Alright, as promised, we'll look into one of your requests this week! So, which song did we decide to feature?
Rotter Tarmination| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 12 to 14, Taiko Wii 1, 2, 4, Taiko PSP DX | x5 (182) | x7 (249) | x7 (438) | x9 (681) |
| Taiko 0, Taiko Wii U 2 | x4 (182) | x6 (249) | x7 (438) | x8 (681) |
| Taiko 12 to 14, Taiko Wii 1, 2, 4, Taiko PSP DX (2P) | x5 (180/178) | x7 (249) | x7 (438) | x9 (681) |
| Taiko 0, Taiko Wii U 2 (2P) | x4 (180/178) | x6 (249) | x7 (438) | x8 (681) |
Taiko 12 to 14, Taiko 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 1, 2, 4, Taiko Wii U 2, CD Full Combo 
200
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sweep1Composed by Shinji Hosoe, a.k.a Sampling Masters MEGA, and a godsend for the dark horse of the arcade generation, Taiko 12 (being between two peaks in interest, 11 and 12.5), Rotter Tarmination is one of the most fondly remembered songs, for reasons discussed later. The title - translated into its Japanese equal - can mean 'killing a bully' ('rotter' in English means a bad person), which leads to the song being wrongly titled as Rotter Termination. Remember, it's spelt with an 'a', not with an 'e'!
The real origin of Rotter Tarmination's name is a corruption of Rotterdam Nation, a Ridge Racer song also made into a tough 10* song on Taiko. All that was done was to put 'dam' onto the beginning of the second word and change the pronunciation slightly. The name isn't the only thing connecting the two songs- the composer of both are the same, and Rotter Tarmination has a sentence spoken in reverse: "I'm Tammy! Let's meet again!" just like Rotterdam Nation's own backwards sentence 'Hey, you're trying to get a gold by going the other way? You're crazy.' . The hidden message in Rotter Tarmination gave away the actual vocals of the song, which was done by Tomoe Tamiyasu (民安ともえ), hence her nickname 'Tammy', a well-known female voice for several animes and some 'adult' games (you know what this means). The lyrics come directly from her album SMILEBIT-TECHNO RIDER TAMMY 2.
Rotter Tarmination is one of the most used Taiko tunes for remixes with other music by Taiko fans, giving birth to "masterpieces" like this. ROTTER TAIY⑨SHINKO
While Rotter Tarmination is overshadowed by its own legendary Ura Oni difficulty (below), by itself it's a very tough 8* Oni song with high BPM and a continuous barrage of note clusters. Not to mention the final balloon note which needs 999 hits to break! To finish it, you'd need a speed of 204 hits per second. This is the first Taiko song to feature an unbreakable balloon note, and is there merely for points.
Rotter Tarmination| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 12, 13 | x8 (438) | x10 (943) | ||
| Taiko 13, 0 | x10 (943) | |||
| Taiko Wii 2, 4 | x5 (183) | x7 (250) | x8 (439) | x10 (943) |
| Taiko PSP DX | x5 (183) | x7 (250) | x8 (423) | x10 (943) |
Taiko 12 to 14, Taiko 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko Wii 2, 4 200 none exswp1The reason why Rotter Tarmination stuck to players? This. Since its first arcade release, Rotter Tarmination is packed with two Ura modes, one for Oni, and one for Muzukashii. This makes Rotter Tarmination the first and the only song (that isn't a full version) to have a Ura difficulty in more than just Oni on the arcade. The 8* Muzukashii song has the exact same set of notes as the regular one, but after the first few stanzas, nearly ALL notes are big notes and scroll at an increased speed, like Oodain from last week's feature. On PSP the nasty 3 and 5 big note clusters are removed, making this insane Muzukashii mode a bit easier to FC. Due to the way Ura mode works on Taiko 0, this alternate Muzukashii chart has been taken out from the arcade.
Now that that's out of the way...If you've been keeping up with Taiko no Tatsujin news, you'll know that Rotter Tarmination's Ura Oni is something to be feared by many players, being one of the hardest songs in the entire series, sitting comfortably ahead of even Kita Saitama 2000. Between the same high BPM and crazy changing note patterns that barely make any sense when the song is first tackled, left many players, even the top-tier experts, gasping for breath. Not a single person FCed this on their first try. The disorientating 2-by-2s and excruciating handswitches at the beginning and the middle, the seven and nine-note clusters towards the slowdown part, and the dense 1/24 note clusters are all very steep challenges.
But the nastiest surprise is saved for the last part of the song. After a slowdown to half speed, the song suddenly speeds up to twice the regular speed, the a long, long stream towards the end at four times the regular speed! With some memorization, the stream can be tackled, but only if you haven't used up all your stamina long before then. Seriously, it's one of the craziest things to happen in Taiko history. The balloon note needs 766 hits, unlike regular Oni, and hitting it the first time will reveal the Namco number, 765, which was intentional, and still as impossible to finish. The two shouts of 'Nanja korya!' (What the heck!) at this portion of the song punctuate the speedup and the balloon note perfectly, even more so if you're seeing this song for the first time.
