Problem is, that particular Drumvent song was already drawn (and yesterday, at that!). At this point, we might as well talk about the song inspired from the same game that actually made it into Taiko gaming...
| Game | Genre |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS2 Anime 2 |
 |
★3 (150) |
★5 (197) |
★6 (357) |
★8 (458) |
- |
| All (2P) |
|
★3 (149/149) |
★5 (199/199) |
- | - | - |
120
libble (Libble Rabble)What we have here is one of the few remaining Tobikkiri! Anime Special-debuting Namco Original that have yet to appear into a later Taiko no Tatsujin entry, once again based on the 16-bit-pioneering Namco cocktail-table arcade Libble Rabble (リブルラブル) from December 16th, 1983. Since I've already had the occasion to talk about the source videogame just yesterday, I'll try to squeeze in a few trivia that were omitted from the Drumvent piece. Even writing up Song of the Week might turn into a Pokemon-dual-versions game of "version-exclusives" with the right setting!
The game's temporary name on the planning phase -"Potato"- is owed to the initial partnership project with a chip-manufacturing company for the creation of the game, later on changed to "Ribble Rabble" as a means for Iwatani how much of an "incomprehensible idea" the game concept might sound to foreign ears, only to then change it to the phonetically-similar Libble Rabble, a choice not only owed to the two arrow-shaped characters controlling by the players but also as an intuitive way to convey that both the Left and Right joysticks play a crucial part for the game's mechanics. Using the two pointy characters, in fact, players are asked to clear the "seasons" of the game by trapping every cap-wearing Mushlin onscreen, without either directly touching enemy characters or dropping out of magical energy. The capturing act in the game via surrounding targets with Libble and Rabble's line-confined magic field is coined as "Bashishi" (バシシ) by the game's original developer Toru Iwatani (岩谷徹), as a means to have a name that could better call to mind an onomatopoeia for a beam of light surrounding something, similar to the "Bashishi (do)" (バシシ（する）) term used in common media to describe the more general act of surrounding someone/something. Among the features of the game is a series of bonus levels that can be accessed by collecting hidden treasure chests buried inside the playing field between seasons/stages that reveal letters to reach them. Some of these incantations of sorts spell out choice names like the cabinet's 1st-placed Hi-Score player nickname (or 'RALLYX' if there's none) and among these there's even a "BRIDAL" bonus stage which plays out a unique rendition of Mendelssohn's Wedding March that isn't heard anywhere else in the game, made by Taiko no March/Tower of Druaga Medley composer Junko Ozawa (小沢純子).
The original music of Libble Rabble by Nobuyoki Ohnogi (大野木宣幸) is reimagined as a vocal piece for the 2005 PS2 game lead by the voice of Mitsuko Horie (堀江美都子), with overall trackdown duties by Murakami Masanobu (村上正信) and an additional couple of vocalists signed together as "Apple Pie" backing the lead voice for the chorus: Saeko Sugiyama (杉山小絵子) and Kayoko Hirayama (平山佳代子). Arranging the whole thing is BNSI veteran Masako Ogami (大上昌子), who also took a part in the song's actual execution as the lead wind-instrument player (both trombone and alto saxophone) as well as the percussions via Cuìca. Like most of the Anime Special songs, a slightly-extended cut for it is available in the game's original soundtrack.
On a chart-wise talk, it's only fitting to compare it with other iconic charts from the earlier generations, with one popular returning Game Music piece fitting the role quite nicely. After all, with all those handswitch-heavy portions and 9-note clusters flowing at a constantly-slow pace as a pure 1/16 charting approach, it's hard not to draw the parallers to Ridge Racer's regular Oni, albeit a bit shorter. Once again, however, that's still the rarest Ridge Racer-like experience you're gonna find among official Taiko games as of late!
