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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Song of the Week! 29 January 2011

 

And the results of the short poll from two weeks ago! You all probably know by now which song this is if you've voted...

Hibike! Taiko no Tatsujin (響け!太鼓の達人)
Version
Taiko 8x3 (134)x3 (166) x5 (274)x9 (567,500)
Taiko Anime 2x3 (134)x3 (166) x5 (274)x9 (502)
Taiko 12, 12.5x3 (134)x3 (176) x5 (304)x9 (567,500)
Taiko 8, 12, 12.5, Taiko Anime 2
165
none
 csabop


PS2 Version (without Master notes)
Opening movie

Quite possibly one of the most popular and energetic opening themes ever composed in Taiko to date, second only to Densetsu no Matsuri. The song was composed by the same person who made GO MY WAY!! and Motteke! Sailor-Fuku, Kousaki Satoru (神前 暁), while the vocals were done by three people, a male vocal, Kageyama Hironobu (影山 ヒロノブ) and a duo of female vocals, Mizuki Ichiro/Horie Mitsuko(水木 一郎 / 堀江 美都子). The awesome lyrics were written by Katsuyuki Oda (小田一行). Originally made for the PS2 anime song compilation, Tobikkiri Anime Special, the aim was to compose a Taiko opening song that sounds just like any good anime opening song would, and this was the result. Even the opening movie of the game bears great resemblance to typical anime.

Master Notes were not present in the original PS2 version of the song, which was apparently one of the only Namco Original songs on the disc. Even then it was an extremely tough theme song to play, with many clusters and streams at an unusually high BPM. The notes were memorable, and later on the Go-Go Time portion was used as notes in EkiBEN 2000. Master Notes (there are no Advanced Notes) was added to Hibike! Taiko no Tatsujin in the arcade, making it even more difficult to clear, and bringing up the note total to 567.

Great as the song was, it was axed after just one arcade version, and was revived for Taiko 12 and 12.5, only to be discarded again. At least it stood more chances than most other theme songs.

Hibike! Taiko no Tatsujin (響け!太鼓の達人)
Version
Allx5 (355)x7 (425) x7 (751)x7 (967)
Taiko 12, 12.5, CD Anime
165
none
 excsab


The only way you would ever get to listen to the full version of Hibike! Taiko no Tatsujin was through the accompanying soundtrack CD, and it was definitely not playable. Until Taiko 11, that is. Ura Oni mode made it possible for Taiko Team to replace songs with their full-version counterparts, and this was what contributed to Hibike's revival in Taiko 12.

Much easier than the regular notechart, since we're actually dealing with the longest playable Taiko song ever composed (4 minutes and 7 seconds long), and even with the increased length, the note limit remained at 999, so difficulty was limited as not as many clusters could be put together without the note total going over 1000.

Because of the notes and the difficulty, the score was suppressed a lot to keep the maximum score of this notechart under a million points (not counting drumrolls, with which the score definitely goes past one million). The common difference between the score increments from 0 to 100 combo is one of the lowest in Taiko, together with Oodain on Normal notes.

Almost forgot- from now I'll return to take song requests from our readers. Suggestions are well accepted!