A new portable Taiko game is coming out next month! To make the wait more bearable, here are a couple of recent Namco Originals which were featured in the first 3DS videogame.
Growing up| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (221) | x5 (292) | x5 (434) | x6 (603) |
Taiko 0, Taiko 3DS 1, Taiko Wii U, CD Full Combo
190
none
mintjmWith Chiriyuku Ran no Tsuduru Uta being my personal favorite Namco Original, you can easily count this one in a 'Top Whatever Number' list as my No. 2 spot (shortly followed by the next song being featured today!).
Being introduced as an unlockable song early in the HD Taiko era, Growing Up is one of two Taiko original songs created by independent band MintJam. Founded in 2003, it made its way into public recognition thanks to its members' musical experiences, whose contribution helped create TV commercials music and themes for different Anime series (most notably To Aru Kagaku no Railgun and Accel World); from that point on, MintJam's musical production branched into production of many albums with licensed songs, videogame music renditions and original tracks, while continuing to contribute to anime series songs (Little Busters!).
MintJam's main members are both professional composers/arrangers: sound engineer Atsuchi (formerly known as 'a2c') and singer TERRA, with the former performing on guitar and the latter being the lyricist and lead singer for most of their songs. Two more members left the act -kya and A.Koga- and the support member setzer, who often takes part as the composer of different songs like My Mine, the other MintJam contribution to Namco's Taiko series. For more informations about the band and its works, MintJam's official website (in Japanese) is surely a good starting point.
Made by a2c and TERRA, Growing Up has a very obvious J-Rock influence. The lyrics revolve around the nostalgic memories of the good old days that people may experience while -well- growing up, as an unspecified grown-up person reminisces about an old song of his time, and all the related past experiences with it. While Growing Up's in-game cut was featured in an official Taiko soundtrack album in 2012, MintJam has made an extended version of the song for the August 2013 mini-album Little Monster, also featuring an instrimental version for karaoke purposes as well.
Much like other J-Rock Originals before it, Growing Up's Oni mode features fast tempo with simple 1/4 note stacking. It's not hard, but the speed makes sightreading a little more difficult than usual.
Hayabusa (隼)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (194) | x7 (270) | x8 (559) | x9 (786) |
Taiko 0, Taiko 3DS 1, CD Full Combo 186 none hayabuOur next stop is another Taiko 0 Namco Original tune, which has many points in common with our previous feature (in terms of song appearance in games and high BPM values) as well as a major difference from Growing Up, since this time it's an in-house Namco composer who made the song.
The instrumental Hayabusa (lit. 'Falcon') is the first song on Taiko which is entirely made by Sato Takafumi (佐藤貴文). Born in Sapporo, this composer is mainly involved into the creation of music for Idolm@ster games and the related soundtrack CDs, though if some of his music can be heard in several recent games as BGM tracks. For a list of his songs on Taiko games, feel free to check the related Behind the Drums feature on this blog!
As the real-life peregrine falcons can dive at over 200 miles per hour to catch their prey, the song's scrolling speed suddenly doubles in certain spots, making the long clusters so much more frightening! It really throws players off their rhythm. The rest of the song is cluster-heavy but not difficult to read, and therefore considered by many as the little brother of Metal Police, with less strange beat divisions and more resting spots.
Appropriately enough, Hayabusa was used in the first Taiko 3DS videogame as the tune for the boss fight against Man&Mon, a greedy 2-headed raven. Some years later, the song has also been used on the iOs game Taiko no Tatsujin RPG Da-Don! as the tune against the limited-dungeon boss character Yan Lion (炎獅子).
