Namco Taiko Blog (29 November 2012) - Taiko Wii 5's release and collabs!

It's release day for Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Chogouka-Ban! And there's a ton of stuff to cover; there are collaborations we haven't even seen from Namco until now!

Since it's a new console release, the Taiko Team have gathered around to say something about the game. First up is producer Matsumoto (松本)

Remember when he mentioned something about "hardest song ever" three weeks ago? Now you'll be able to find out what it actually is! Incidentally it's also supposedly his most favorite song in the game, and he drops hints for the song title in this blog entry!

Favorite song: A**** H*** (we already know this is Angel Halo, the new 10* Ridge Racer 3D song)

Next is the art director, Ono (小野)

Ono talks about the lyrics of the song 'Otemoyan' which is in the Variety genre of the game, and comments that when she finally understood the meaning, it gave her quite a surprise.

Favorite song: Otemoyan

Now the lead programmer, Shimizu (清水)

His message is regarding the two random modifiers brought over to Wii finally from the arcade and PSP, Kimagure and Detarame, which can potentially turn ordinary songs into wild challenges, every single time! As for songs, he likes the Rose series by Zeami.

Favorite song: Red Rose Evangel (isn't this a little bit too coincidental?)

Next, the notecharters, Nocchi (のっち) and someone secret. Pictured is Nocchi.

He's new to the team and hopes that the relatively high difficulty ratings of the songs in Chogouka-ban will entertain players. The team leader is lurking in the shadows somewhere doing his work.

Favorite song: Senbonzakura

Last but not least, the team's PR rep and blogger, Inamasu (１７マス)

So that's what she looks like.

Taiko Wii 5 is an early Christmas present to all donders, with over 100 songs packed in! Costumes and minigames to the max! With so much stuff to do, it's hard not to be entertained for days on end.

Favorite song: Ramen de Yo-Men!! (choosing all the weird songs)

And that's all for messages from the team. But we're not done yet. The Yakuza 5 collab comes back to remind players: the actual game, Yakuza 5, will be out on December 6, 2012, and the Club Sega arcade will have Taiko 0 arcade machines, as we have covered multiple times before.

You can even see a video of it in action from yesterday's post. Visit the Yakuza 5 official website here!

Now for something new and interesting. Remember the Wii5 songlist? It had a song called Great Animal Kaiser in it since it was shown at Tokyo Game Show. It is actually a collaboration effort which was not shown until late yesterday night!

For those not familiar with the hot arcade series, Animal Kaiser is a simple fighting/card collecting game where kids scan cards (actual, physical cards) of their favorite animals into the game and use a simple roulette system to choose attacks/attack power to knock out the AI animals or go head-to-head with another player's cards. It's more absurd than it sounds; the animations for each attack are quite well-done despite being a kids game. Win or lose, the arcade machine dispenses a new card each time it is played.

And now, something else is showing up in the game that's not an actual animal. It's Don-chan! He's in the game!

You get his cards from the latest issue of CoroCoro (released on November 15th, 2012) and also with every copy of Chogouka-ban!

They both have the same stats and attacks, just some different art.

So what does he do? His T level attack, Don Smasher!

Why is his body so long all of a sudden?

And boom! Just look at Don-chan's face! Check out the Animal Kaiser website here! Check the video below instead to see Don-chan in action on Animal Kaiser.

Of course the collaboration for the opposite end is present too; Animal Kaiser characters show up as dancers in Wii5 when Great Animal Kaiser is played.

That was a lot! Have fun with everything, fellow fans! (and as a final message, the PSP DX download pack for the final two CreoFUGA songs is released today. We will cover their details in the update post when they're available.)

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