Together with the development of the gameplay of Taiko no Tatsujin, there have been numerous collaborations with other corporations and game developers, where Taiko makes a special appearance in the other companies' products and vice versa! Crossovers like this are commonplace in the entertainment world to gain exposure and act as a win-win promotion effort, with both parties involved standing to gain from the two-way tie. Below is a list of all the companies and brandnames Taiko have crossed with, and details for each one.
Note that special dancers alone don't count; those are simply cameo appearances. The collaborations listed below are the bigger, more significant ones.
McDonalds
-Taiko no Tatsujin 14/DS3 collab
On Taiko no Tatsujin DS3 was a hidden password menu, which was used to unlock extra content. At the time it was released, no one knew what was going to be unlocked, until the following month. At the end of August 2010, Namco announced their collab with McDonalds, one of the world's biggest fast food chains, and their Happy Meal sets. McDonalds gave out eight different Don-chan plastic toys free with each Happy Meal, all wearing costumes and making different sounds! The sounds aren't just cute, they unlock the exact same costume in Taiko DS3 itself, along with a Taiko no Tatsujin exclusive McDonalds song, Papa Mama Mc. The song comes complete with special dancers too.
Taiko no Tatsujin 14 arcade came out with the exact same promotion. The title screen was McDonalds-themed until after the first secret code was released, and to top it off, players are able to play a shorter, demo version of Papa Mama Mc after their play is over.
After the promotion period ended on October 2010, the demo version was taken down and the full version of Papa Mama Mc was put on Taiko 14's songlist permanently.
-Taiko no Tatsujin (July 2012)/3DS/iOS collab
The second collaboration with McDonalds on November 2012 again involves a new set of Happy Meal toys, and the collab is more extensive this time, involving the arcade, 3DS and also smartphones. There are six of them this time with two sticker sheets (details here) and each toy contains a password to unlock six more Taiko sounds in Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS in addition to the first six given out in magazines, promotional material and the arcade.
The Happy Meal toys have more use than unlocking console Taiko content; hold one up in front of the camera in the Taiko 0.5 (Katsu-Don) arcade and you can unlock a brand new costume for use there! (provided, of course, that you have a Banapassport) It's shadowed out, but everyone knows that's the Hamburger costume. Smartphones get the McDonalds collab song Papa Mama Mc on the iOS songlist for free, for a limited time, and the song is automatically deleted after November 22, 2012.
Ponta&Lawson
-PSP DX preorder bonus
Ponta&Lawson are a Japanese online shopping website, much like eBay and Amazon. Bandai Namco's collaboration with the site was the second big announcement for the Taiko 10th Anniversary, and involves exclusive in-game content for players who preordered Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX over the website. The content includes an IdolM@ster song, SMOKY THRILL, and a Lawson outfit for Don-chan, shown above.
Although SMOKY THRILL was later released as a paid download for regular players, the costume remains a preorder exclusive.
Capcom
-Monster Hunter Diaries collab
This collaboration with Capcom began on Taiko 13, where a medley of music from Capcom's white-hot game series Monster Hunter was included in its songlist. On its premiere, players were able to play Monster Hunter Medley on Taiko 13 first hand for absolutely no cost! This medley was the first to be based on the third generation of Monster Hunter.
But that was just one part of the deal; Capcom themselves get some Taiko love from Namco, on the Felyne-centric virtual life game Monster Hunter Diaries: Pokapoka Felyne Village for PSP (Felynes are the catlike mascot characters of the series). On August of the same year- exactly the same time the McDonalds collab was announced- a downloadable event quest was made available for Felyne Village. Completion of the quest rewards the player with a special Taiko no Tatsujin costume for their Felyne.
Since the inception of the Monster Hunter collab, several more medleys of Monster Hunter were made for Taiko, each from a different game in the series.
Taito
-Music GunGun!2 collabTaito and Namco have been in good relations from the beginning since Namco have included many Taito game songs in the songlists of Taiko no Tatsujin, but none were as extensive as this one! On January 2011, Taito's own rhythm game Music GunGun! 2 was released in the arcade, and to everyone's surprise included Taiko no Tatsujin's most famous Namco Original, Saitama 2000, in its library of songs!
It would be another year before Namco returned the favour by including not one, but two Music GunGun! 2 signature songs in its own songlist, on the HD Taiko no Tatsujin arcade. They are Extreme MGG★★★ and Music Revolver, both of which have Ura difficulties (videos for both of them here and here) and both being extremely difficult, true to their game of origin. Additionally, players who have cleared both songs will get Cyan and Magenta's costumes for Don-chan from Music GunGun! 2.
Sega
-Project Diva 2nd collabAlthough Taiko no Tatsujin has been no stranger to Vocaloid songs, this is the first time a collaboration is done with another game developer to obtain one of them. Sega officially holds the rights to publish games with Hatsune Miku in them, and have their own Vocaloid rhythm game called Project Diva. On its second installment, Namco Bandai made a huge collaboration with Sega spanning three different games. This is the first one, and Project Diva 2nd's most difficult song, Hatsune Miku no Gekishou was ported over to Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX with the note patterns completely untouched and a brand-new Ura Oni difficulty.
As seen in the screenshot above, Don-chan also gets a Hatsune Miku costume for the game. Sega does its own little part to contribute back for Namco's feature by adding a special Taiko no Tatsujin picture among its plethora of Vocaloid art used for loading screens in Project Diva Extend, the sequel to Project Diva 2nd.
-Yakuza crossover
The second song in the Namco-Sega PSP collaboration, Yakuza OF THE END has a song featured in the same game as Hatsune Miku no Gekishou. That song was MachineGun Kiss. While it was not as difficult, it still features cameos from Yakuza characters and a special costume for Don-chan too.
The following year on August 2012, Sega announced their part; the arcades in their upcoming Yakuza game, Yakuza 5 for the PlayStation 3, will feature playable Taiko no Tatsujin HD arcade cabinets in the game! Three songs (From The New World, Nijiiro Yumeiro Taikoiro and Mappy Ondo) can be selected in the mock arcade, and perfectly emulates the Taiko graphical style and format. That's not all however, you can also grab Don-chan plushies from the UFO catchers in Yakuza 5!
The third game in the Namco-Sega collab is Sonic the Hedgehog, which sees the blue spiky one heading to the iOS versions of Taiko with Sonic 4 Episode 1 stage music medleys, special dancers included, to commemorate his 20th anniversary. Sonic has not yet tributed Taiko no Tatsujin in his games yet, however.
GungHo
-Puzzle & Dragons collab
GungHo is a small mobile game developer based in Japan and have made at least one popular game, which was Puzzle & Dragons, an RPG take on classic puzzle concepts released for iOS devices. The collab with Taiko no Tatsujin was announced on August 2012 with both parties performing their part right away. Namco released the Puzzle and Dragons boss battle theme song on Taiko no Tatsujin Plus, also for iOS, as a free to download song for a very limited time only, until August 26th 2012.
As for GungHo, they've included an extra dungeon in Puzzle and Dragons with enemies coming straight from Taiko no Tatsujin 3DS: Chibi Dragon to Fushigi na Orb. Don-chan and Raruko (the game's sidekick character) make appearances as enemies too.
AKB48
-AKB48 Taiko Academy and preorder bonus
AKB48 is one of the latest Japanese girl groups making huge waves both in their native country and overseas, and Taiko no Tatsujin has played host to many of their hit songs from 2011 onwards. In late 2012, after the release of Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Ketteiban, Namco announced this collaboration- their largest and most extensive collab yet- with the popular group as the 9th big surprise of the Taiko 10th Anniversary. Prior to Taiko Wii 4's release, a TV advert featuring AKB48 and its signature new song, Kaze wa Fuiteiru, was aired on Japanese television. Kaze wa Fuiteiru was in Taiko Wii 4's songlist, of course.
But the collab was far from over. Just another month later, Namco announced that whoever bought any of their recent Taiko no Tatsujin releases (Taiko DS3, Taiko Wii4, Taiko PSP DX, or the Wii Taiko Controller) will be getting special AKB48 gifts, which include an autographed poster, a card, and a code to view the making of the Kaze wa Fuiteiru TV advert on Nicovideo.
The final leg was a special 'Taiko School' activity held on the official Taiko x AKB48 website, in which players submit their scores obtained on Taiko no Tatsujin HD. The scores and performances will be screened through by their 'teacher', a member of AKB48, and feedback will be sent back to the players. It's not for nothing; prizes in the form of AKB48 cards were given out to the top 300 participants for each 'teacher', and there are five teachers in all.
Internet Co. Ltd.
-Megpoid GUMI collab
A few weeks before the release of the major firmware update for Taiko no Tatsujin 0 on July 2012, Namco announced this collaboration on their blog and featured advertisements for it too. Three Megpoid GUMI songs were made playable on the Taiko 0.5 update: Matryoshka, Juumensou colorful ver., and Mosaic Roll. Two out of these even have Ura difficulties!
Special dancers were added for all three songs (as shown in the above screenshot) and clearing any one of the three songs will net the player a Gumi costume for Don-chan.
That was not the end though. Through a music composing contest hosted on CreoFUGA, Namco invited fans to create songs using Gumi, and four of them will be included in a future Taiko game. The results of the contest can be seen here.
Square Enix
Dragon Quest X collab
Dragon Quest is no stranger to this rhythm game series; its opening themes, though all of them almost identical to one another, have been continuously included in Taiko songlists since Dragon Quest 8. But the collaboration for the 10th game is more than just simply having the opening in Game Music, it's a lot more this time. The celebrated game is released on Wii on August 2012 and on Wii U on March 2013.
Special dancers are in the game as usual, and differ between the arcade and console inclusions of Overture X, with the arcade version featuring ghosts and the Taiko Wii 5 one featuring Slime towers, as well as a whole group of other characters. No matter where you play the song on, you will be able to get this Slime costume for Don-chan.
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