Eccentric w Lyrics

Composer, Arrangement: GingahoumenP (銀河方面P)
Lyrics: Bouto (暴徒)

Yureru Pleats Jikkouiin Lyrics

Composition, Lyrics: Masako Oogami (おおがみまさこ)
Vocal: Yako Danchinomiya (団地の宮弥子)

Song of the Week! 27 December 2014

Here we are again: the final Song of the Week feature for the year. Like the previous years, we're doing things in a different way than usual!

With Christmas and the New Year's Eve celebrations, the transitional period between the end of a year and the beginning of a new one has always been a cherished moment for being generous. One of those generous group of fellows are people who create Taiko fan charts! They love to share their creations to the world, as much as we enjoy featuring them through our occasional features (like our 'Made By You' posts), so let's give some extra recognition to them!

For this reason, today we are taking a look at a couple of fan-charted songs.

Twitter Snippets (December 25 2014) - Bokura no Sekai ni (Really) Dance wo

メリークリスマス！ということで「僕らの世界にダンスを」の振り付けをたくさんの豪華アーティストの方々に踊っていただくという夢のような企画動画アップしました！ -【踊っていただいた】僕らの世界にダンスを【サカモト教授】 http://t.co/hFLEJMkNij #pskmt
— サカモト教授 Prof.Sakamoto (@pskmt) December 25, 2014

Trivia! Bokura no Sekai ni Dance wo translates to "Dance to our world". And Professor Sakamoto's new music video surly delivers that message well, inviting many Nicovideo personalities to dance to the Vocaloid tune, regardless of whether they are known for their dancing skills. It is awesome that everyone are enjoying it!

And why are we dedicating a Twitter Snippets for this MV? Because Don-chan is in it! When is he in? I am not going to spoil that and have you watch the video through yourself. Let's just say he is not in before the first chorus so that you don't leave too early.

ワーイだドン！サカモト教授さん、動画完成おめでドーン！RT @pskmt: ありがとうだドン！太鼓の達人にも収録されてるドン！RT 太鼓の達人からどんちゃんも出演！ → 【踊っていただいた】僕らの世界にダンスを【サカモト教授】 http://t.co/utaHf9COc5
— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) December 25, 2014

Taiko no Tatsujin Plus - Popular Song Pack 19 and New Year's Holiday Campaign Part 2!

As if today's freshly-released DLC pack for the latest Taiko 3DS videogame isn't enough, the Apple-friendly Taiko app receives today a new songpack, together with the winter holdays campaign's continuation! The 19th Popular Song pack comes in with Winter-packed licensed songs, such as:

• Let It Go ～Ari no Mama De～
• Do You Want to Build a Snowman
• By My Side
• Atarimae Taisou
• Kimagure Romantic

On top of this pack's release, Part 2 of the latest campaign is live! From today until January 15th, 2015, each song pack purchase is being awarded with one of the previously-released limited Namco Original tracks, with the addition of a couple more: Growing Up and Sweet Lay! Make sure your app is updated to the latest version in order to claim your free songs.

Namco Taiko Blog (25 December 2014) - Old Year's Last Stream and New Year's Donchare Goods

First of all, merry Christmas! Etou has found this festive day appropriate for 2014's last blog entry, packing it with tons of both old and new updates on Taiko games whereabouts, in order to get geared towards the new year.

Making Rain! Collaboration with New Japan Pro Wrestling

The last time Pro Wrestling had something to do with Taiko no Tatsujin was a free-play exhibition cabinet at a Taiwan match. This time collaborative efforts hits closer to home, bigger and badder.

Wrestler Kazuchika Okada's signature entrance theme RAIN MAKER will be included in the arcade song list some time in the future.

In addition, Okada and co. will hold a press conference in regard of the collaboration on January 3, 2015, as part of the Great Pro Wrestling Festival (大プロレス祭り2015) event programme. The inclusion will be shown first-hand then, and Okada will also take on wrestler Gedo in Taiko. Free-play cabinets will once again be available for fans to try out (organized by tickets distributed on the day).

NJPW Press Release

Taiko no Tatsujin Tokumori! Downloadable Content

A Year's End Stream (12/12/14)

Just in time for Christmas, here's our usual, image-based recap of the previous livestream, both with pictures from the Taiko Team's twitter page and directly snapped by us. Let's begin!

Taiko no Tatsujin Kimidori sequel announced

Doesn't feel like too long since Kimidori came out, didn't it? Well it's going to be replaced again pretty soon; making for the second time Taiko arcade hardware has gone through a very short 7-month cycle.

This replacement to Kimidori is slated for March 2015 as shown on the website for arcade cabinet distribution in Japan, although there's no name for it yet.

International players, don't fret; the upgrade kit contains the firmware and the cardboard decorations for the new version, but if this is anything like Kimidori, the update can be distributed over-the-air (OTA) without your operator having to order anything!

Thanks to crystal for the heads-up!

We Missed Stuff - World Hobby Fair '15 Tourney and Taiko Plus's End-Year Campaign!

It's not the first time that this happens here, but we forgot again to cover two Taiko-related news that have been advertised on the Donder page's News section. As we apologize for this mistake from our part, let's have a brief look at what we have missed.

Super Namco Bros. - Wii U Edition!

Nintendo's biggest fighting game franchise has finally reached all the areas of the world for their latest home console! As such, everyone is now able to detect a lot more tunes from many different composers, with both figures returning from the 3DS version and Wii U-exclusive artists. Let's have a look at what other tracks we have from Taiko-related composers we got!

Before starting, however, a pair of disclaimers. First of all, this lists includes only the songs new to the Wii U version of Smash Bros, but keep in mind that all the tracks from the 3DS game are also available on the home console title; if you want to know what these tracks are, just check out this blog entry. Second of all is yet another SPOILER ALERT! Some unlockable characters may appear in the videos below, so watch out if you're still unaware of the extra characters for this game and want to keep your mind spoiler-free.

Song of the Week! 20 December 2014

Today's feature is brought you in part by... product placement! Join us once more, as we take another look at some of the most recent commercial-inspired songs in Taiko gaming.

Taiko no Tatsujin Plus - Introducing the Super Game Pack

Yesterday we forgot to mention the release of yet another Taiko Plus songpack, this time going under the name of Super Game Pack (超ゲームぱっく). As expected, this is a new 5-piece pack with songs from the Game Music genre, featuring the following tunes:

• Venomous (with Ura)
• Wasabi Body Blow
• Tales of Xillia Medley
• Symphonic Motos
• Mappy Medley 

Enjoy this collection of tunes from past Taiko console games!

Namco Taiko Blog (18 December 2014) - December '14 Livestream, Huis Ten Bosch and Wii U DLC!

There are many things to talk about today between Taiko Team blog entries and in-website stuff, so we are grouping them together in a single post! As usual, links for reference will be left at the bottom of the page.

Across Japan: Tournaments - Closing One and Opening Another

 

Let's cut the chase: Above are the results for the December monthly Facebook tournament. Oni saw a five-way tie by two Korean and three Hong Kong Donders, all achieving Donderful Combo. Muzukashii has Couperin from Korea, one of the five winners from Oni, taking crown with a 5-good run and over 900 thousand points. Congratulations to our five winners, and especially to Couperin for the double winning!

Next we look more at the special tournament that is sharing with Japan. The Donder Festival in Asia '14 Winter Battle tournament, from December 18~28, has exactly the same song choices as the Japanese counterpart, i.e.:

• イオシス秋の肉食祭2014 IOSYS Aki no Nikushokusai 2014 (9★)
• ピコピコ ルイン Picopico Ruin (9★, Regular only)
• 闇の魔法少女 Yami no Mahou Shojo (9★)

The tournament works mostly similarly as all the other tournament (no Shin-uchi and stuff). The results of the Asian tournament will be combined with the Japanese results and form a master leaderboard too. Time to see who triumphs in a much larger scale!

Namco Taiko Blog (17 December 2014): Taiko Kimidori Game Version 8.03

It hasn't been awfully long since the last great update for Taiko Kimidori, and already the team are pushing for a new one! 8.03 is a small update though, in preparation for bigger ones to follow.

GV 8.03 introduces...

1. A special movie of the battle between Mushrooms and Bamboos (the Meiji collaboration)! It'll be played before slotting any coins into the machine. Wonder what it looks like...

2. Preparation for next update. Some internal housekeeping is done to accommodate more changes in the future. Say, like, that/those new song(s) talked about some time back?

To add to the surprise-ness that this blog post already brings, the update is actually already available today!

Back to more expectable grounds, we do have two blog entries for tomorrow's normal Thursday blog schedule, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Link to original post

Across Japan: 3 new songs for Kimidori Asia

These three Namco Originals are from two different Kimidori updates; the one in October which added the IOSYS songs, and the one which was just last week. Yup, for once, Kimidori Asia is getting a song less than a month after its JP counterpart!

The songs will be available to play tomorrow, and they are:

• Yamatai Night Party
• IOSYS Aki no Nikushokusai 2014
• Yami no Mahou Shoujo

"Wait, where are all the licensed songs from these two updates? What about the IM@S songs and the Pokemon ORAS Medley?"

Well, Asia should already be familiar with this situation, but most likely the ones in the Vocaloid and Game Music genre will come eventually.

Twitter Snippets (December 15 2014) - *dogeza*

【お知らせ】週末は、ドンだーの皆さま・ロケ関係者の皆様にご迷惑をおかけいたしました。 太鼓ニコ生10万コメント達成の限定解放曲について、エトウくんと相談の上、解放期間を「年内いっぱい」まで延長とさせていただきました。(タケモト) pic.twitter.com/0qwTtN6MVf
— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) December 15, 2014

I am sincerely worried how many dogezas (formal apologetic kowtows) are needed this week.

As you might already know, the Taiko Team promised to release 8 limited songs on Kimidori from December 13~26 if the last livestream garnered 100 million comments. However due to technical difficulties, some songs failed to appear. After a frantic day to resolve the issue, the Team extends the period right to the end of 2014 (December 31) to compensate the missed day.

In other news, from December 15~January 31 (typo in this tweet, fixed here) Donder Hiroba opens a special Year-end Title Parts Gacha, featuring wintry and Christmas-y phrases. Some older limited parts also make a return in 2 Revival Title Parts Gacha campaigns.

【お知らせ】本日より1月30日(金)まで、ドンだーひろばにて「年末年始称号パーツガシャ」が開催されます。同時に、以前開催した「復刻称号パーツガシャ」「復刻称号パーツガシャ第２弾」も、同日程で復活開催中です。 みんなで回すドーン！ pic.twitter.com/eVink7YPa2
— 太鼓チーム (@taiko_team) December 15, 2014

Namco Taiko Blog (December 15 2014) - The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Collaboration

A surprise Namco Taiko Blog today, about the collaboration with Namco's very own idol production franchise's sub-series The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls!

...Well actually in the Taiko front we have already seen everything. The recent additions of Jibun REST@RT, M@STERPIECE, The Idolm@ster special folder and The Idolm@ster outfit are what Taiko is getting.

This blog post haven't touched on what im@s CG will be getting though. Stay tuned to other places for more news on their part, including the Cinderella Girls Anime main site (airing started just last Friday) and that of the original social game, as well as the whole franchise's main site and official blog.

Regular blog post this Thursday, for which we will see you later!

Link to original post

Song of the Week! 14 December 2014

Sorry for the 1-day delay!

For today's feature, here's one of the returning songs for the last regular DLC packs for the latest Taiko 3DS game. Guns-a-blazin'!

Quick Takeaways: December 12 Livestream

This post might be removed when the full coverage is ready. Meanwhile, feel free to contribute screenshots and information to help out!

• All comment goals met
• 50K title is Livestream Incident (放送事故)
• 100K secret songs are Jingle Bells No. 765 and Metal Hawk BGM1
• Notecharter Quiz answers: Yami no Mahou Shojo (by Shika@ni~san) and Kuboken
• Winter tournament for Japan ver., and Asian ver. (Oni only)
• Tatsh: new song is Japanese, Instrumental, an very closely almost-10* 9*, Dark Hardcore
• January DonChare: t+pazolite's Shiny Kung-fu Revival and Geisha set
• Collab with The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls
• December 3DS2 DLC: Konayuki, Monkey Magic, LovexLove Whistle, DESERT STORM, Desert de Yakiniku, Jingle Bells No.765, Warera Muteki no Dokon Dan
• January 3DS2 DLC: Natsu Matsuri, One Night Carnival, Matsuken Samba II, Don-chan Ondo, Yozakurai Shanikusai, Densetsu no Matsuri, Dokidoki Munekyun Omatsuri Time, will be last of regular DLCs
• Touhou x Namco Sounds matching
• World Hobby Fair appearance and elementary children tournaments
• Sachiko Kobayashi collab costume design contest 
• Huis Ten Bosch Cup

Taiko Plus: New Version 2.4.2! Now With Daily Challenges

Earlier this week the iOS Taiko no Tatsujin Plus released its latest version 2.4.2, adding the excitingly new Daily Challenge feature. Every day you can play designated songs and submit the scores, giving you a rank with respect to your performance. Your scores will also be ranked among all players, and high rankers receive various bonuses for their top plays. It's a good way to see how well you are doing in a larger perspective.

Other changes include fixes to the on-screen drum layout, which you can now choose to have on the sides instead of at the bottom. The sensing areas for katsu notes are also expanded.

A quick look to Tatsh's latest album

Before jumping into the Taiko Team livestream hype, here's something to look foward by the end of this year! What you're looking at is the cover art of FRONTIER, the next album for Tatsuya Shimizu's Tatsh Music Circle.

As promised by the composer himself, one of the album's tracks will be Yuugen no Ran, the winning Taiko song from last month's poll. However, the song might not be the exact same one from the Taiko games, as its title for this album is being reported as 'Yuugen no Ran -Album New Mix-' (幽玄ノ乱　-Album New Mix-). Are we going to have a long version or a different arrangement for this tune?

FRONTIER will be released one day before the end of this year, on December 30th, packaged with special paper bag and IC-card stickers. Tatsh's newly-made Youtube channel also offers a short video, featuring bits for each of the songs inside the album.

Namco Taiko Blog (December 11 2014) - The Notecharter Quiz

Special guests, check. Mushroom/Bamboo battle, check. Comment challenge, check. There is nothing more to talk about before the livestream. So let's make something new up: The Notecharter Quiz! Quizzing your knowledge on who charted what!

Mushroom/Bamboo Battle on Kimidori

Together with today's song update, Kimidori also adds the Meiji collaboration a la the battle between chocolate mushrooms and bamboo shoots with players' credit scores.

This video shows the bits on the Kimidori arcade build added for the battle. You can directly go and choose the team you want, or use the camera feature to unlock the collab outfit(s) (not shown). Your total scores across all songs are put into the team scores, plus different bonuses that is active at that time. Then we are also shown the cabinet leader of the day. The overall national tally and regional leaders can be checked at the special collaboration site, on a yellow-green colored Japan map.

First videos of Kimidori V7.10 songs!

Loads and loads of songs in this update, it's quite hard to catch em all! So the video list is not complete for now, but we'll show what Japanese players have gathered so far.

Now, for some vids! Placed after the jump, of course.

Song of the Week! 6 December 2014

Our earliest readers may probably remember that we had some song series features about Anime-related songs, with one of the first ones being about themes from worldwide-known animation film studio Studio Ghibli. However, we sadly had to crop all of the Anime song series last year after a copyright infringement claim, with the fear of the lock-out possibilities for the rest of the blog.

However, while we mostly have our hands tied on our backs regarding the gradual re-introduction of all these lost song features, I think we have to go across some unfinished business and feature at least the most recent song on Taiko from Studio Ghibli movies, incidentially about said studio's very first movie-length animated feature. Take a sight to the sky!

Namco Taiko Blog (4 December 2014) - Updates on December 12th's livestream

The schedule for next week's Taiko Team livestream has been updated with some new exciting stuff! After we caught up with the content being revealed last month, let's see what's new.

Across Japan: Vroooom! Kimidori Asia December Facebook Tournament

Another month, another tournament for Asian Kimidori! Without any further ado, the songs for the December 2014 tournament are BLUE TOPAZ Oni (8★, forked) and Angel Halo Muzukashii (8★). Race to the first across December 6~14 (pun very much intended), and we will see the Asian ver. Team again on December 17 for the results.

And just for the sake of completeness of reporting, BLUE TOPAZ is already on Asian Kimidori from December 1, as regular unlock after DonChare.

Yet another Meiji x Taiko no Tatsujin Collaboration!

After two Taiko 3DS-related collaborations, sweet snacks company Meiji teams up once again with the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise, and this time the arcades are the main focus!

Taiko Kimidori: First video of Evidence of evil

Presenting, song number 2 in the 'names-of-seafood-in-its-abbreviations' Namco Original series!

Its predecessor, The Carnivorous Carnival, has gone down to 9* Oni, so Evidence of evil steps up to the plate, featuring a max star difficulty set of 5/7/8/10! The musical style is generally the same as before, but with even more complex streams and 1/24 notes than before, exactly like an evolution of Carnival. The ending is particularly nasty, with many technical 2-note, 4-note and 16-note streams that really challenge the player to think of the song's backbeats a lot more.

It reaches a total of 814 notes on Oni.