Within the sea of BMS-popularized Variety additions we're getting on the arcade fields from Spring to this Summer, there's one peculiar song that could be easily associated to this independent artist corner while not being an actual BMS addition!
It's time to welcome back one CreoFUGA-winning talent under his other, most-known alias...
Pixel Galaxy Snail's House| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x4 (187) | x5 (288) | x6 (398) | x9 (740) |
Taiko 0 G
300
none
???Roughly three years ago, the Taiko series has welcomed the contest-winning song Kokorobo by Keitaro Ujiie (キータロ ウジーイ) for arcade tournament means. Flashforward to the current year and we have the same artist on Taiko again, this time entering from the front door with one of his most popular songs from 2017... With his other main composing alias, no less!
The Snail's House art name began to be adopted since late August in 2014 for his more lighthearted techno creations, differenciating it from the more developed musical themes with bubbly vibes that can be more easily associated to more mundane events, on a smaller scale of perspective. The recognition that Ujiie got for his Snail's House production has also been increasingly popular overseas; so much so that the artist became the 9th most-listened Japanese composer on Spotify outside of Japan in 2018! Since the last time we talked about Keitaro Ujiie and his music game lineage for our Kokorobo feature (link), three more original songs have been adopted in music gaming with both his main aliases: Ujico* for DanceDanceRevolution's BLSTR and Snail's House for beatmania IIDX's Candy Kingdom (お菓子の王国) and CHUNITHM's Seagull.
As for his Ujico*-signed albums and EPs, the Snail's House brand of tracks have been mostly released under either his own record label -the Youth Composer Association- or with none at all, as simple self-releases. Pixel Galaxy's musical debut happens to be on the latter side of the spectrum, premiering on the eponymous EP release (Pixel Galaxy) of February 23rd, 2017. Pixel Galaxy was also the second of the artist's songs to receive an official music video on Youtube, after 2016's My Story. Suffice to say, its online popularity is quite a given for its legacy, considering its nearly 50 million views to boot!
By admission of the author himself over Twitter (link), what we have on playable Taiko fields is an hand-made custom edit of the original song that includes both the main stanzas and the ending musical wink to Kirby games' Green Greens theme, as 4+ minutes play performance on arcades have become a thing of the past. It's also from the past that the main notecharting flair for Pixel Galaxy comes from, seeing how its BPM has been doubled up and then had its scrolling speed halved all throughout, in the same fashion of Kokorobo, the artist's Taiko-debut song! With a lower BPM setting to boot, the challenge offered is less about fierce high-hit-density cluster formations but rathetr a parade of 1/16 charting that can be compared to Ridge Racer's Oni mode, with some denser 1/16 being thrown into the mix.
