Time sure flies, doesn't it (and without many of our usual feature articles too; it's been difficult trying to think of new, original topics!)? As the year draws to a close, here's a recap of what's been happening in the world of Taiko so far! Perfect time to catch up if you haven't done so too.
The HD arcade has been under the limelight for the most part of 2013, with no major console releases except for intermittent iOS song packs until the end of the year. And for good reason; Taiko 3DS and Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Chogouka-Ban's continued sales success throughout the first half meant that releasing a new console Taiko was not necessary for Namco, and instead the focus was on the marketing and promotion of those two games, as well as the new arcade firmware for the year, Sorairo. But we'll leave that for the later section below!
January 2013
Quiet month as usual, with updates for Taiko Katsu-Don in the form of new difficult songs, and Taiko Wii 5 hitting its first month on the market. Despite this, putting our ears to the ground, the rumblings of the new replacement to Katsu-Don were getting louder and louder.
On this blog's side, the big concerns were about completing the final details on Taiko Wii 5 and the introduction of another feature (Behind the Drums), in which the biographies and contributions of artists, chart makers, vocalists and producers of Taiko no Tatsujin were detailed. We have covered around 10 of these people on the blog thus far, with more to come.
February 2013
A lot of business done in the shortest month! JAEPO, the Japanese arcade expo, introduced the brand new arcade firmware, Sorairo, in a big way, while Katsu-Don winded down with a new Namco Original, Boku wa Shinse as its swansong. Denji Sano, its producer and vocalist, is in the picture sporting a sassy look.
Another remarkable announcement was the long-awaited third installment to the Mario Kart Arcade GP franchise. Normally, Mario Kart would be covered in other blogs such as our companion website, Nintendo 5-Star, but this particular version features the Taiko no Tatsujin universe with its own playable characters (Don-chan), items, matsuri-themed karts and old DK circ-erm I mean new circuits. Now that Arcade GP DX is slated for the US at the end of this year, is there a ray of hope for an international Taiko arcade?
March 2013
On the same day that the world saw the coming of a new Pope for the Catholic church, Japanese arcade Taiko players were greeted with the much-anticipated Sorairo Version firmware, with many new songs and the grouping of all Vocaloid songs into its own brand-new genre. Other returning Taiko collaborations were featured this month with the Puzzle and Dragons and Tales of franchises.
As if that wasn't enough, a second CreoFUGA song-making contest began this month, and PSP DX owners were treated to a huge, free downloadable song pack. Talk about a hype overload!
April 2013
April '13 was the month of song contests and limited-play songs, as the past NicoNico Super Conference 2 event sums up. While the CreoFUGA contest and another surprise song-making contest for last year's spoof Taiko brawler DOKODON FIGHTERS were going on, the NicoNico Conference was the center of attention, with the four winners of the 2011 Taiko x GUMI contest finally seen on the arcade for the first time, and three brand-new additional songs by a poll on Twitter. All seven songs were eventually incorporated into the regular arcade later, with the last two arrivals being the Touhou songs.
As a side note, due to the Vocaloids getting their own genre, we decided to abolish the Miku series and replace it with a Vocaloid corner, featuring each Vocaloid and their songs if they were featured in Song of the Week. Speaking of this Saturday corner, we had an Anime-themed month here. What other themed months will there be in the future?
May 2013
...Kamikaze Remix is this month's Don Challenge unlockable song. And that's about it, from the Taiko Team.
Unfortunately, we had bigger problems than making filler posts this month. After receiving a DMCA copyright complaint about the Naruto Shippuden song series, we were forced to gradually suspend the other Anime song series we made so far, to avoid further copyright issues (despite the fact that we just talk about the series and songs without supplying any illegal download links). The Anime series are still offline, but rest assured we are still thinking of a solution for them.
June 2013
This month was slightly more lively, as the 11 winners of the CreoFuga contest were revealed (while the Dokodon Fighters contest turned up a dud, as expected). Their creations were used for the 2013 Taiko arcade tournament, with progressively more difficult charts being made for them to up the surprise and challenge factor for participants.
Another major event for the arcade is the return of the Dojo Ranking mode, which also served for the debut of a certain 10* Oni nightmare from the console to the arcade...
July 2013
The official announcement and first match schedule for the Taiko tournament 2013 were made on July, along with some software updates for Sorairo Version cabinets and a lot of other Taiko collaborations with videogame franchises (Puyo Puyo), comic magazines (CoroCoro and Ciao!) and even Japanese restaurant chains (Stamina Tarou)! All of which distribute merchandise and promote the existing two (still selling) console Taiko games on 3DS and Wii.
This month also featured the first of three live streams by the Taiko Team for the live modding of notecharts created for select CreoFUGA winner songs, picking out user suggestions from the comments section and changing the chart accordingly.
August 2013
Another relatively empty month from the official side, featuring another notechart-making live stream (the second one) and the beginning of two different Taiko events: a Momoiro Clover Z campaign and a song-making contest for the Vocaloid trio named Project Zola.And yet again, more rumors spill out, this time again for a new arcade firmware, and a new console game.
Of course, August for us has been a jolly moment, as this blog's anniversary was celebrated once again with all sorts of new features and graphical elements. Not to mention our annual quiz!
September 2013
From the Taiko Team, the final live stream for a chart to be featured in the tournament finals was aired, and it is revealed that all CreoFUGA songs to be used in the finals were going to be really, really difficult to handle, further increasing the hype level for the final round!
October 2013
Taiko Wii U updates aside, nothing much else has happened in this month, besides a celebration for Taiko+ reaching the 76.5 million downloads milestone.
Oh, and the Taiko tournament finals? It was slated for October 26th, however the hype train ground to a halt after Typhoon Wipha lashed Japan that same week, forcing Namco to delay the final round citing safety concerns (though the typhoon didn't stop a Tekken Tag Tournament 2 finals event on the same day held at the same place, but that's another story). The date was announced a month later, and the finals will now take place on June 2014, a whole eight months from the original date. Talk about ruining the mood!
November 2013
With Jikuu Chou Jikuu 1-Ka as the final Don Challenge unlock, Sorairo Version's life cycle came to an end, followed by the release of the Taiko Wii U videogame, a small iOS collaboration with Kuma-Tomo and the official announcement of yet another, major firmware update to be released the month after.
Aside from the progressive hype for the latest console installment, characters from the Taiko universe appeared in some of the strangest circumstances in a while, such as costume cameos in anti-piracy campaigns and as students for the online sim game Namco High, which was released just a few weeks ago. Expect to hear more about Donko's school life in this blog soon!
December 2013
In the early weeks of the year's final month, Taiko arcades' Momoiro Version firmware was released, introducing a lot of new features, from new drum customization to a series of new collaboration.Not to mention all the new songs and difficult new Oni charts!
Taiko Wii U hit its first month and a download pack with free songs was introduced to it to keep interests high, as we anticipate another long period without a new console release.
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In conclusion, while this year wasn't as exciting as the past few years, it was interesting to see that the arcade was given the emphasis instead of console releases. Has it been a good year for you guys?
See you in a better (and pinker) year!
