Reviving old songs does not always result in a more difficult chart! Today's feature is one of those songs.
Choo Choo TRAIN EXILE --- Old ---| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 7 | x3 (143) | x5 (230) | x5 (371) | x7 (545) |
| Taiko PS2 5 | x3 (143) | x2 (198) | x4 (370) | x7 (545) |
| Taiko PSP 1 | x3 (143) | x2 (230) | x4 (371) | x7 (545) |
Taiko 7, Taiko PS2 5, Taiko PSP 1
115.1
none
choo Choo Choo TRAIN EXILE --- New ---| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (72) | x3 (94) | x4 (201) | x4 (294) |
Taiko DS 3, Taiko + 115.1 none choo2Today's pick comes from the musical history of Exile, one of the most well-known boy bands in Japan. We have already seen one of their collaboration works last year as Exile Tribe, but never actually talked about Exile's origin. Today's song is handy for us to talk about the band's early days.
Founded in 1999 as J Soul Brothers under Avex Group's Rhythm Zone music label, Exile is a 14-member pop band from Tokyo, still in activity today and have sold over 20 million records in their nation alone. Exile's founder and current leader is Hiro, stage name for Hiroyuki Igarashi. Prior to Exile, he was a member of the 1989 pop band Zoo, which was disbanded six years later. From the six-year experience as a Zoo member, Hiro inspired the new group with energy and their very first songs, with some of these coming from Zoo's musical repertoire.
You see, Choo Choo TRAIN was actually a Zoo song first, before being remade by the Exile band! Originally released in Japan on November 7th, 1991, this was the 1989 pop band's most well-known hit, getting as much recognition as the Exile version even today. Twelve years later, on November 6th 2003, Exile remade Choo Choo TRAIN as a promo single for their third studio album, called Exile Entertainment. The single turned into Exile's first big hit, resulting in over a million albums sold and national recognition by performing it in 2003's edition of NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen. Both the Zoo and the Exile versions of Choo Choo TRAIN feature a voice sample of James "D. Train" Williams' dance hit "Keep On".
Over the years, Taiko games welcomed this J-Pop tune with typos in several occasions, most remarkably on the only arcade it was on (Taiko 7's promotional material quotes the song without spaces, as 'ChooChooTRAIN') and on Nintendo DS (the word 'TRAIN' was not capitalized in the advertisements). As if this wasn't enough, the transition between the old and new charts resulted in a shorter cut of the song, reducing the challenge along the way.
While the original was a typical 7* with 1/16 clusters, the decreased play time led to drastically lower note counts and much easier patterns. Not sure if it's because the new chart is exclusive to portable devices, but it has not been seen anywhere else yet.
