The ever-growing popularity of ZUN's Touhou Project franchise has lead to the creation of an impressive number of song renditions from both series' fans and music-oriented doujin circles, year after year. In recent times, this lead some of the most lucky musical renditions the stars of several rhythm games, becoming a surprising source of hit licensed material, next to the Vocaloid craze.
The Taiko no Tatsujin franchise has been the latest one to both host and create custom arrangements out of Touhou songs, but what about the other franchises? Let's find out!
The front-runner of the Touhou music craze in rhythm games is Taito, featuring for the first time both popular works of the past and original arranges from ZUNTATA members in rhythm games with Music Gungun! 2, the gun-based title where players have to shoot note markers of many kinds and shapes.
One of the five songs featured is the always-popular Bad Apple!! feat. nomico, starring Alstroemeria Records composer Masayoshi Minoshima in one of its most known works, which was based on the Stage 3 BGM of the PC-98 title Lotus Land Story. Later on, the song also made it to the later Groove Coaster franchise, among many other songs.
Bad Apple!! has also been featured in a huge number of other rhythm games, of which we supply the video links below:
maimai
Chunithm
jubeat
Sound Voltex
BeatStream
The next one in line has been the SOUND VOLTEX franchise, which could boast a huge selection of popular Touhou remixes since its very first installment (SOUND VOLTEX BOOTH), back in January 2012. Featuring a song library made in great part of licensed/Vocaloid tracks and in-house remixes of "Konami Originals" from other bemani music franchises, players are able to hit the markers with both four buttons and two side paddles in a variety of tricky and eye-dazing ways.
The song above is taboo tears you up 2008, a REDALiCE remix of his past Touhou music medley (also titled 'taboo tears you up'), featuring bits of music from the first home computer Touhou shmup title (The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) and sound samples from many beatmania IIDX songs of the past, such as GOLD RUSH and SigSig among others.
Back on Taito grounds, it's crucial mentioning Groove Coaster once again, due to the caring continuation of ZUN's series. Counting dozens of songs in the latest arcade entry of the series (Groove Coaster 2 Heavenly Festival), Touhou is a well-established presence in Groove Coaster, having its own in-game music genre categorization and being picked more than often as the driving theme of several online tournaments and Extra modes (GC's equal to Ura Oni modes on Taiko games).
The video above pictures a Full Chain play of Touhou Fushicho (東方不死鳥), ZUNTATA member COSIO's take on the Extra Boss BGM Tsukimade Todoke, Fushi no Kemuri (月まで届け、不死の煙), another track from Imperishable Night. It's the third COSIO arrange after Touhou Sarugaku-sai (東方散楽祭) and Touhou-on Juyume (東方音銃夢) from Music GunGun! 2, both of which were also revived on the original GC arcade.
Another huge Touhou musical supporter in rhythm games lore is Sega, boasting an admirable number of popular tracks for its two latest arcade franchises, sometimes double-dipping songs in both series! Above are the videos of Marisa wa Taihen na Mono wo Nusunde Ikimashita in both Maimai and CHUNITHM, starring the IOSYS custom arrange of the Stage 3 Boss BGM from Perfect Cherry Blossom.
Our last stop for today is at bemani's once more, due to a peculiar event that managed to bring some Touhou magic in (almost) ALL the other franchises! Started on April 2015, the BEMANI×TOHO project REITAISAI 2015 event was made to celebrate the release of the Reitasai-exclusive (at the time) album BEMANI×Toho Project Ultimate MasterPieces, featuring music arranges by in-house bemani musicians for the very first time. The album's 9 songs were spread across all the franchises (save for the DanceEvolution and FutureTomTom series) in different ways, with some of these touching almost every franchise involved.
One of the most spread songs from the event is the one featured in the video above: Sennen no Kotowari (千年ノ理), starring Scars of FAUNA composer Naoyuki 'Nekomata Master' Sato. The track is remix of the Final A Stage theme from Imperishable Night, and its longer version is included in the aforementioned Ultimate MasterPieces album, together with the others. Below are the video links to the song's (current) outings to the other series of the bemani family:
beatmania IIDX
BeatStream
jubeat
REFLEC BEAT
SOUND VOLTEX
