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

I've seen this...

[GoofyBoy]

Its like DDR for you finger tips.

A very simliar game

[Monkelectric]

Came out in the US a year or so ago called Frequency.

Re:Improves Real Instrument Skills?

[AsnFkr]

im a drummer (as well as a guitarist and bassist) and ive played one of those drumming games that is set up as a "real kit" - and no...it does not help you at all. If you play technically correct along with the game, you loose. Its just like DDR, you hit each pad as the arrow lights up, and for the most part it doesn't correspond to the actual note being played at all. In my opinion it would prbably confuse a persons ability to play an instument more than anything.

Yet Another Rhythm Game?

[Rayonic]

And it's not like drums haven't been done before, even.

Don't get me wrong, I like rhythm games (along with every other genre of video game), but this is not groundbreaking in any sense of the word.

Popular on Japanese variety television as well.

[djshiawase]

This game *has* been in the arcades for quite a while now. And to tell the truth, it's one of the more, shall I say, 'normal' games.

One of the best that I played when I was there was a boxing game, there were six pads around a screen, you grabbed a 'boxing glove'/padded paddle and smacked away at them. It was based on 'the Fist of the North Star' so you could blow up people's heads and stuff. Pretty groovy.

Still, this taiko game has actually been pretty popular on variety television (which is approx. 40% of commercial prime-time over there) with a lot of celebrities duking it out, smashing these massive drums relatively close when they're told to on the screen. Air hockey's still the old favourite tho.

One of the less common - but popular - games basically involves a big suited butt in front of the screen. It's supposed to represent the boss - how the game works is that the game insults you, and you get your retribution by delivering one up the arse. You should see some of the Japanese guys get into it. And girls too.

I reckon Japanese society's going to explode someday, and all the office workers'll walk the streets with bits of wood & bricks, smashing up windows and cars, when the tolerance threshhold of society in general is breached. There's just so much shit human beings can take, and office workers in Japan take a lot.

Re:I've Played It...

[MuteflY]

I'll agree that not all DDR players look like they're dancing (me for instance) but have a look at some of the videos here and you'll see that any decent freestyler looks very much like they're dancing, mainly because they are.

What about Quest for Fame?

[Poro]

Back in the dark ages when PC games were mostly DOS-games, IBM released a quite unique game called Quest for Fame. It included a thingy called VPick, a virtual pick connected to the parallel port which you used to strum against any surface following the rhythm of the song. The game was some sort of adventure. You started in a garage band and the ultimate objective was to get on stage on a stadium gig with Aerosmith.

Many things could go wrong on your quest for fame. I still have nightmares about that one gig when I was still in that garage band. Some motorbike guys come the club where we are playing and demanded us to play Steppenwolf. Well, of course we hadn't practiced any Steppenwolf songs... :-)

Great game. The system requirements at the back of the box say "Windows 3.1 or higher". I wonder if it would work under WINE. :)

There is not very much infor about this game in the web. The best I could find was this. It seems that this was also released for Playstation. I think there was supposed to be more PC-games based on the VPick, but I've never heard about any.

Re:you never know

[jafuser]

There's a game out right now for the GameCube called called "Animal Crossing", which I assume must be a market-test for it's kind in America.

It's a very odd sort of game, which claims to be a "communication oriented" game. It's not really comparable to anything else I've seen before. It's sort of an RPG/Sim hybrid, with emphasis on making friends, and staying in touch such as chatting with your neighbors, writing to electronic friends, trading virtual items with your RL friends, etc...

It's definitely a concept that would probably never have seen the light of day if it weren't for the novel Japanese way of thinking. I hope the test market succeeds. It's quite addictive, and I hope to see it catch on, and perhaps see more games like it =)