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Thursday, March 31, 2016

Across Japan: More Songs On Point


OK, Neh Oshiete is not the only song to be added on and after April 1. Here are a few more, many of them are same day as Japan, so that's nice. These came after the game version 2.03 going live just yesterday.

New Songs: April 1
  • Climb! Mount Parfait unatra Same day as Japan
New Songs: April 8
  • Audio de Ka! from audio suspense drama Audio Deka
  • Shiritsu Takama-ga-hara Gakuen Koukou Kouka D.watt (IOSYS) feat. Np Hiko Inuta & Momiji Yamamoto 
  • My Muscle Heart ~TV Takama-ga-hara-style Anime Muscular Magical Girl Takeminakata Main Theme~ Yuuya Kobayashi (IOSYS) feat. Momiji Yamamoto (monotone)
New Songs: April 15
  • SstTAarR* M-O-T-U feat. Hatsune Miku Same day as Japan
  • Chouzetsu-gikoukei Shoujo Nekokaburi Cyclone (xi+Nekomirin) Same day as Japan
Link to original post

Namco Taiko Blog (31 March 2016): Want to hear more? Notecharter Interview 7

Wow, it's been a while since we've run one of these juicy interviews! This time the focus is on a newer member of the team, Marimo (まりも)!

3DS3 Update: Game Music Rumor Bonanza! StreetPass Novelties!

 

More 3DS3 news, and some song rumors!

StreetPass Update
The last game started the StreetPass funtctionality with a Don-chan design, shared Space-time Adventure battle members and challenge scores. This game the personal design aspect is put up higher with a personalized Donder Card (ドンだーカード). And with the new story mode comes the new competitive mode that goes with it as StreetPass Battle (すれちがいバトル).
Source

Newly Rumored Songs (alleged source: Famitsu) (Addendum (2016/05/04): confirmed with scans)
 魔界村(平地BGM) Ghost n' Goblins (Overworld BGM) Remixed by ARM (IOSYS) NEW!
 Outride a Crisis 「SUPER HANG-ON」より NEW!
 Good-bye my earth 「ダライアスバースト」より Dariusburst NEW!
 Rising 「ウォリアーブレード」より Warrior Blade NEW!
 Lightning Dance 「湾岸ミッドナイト マキシマムチューン」より Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune NEW!
 New World 「シンクロニカ」より Synchronica Console debut
 AWAKE ~マッスル目覚めのテーマ~  AWAKE ~Muscle Awakening Theme~ 「マッスル行進曲」より Muscle March
 ドラゴンセイバー 水没都市 Dragon Saber Submerged City
 DRIVE A LIVE 「アイドルマスター SideM」より Idolm@ster SideM Console debut

V Version Update: Popular Song Pack 12 + Poll/TVCM Shenanigans



With V Version getting a TV commercial the least interesting new bit of news from the latest update to the Ps Vita title's website, venture after the jump to see what's inside the newcomer song pack!

First Video: Canon (Synchronica Remix)



 Canon (Synchronica Remix) (カノン (シンクロニカ Remix)) Synchronica (3/5/6/8; 543 notes on Oni)

With the third Synchronica collaboration live on White Version arcades, so is the latest song cross-over operation! For this istance, White Version got the 2nd remix from Synchronica (and one of nigelliusnitrox's personal faves, no less!), featuring a mostly swing-based 1/12 notechart on Oni, completed with a couple of main rhythm changes towards the end.

Expect coverage from the other side of this collaboration soon enough!

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Twitter Snippets (30 March 2016) - April's V Version DLC


You know you're having a "slow news week" start when the only things coming our way are tweets, but this one surely delivers some expectations for the incoming content!

With April nearing its way, the V Version Twitter page declares the upcoming song pack to be the holder of even more user-voted songs, including something in particular from "that Anime"... What's it, you ask? We'll have to wait tomorrow for that answer.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Twitter Snippets (28 March 2016) - Falcom's Freebie Distribution Closure


With the last fan-voted track from V Version's Nihon Falcom poll approaching V Version's DLC song pack pool in the future, a tweet from Falcom's page warns us that poll winner Seize the day will be free until April 6th, becoming a paid piece of DLC afterwards.

Be sure to get this free offer if you haven't yet!

BE THE ACE Lyrics



Composition: Keiichi Okabe (岡部啓一)
Lyrics: Shogo Yasukawa (ヤスカワショウゴ)
Vocal: Yuuki Tai (泰勇気)

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Taiko Plus: TGS 2015 Special Event Finally Completed!


Started way back in last September, the TGS 2015 Score Attack event finally concludes with its last reward, being Thank you! Idolm@ster Million Live! available as a limited free release until April 4 and to Gakkyoku Tori Houdai (only in iOS). The GTH version also features the Million Live special dancers.

Taiko no Tatsujin Dokodon! Mystery Adventure song list


Set to a June 2016 release, this is the third Nintendo 3DS game of the series. Dokodon! Mystery Adventure inherits a large portion of features from the previous two installments (and some of the older Wii titles). Starting from the Story mode which focuses on a treasure hunt around the world, the combat system involved is the same one previously featured in Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken, with the possibility to set teams with up to 8 team members against the former quartet limitation.

Much like the previous 3DS title, Dokodon! Mystery Adventure has Nintendo Network support in form of additional song/costumes DLC and record-sharing functionality through Streetpass, although if the final product was striped of some kind of content on the technical side (such as 3D effects and the 2nd save file) in order to make it for a smoother game experience. This time around, the initial song selection is decisively more on the V Version spectrum of high difficulty, as both old and new hellish Oni/Ura Oni trials have made their Nintendo debut with this game, alongside some new popular licenses and a Game Music genre mostly consisting of outside videogame companies' musical works.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Song of the Week! 26 March 2016


Among the new Taiko songs being introduced this week, the Audio Deka lore has finally made it into an actual Namco Original, of which we're going to talk about soon in the 'de' series showcase.

With that said, that's not the first time this fictional cheese-fest has inspired anything to coming in Taiko gaming, by plugging in several BGMs from a rather obscure game from the Ps2 era...

Fasten your seat belts folks, 'cause we're about to hit Critical Velocity!

Friday, March 25, 2016

Twitter Snippets (24-25 March 2016) - We Missed Stuff/March '16 Edition


As much as we strife for timely Taiko coverage, it's no surprise for us that we might get shafted by news coming from unusual places, be it with smartphone Taiko gaming (of which we also messed up last week) or interesting tweets, three of which being quite relevant for the series not to be reported!

The first one above is just a reminder of the third Taiko x Syncronica collaboration event, now featuring the jacket art for the two new transplanted Taiko songs. Check out the campaign's page for a bigger resolution of both!


Up next we have an almost-last-hour reminder from the Taiko Team to watch a livestream that was aired earlier today, featuring -among the other topics- a PV version of Audio De Ka! in occasion of the song's Taiko launch of last Wednesday. Sadly, no video footage about the Taiko-related portion can be found elsewhere on the Internet as of now.

Our last tweet is shelved behind a jump, as this has been trending the most among this trio! Delve further and you'll see why...

Across Japan (March 24 2016) - The White Terror (= White ver. Song Removal) Spreads

And of course the Asian ver. AC0 also gets the respective cuts on March 29 as with the Japanese ver., that's how licensing works. At least Neh Oshiete is coming on schedule on April 1.
  • Diamond Happy Aikatsu!
    Also: Wii U1 / iOS
  • KIRA☆Power Aikatsu!
    Also: iOS
  • VAMOLA! Kyoryuger
    Also: Wii U1 / iOS
  • HappinessCharge PreCure! WOW!
    Also: 3DS2
  • 1 Dream Danball Senki/Little Battlers eXperience
    Also: PSPDX (DL ended)
  • Chikyuu o Mawase! AC0 exclusive
Link to original post

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Namco Taiko Blog (March 24 2016) - April at White ver.: Truly Monkeying Around


Welcome to the end of another month, and we're of course going through the new additions for the next month! Also there are campaigns!

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

First Video: Prime-time TeleTaiko


When all three songs sounds like episodes of prime-time television dramas... check out the new additions in today's update!

Monday, March 21, 2016

Taiko Plus/STH: March Pick-ups! Suggested Pack 3 and Assassination Classroom Collab


Or in other words, we really slacked on checking in with the smartphone games this past week.

Suggested Pack 3 (iOS only, 600 yen)

  • Hana Furumai Wagakki Band
  • Himawari no Yakusoku Stand By Me Doraemon
  • Getta Banban Pokemon XY
  • Anata ni Koi o Shite Mimashita
  • Metal Police (+Ura)
Assassination Classroom Collaboration Again
While not having read/watch the original media I have no idea why a relaxed Koro-sensei is pink, but if you like the teacher you would like this new collab with the second season of the anime.
  • QUESTION Assassination Classroom in GTH (Popular Song) Plan
  • Relaxed Koro-sensei outfit and other prizes from Fukubiki

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Behind the Gimmicks: Thinking ~Must Mix~ Ura Oni



Thinking ~Must Mix~'s Ura Oni notechart is... just plain weird. While the Regular Oni stands as a nice and maybe a bit hefty ☆8 (okay there is also some sofuran but not too taxing), the Ura Oni threw in so many gimmicks you might as well start reciting the chart image instead to trying to make sense of all of that.

The trippy waves of over-abundant bar lines are the easy ones to figure out: a scroll speed change every half a beat, varying from 0.50 to 0.71 to and fro. The same gimmick is used in Next Life in MS Red, but there were no notes over the waves there and just a pretty light show. Here the patterns wobbles with the waves and makes for a rather hard section to read.

...not as inexplicable as the part just before this, right after the 160-note long barrage of a 16th and 24th stream, where you get scattered 24th clusters and single notes at very weird separations, that resembles nothing of the music. What the heck!? (see after the jump for the reveal)

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Song of the Week! 19 March 2016


Remember when we did the fraud rating Christmas songs? You guys seemed to like that so here's another installment of Fraud Rating Double Feature (not a thing yet though)!

Friday, March 18, 2016

Twitter Snippets (18 March 2016) - 3D Projection Mapping ad Infinitum

The Huis Ten Bosch installment of 3D Projection Mapping Taiko no Tatsujin is not going to end ever, is it now? Coming with another extension to March 31st, 2017 is a few newer songs to be added:

  • Silent Jealousy
  • Warera Omou, Yue ni Warera Ari Kamen Rider Ghost
  • Yoake Made Ato 3-byou Synchronica
  • KUSANAGI aran

I mean if you ever worry if you would miss the chance to play that you can probably rest your case. You have (at least) a whole year left, man.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Dokodon! Mystery Adventure Website Now Open!


At this point, we're already used to the Taiko Team not directly advertising the reveal of new console games or related updates on Twitter or their blog; nevertheless, the latest portable entry of the series has now a fully-operative website! Here's what the launch version of this Internet space adds new information to the already-known early details of the next Nintendo game.

Namco Taiko Blog 2 (17 March 2016) - White Version's New God Collection Songs


As we already know from last week, the God Collection folder in White Version will have two new Namco Originals coming next Thursday, joining aran and Massive New Krew's debut Taiko works. For today's second blog entry, Etou has gathered their authors' comments!

Namco Taiko Blog (17 March 2016): Cherry All The Way! Wii U3 March DLC


In the very spring-filled edition of Namco Taiko Blog is cherry blossom/sakura everywhere in the upcoming Wii U3 DLC. And with Touhou picks just arrived en masse in Vita1 and being slated for 3DS3 as default, it seems appropriate to have the remaining current console to have it too.

Wii U3 DLC Songs: March 24 (free)
  • さくらんぼ Sakuranbo
  • sakura 「交響詩篇エウレカセブン」より Eureka Seven
  • 色は匂へど 散りぬるを Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru o 東方Projectアレンジ 幽閉サテライト Touhou Project Arrange / Yuuhei Satellite Console debut (+ outfit and dancers)
  • さくら(春) Sakura (Spring)
  • 夜桜謝肉祭 Yozakura Shanikusai
Wii U3 DLC Outfits: March 24 (50 yen, tax incl.)
  • ボウリング Bowling (body)
  • げいしゃ Geisha (head)
  • げいしゃ Geisha (body)
  • 学生帽 School Cap (head)
  • 学らん School Uniform (body)
  • さくら Cherry Blossom (head)
 

Link to original post

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Norudon 2000 Lyrics



Composer, Lyrics: LindaAI-CUE
Vocal: LindaAI-CUE, DJ Cyber Komado (DJサイバー小窓)

Monday, March 14, 2016

Behind The Drums: Ayako Saso @ Sampling Masters AYA


Born March 5, 1967, Ayako 'AYA' Saso (佐宗綾子) is another of the biggest names from the SuperSweep Records label, due to the many collaboration works with its other members since the last few decades. Not only she can boast a similar career road than the one taken by Shinji Hosoe (started as a Namco employee, then working for Arika and subsequently a member of the SSR label), but she has also collaborated with Hosoe and Nobuyoshi Sano in a number of ways, either being part of OMY (Oriental Magnetic Yellow, tribute band of Yellow Magic Orchestra) or as a stand-alone composer contributor for the label's many albums and projects.

While not as recurrent as MEGA in terms of rhythm game appearances, AYA still managed to score musical recognition in many rhythm game franchises, with a huge portion of her rhythm game-related works appearing in ARIKA's music titles.

Behind The Drums: Shinji Hosoe @ Sampling Masters MEGA


Originally known with the "MEGATEN" art name, Shinji Hosoe (細江慎治) is arguably one of Japan's most influential personality in the videogame music scenario, with his earliest works stretching as far as the late 80ies go. Born February 28, 1967, Hosoe started his career at Namco, where he secretly learnt how to make music for 8-bit games from former employees and put this kind of knowledge on test with many arcade titles, up until becoming a recognizable personalty for the music made for the earliest entries in the Ridge Racer and Tekken series.

After his graduation from Namco, a working period at videogame developer Arika and a few side projects signed under the 1992 Troubadour Records label, Hosoe is the founder (and current president) of the still-running SuperSweep Records label, founded in the year 2000 and aimed to create commission music for any sorts of media, mainly involving the composing efforts of Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso and Nobuyoshi 'sanodg' Sano. With the other two aforementioned artists, Hosoe has been closely working together on a wide number of projects since the 90ies, with both NBGI's "Sampling Masters" units and the 1996-2001 "Sampling Masters" album collection being the bases of Hosoe (and Ayako Saso)'s most known nickname.

Shinji Hosoe's contribution in rhythm games spans many different franchises, with the most relevant ones being beatmania IIDX for supplying some of the first gabba/Rotterdam Techno songs for the series and Arika's Pitapat Beat game for i-devices, mostly filled with songs from both Taito gaming and Super Sweep Records musicians.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Sympho-Neighbours - License to Resonate



At this point in time, it's not a surprise to state that one of the Taiko no Tatsujin series' main strengths lies in its giant pool of licensed songs, with its huge catalog of J-Pop/Anime/early Variety songs to gather the attention of casual arcade players with widely-recognizable tracks from local music and pop culure akin to the Japanese audience.

That said, however, many other rhythm game franchises are dipping their fingers in this treaty sauce from time to time! Below is a selection of how licenses are treated in other major rhythm game franchises.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Song of the Week! 12 March 2016


So Lokamp has been out this week to give better attention real life commitments, so you will have to settle with me for the weekly column again, yay!

Perhaps it's a good time to tell all of you this: I start an insane amount of things around at the backstage of Taiko Time, but I also have a very hard time actually finishing stuff, so a lot of those just went into oblivion in the drafts. Today's pick was going to head a new Classical Song Series Showcase until I went and left 3 out the 4 songs unfinished.

Friday, March 11, 2016

Twitter Snippets (11 March 2016) - Taiko 3DS 3's Boxart



Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? The reason behind us posting the boxart in advance is that Nintendo Network on the top-right corner... that's right- Internet interaction with the game is coming back after the past 3DS title, possibly in form of new content being spread through downloadable means!

[RANDOM] - Taiko no Tatsujin Coin Dungeon for NA and EU Players


As we've seen last month, some of the eldest collaboration dungeons on mobile RPG sensation Puzzle & Dragons have been made available in Japan as Coin Dungeon, with the Taiko-themed trial now featuring the cover characters from the most recently-released portable Taiko games.

Now the wait is over for the rest of the world, as today those dungeons are permanent Coin Dungeon additions for everyone to enjoy! If you're interested in, also take a look at the invade-friendly version of Don-Chan, which got some buffs to his pre-existing Active and Leader skills.

At first I''ll be busy doing Multiplayer dungeons with my multiple Horuses (half stamina FTW), but a free stone for returning dungeons is always welcomed. I just hope the other staff members won't catch me this time around...
Enjoy!

3DS3 Update: More Teaser Launch Announcement Information

In which we pick up from the last post and get to the mechanics and story stuff from the scans and more. By the way, the teaser site is now up at 3ds3-mys.taiko-ch.net, with little actual content than release specs.

Story...?
Nothing much is known about the story, other than that Don-chan (and Kat-chan) will be going on a tour on the world's mystery spots with new friends Tia (girl) and Popokaka (monkey). The antagonists this time are the members of the secret society Hexaglia in the hunt for a certain Lion Fang Necklace.

Story Mode
As to how to play the story mode, this looks somewhat similar to 3DS2's 3D overworld adventure, but the battle system is much powered up. Now both sides can have a maximum of 8 party members, scattered across 9 spots between front, center and back, possibly with some sort of intricacies. If you cannot decide, Popokaka can give you a hand in generating a suggested line-up.

The Gekitotsu note returns from Wii2 and works the same, with a rapid showdown of drumroll decides the receiving end of significant damage. The new gauge will release Taiko Magic for a specially-charged effect.

And in collaboration with the Ace Attorney is a little Phoenix Wright available to recruit as Maybe this has to do with Ace Attorney 6 releasing (which has another scoop in the same Famitsu issue) but dunno anyway.

The story mode also has more multiplayer aspects than 3DS2, where you can take your whole teams to battle with or against other players. Download Play is also available for this.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Namco Taiko Blog (March 10 2016): Namco Original Bonanza! White ver. Update (V6.09)


It's a Namco Original bonanza with the upcoming V6.09 version update to Taiko no Tatsujin White ver., when the WCS2016 Area Elimination picks and more add in multiple juicy bunches! Oh and a minor update to the Search by Difficulty too.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Taiko no Tatsujin Dokodon! Mystery Adventure (3DS3)


wf0324_020

In which the jump to PlayStation Vita last year, we return to the (sadly region-locked) embraces of the Nintendo handheld, in a new 3DS Taiko no Tatsujin expected to come on June 16 2016! The official scoop will be available on the upcoming issue of Famitsu to be released on March 10, but that doesn't stop Donders and us looking in their preview tweet and website post for new songs first-hand!

※Erratum (2016/3/10): Fixed Hoshikuzu to Rinia to Boku

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Song of the Week! 5 March 2016


As macabre as this tradition may sound, we are called up (once again) to prepare the burial grounds to yet another licensed song that is going to be removed from its arcade grounds, with no other ports in other Taiko games to take the spoils after the White Version removal.

This time around, the trend is coupled with another returning feature: copyright-dodging audio distortion magic!

Friday, March 4, 2016

Namco Taiko Blog (March 4 2016) - Taiko x EXILE Collaboration, Once Again!

The Taiko x EXILE campaigns have more to it! Win one of 30 design blankets that look like the above for purchasing any full song plans for over 1 month on either version, which you can enter here. Also remember that thing about Don-chan speaking like the EXILE members? Here are some short videos the showcases that:


Link to original post

Thursday, March 3, 2016

First video: Gin no Ishi Super Arrange Ver.



 Gin no Ishi Super Arrange Ver. (銀の意志 Super Arrange Ver.) The Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki SC (4/5/6/8; 626 notes on Oni)

Making its Taiko debut with this month's downloadable song pack for Taiko V Version is the 2nd-placed song from the Falcom poll, coming from yet another title of the Legend of Heroes series. While the average-low BPM value may grind Oni ratings down, it's another 1/16 note cluster festival where everyone can enjoy a variety of interlocking patterns and drumrolls!

Across Japan: March Facebook Tournament


And March's Facebook Tournament will be another choice of novelty! Running from March 5~13 and results coming on the 16th, play these songs to snatch a place on the leaderboards:
  • Oni: Aka no Senritsu (★10)
  • Muzukashii: Snow halation μ's / Love Live! (★5)
Link to original post

Namco Taiko Blog (March 3 2016) - The White Terror (= White ver. Song Removal), and Livestream Recap


Of course we have already published our own livestream recap, so instead we ask you to check the original post for the (Twitter) icon and smartphone wallpaper unlocked by the Comments Challenge.

Instead we will dwell more on the inevitable being the removal of older or expired licensed picks, which the big slash for White ver. will come on March 29. Challenges and tournaments will not be able to use these from March 11.
  • Arigatou
    Also: PSPDX / Wii4
  • Taiko Dodon-ga Bushi Momoiro Clover Z
    Also: Wii U1 / iOS
  • Love Forever
    Also: AC13 / AC14 / iOS
  • Diamond Happy Aikatsu! Asia?
    Also: Wii U1 / iOS
  • Chikyuu o Mawase! AC0 exclusive Asia?
  • HappinessCharge PreCure! WOW! Asia?
    Also: 3DS2
  • FUTURE FISH Free! -Eternal Summer- AC0 exclusive
  • KIRA☆Power Aikatsu! Asia?
    Also: iOS
  • Preserved Roses T.M.Revolution×Nana Mizuki / Valvrave the Liberator  AC0 exclusive
  • VAMOLA! Kyoryuger Asia?
    Also: Wii U1 / iOS
  • 1 Dream Danball Senki/Little Battlers eXperience Asia?
    Also: PSPDX (DL ended)

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Ne~e Oshiete Lyrics



Composition, Vocal: Torine (トリ音)
Lyrics: Sasaoka (ササオカ)

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

V Version - Chinese Version's Early 2016 Song DLC


Thanks to some kind signalations from wikihouse users, we can now confirm that DLC support from the Chinese version of the first ever-growing Playstation Vita game hasn't been dropped as of now! It just happens that new exclusive licenses don't seem to lurk around...

For the past months, the not-Anime and J-Pop songs that have been released on the Japanese V Version were made available on the Chinese Playstation Network as individual pieces of download,  priced HK$10/NT$43 each (save for Seize the Day, which is free), all in the same day of the respective Popular Song Pack's release day in Japan. We'll update the V Version song list with the updated data as soon as possible.

Taiko Plus/Plus STH - March 2016's New Gakkyoku Tori Houdai Songs


New songs for portable Taiko gaming chime in, as the month of March begins! This time around, we have four songs reaching both the Apple and Google Play-based apps: two J-Pop tracks (Kimi ni Sakura-hirari To Mau; Oh! Rival) and two Namco Original tunes (Mulberry; Yozakura Braiders). 

As usual, the latest update is required to see and play the new songs (for Plus STH that's Version 1.0.2, which was released earlier today).

First Video: Rin



 Rin (凛) a_hisa (3/4/6/9; 672 notes on Oni)

The first of March in 2016 marks a milestone day for overseas Taiko players, as not-Japanese White Version machines are claiming dibs on a new song's debut earlier than Japan for the first time in the current arcade generation! One of the Donder's Choice winners in the latest Taiko-oriented CreoFuga contest, Rin's Oni mode sports any differient cluster formations to closely follow the piano and violin portion of the track. Watch out for the usual 1/24 traps and the gradual slow-down portion towards the end!

As a quick reminder, Japanese White Version arcades are also receiving something today as well, with the songs SORA-I Earth Rise and SORA-II Gliese 581 getting released in all public arcades after the MyBachi promotional period's ending.