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

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.

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.