As we saw a couple of months ago, Taiko no Tatsujin meets the hard-boiled world of Sega's Yakuza 5 this December through a drumming minigame using an authentic Taiko 0 cabinet. Two of the three songs made available for it (From the New World and Nijiiro Yumeiro Taikoiro) were already reviewed in this blog, but what about the third one?
Mappy Ondo (マッピー音頭) --- Old ---| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 1 | x4 (194) | |||
| Taiko 2 | x4 (194) | x4 (194) (video) | ||
| Taiko 3 | x4 (188) |
Taiko 1 to 3
130
Namco -> Ondo
mappy Mappy Ondo (マッピー音頭) --- New ---| Version | | | |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko PS2 1 | x3 (83) | x5 (188) | x4 (259/260/229) | x7 (259) |
| Taiko PSP 1 | x3 (83) | x6 (182) | x5 (254/255/229) | x6 (259) (video) |
| Yakuza 5 | x3 (83) | x6 (127) |
Taiko PS2 1, Taiko PSP 1, Yakuza 5 (minigame), CD Blue
130 Ondo -> Namco Original mappyThe third song of the Yakuza 5 trilogy comes from the very beginning of Taiko no Tatsujin's history like the other two; it's actually the oldest of the three, coming from the very first arcade!
If the song name doesn't ring a bell, let's delve back into Namco's arcade history a bit. 'Mappy' is a 1983 arcade game where players have to collect a set of precious artifacts stolen by a gang of cats. But don't mistake this song as a mere carbon-copy of the Mappy Medley released on later Taiko games (see the Medley series for further details), as the two songs have a lot to set themselves apart.
While the newer Mappy Medley is simply a medley of the different BGM and sounds encountered in the game - all composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi (大野木宜幸) - the Ondo is a slower, festival-themed re-arrangement of Mappy's main BGM theme made by Yuri Misumi (みすみゆり) and sung by Ryoko Watanabe (渡邉良子). The lyrics celebrate the anniversaries of Mappy, as the 18th birthday is mentioned first and then the 30th one for the future (the first Taiko arcade came out in 2001, 18 years after Mappy). About Yuri Misumi we already know her history, but the singer has not made anything else for Taiko.
After some minor genre changes and incomplete difficulty sets on the first three arcades, Mappy Ondo's newer version (the one on PSP and Yakuza 5) offers mild rhythms resembling the traditional Japanese festival mood: a march rhythm with 1/24 clusters and 1/16 spacing mixed with 1/12, in the same vein as many other later songs (eg. Odore Dore Dora Doraemon Ondo). There are some minor differences between the PS2 and the PSP chart, and funnily enough the Master Notes of Muzukashii difficulty and Oni have less max combo than the Advanced route!
