There are currently twenty-two 2000 songs. The origin of the series is shrouded in speculation, but many believe it largely has something to do with the Taiko no Tatsujin being invented in the year 2000, though the first arcade Taiko didn't come out until the following year. Almost all of the 2000 songs were extremely difficult, if not the most difficult song on the arcade or console they were first released, and almost all have 10* difficulty rank on Oni difficulty, and they just get crazier and crazier with each subsequent one. Each 2000 has a distinctly different theme from each other with the exception of the Saitama sub-series.
All 2000 songs were devised by Linda AI-CUE, whose real name is Akihiko Ishikawa (石川哲彦). The first sixteen 2000 songs were charted by Takahashi.
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 -2000 series- | ||
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Saitama 2000 (さいたま2000)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko PS2 3 | x6 (366) | x7 (489) | x10 (550) | |
| Taiko 6 | x6 (366) | x6 (489) | x10 (570/550/550) | |
| Taiko 7-9, PSP1, 2 | x5 (252) | x6 (366) | x6 (489) | x10 (570/550/550) |
| TDM | x5 (252) | x6 (366) | x6 (489) | x9 (570, 550/550) |
| Taiko 10 | x5 (252) | x6 (366) | x7 (489) | x9 (570/550/550) |
| Taiko 11-14, all consoles in between | x5 (252) | x7 (366) | x7 (489) | x9 (570/550/550) |
| Taiko 0, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko Wii U | x5 (252) | x7 (366) | x7 (489) | x7 (570/550/550) |
Taiko 6 to 14, Taiko 0, Taiko PS2 3, Drum Master, Taiko PSP 1, 2, DX, Taiko DS 2, Taiko Wii 1, 4, Taiko 3DS2, Taiko Wii U, Taiko PS Vita Taiko +, CD Anime, CD 2008
200
Techno -> Namco Original
rotSaitama 2000 is the first of the long-running series, and although not as difficult as people might remember from the old days, it still stands as one of the most popular and infectious 2000 tunes ever made, and has been a must-have in every arcade and console Taiko has ever been released on.
The name 'Saitama' comes from the name of the Japanese province of the same name (埼玉), and it's a techno song, and the only 2000 song old enough to be classified under the old genre classification in Taiko 6 and PS2 3 as 'Techno', before being promptly moved to Namco Original one version later. The latter half of the song underwent a major change at around the Taiko 9/10 generation. At first, the lyrics seem to match whatever beats you had to hit on-screen (what fans know as Don-Katsu Chitai, トンカツ地帯), but one part stood out. Below are the background lyrics for the Don-Katsu Chitai. Notes in red represent don, and blue represents kat.
ドン カツ ドンドンカツ ドン ドドカ ドン カツ ドン ドドカ
カツ ドン カ カ ドン かつ ドン カツ ドドカドド ドン カツ
ドン カツ ドン ドン カツ ドン カツ ドン ドドドン カツ ドン
カツ カカドン カツ カツ ドン カツ ドン ドン ドカカカドカドン カ ド カ
This was not present in the debut version for Saitama, which was PS2 3, but in all subsequent Taikos that were released. Originally it was the hardest song ever for Taiko, but the difficulty standards had long changed and raised over the years since it was released. Eventually Saitama 2000 was downgraded from a 10 star Oni to 9, and as the series progressed more and more, even 9* proved to be harder than what Saitama once was, and it crashed to 7* on the latest HD Taiko arcade. However, this set of notes remains characteristic of Saitama 2000, and has been used in many other songs like Taberuna 2000 and Family Dondon.
There's also a voice in Saitama 2000 that made no sense, and you can hear it in the first part of the song, before the Go-Go Time and right at the end of the song. It's Don-chan's voice, you can't miss it (then voiced by Fushigi Yamada (山田ふしぎ)) and not Narahashi Miki). Efforts to translate it have all come up with blanks, until someone decided to play Saitama 2000 backwards. Now we know they're hidden messages in reverse. At the beginning of Saitama 2000, Don-chan repeats 'あなた好みの太鼓になります。' (I'll be your favorite Taiko) eight times, and 'わーい。おめでとう、ドドンがドーン！' (Yay. Congratulations, dodon ga don!) at the end.
Saitama 2000 was used in the boss battle with one of the Dokon Dan's noise-bots in Taiko DS2. It is also the first Namco Original to be used in a rhythm game outside of Taiko, which was Music Gun Gun 2. Later in 2014, Saitama 2000 also managed to be featured in the songlist of Synchronica, Bandai Namco's second arcade rhythm game.
Haya Saitama 2000 (はやさいたま2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 12.5 to 0, all console | x5 (252) | x7 (366) | x8 (489) | x10 (570) |
| Taiko 0.5 onwards | x5 (252) | x7 (366) | x8 (489) | x9 (570) |
Taiko 12.5 to 14, 0, Taiko PSP 2, Taiko Wii 2, 4 250 none rotspdThe result of the immortal longevity of Saitama 2000. this is the same song but sped up to 1.25 times the original speed, notes and all. There are no Master Notes in Haya Saitama 2000- the Master Notes of Saitama becomes regular notes here with no change. What was easy in the original becomes a lot harder here- the Don-Katsu Chitai becomes a super fast killer streak that destroys anyone who doesn't switch hands while playing.
Since both Taiko 0 and the console releases, Haya Saitama 2000 is no longer considered as Saitama 2000's Ura version, but as an unlockable stand-alone song, freely selectable in the songlist just like its counterpart.
Kechadon 2000 (ケチャドン2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko PS2 4 | x6 (189) | x6 (230) | x7 (437) | x10 (503) |
| Taiko 7, PSP1, 2 | x5 (189) | x6 (230) | x7 (437) | x10 (503) |
| Taiko 9 to 14, Wii 1 | x5 (189) | x6 (230) | x7 (437) | x10 (502/502/502) |
| Taiko 0.5, Taiko Wii U 3 | x5 (189) | x6 (230) | x8 (437) | x9 (502/502/502) |
Taiko 7, 9, 10, 12.5 to 14, 0.5, Taiko PS2 4, Taiko PSP 1, 2 ,Taiko Wii 1, Taiko Wii U 3, CD 2008, CD Tokaigi '16 110~250 none kechaThe 2nd 2000 song, introduced in the 4th PlayStation 2 Taiko game and arcade version 7. The entire song is based on Indonesian traditional music, and the 'sensei' in the intense conversation in the background is LindaAI-CUE. It's also one of the few 2000 songs to pause for a slow part, then speed up, then pause again, then continue to speed up, with its BPM increasing after each pause. At Taiko 9, Advanced Notes and Master Notes were introduced and the old notes became Normal Notes. It is one of the few songs to have 6* on Kantan on the PS2 4, one of only two Taiko games with that extra star added. Being cut out of Taiko 0 together with almost every other 2000 song not named Saitama, it was brought back for Taiko 0.5 as a secret song on January 2013, with its 10* crown lost.
How you get to the Advanced and Master Notes mimics the method used by the Garyoutensei series of songs. You're given a short drumroll towards the middle of the song (rather than the beginning), and the number of times you hit the drumroll will determine the notes which you'll play for the rest of the song. In Taiko 10 and up, Advanced Notes and Master Notes were swapped for one another, though all routes come up to the same note total of 502. A bug in Taiko Wii 1 forces players to go to Master Notes whether or not they hit the short drumroll, meaning Normal and Advanced are unplayable. They still exist, but only under certain conditions and only on Player 2.
Koibumi 2000 (恋文2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko PS2 5 | x6 (300) | x7 (400) | x8 (666) | x10 (777) |
| Taiko 7 | x5 (300) | x7 (400) | x8 (666) | x10 (777) |
| Taiko 8 to 14, PSP 1, 2, Wii 1, 4 | x5 (300) | x7 (400) | x8 (666) | x10 (777/777/777) |
| Taiko 0 S | x5 (300) | x7 (400) | x8 (666) | x9 (777/777/777) |
Taiko 7 to 14, Taiko 0 S, Taiko PS2 5, Taiko PSP 1, 2, Taiko Wii 1, 4, CD Anime, CD 2008, CD Sorairo 200 none slashBefore newer 2000 songs were made, this was considered as the hardest. The title is, literally, 'Love Letter 2000'. With a hard-rocking soundtrack in the background, a young woman (with the voice of the actress Yurika Ochiai, now using another name, Hase Yurina (長谷優里奈)) reads out a love letter to her lover. Her words, though just a plain read-out and not following the tune of music, are considered as Koibumi's lyrics. The streams of notes which alternate between Don and Kat towards the end of the song (and go faster and harder until the end) are regarded as the woman's heartbeat growing faster and more tense/excited as she professes her love. Then comes the 'Dear My Sister' part, which casts doubt on the whole point of the letter being written. Is it a relative she was writing to? No one knows.
This is the only 2000 song to be recognized as a J-Pop song as well. Koibumi is downloadable for the Japanese karaoke application JOYSOUND, which has over 13 million songs available.
Koibumi 2000 is the first 2000 song to catch players off-guard with two final notes that scroll at four times the speed, and the first song in Taiko to have a weird bug called the 'Go-Go Bug', which is now widespread in half of all songs in the arcade for no apparent reason (the glitch involves an obviously delayed start of Go-Go Time with no delay in ending). In Taiko 8, Koibumi's notes were put to Master Notes, and easier (?) alternatives were made for Advanced Notes and Normal Notes for the last part of the song, but note total sums up to the same. Together with DADDY MULK, Koibumi 2000 is the first song with 777 notes on Oni. This is partly significant due to Taiko PS2 5 being released exactly 777 days after the first Taiko arcade.
For the release of Sorairo Version's limited soundtrack, the song's backstory came full circle, as the prototype versions of the song have been released... and yes, there's more than one! Being also lyricised by Maeda Hiroshilchiro (前田浩一朗), the nearly-finished "Prototype Version" features Linda Ai-CUE himself as the singer, desperately trying to do a moe voice with the last rejected lyrics draft for the song. Always in the same album, the "Alternate Version" of Koibumi 2000 is a recreation of the very first idea of the song, when the code title of the song was Henbumi 2000 (変文2000, lit. 'Strange Letter 2000') and Linda Ai-CUE also provided the singing, before shifting the song's direction into what ultimately led to Koibumi 2000.
Yokuderu 2000 (よくでる2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 7, 8, PSP1 | x5 (232) | x6 (292) | x6 (483) | x10 (657) |
| Taiko 10 to 14, PS2 6 | x5 (232) | x6 (292) | x7 (483) | x10 (657) |
| Taiko 0 K | x5 (232) | x6 (292) | x7 (483) | x9 (657) |
Taiko 7, 8, 10, 12.5, 14, 0 K, Taiko PS2 6, Taiko PSP 1, Taiko Wii 1, CD 2008 182~189 none yokudOne of the 5 songs to be revived for Taiko no Tatsujin 14. Yokuderu 2000 is a madder version of those Swiss mountain songs, and its title is a corruption of the word 'yodel'. It describes the stressing work life of the Japanese (a common issue), and voices its desire to head to the mountains for a well-deserved vacation, thus the connection to yodeling songs. It's sung by Yuri Misumi, well-known for composing other soundtracks for Namco games like Katamari Damacy. One of the few songs to use a simple triple beat stanza instead of four.
Interestingly enough, Yokuderu slides in and out of popularity and has the most intermittent appearances and revivals in the arcade out of any 2000 song ever, even more so than Taberuna, Kechadon and Tenjiku. Don't believe me? Just count the number of times these four songs have skipped versions!
Taberuna 2000 (タベルナ2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (227) | x7 (358) | x8 (640) | x10 (821) |
Taiko 8 to 11, 12.5, 14, Taiko PS2 6, Taiko PSP 2, Taiko Wii 1, Taiko 3DS, CD 2008 170 none taberuOne of the 5 songs to be revived for Taiko no Tatsujin 14, but was revived first once again as the replacement song for Yokuderu in Ura Mode on Taiko 12.5. When it was first seen, it replaced Koibumi 2000 as the hardest 2000 song. The title 'taberuna' means 'don't eat' when translated to English, and it's a deformation of the Italian word 'taverna', a place where people can eat and drink like in a pub. The entire songs consist of inexplicable drumming beats and the sounds of a guy munching and drinking something (hey, what happened to not eating, eh?). After eating for three hours straight (you can hear the clock striking three in the background), the guy's heart finally gives out and he keels over. Guess you are what you eat.
Taberuna 2000 uses streams of note patterns from other songs during its Go-Go Time, and there are five of them. The first Go-Go Time borrows notes from Soul Calibur II~Brave Sword, Braver Soul~, the second from Mekadesu., the third from Saitama 2000 (Master Notes), the fourth from KAGEKIYO, and the final one is a long string of notes combined from Saturday Taiko Fever and Fuun! Bachi o Sensei. It is the only 2000 song to have no drumrolls or balloon notes whatsoever.
Taberuna 2000 is the third song of this long series to being used in console games as a boss battle music, specifically in the battle against Mamaphelgor on Taiko 3DS's Story mode.
Kita Saitama 2000 (きたさいたま2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (222) | x7 (305) | x8 (615) | x10 (802) |
Taiko 9 to 14, Taiko 0, Taiko PS2 7, Taiko PSP 2, DX, Taiko Wii 1, 4, Taiko 3DS 3, Taiko Wii U 2, CD 2008 222 none psplsbAs an upgrade to the old Saitama 2000, it's actually a completely different beast. Kita Saitama means 'north Saitama', the music genre is gabber, you can hear the scratching of DJ turntables in the back if you listen hard enough. The lyrics name the three cities found in Kita Saitama (Otone-machi,大利根町, Kisai-machi,騎西町, Kitakawabe-machi, 北川辺町) and the three neighboring prefectures (Gunma, 群馬、Tochigi, 栃木、Ibaraki 茨城). The three prefectures are all in the Kanto region. Kita Saitama is no more however, having merged with the rest of the Saitama prefecture on 23 March 2010, leaving behind a memory.
Brief facts of each city in Kita Saitama was given in hidden Morse code messages throughout the song:
- 1st :Otone enacted "Hometown declaration of nursery rhyme "
- 2nd :Kitakawabe was named "The town of mizuwa" by MLIT in 1996
- 3rd :Kisai is known as a home of sake
Unlike Saitama and later Mata Saitama, whose song IDs are 'rot' and 'rot3' respectively, Kita Saitama is not 'rot2', but 'psplsb' instead. This shows its origin as Taiko Portable 2 as the hardest song of the game, hence the 'last boss'. It has the same x4 speed final notes employed by Koibumi 2000, though those aren't anything too hard to beat. The last note actually scrolls at x8 speed. Because of this, there was a glitch in Kita Saitama 2000 in Taiko PS2 7. If you chose to play the song on Yonbai mode (x4 speed) and you get to the last note, the entire game freezes (4 x 8 = x32, which is so fast the system couldn't comprehend it) Source. This was fixed in all later Taiko games, including the Wii version.
Kita Saitama 2000 is the second song on Taiko games to be transplanted into other rhythm game franchises (jubeat, Groove Coaster and maimai), thanks to the late-2014 Tenkaichi Otogesai (天下一音ゲ祭) tournament. For this particular occasion, it got jacket album art for the foreign rhythm game franchises, displaying the Taiko no Tatsujin logo, four spirit souls and five Linda AI-CUE avatars, based on the in-game avatar for the composer being used on the Story mode of the second Taiko 3DS videogame, Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken.
Kita Saitama 200 (きたさいたま200)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (222) | x7 (305) | x8 (615) | x9 (802) |
Taiko 13, 14, 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 4 177.6 none lsbspdMore proof that Saitama 2000's influence is deeply embedded in Taiko, and no, '200' isn't misspelt. For some inexplicable reason, Namco decided to make a slower, easier take on the song and lower the rank by 1 star. But whatever the case, someone who hasn't already mastered Kita Saitama 2000 will find the 'two hundred' version much more manageable, and Kita 200 is actually great practice for the real thing, although because it's a slower version of the entire song, it does drag on for more than 3 minutes. Still one of the toughest 9* songs around.
Like Haya Saitama 2000, it is no longer Ura of Kita Saitama 2000 on Taiko 0 after its inclusion in Wii4 and the HD machime on firnware update 3.13, but selectable alongside its normal version just like in the console versions.
Soroban 2000 (十露盤2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 9 to 14, all other console | x5 (241) | x7 (309) | x8 (585) | x10 (765) |
| Taiko 0.5 onwards, Wii U | x4 (241) | x6 (309) | x7 (585) | x10 (765) |
Taiko 9 to 14, Taiko 0.5, Taiko PS2 7, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 1, Wii U, CD 2008, CD Tokaigi '16 (vocal only) 170~240 none sorobaMorse Code messages
Soroban 2000 will forever be known as the 4th wall song in Taiko. Literally it translates to 'Abacus 2000' (abacus being an ancient counting instrument) Soroban 2000 is one of the most fascinating 2000 songs to date, and it's not just because of the theme around the song. It's about 3 people playing an arcade game called, ironically, Soroban 2000. They found it fun, then the arcade machine suggested that they raise the difficulty level to 'Tatsujin' (Master). Because of what happens in the song, the notes you play on will also be forced up to Master. Then one player loses and gets an electric shock from the arcade, then it calms down to Normal notes again. After a long pause, the machine continues its rampage, upping you to Master Notes again, but on a much higher BPM. This continues until one player remained, and out of his insane skills, beat the arcade game. In this way it's a much crazier version of Kechadon 2000.
But what's even more fascinating about Soroban 2000 is that if you miss the first 317 notes (even drumrolls and balloon notes must be left untouched), the game switches you to Advanced Notes for the rest of the song, where a Morse Code message will be played out in the forms of dots and dashes (notes and drumrolls). How creative can they get? The message is different for each Taiko game, and for each difficulty.
Again, before the Taiko 12 generation, Soroban 2000 was considered the 'second in-line' in terms of difficulty, trumped only by Kita Saitama 2000. The final Go-Go Time in Soroban in fact has even higher BPM than Kita Saitama and has intense streams all the way. This is one of only two songs in Taiko with forked paths for all difficulties, Kantan to Oni (the other being Taiko Ranbu Kaiden). Besides composing the song, LindaAI-CUE is also the voice of the female player in Soroban's little story. His voice was modified by one octave for this purpose.
Later on, a Vocal-only version of Soroban 2000 was made for the AkeOme!!!+SotsuOme soundtrack, distributed as an exclusive album for the Niconico Tokaigi 2016 event.
Tenjiku 2000 (てんぢく2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko DS1 | x5 (147) | x7 (214) | x8 (593) | x10 (831) |
| Taiko 11, 12.5, 0S | x4 (147) | x6 (214) | x8 (593) | x10 (831) |
| Taiko 10, 13, 14 Wii 1 | x4 (147) | x7 (214) | x8 (593) | x10 (831) |
Taiko 10, 11, 12.5 to 14, Taiko 0 S, Taiko DS 1, Taiko Wii 1, Taiko Wii U 3, CD 2008 180 none 10jikuTenjiku 2000 shares the same theme with Yokuderu 2000, in that it also sings about stressed out Japanese workers, but instead of heading for the hills, they want to escape to India instead. You could easily mistake this for a Tamil song until the lyrics remind you that it's still Japanese. The first 2000 to use the DS' gimmick note, the Denden (which was replaced with balloon notes elsewhere), and the first one to use 1/24 notes in abundance. It's considered relatively easier to pass than most other 2000 songs, but harder to full combo. LindaAI-CUE composed and provided vocals for this song all by himself.
Tenjiku's Song ID is 10jiku, a clever pun on the English word for 10.
EkiBEN 2000| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (278) | x7 (368) | x8 (631) | x10 (876) |
Taiko 0 M, Taiko 11 to 14, Taiko DS 2, Taiko Wii 1, 4, CD 2008 194 none ekibenA collaboration between MC Linn and Linda AI-CUE. It was announced on the Taiko Team's blog in the revealing of four 2000 songs for Taiko 11. Three of them were fake, and Namco invited players to guess which 2000 song was the real one. MC Linn comes from Taiwan, so EkiBEN is the first 2000 song with part Chinese lyrics. Ekiben refers to the lunch boxes sold at train stations. The song is about an annoyed train traveler who couldn't buy lunch at the train station, and expresses his feelings in rap. Yes, EkiBEN 2000 is a rap song. Takahashi made the notechart, as he usually does for the tough songs in Taiko, and the rapper is an anonymous person inside the Taiko Team known only as Kidaruma (黄ダルマ)
EkiBEN is a 2000 song with intense note streams(especially at the end) that drain stamina, and like Taberuna 2000, also borrows notes from other songs, which are all put in the first half of EkiBEN. The songs used are, in order: Lum no Love Song, Hibike! Taiko no Tatsujin, Sakuranbo, and the super fast part from Rising Weather Hallelujah. The four songs were also all charted by Takahashi, which makes this his ultimate tribute of sorts.
X-DAY2000| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (224) | x7 (282) | x8 (555) | x10 (765) |
Taiko 12 to 14, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 1, Taiko Wii U, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko PS Vita, CD Donderful 190 none xday2kThe name and theme of X-DAY2000 both come from an old love/life longevity tester game by Namco, called X-DAY2 (to see it in action, click here). In this game, you answer questions correctly and the arcade will calculate how long you'll live/how long your love with another person would last. You even get a print-out of your results. Part of the music was lifted and remixed from the 'love' portion of X-DAY2 and the lyrics 'Body Heart Money Survival' refers to the categories you were tested in the original arcade game. It's a wonderfully insane techno song.
Because of high BPM and long streams of complicated note patterns, X-DAY sits very highly on the difficulty scale, right next to Soroban and Kita Saitama. There's a break near the end of the song when the lyrics count down the hours of 'your love life' before it ends.
X-DAY is the first song to be used in two different boss battles in console Taiko: the Guts Eater in PSP DX, and a reskinned version of Darnum in an extra downloadable story chapter for Taiko 3DS2.
Hataraku 2000 (はたラク2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (156) | x7 (242) | x8 (437) | x10 (876) |
Taiko 0 Mu, Taiko 13, 14, Taiko DS 3, Taiko Wii 3, 4, Taiko +, CD Donderful 106~160 none hataraThis is the 13th 2000 song. In terms of theme, it's yet another one which talks about stressed out workers, except this time they're not going anywhere for vacation. The people involved are from a computer programming firm, and their troubles while working are apparent. In the back, the music is split into two parts, a fast and slow part. The fast part is inexplicably noisy and crazy, while the slow part is a relaxed song (on the left speaker) and heated dialogue between employees (on the right speaker). Literally translates into 'Work 2000' (働く means work).
There are two sentences of Morse Code in the fast parts of Hataraku 2000, and they are as follows:
Death march : Confused development site. (デスマーチ：混乱する開発現場)
Common practice. (日常茶飯事)
As far as challenges go, it's almost too hard to say anything. The fast part contains an endless string of 1/32 and 1/16 notes making it seem like a song at 320 BPM scrolling at half speed. It's not that bad at the beginning when all you have to contend with is 'don' notes, but add 'kat' to the mix and you have a very unique pattern of handswitching that many players suffer with. Hataraku 2000 is a long-awaited worthy challenge to the throne which Kita Saitama 2000 sits on, and gladly takes the title of 'hardest 2000 ever'. Of course, there are still some who argue that the former is still much tougher. The nearly unbreakable Yam note in the middle (you're given 1 second to hit it 30 times) is replaced with a Denden note in Taiko DS3.
After getting the axe on the way to Taiko 0, Hataraku 2000 makes a very brief one day appearance in Taiko Kimidori (both Japan and Asia) on November 23rd, 2014 in conjunction with Worker Appreciation Day in Japan. You can thank the 100,000 comment milestone in one of Taiko Team's Nicovideo livestream for that! It made several more short showings in the arcade until Taiko Murasaki, where Hataraku 2000 was finally made into a default entry on the songlist.
Kidaruma 2000 (黄ダルマ2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x1 (86) | x1 (102) | x1 (115) | x1 (109) |
Taiko 13, 0 M/Mu/W/R (limited), CD Donderful 154 none mclinnKidaruma 2000 was was the result of an April Fools joke come true, on Taiko 13. On April 1, Namco announced that this new 2000 song would be revealed, and players were asked to go to Taiko 13's official site to listen to the music sample. The line 'April BAKA' in the lyrics of that sample gave it away—whoever went to listen to it fell for the Taiko Team's April Fools joke. The Taiko Team blog post involving Kidaruma 2000 was deleted the following day.
A few weeks later, those who didn't fall for it would eventually get tricked too. Turns out that the 'secret method' to unlock Kidaruma was actually true. This was because at the time of revealing, Taiko 13's 3rd secret code had not yet been released, which was apparently a pre-requisite in order to unlock Kidaruma. It revealed a 1* Oni song with a radio interview with MC Linn and Linda AI-CUE as the song, and a Morse Code message as the notes. The interview is as follows:
ピンポンパンポーン
司会 ：こんばんは、「エイプリルBAKA」の時間がやってまいりました。
今週も先週に引き続き、「リンリンズ」のお二人をお招きして盛り上がっていきたいと思います。
それではMC Linnさん、Linda AI-CUEさん、よろしくお願いします。
Linn＆Linda ：よろしくお願いします。
司会 ：リンリンズのお二人と言えば、先日の社員旅行、あれはちょっと残念でしたね～。
MC Linn ：そうですね～。まさか中二病が流行っちゃってね～、海外行きが全部中止になってしまうなんてな・・・。
Linda AI-CUE ：そういえばLinnさんからね、あの～、台北と上海のメイド喫茶巡りのマップ頂いたんですけれども。
司会 ：そうなんですか～、それはじゃあ残念でしたね本当に・・・。
MC Linn ：結構な兵らしいですよ、そちらも。
司会 ：それはそれはあの、ありがとうございます貴重なお話。
それではここで一曲お聴きいただきましょう、リンリンズ、4月31日発売のニューアルバム、「デスカントリー」より、シングルカットのナンバーです。「黄ダルマ2000」。
～歌が始まる～
今日も
服が
黄色
ｶﾁｯ（音楽を止める音？）
The Morse Code message for each difficulty is different. These will be translated soon.
Joke song or not, Kidaruma 2000 is the first 1* song on Oni in seven long years,and is the only song where the number of notes for Muzukashii exceeds that of Oni.
With the online capabilities of the new HD arcade, Kidaruma 2000 has been given the chance to return yearly on the fateful day of deception, since April 1 2014 on the Momoiro firmware and again on April 1 2015 on Murasaki.
Shimedore 2000 (〆ドレー2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (375) | x7 (498) | x8 (1004) | x10 (1414) |
Taiko 14, Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 4, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii U 1, 2 (Shimedore 2000+), CD Donderful (Shimedore 2000+) 177.6~250 none medl2k (2000) / medl2t (2000+)Although the official revealing of Joubutsu 2000 comes before this song was unlocked, Taiko 14 was released three months before Taiko Wii 3, so Shimedore 2000 goes first, as there is a high chance it was made before Joubutsu. . '〆' is a character you don't often see in song titles around here, and it's actually pronounced 'shime'. 'Shime' means 'end-point', and it was stated officially as the final 2000 song in the Taiko blog, due to Takahashi's resignation from the Taiko Team and with no immediate successor. To see more of the story, click here. It's also being used as a stylized version of the katakana letter 'メ' or 'me', which would make the title of this 2000 song as 'Medley 2000'.
And that's exactly what it is! It's a mashup of all the different 2000 songs that have been released over the years, with background music and all and are presented in order: Saitama, Haya Saitama, Kechadon, Koibumi, Yokuderu, Taberuna, Kita Saitama 200, Kita Saitama 2000, Soroban, Tenjiku, EkiBEN, X-DAY, Hataraku, and finally Kidaruma 2000. The most famously difficult bits of each and every song are all dumped into this mix, meaning Shimedore is about as hard as the hardest of 2000 songs can ever get. Even players who have mastered the 2000 songs contained in this medley will have to watch out as the stamina factor starts to set in after halfway; Shimedore is a very long song and very fast and difficult throughout the entire thing.
Shimedore starts a shocking revolution in Taiko unlike any other—it is the first ever Taiko song to breach the 999 note limit, and has 1414 notes in total. Like Kurenai and Densetsu no Matsuri, Shimedore 2000 features a lot of number play, this time on '14'. The secret code used to unlock Shimedore is made up of 14 hits on the rims, twice. It debuts on Taiko 14. Total number of notes is 1414. 14 2000 songs were involved in the medley (count it out if you don't believe me). Muzukashii difficulty has 1004 notes.
It is also interesting to note that there is no Go-Go Time in the entire song save for the final bit on Kidaruma 2000's part, which is one of the lowest amount of Go-Go Time in any song since Taiko 7. Because of the abnormally large number of notes, Shimedore also has one of the lowest base scores in Taiko history (260 points per note without combo). To get from 10th grade (十段) to Master (名人) rank on Taiko 14's mobile Taiko Dojo, Shimedore 2000 must be FCed. Which is in no way easy.
An extended cut of Shimedore 2000 simply called Shimedore 2000+ (plus) was released on the 2011 Taiko soundtrack CD 'Donderful!', with no changes to the original music except the addition of the full Kidaruma 2000 to the back of the song. Another different Shimedore 2000+ was seen on the final monthly DLC pack for Taiko PSP DX, with a slightly extended Kidaruma section but no added notes (just a drumroll, total combo remains as 1414)
With the continuation of the 2000 series from Mata Saitama 2000 onwards, Shimedore somewhat represents the end of a 'phase' in the 2000 series, with a new one beginning after this, instead of being the end of the entire series in general.
Joubutsu 2000 (万戈イム一一ノ十)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (183) | x7 (267) | x8 (533) | x10 (999) |
Taiko 0 S, Taiko Wii 3, 4, Taiko Wii U 2, Taiko PS Vita, CD Donderful 220 none last2kAlright, before I get to anything else let's sort out the weird, messy-looking title. 万戈イム一一ノ十 is unreadable, at least by normal standards. It's actually a series of four kanji characters separated into two pieces each. 万戈 put together is 成, イム is 仏, and as for 一一ノ十, read the title vertically and you get 二千, which means 2000. When all the pieces come together, the title reads 成仏二千, or 成仏2000. It is NOT pronounced as 'Man Ka Imu Ichi no Juu', which is what you'll get from the title at hand without piecing it together.
The title, '成仏' (joubutsu) means 'to die peacefully/go to heaven'. The lyrics are in complete French, and it denotes a sad but contented person before his death, 'giving up everything and moving on, but with deep joy and contentment'. And the songID is 'last2k', which means 'last 2000', however it is in no way the last 2000 song ever to be made. The series is very much alive and well, and the short message in Joubutsu's lyrics sheet on the Donderful! soundtrack album states that Joubutsu is supposed to be a final challenge, the last "first phase" 2000 song players will be able to clear because of its absurd difficulty level.
There have been reports of subliminal messages of death in Joubutsu 2000. At the beginning and end of the song, a person repeats the same five numbers in French many times. Listen closely to the song. 'Trois', 'Sept', 'Cinq', 'Six', 'Quatr' in that order. They're 3, 7, 5, 6 and 4 in French. The final stream of notes also have this exact number of don notes in between one kat each. 3 don, then kat, then 7 don, then kat, then 5 don....and so on. Put together and pronounced in Japanese, 37564 is 'mi-na-go-ro-shi' (皆殺し), meaning 'kill everyone'. Brrrr. There's also a faint crackling sound towards the end, which is interpreted as a burning fire/incinerator. Double brrrrr.
Joubutsu is acknowledged by players to be the hardest Taiko song in the entire history of the game, being of nearly the same BPM as Kita Saitama and featuring even harder note patterns and randomly changing beat positions, moving from standard 1/16 to 1/24 to even out-of-rhythm and in between everything. Its 1/24 clusters, at this speed, is also the second highest density cluster in the entire history of the game (tied with Toryu Ura; number one spot was taken by Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu -Gekijouban- Ura two years after the initial release of Joubutsu). It even breaks the record for most notes ever in a 2000 series song, previously held by EkiBEN and Hataraku, being of the maximum limit of 999 notes (not counting the 1414 note total of Shimedore 2000). It is the 5th song to ever reach that number. The forked paths are out of player control, switching between Master and Normal at pre-determined times.
The song sounds sad, corrupt and secretly evil, with a basic flute melody playing in the foreground and any number of random drums and other instruments in the back. Actually, the drums aren't that random after all. Listen closely and you'll find that the drums in the background correspond perfectly to whatever notes you have to hit on-screen. The drumming part is contributed by Masubuchi Yuuji, and the rest of the melody contributed by MC Linn and someone called Sariya Baboucarr. The French sentences were spoken by someone called Shoko, from Namco. For the longest time Joubutsu remained exclusive to Nintendo Wii, however it was finally released for Sorairo Version in the Dojo Challenge mode, and stands as one of the toughest songs to unlock in the history of Taiko (clear the 10 Dan challenge, which has extremely brutal conditions only doable by the godliest of players).
Mata Saitama 2000 (またさいたま2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (212) | x7 (378) | x8 (575) | x10 (835) |
Taiko 14 +, Taiko 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 4, Taiko Wii U 2, CD Donderful 240 none rot3Everyone loves Saitama. This has been proven time and time again, with the latest show of support on the Taiko Memories poll when donders all over Japan voted Saitama 2000 as the most influential and memorable song in the entire history of the game. The results of the poll probably contributed in a large way towards the making of this song, which contradicts the entire story and melodrama surrounding the death of the 2000 series as seen in Shimedore 2000 and Joubutsu 2000. And what do you do with a song that is insanely popular and liked by nearly everyone that plays it? You make it again, of course, hence the title, which means Again Saitama 2000 in English!
Mata Saitama 2000 was not instantly available on Taiko 14, nor was it unlocked using any secret code. Instead, it was installed into Taiko 14 as a software update to the machine together with four other songs made at around that time to coincide with the Taiko no Tatsujin tournament of 2011. It was a very unexpected surprise as almost everyone had assumed there would be no more new 2000 songs after Shimedore.
Just like Kita Saitama, there are geographical details of the region in the song, except more focused on food this time around. Etou confirmed in the Taiko Team's Ustream that Linda AI-CUE is indeed the person behind the making of Mata Saitama (as well as the death voice in the song), with another Taiko Time member codenamed Ojima (オジマ) handling the notechart. What happened to being busy with other projects then? To add to the mix, Mata Saitama also has the most interesting and creative hidden messages seen in a 2000 song since Soroban and Joubutsu, and is jam-packed with it. Click here to see all of them.
Mata Saitama is the fifth song to bear the Saitama name, but despite the similarity of the title, Mata Saitama is not a speed-up, slow down or simple remix (unlike Haya Saitama and Kita Saitama 200). It is a completely different song to Saitama 2000 and Kita Saitama 2000, with the same techno-DJ styles of the two songs, but with a more modern vibe after ten years of advancement in composing skill. The gauntlet is its extreme BPM, which although slightly slower than Haya Saitama, matches Soroban's BPM at its fastest for the entire duration of the song and arguably has tougher note clusters to tackle as well, with a killer stream at the end and many other random tough parts scattered throughout. The middle part is made up of the most famous note patterns of both Saitama and Kita Saitama, which although familiar to seasoned players, are also made harder by the increased speed. The clusters at the beginning of the song are also the significant ones in the old Saitama 2000 (
and ). Although not one of the most difficult 2000 songs to play, Mata Saitama is still a close match for the top three. Suuhaa 2000 (スーハー2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (322) | x7 (363) | x8 (506) | x10 (668) |
Taiko 0.5, Taiko 3DS, Taiko Wii 5 280 none suha2kOn his Twitter account, Taiko Team leader Etou encouraged players to play this song on Oni without any prior knowledge of the notes or watching any videos, promising a worthwhile challenge equal to the likes of the toughest god songs of the Taiko 0 generation. He was not kidding around. Meet Taiko no Tatsujin's first ever shock chart.
Suuhaa 2000 (the phrase means the sound of deep breathing) was introduced as a non-unlockable song on Taiko 3DS. Playing in tune to a relaxing beachside paradise melody (the first 2000 with calm music, in fact), Suuhaa 2000 tricks first time players into a false sense of security with simple Futsuu-level patterns before mashing them completely to a pulp, using 1/16 clusters under its abnormally high base BPM of 280 (or if you prefer, 1/32 clusters under BPM 140), with short drumrolls scrolling even quicker to signal its crazy parts. The song then slows back down, but with players on high alert this time, wondering when exactly Suuhaa will surprise them next. And it is VERY effective at its job; on first play there is absolutely no telling when the chart decides to ramp it up, one speeding bullet of a drumroll later and the screen is completely filled with tons of notes.
The surprises hidden in this chart are a massive pain to deal with even after the first try. The first 301 notes are spread over the first 1 1/2 minute or so, with the remaining ones being crammed into the final half a minute. How? Tons of 1/32 clusters back to back, as if you were really playing a song at BPM 280, and the clusters aren't simple either, they comes in threes, twos and fours leading to some really frustrating handswitches, even worse than the ones in Hataraku. And the most insane part is, the notes actually fit the music! Suuhaa may have less total notes than almost every other 2000 song ever made before it, but it is harder than almost every one of them. Its Oni chart proves that notecount is not always proportional to difficulty level.
There is Morse Code in the background music on the final Go-Go Time, which says "The picture of silly assumption, and its collapse."
Donkama 2000 (ドンカマ2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (342) | x7 (481) | x8 (588) | x10 (765) |
Taiko 0 M, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko Wii U 2, Taiko PS Vita, CD Sorairo (teaser) 2.5~270 none doncamUnbeknownst to most people, one of the secret preview songs released for the elusive Taiko Sorairo soundtrack CD was a short sampling of this 2000 song, released on June 2014 in Taiko Momoiro as a Don Challenge song. It is significant because the Don Challenges involved in unlocking Donkama 2000 are by far the hardest goals to beat, involving FCing existing 2000 songs with modifiers and getting very high scores on them. One can only assume this means it would only be unlocked to those deemed worthy of its epic difficulty.
What greeted players was something completely out of everyone's expectations; instead of the standard difficult chart and song, Donkama 2000 takes gimmick charts to yet another new level, even higher than Hataraku or Suuhaa before it. The crux of the Oni chart is a total lack of readability; almost every single cluster in the chart scrolls at a different speed from the last. Fast, slow, fast, slow, then faster. It is one of the most disorientating and difficult to time songs in Taiko history, and the music at the back is equally difficult to play along to, as many of the clusters are deliberately made off-beat. Even those skilled enough to beat the Don Challenges fell in defeat to this song on their first tries because of its shock scrolls, and it is the first song in 5 years where not a single player was able to Full Combo on its day of release (the last one was Ryougen no Mai).
Donkama's name origins span very far back, and is the abbreviation of an electronic rhythm machine called 'DONCA MATIC' released by electronic instrument giant KORG. Inc., in 1963 (its full name is the Korg Disc Rotary Electric Auto Rhythm Machine Donca Matic DA-20). It looks something like this, and as its name suggests, can automatically create rhythmic sounds. Linda AI-CUE must have been having a little too much fun with one of these while making the song. The don notes and kat notes correspond to bass drum sounds and claves respectively, pumped out from the Donca Matic.
Like Suuhaa, even if you have the entire chart memorized, even if you are able to pick up a method from this madness, it is still a very difficult chart to manage due to the immense density of the Don clusters, which although are still unconfirmed, are measured by chart makers to be BPM 290, the same speed as Xa, and involves a very irregular, almost random, beat structure which is constantly changing throughout the song. The Go-Go Time is also only a single large note long, and is one of the shortest ever recorded.
Donkama 2000 is the third 2000 series song to have 765 total notes after Soroban and X-Day.
Norudon 2000 (ノるどん2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (255) | x6 (354) | x7 (510) | x10 (936) |
Taiko 0 Mu, Taiko PS Vita, Taiko Wii U 3 140~200 none nrdn2kLinda AI-CUE must really hate his job. Kidding of course, but when you think about the fact that Norudon 2000 is the fourth work-related song in the series (the first three being Yokuderu, Tenjiku and Hataraku), you have to wonder what makes him explore this theme so much. This time round, it's not about being super-stressed and wanting to escape for a holiday, nor is it about co-workers exploding in a development room during crunch time on a software project, but rather, depicts a mad rush hour by the working class at a train station. The song is pretty fun-sounding to boot as well, with a very nice, bouncy rhythm.
Norudon was revealed to Taiko fans with much fanfare; at one of the Taiko Team's livestream events in 2015 (with a nice video of the team's main members dancing to it as well!). It was subsequently released on Taiko V Version for the Playstation Vita. Alongside Linda himself, someone named DJ Cyber Komado (DJサイバー小窓) provided the vocals.
After several iterations of sadistic 2000 songs, each harder and more gimmicky than the last, Norudon 2000 marks a return of the series to a more midde-tier 10* Oni chart; not too fast, not too dense, no speed scrolling or shock notes. This is a 2000 song as it were produced during EkiBEN and X-DAY's era, except with way more notes. At 936, Norudon is currently third place for most notes among the series' songs, behind Joubutsu and Shimedore. The chart itself has a heavy emphasis on 2-note clusters, complex patterns and backbeats, building on the groundwork laid down by Tenjiku 2000, and although readable, will still take a fair amount of effort to pull off correctly without getting confused.
Yokuderu 15300 (よくでる15300)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (17) | x3 (17) | x2 (17) | x1 (115) |
Taiko 0 W/R (limited) 237.15~500 none ???After two years in the third arcade generation with cabinets receiving Kidaruma 2000 as an April Fools exclusive song, someone in the Taiko Team might have thought that the joke was beginning to show its age since its Taiko 13 debut... Thus, meet White Version's new prank song!
Following Haya Saitama 2000 and Kita Saitama 200, this is yet another popular song from this series which got its pace drastically modified from the original track, with Yokuderu 15300 being an incredibly sped-up version of Yokuderu 2000 that checks up at roughly 20 seconds of running time! This song was based on a sped-up audio clip of the original Yokuderu 2000 which was originally used for a challenge issued during the 2016 Niconico Tokaigi's Taiko no Tatsujin stage event. This is also the very first limited-time track to come in public Taiko arcades with the "Limited" label used by songs appearing only in selected events (Niconico/Reitasai for example), coupled with a "Very Short Song (20 Seconds)" (とても短い曲です(20秒)) disclaimer in the song list.
How fast is it? By doing a simple arithmetic operation, it's possible to find out that the song has been sped up of 7.65 times (as 15300 : 2000 = 7.65), making the familiar Namco goroawase a key element to this very short spoof song. Many videos of Youtube users that have tried to slow down this version of Yokuderu 2000 (link) have easily verified this speed fact, with the resulting audio being a distorded version of the original 2000 song due to the quality drop issues involved into the original song's speed alteration.
Yokuderu 15300's notechart set is a tale for all ages, as in its weirdness has set some notable records in Taiko. After almost 6 years and 4 months, this is the latest song to have a 1-star Oni mode, which -much like Dajare de Oshare- is the lowest-rated mode of the set (or tied with Futsuu, in the case of Dajare), consisting of a decreasing mode rating scheme. Inside the notecarts themselves, we find out that all four modes share the same 17 initial notes, but while the easier KFM trio ends with unbreakable hit-balloons of varying hit values (432 for Kantan, 543 for Futstuu and 654 for Muzukashii), the Oni mode pulls what's easily the hardest 1/16 note stream among 1* songs. Watch out for the slight pause between the 90th and 91st notes!
Mada Saitama 2000 (まださいたま2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (323/305) | x7 (444/422) | x8 (636/636) | x10 (999/981) |
Taiko 0, Taiko 3DS 3, Taiko PS4 280 none rot4Everyone loves Saitama. This has been proven time and time again, with the latest show of support on the Taiko Memories poll when donders all over Japan voted Saitama 2000 as the most influential and memorable song in the entire... oh, wait.
We've already told you this story.
The reason behind us rehashing this bit of trivia, however, can be easily explained, as Linda AI-CUE and other Bandai Namco musicians had fun on taking yet another spin to the familiar Namco Original classic! This 4th alternate Saitama 2000 reincarnation goes under the title of Mada Saitama 2000 (lit. 'Still Saitama 2000').
The lyrics speaks of the exhausted "main protagonist", voiced by Linda AI-CUE, on a train ready to go home from Tokyo (likely after work) and dozed off under the monotonous scenery. When he woke up, he found himself not only missing his interchange but already crossed prefectural borders twice (Saitama and Tochigi) and is now almost 30 stations away. Chaos ensues as he scrambled to get off the train, and he ended up stranded in some random countryside place lamenting the lack of a way back.
The theme of repetition for the 4th non-alteration Saitama song can be intercepted within different layers in the song: outside from the title, Mada Saitama's ID has the 'rot' root of Saitama 2000 and Mata Saitama 2000 before it and morse messages are featured as well! This time around, all of the messages are directly decoded into English words, with the main ones being the very first one -translatable as 'Moving north'- and the Kat note-riddled portion in the middle, giving out the message 'Moving north through Saitama'. While the main singer's identity is still unknown, the nick-named YK-3 reprises his role as Mada Saitama's coral singer after being Suuhaa 2000's main singer.
As an ode to repetition, most of Mada Saitama 2000's note patterns are repeated in intervals of 8 beat stanzas, but players trusting their readability skills on muscle memory alone will have the need to step up their game, as subtle pattern variations are always behind the corner with clusters of 1/16 and 1/12 tempo signatures each and... Did we already mention that the whole song is played under 280 BPM?!? That's right- the same base speed of Suuhaa 2000 is exploited for a different kind of difficulty in this song, combined with a more note-packed notechart set and scrolling bar speed alterations all along, from the not-Go-Go Time portions set to half the regular pace to sudden x2.73 bursts for the drumrolls.
After the Touhou Project song Night of Knights, Mada Saitama 2000 is the latest one in Taiko gaming to have forked paths on all four modes and -at the risk of sounding repetitive- this is also to serve the song's repetition topic. If the precision requirement at the Kat-dictated morse code portion of the song isn't met, the Normal Route branching for all modes will display 24 beat stanzas of former 'Saitama 2000' songs' most popular note formations all at once! The first 8 are for Saitama 2000's fan-dubbed Don-Katsu Chitai, then the first beat stanzas for Kita Saitama 2000 and Mata Saitama 2000 are shortly following the flow.
Nesin Amatias| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (252) | x7 (366) | x7 (489) | x7 (570/550/550) |
Taiko 0 G (limited) 200 none ???Roughly three years after Mada Saitama 2000, we get faced to yet another re-arrangement to Saitama 2000, joining the ranks of Kidaruma 2000 and Yokuderu 15300's April-Fools-Only contenders. You can tell how this song is just the original Saitama 2000 being played backwards from the title alone, reading out as 'Saitama Nisen (=2000)' if read backwards!
As the song (and subsequently, its notecharts) are exactly the same as the original series-starter's but only played in reverse, we can't really add that much trivias about it. The only new thing worth noting is that this is the very first song in Taiko whose preview clip in the Song Selection menu is not cut from the actual song! As you can hear, however, it's just a 1+ minute recording of a simple ditty, with a lady repeating 'Nesin Amatias' over and over.
Waraeru 2000 (わら得る2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (284) | x7 (386) | x8 (605) | x10 (818) |
Taiko N, Taiko PS4 13.5-216 none wara2kIn the same year of Nesin Amatias, we get an actually-unique new addition to the infamous song series, with the illustirious task of its hosting ta.ken care of by yet another console Taiko game...'s DLC catalog. It's quite interesting to see that such an introduction can happen to songs of the most known series grouping, isn't it?
Many, many years after X-DAY2000, this happens to be the second 2000 song not to be single-handedly composed by Linda Ai-CUE, as revealed in the tenth broadcast of the NAMCO SOUNDS livestream line over Youtube (link). It appears, in fact, that the blonde-haired composer was only tasked of the vocals and overall arranging, while the music creation process per-se was handled by the Taiko Team's Yuji Masubuchi (増渕裕二). For this song, a morse code message was left as part of the song, translatable into the following two English sentences:
self-responsibility?
escape to survive!
Being labeled by the duo on such livestream outing as "a story about love and warriors", Waraeru 2000 (lit. 'Straw Get 2000')'s creation bears a little more punch to laughter that extends beyond the ones that were used for the song; in one choice anecdote that was revealed on stream, the song's beginning portion of trippy barlines(TM) was so complex that "it wouldn't work properly on the notechart production editor, but for some reason it would work perfectly fine when said data was sent to the game itself". Talk about a fortuitous outcome... just to put in some silly eye-candy!
With its many and perillous jumps in speed on both spectrums of the scrolling bar, from the lows of x0.5 to the highs of a whopping x10, it doesn't matter how many times someone plays this song's hardest difficulty: chances are some speed scare will come in to haunt the performans into some scare-hit traps and reading mishaps. From really fast drumroll-heavy markers to really-slowed-down giant note that dangerously lingers around while faster and more aggressive note formation come by to a 983-hit balloon that is only second to Rotter Tarmination Ura's infamous triple-digit-limit balloon that is impossible to break, Waraeru 2000 is a testament of how mainly-1/16 charting can still giving the thrills of a lifetime when stretched out to some of the most extreme conditions yet. Clearing stanza 204's Don-dense clusters will also require quite the arm power to properly perform it: an average of 28.8 hits/seconds, currently ranking 4th overall after Donkama 2000's "peak-condition" hit/speed requirement of 29.238 hit/seconds.
Zoku Shimedore 2000 (続・〆ドレー2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (301) | x7 (453) | x8 (595) | x10 (940) |
Taiko N, Taiko PS4 62.52-465 none ???Songs from this series have had their egregious past of getting on either the console/arcade first only to eventually pop to the other side some time later (unless it's one of arcade line's several April Fools songs, in which case it downright refuses to happen), but this one is the first that could enjoy a same-day release between the PS4 Taiko game and the first of the 4th-generation arcade firmwares!
With the word 'Zoku' (lit. 'Sequel') in the title and the oh-so-weirdly-familiar Shimedore 2000 portion, what you see is what you get: a Shimedore 2000... that is a sequel after the original! Thanks to Yuji Masubuchi (増渕裕二), all the post-Kidaruma 2000 songs are featured together as a mash-up song starring some of the most challenging note patterns that the trans-generational gap between the numbered Taiko arcades and the multicolored Taiko firmware line could muster in about 9 more years of franchise history, while also sneaking in the couple of April Fools invaders that have been made in-between. In order of appearance, we have Joubutsu, Mata Saitama, Suuhaa, Donkama, Yokuderu 15300, Norudon, Mada Saitama (with the Master notechart's portion of it), Nesin Amatias and Waraeru, joining hands to greet end-time DLC players and 4th-gen troopers alike!
Unlike for the original Shimedore 2000, however, picking up the most challenging portion for each of the featured songs was not of the upmost priority, ultimately resulting into a top-rating noptechart set whose note amount doesn't particularly stand out like the original medley's. That said, however, a Full Combo is not to be considered a deal in the bag thanks to multi-tempo signature areas offenders like Suuhaa/Mada Saitama/Waraeru's portions and Yokuderu 15300's merciless Don stream. The lower average note density and relatively mono-color (or calmer) series inclusions in the likes of Donkama and Nesin Amatias makes for a more consistent clear ration among generally-seasoned 10-star Oni players in general.
Taiko no 2000 (たいこの2000)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (234) | x7 (361) | x8 (550) | x10 (1008) |
Taiko Nijiiro 56-224 none ???One more 2000 series medley out and it turns out that the future of this series... lies on the furthest past imaginable! Enter Taiko no 2000, one of the songs made for the Taiko no Tatsujin series' Taiko de Time Travel original song project.
The creation of this song lies on the strife to convey how the growth of human civilization could be a force to be reckoned with if backed by an inspiring background setting, the same sentiment that is also shared by another of the Taiko de Time Travel songs Linda AI-CUE himself lent a hand on the audio cues department for (Daibouken Tatsudon). It's no coincidence that some of the SFX starring in the Showa Anime Tatsudon theme song also make a cameo in here, too!
Moreso than in previous 2000 songs, time periods and geographical landmarks of the planet are featured in its hidden messaging channels, spacing further than Japanese cities and prefectures. The first half of the song houses a morse code handing out a brief sentence in English: "Xia Dynasty, and the Middle Kingdom of Egypt", both historical periods that have been said to start around the year 2000 BC. The latter half as well makes way for two more English sentences, the first one being "Japan is still in the Jomon period", which is true considering how historians do credit the span of the Japanese prehistoric period's last segment to be starting... you guessed it- something around 2000 BC! "The Jomon Period", always through Morse messaging, is repeated twice afterwards. Also worth mentioning is the shouting middle-portion, repeating a few times the sentences Me-ni-wa Meo (目には目を) and Ha-ni-wa Hao (歯には歯を) in reference to one of the most known quotes from the Babylonian Kingdom's Code of Hammurabi: 'Eye for an Eye' and 'Tooth for a Tooth', the base of the Harm's Revenge by which one must be dealt the same wrongdoing he or she has perpetrated to others in order to atone for its sin. The part also features notecharts on all modes that tend to mirror each other four times, for couples 60-62, 64-66, 68-70 and 72-74!
For the first time (or at least, the first publicly-revealed istance), here we are with a 2000 song that is not charted by either of former and current Taiko Team leaders, opting to hand the labor to Synchronica veteran SueP (すえP) instead. The chart is played on a straightforward 1/16 way for most of its duration, but in order to pay homage to the Namco Original series' lineage, together with scrolling speed eye-candy moments are some foreign-chart-quoting moments to wink at the history of Saitama songs to date. Right after the "Eye for and Eye, Tooth for a Tooth" portion and right into the succeeding one with four Go-Go Time bursts and multiple shouts of 'Taiko', we can spot four different compound clusters from former 'Saitama 2000' songs to be played one after another: stanza 68 (Master) of Saitama 2000, stanza 104 of Kita Saitama 2000, stanza 148 of Mata Saitama 2000 and stanza 39 of Mada Saitama 2000. Couple these with an unbreakable 765-hits balloon and really frantic charting to mimick the computing of the two main morse messages and players will be left wondering if this is the true ancestor to Rotter Tarmination's Ura Oni or not!
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