Finally we're only two days from Halloween! This means we can finally answer a request sent a year ago, in conjunction with the holiday. Get ready to be scared!
Hello! Halloween (ハロー！ハロウィン)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 12.5, 13 | x4 (100) | x4 (146) | x7 (387) | x9 (576/569/574) |
| All console | x3 (104) | x4 (150) | x7 (387) | x9 (576/569/574) |
| Taiko 0.5 | x3 (100) | x2 (146) | x6 (387) | x8 (576/569/574) |
Taiko 12.5, 13, 0.5, Taiko Wii 2, CD Donderful
134~146
none
helhalEveryone might imagine a common Halloween song to be a terrifying horror song, with distressing rhythms and gloomy melodies... but this is not the case. Introduced in one of Taiko 12 Zoryoban's secret codes, Hello! Halloween is a playful, mischievous song about kids dressing up and going out to the streets to ask for candy. Trick or treat!
Hello! Halloween's shrill voices belong to former Namco/Bandai artists: they are akane, nobop, Shojo Sakamura (中村彰吾), Yukiko Yamamoto (山本由貴子) -who also sang Future Lab among Zoryoban's new Namco Originals - and Oogami Masako (おおがみまさこ), from both old and new songs (Shishihagemai and 3Q-4U-AC00).
What makes this Taiko song really scary is its infamous notechart, made by Etou once again, and like the kids on Halloween night, plays a lot of tricks on the player. It might appear like a pretty tame 9* at first with the regular old streams and clusters, but at the second chorus things get much tenser as the BPM climbs quickly and then suddenly the scrolling speed increases to 2 times!
At the end, after a bombardment of big notes, there will be a 60-hit balloon note followed by one of three different endings, depending exclusively on the accuracy of how you hit the big notes in the 2nd Go-Go Time zone; Normal route has a 5 note cluster, Advanced route has a balloon note, and Master route has a crazy 1/24 cluster of 7 notes. This is the prank that is being played...you're not going to expect anything to come after that balloon note, but then stuff suddenly comes at you at 8 times scroll speed!
Because of the scroll speed, it allows for closer distance between big notes, and this is one of the only songs to break the 'big notes must never be 1/16 beat or closer to each other' rule. Unless you're on the arcade, it is virtually impossible to hit all big notes in the Master course for double points! The 1/16 big note clusters mean getting to Master notes on Wii 2 is extremely difficult, as you need full points from the big notes. Strangely enough, the 2nd Go-Go Time starts a bit later than everyone expects it to be, like KAGEKIYO Ura, and this isn't the Go-Go bug either, every version with this song has it.
Hello! Halloween shares a connection with an IdolM@ster song called HELLO!!. The two songs's IDs are very similar (helhal for the former, helmas for the latter), both songs have appeared on Taiko Wii 2, and HELLO!! has a small part of notes from Hello! Halloween. On Taiko Wii 2, Hello! Halloween is used in the boss battle against Antimon, the twin conga mechas who were created from the winning entry in a CoroCoro contest (for details, check the Taiko Wii 2 Boss Battles page)
...since we haven't seen an Ura pick for this month yet, let's explore the Namco Original universe once again! Do you know why I (Lokamp) chose Saturday for the Song of the Week day?
Saturday Taiko Fever (サタデー太鼓フィーバー)| Version | | | |  / |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 4 | x7 (437) | x10 (437) | ||
| Taiko 5, 6, Taiko PS2 2 | x4 (177) | x7 (437) | x10 (437) | |
| Taiko 9, PSP 2 | x4 (100) | x5 (169) | x7 (333) | x8 (437) |
| Taiko Wii 3 | x4 (100) | x6 (158) | x8 (333) | x8 (437) |
| Taiko 0 onwards | x4 (100) | x6 (158) | x8 (333) | x7 (437) |
Taiko 4 to 6, 9, Taiko 0, Taiko PS2 2, Taiko PSP 2, Taiko Wii 3, CD Red 130 Namco -> Disco -> Namco Original funkThis may sound silly, but THIS funky tune is the main reason! It was the first 10-star song I've managed to clear in an arcade... Don't make those faces, it really had 10 stars on Taiko 4!
Personal feelings aside, Saturday Taiko Fever is composed and arranged by Yuri Misumi (みすみゆり), and is the ending theme of the 2nd PS2 game. After Misumi's first few works, which were all fusions of East and West, he settles for a more 70's vibe for this composition, and instead of being completely original, draws inspiration from popular disco music of of the era. In this case, Saturday Taiko Fever's was modeled after the single Getaway of the group Earth, Wind and Fire, released in the 1976 album Spirit. The Taiko song is sung by micazo, who also contributed in other niche Namco Original songs, like Karui Zawameki.
On Taiko, STF has had different star ratings in ita 7-8 years of life (and a significative genre change, from the Disco category to Namco Original), but its Oni notechart has always been the same. Like Go-Go Kitchen and Lovely-X, Saturday Taiko Fever became Taiko 4's hardest song at the time, thanks to the wide experimentations of different note clusters in many different combinations; together with KAGEKIYO, the early generation of players started to practise handswitching with this song, thanks to the stamina-friendly low BPM. Taberuna 2000's last Go-Go Time zone starts with some patterns inherited from Saturday Taiko Fever, in a combined stream with Fuun! Bachi o Sensei.
Saturday Taiko Fever (サタデー太鼓フィーバー)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko Wii 3 | x4 (100) | x6 (158) | x8 (333) | x9 (600) |
| Taiko 0 | x8 (600) |
Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 3 130 none exfunkInstead of just receiving a revamped Oni for Taiko Wii 3 (like Neko Kujira and Off Rock), Saturday Taiko Fever keeps its characteristic patterns and gains a new Ura mode to flaunt a more modern set of notes. Patterns still flow slowly on the players's scrolling bar, but this time their number is greatly increased, also featuring some 1/24 threats, in an 8* with no rests whatsoever.
Kantan/Futsu/Muzukashii mode have newer patterns too, but their scrolling speed is halved to allow newbies practice with situations when the slow speed makes a bit harder to read slow streams properly.
