Bang With A Smile
When we we talk about Japanese gaming, it is all to easy to focus full attention on the vast, poetic world that is final fantasy. It would also be easy to while away the hours talking about our never ending love of street fighter, or to ramble on about exciting new releases such as Bayonetta. I am however not going to talk about any of these games. No, in all of this, it becomes easy to overlook the other side to Japanese gaming. I am talking of course of those quirky, colorful and sometimes just truly insane titles which though rarely get the media hype they deserve (or not) really to me embody the true spirit of Japan. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, think of such classics such as Cooking mama, Beautiful Katamari, and Wairoware and your half way there. With this in mind I was lucky enough to ‘Experience ‘ (Apparently you don’t just play games in Japan, you experience them) the ‘Most popular rhythm game in Japan’ this weekend and I was of course intrigued. So from the country who truly put the WTF into gaming I bring you a brief summery of Taiko Drum Master Wii….The most popular rhythm game in Japan.
So what is Taiko drum master all about? Well for those of you who never played the original Taiko drum master (PS2, 2004) its a bit like the bastard lovechild of Rockband, Donkey conga and Bust a move. It may be a bit messed up, and in places not all there, but like a doting parent we still love it very much anyway. Based on the original, highly popular Japanese arcade game, the aim of the game is simple. You are presented with a single, large plastic drum which you must hit in time to the beat of the song, a little like Rockband. However unlike Rockband this drum has pressure sensitive surfaces on both the center, and side allowing the game to read not only when you hit the drum, but where you hit it and how hard. To give an idea of the setup, the commands scroll across the screen from right to left in the form of large and small dots, but not just dots, dots with smiley faces in the center…of course. The basic commands go, Small red circles (hit the center with a single stick), Big red circle (hit the center hard with both sticks), Small blue circles (hit the side with a single stick) and Big blue circle (hit the side with both sticks). It seems very simple, and though I found it a bit of a step down from the more complex, 5 piece kit I know and love, in its harder modes the game did seem to put up quite a fight. For example though the easier modes were comprised mainly of the simple commands above, when playing harder songs Taiko drum master not only speeds up, but also complicates things with the demand for rapid multiple hits (marked with a x sign), as well as a variety of mini challenges.
It is with this that I move onto what I feel is the most important part of this game, the true Japanese ‘Random factor’. Now those of you who are thinking “Hang on a minute, Why would I bother with this? Isn’t it retro and outdated and anyway I have the much newer and more exciting Gh/Rockband to play with” listen up. To me this game is not about exceptionally beautiful graphics, nor about becoming a rock God. It is simply about hitting a small plastic drum as fast as you possibly can to burst a bubble gum balloon being blown by a strange creature which looks like a cross between a dog, a baby and a jam jar. In hindsight I’m 70% sure that the character was a drum… but to be honest I don’t know and in a way I think that sometimes in this type of situation its better not to know and just go with it. Drum master is just packed full of the colorful, seemingly incomprehensible Japanese graphics which make on the whole in-arguably charming. The game is an explosion of color and noise with enough dressed up animals, random noises and smiley faces to keep anyone guessing what will come next. In addition to the smiley nieve graphics Nintendo have once again managed to work the Mii’s into the game by having them happily dancing at the bottom of the screen. Though the Mii’s are now commonplace in Nintendo titles, I have never seen them used in a way which makes them look quite so out of place before. Though in any other game this would probably prove quite off putting, Drum master is already such a crazy mix that it doesn’t really matter. In fact in a way it does sort of add something to the experience, all be it something quite strange and a little out of place. As for the set list, I have seen no other like it. In the short period of time I ‘Experienced” the game everything from modern pop, to Anime Tunes and classical music was bashed out on that little plastic drum proving that in musical diversity this game really has no equal. It would seem that in the category of music and rhythm gaming the prize for most random release goes to Drum roll please (I know bad joke again) Japan of course. Who else.
All of this talk makes me a little sad that as of yet I have seen no plans for a Uk release. Still, if this post has made you at all curious about the wide world of Drum based gaming I have it on good authority (my own) that there are several similar machines waiting to be discovered at the back of arcades all over the UK. I know for a fact that there is a DrumMania just waiting to be hit on in the Troccadero center in London, so next time you have a weekend free go old school, I dare you.
Until next time,
GuitarGirl24
x
P.S. So excited about Bioshock 2. I just can’t wait any longer…I may burst with the pure anticipation….
