With the original Idolm@ster themed month counting four entries, we're ending its sequel period at the 4th installment as well, with a couple of slightly-tweaked, omni-present tracks that have become Japanese meme fodder along the years...
Town ～Must Mix～| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (116) | x3 (177) | x3 (275) | x7 (444) |
im@s MS Red
200
none
imstttThe twin Must Songs Taiko games for the PlayStstion Vita have been graced with the addition of a number of tracks that can't be attributed by Bandai Namco as coming from a specific game/CD/Anime that is related to the series... or, as it's the case of this and the next track, how about songs that are available in almost every single Idolm@ster game to date as BGM tracks?
The original Town is one of the menu screen jingles that can be heard in many of the series' installments and as such, it wasn't featured in any official soundtrack of the series as of now; while this usually leads to no clues to its creator, it's heavily speculated that the formerly-affiliated Bandai Namco musician Go Shiina (椎名豪) was the one responsible for the quirky piece. What really made the everlasting impact for Town, however, was the meme-fueled treatment that it was given by countless Internet commentators over Nico Nico Douga, which was what ultimately led to the song to be known by the 'Te-Te-Te- (てってってー)' nickname.
Town's organ-based chorus makes it so that people listening to it might follow the rhythm by humming an ear-wormy 'Te-Te-Te, Te-Te-TeTe-' piece, a trend which made its transition to the Nico Nico Douga fields as part of parody/MAD compilation pieces where Town's chorus is featured all of a sudden (and without a context), causing the video's viewers to spam the 'Te-Te-Te' Japanese phase to go along with the chorus. This quickfire-comment-spamming meme was so effective, in fact, that the very song Town has been chosen as the theme song for the Weekly Nico Nico Video Ranking, a tradition that continues to this day!
This brings us to the release of the Must Song games, where the infamous Town was remixed by Yuji Masubuchi (増渕裕二) in order to be made playable for Taiko means. The seasoned Bandai Namco musician's "Must Mix" rendition of Town simply consists of the original song being looped a bunch of times, with the voice actresses from the original 765Pro idol roster singing the 'Te-Te-Te-' portions in many different ways, as a tribute to said meme's everlasting impact on the series' lore. Even the song's ID refers to it, with the onomatopoeic imsttt!
Gameplay-speaking, this is one of the Taiko charts which is played at half the scrolling speed for the entire playing time, sporting a pattern-repeating 1/16 notechart with some slight variations along the way. By playing this song, the original 765Pro agency clerk Kotori Otonashi (音無小鳥) will be featured as the main custom dancer rather than any other idol, with a parade of mini Taiko drum characters as backup!
Thinking ～Must Mix～| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x5 (200) | x6 (250) | x7 (444) | x8 (555) |
im@s MS Blue 171-342 none imsthnWith the Red Album bearing the more meme-based Town BGM, the Blue Album holds the BGM track which hosted the bigger potential for hard Taiko charts of the two! Much like with Town, it's not possible to precisely pinpoint the identity of the composer who was behind the more lively Thinking BGM tune, but we can say for sure that its coming in a "Must Mix" version can be attributed to the same couple that brought the Must Mix of Town to life: arranger Yuji Masubuchi and notecharter Kuboken (くぼけん). Being a "Must Mix", this one too doesn't fail to mention the Te-Te-Te- meme towards the end!
Repeating notechart formations and mono-colored clusters aside, this is easily the hardest Oni contender for the 8th-star slot out of today's two featured tracks, as the note density is prominently higher on this one! This rendition of the Thinking BGM has also more fun on the custom scrolling-speed department, from a goroawase-friendly beginning burst of x7.65 the base BPM speed to many different overlapping timing ticks that flow at different speeds towards the player, all at the same time on the screen (usually referred to by us with the yes-it's-still-patented trippy barlines(TM) label).
Thinking ～Must Mix～| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | - | - | - | x10 (876) |
im@s MS Blue 147 none imsnexTaking a page from many modern gauntlets with both long clusters and merciless 1/24 cluster spikes a-la Music Revolver (Ura), Thinking's Must Mix bears a scary difficult bump with its additional difficulty layer, playing even more on the player's own stamina while factoring more intricate cluster formations to mentally map for landing proper hits.
As we also previously notes in the past in one of our more random-nature features, there's an unusual layer of significance lying in the beginning portion of the notechart, as it's possible to literally form out a specific letter/number formation by visually arranging the note patterns in a very specific way! Head over to this link to find out more about it...
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While this has been the end of the Idolm@ster SotW sequel month, that doesn't mean we're entirely skipping next week out, either! Our next Song of the Week entry, however, will take place next Sunday instead. See you then!
