Taiko
no Tatsujin RHYTHM CONNECT was released as the follow-up to the long-standing Taiko no Tatsujin Plus app family, bringing up to the table a different monetization scheme than its subscription-based predecessors for iOS and Android-based devices. Playable on a portrait orientation as opposed to the Plus games/Pop Tap Beat's landscape approach, the game was released for Japan and other major Asian countries with LINE support (including Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao), starting out in early August 2023 in an open-beta state and then "officially" releasing on November 1st of the same year with most of the songs for the popular-licensing-heavy genres.
The game bolsters touchscreen inputs as its main (and only) control scheme, with the unusual layout orientation for Taiko gaming means paving the way to a slew of different visual flairs than most of the other Taiko games in history. Not only songs have their own/shared jacket art in music selection screens (or its official one, if any was available), but all songs also leave the option to have animated backgrounds and song-specific characters and animations to match, with a few tunes even playing a related video in the background if the option is left on. LINE account integration also allowed users to save progress and compare best scores with all LINE frends, together with top users in general.
The app comes with the free-to-play model, granting access to most of the tracklist for free after watching an AD per song play and mini music setlist refreshes, with subscription-oriented options to skip ADs and a few tracks barred behind either timed-exclusivity (with the "Taiko Passport" subscription model) or unlockable with grindable/purchaseable ingame currency, later in its life. The usual gameplay modifiers are also here, alongside a few options to raise the final score score between other modifiers and Kigurumi/Petit Chara drum avatar customization elements which are instead collected through its time-limited events or bought out with coins/additional AD watches.
Roughly one year after its official release, RHYTHM CONNECT was discontinued on December 2nd, 2024, with its servers closing down and losing out the complete access to the entirety of the game alongside it.
The app comes with the free-to-play model, granting access to most of the tracklist for free after watching an AD per song play and mini music setlist refreshes, with subscription-oriented options to skip ADs and a few tracks barred behind either timed-exclusivity (with the "Taiko Passport" subscription model) or unlockable with grindable/purchaseable ingame currency, later in its life. The usual gameplay modifiers are also here, alongside a few options to raise the final score score between other modifiers and Kigurumi/Petit Chara drum avatar customization elements which are instead collected through its time-limited events or bought out with coins/additional AD watches.
Roughly one year after its official release, RHYTHM CONNECT was discontinued on December 2nd, 2024, with its servers closing down and losing out the complete access to the entirety of the game alongside it.
| Genre | Default | Coin Unlocks |
Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Pops ポップス |
87 | 10 |
97 |
 |
Anime アニメ |
80 | 21 | 101 |
 |
Vocaloid ボーカロイド™曲 |
47 | 5 | 52 |
 |
Variety バラエティ |
34 | 2 | 36 |
 |
Classical クラシック |
73 | 1 | 74 |
 |
Game Music ゲームミュージック |
14 | 15 | 60 |
 |
Namco Original ナムコオリジナル |
532 | 9 | 541 |
| Total | 598 | 63 |
961 |
