This game is huge in the US.

Rez...

[BitwizeGHC]

If you haven't played it yet, you must go out ands get your hands on a copy of Rez... easily the most innovative, mind-blowing game to come along in at least a decade. It was released in the United States, to a small, select but appreciative audience. Larger electronics stores (e.g., Best Buy, Fry's) will likely carry it.

It is a shooting game where your actions add to the beat of the techno music that's playing and to the surreal on-screen display. Learn to play in harmony with the game, and you will be rewarded with amazing sights and sounds.

I bought the game a couple of months ago, and it still continues to blow my mind.

Re:I've seen this...

[wantedman]

http://shop2.outpost.com/{Pc3axKE23F17vjkzJn1zWbux q3YZYsqSPQU4am1zuBzjTu6LR6Xe|-8600010891477737814/ 168694306/6/7001/7001/7002/7002/7001/-1|6127421640 616020492/168694307/6/7001/7001/7002/7002/7001/-1| 1036901060642}/product/3182950/

heh, nope, THIS is like Dance Dance Revolution for your fingers :-D

Clicky clicky...

[ahaning]

Making links is not hard.

<href="http://url.goes.here/">This will become a link.</a>

I'm being sucked back into console gaming too.

[RyanFenton]

First, Suikoden III - a console-style CRPG featuring over 108 characters who can join your team... but each of them adds in ways you don't expect. It's not some Pokemon-flavored RPG series though - each one centers on how war destroys the lives of those involved, turns honest people into monsters, and brother against brother. The 108 characters in each game (mostly different who they are each game) are based on an old chinese story of 108 stars of destiny - so much of the lore and characters have a bit of a less arbitrary feel about them than most console RPG's. A great game to come back to over weeks, accomplishing little things at a time.

Then, in a little over a week, there will be Metroid Prime. The hype has been so negative for so long... and now all the positive hype - should be interesting. Perhaps I'll throw the old NES emulation disk into the dreamcast and have a go at the first game some night next week

No - it's not an insightful thing to say - I'll forget the +1 bonus on this one - but if the editors can proclaim their favorite recent games that drew them to console gaming recently, I figure I can at least let a few other people know what I've really enjoyed recently. :^)

Ryan Fenton

This has been out in the US for two years

[Ryosen]

MTV Drum Jammer

Re:Can we talk about something important ?

[Erik Hollensbe]

Well, while I agree with you the importance of those matters, you should probably think about this:

- In your preferences page, you can turn the preference to see 'games' articles off. That's why articles have different categories... For instance, I don't see articles written by Jon Katz. :)

- Those items are important, but slashdot is much more than just a techie's political activist haven. In fact, since chips and bits existed, it's been all about what CmdrTaco thinks is 'cool'. The concept of user-submitted articles makes it so that we DON'T get 100% anime and games and palm pilot crap.

- I'm going to assume that you don't give microsoft any money because you don't find their products useful or interesting. Why, exactly, does slashdot have to come under some double-standard when it comes to voting with your dollar? Remember guys, slashdot makes money off of ad impressions and views. If you don't like the site enough to take the time to write a 30 line diatribe about how you think the site should be run differently, well, get your own site and publish your own stuff, or alternately, don't visit the site. It's your choice.

(This is coming from a person who's written CmdrTaco email asking him to limit the selection of stuff several times - I just gave up and realized it's not my place to say)