Taiko Drum Master w/Drumcon Review

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(More customer reviews)For years, my favorite videogame genre has been the Music genre. From games like Um Jammer Lammy and Parappa the Rapper on the Playstation, to Space channel 5, Samba de Amigo, and Dance dance revolution on dreamcast, to newer classics like Frequency, Amplitude, Gitaroo man and Karaoke revolution on the PS2, I've always been a huge fan.
The genre is often limited to a small audiance of enthusiasts though, and rarely sell well. Fortunately, Namco took a chance and released this game in America after popular demand!
The game includes a large drum in the package (I'd say its about 6 inches tall With the stand (maybe 4" without it) and has 4 hit points as well as 2 buttons (Start and Select), Along with the drum are 2 large plastic drumsticks (Also about an inch thick).
The game itself has 2 real modes, TAIKO MODE and MINI GAME mode.
In Taiko mode, you play through 31 songs divided into categories.
The tracklisting in this mode is:
POP
* ABC (jackson 5)
* Thats the way I like it (KC And the sunchine band)
* The impression that I get (Mighty Mighty bosstones)
* Tubthumping (Chumbawamba)
* Walking on Sunshine (Unknown)
* Material Girl (Madonna)
* Love Shack (B-52's)
* Toxic (Britney spears)
* I'm a believer (Unknown)
ROCK
* Slide (googoo dolls)
* American Girls (Unknown)
* Girls and Boys (Good Charlotte)
* Killer Queen (Queen)
* Lady Marmalade (Pink, Little kim, Christina aguilera, Mya)
* Are you gonna be my girl (Jet)
* My Sharona (Unknown)
ANIME/TV
* Dragon ball Z theme (Rock the dragon)
* Jimmy Neutron theme (Bowling for soup)CLASSICAL
* Beethovens symphony #5
* William tell overture
* Carmen prelude
* Foster;s Medley
* Symphony No. 25 in G-Minor
* Hungarian Dances #5
NAMCO ORIGINAL
* Soul Calibur 2 (Brave sword, braver soul)
* The genji and the heike clans
* Ridge Racer
* Taiko March
* Don Rangers
* Katamari on the rocks (Katamari Damacy theme)
* Dragon SpiritHowever, its worth noting that besides the Namco original songs, the other songs are all 'recreations' meaning its not actually Britney Spears singing it, its a 'similar sounding artist'. Fortunately, all of the songs sound great and real true to the originals (This isnt a "Kids Bop" type thing).
Some songs (Like Killer Queen actually sound better (to me) than the original versions).
Each song has a difficulty level, as well as a point scale, which works as follows:
EASY (1-10)
NORMAL (1-10)
HARD (1-10)
ONI (1-10)
Its a bit tricky to figure out the full difficulty (Comparing an "Easy - 5" to a "Normal - 3"), but you'll quickly learn your limits.
My problem with the songs though, is when they release a game with such a limited audiance who enjoys a particular type of music for the most part, I dont see why they had to replace most of it with some of this music to appeal to a younger 'teeny bopper' audiance (I personally don't want to play ABC, Material Girl, I'm a believer, Slide, or classical music over and over!)
Fortunately, it has some redeeming songs, My favorites to play being:
Tubthumping, Walking on sunshine, Love Shack, Toxic, Lady Marmalade, Girls and Boys, Killer Queen, Are you gonna be my girl, and My Sharona.
Onto the drum, as I mentioned it has 4 hit points.
The right surface part, the left surface part, the right side, the left side, Start, and Select.
Onto the actual game, it works like most music games. A bar appears on the center of the screen, and on the bar certain icons scroll by from right to left, Once the icons hit the "target zone", you hit that button.
The icons that appear are:
* RED (Hit the LEFT or RIGHT surface)
* BLUE (tap the LEFT or RIGHT edge of the drum)
* BIG RED (Hit the LEFT and RIGHT surfaces simultaneously)
* BIG BLUE (tap the LEFT and RIGHT edges of the drum simultaneously)
* YELLOW LINE (Do a drum roll on the left & right surfaces until the end of the line)
* BALLOON (Tap the left and right surfaces repeatedly until the balloon inflates and explodes)
Sounds difficult, but it's really not.
In the game, the 2 surfaces act as the "ENTER" button, the left side and right side act as left and right, and you can hit START for extra songs (main menu, quit, restart, song select)
The drum itself is pretty good, but does take some getting used to, to determine how hard to hit it, and where exactly to do it to make it 'count'.
Onto the MINIGAME Mode, you have only 3 minigames available.
One is a WATERMELON game where you hit both the surfaces of the drum as fast as possible to 'eat' a watermelon, and see how fast you can eat them.
In the FIREWORKS game, a firework or bomb is placed in front of you, you need to either hit the surface of the drum to launch the firework, or tap the side to throw the bomb away, the more you do, the faster it gets, and if you mess up, you need to start at the slow speed again (I like this game a lot)
The final game is the BALANCE game, You appear as a Dog standing straight up. Every few seconds another dog will appear on your shoulders.. After a few appear, you'll begin to lose balance and sway to one side.. You must then hit the side of the drum in the direction you want to go (if you lean left, hit left to move that way and balance out), it gets real tricky. Once you reach the top (About 10 dogs high) there is a helicopter, You must be standing straight, then hit the drum to grab on, This game is also a lot of fun.
All in all, its a real fun game, and some of the levels are insanely challenging (And I never see myself being able to beat them!), others have a nice easy mode for beginners.
My biggest gripe is the song selection though.
If you're a music fan, it's definately worth playing. I would recommend going through the list of songs though, and seeing if they appeal to you at all. If you dont like that music, you wont like this game much.
I give this game a 4/5 and hope a sequal or expansion pack comes along!

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TAIKO: Drum Master gives you a chance to prove you're Taiko master! In this game, players will be challenged to perfect their skills with the taiko - a traditional Japanese drum. Beat the drum along with the rhythms and patterns presented on the screen and hone your drumming skills with the fun miniature Taiko Controller.

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