In the middle of August, the heated debut of one tenacious composer is about to be brought up on these shores...
RAGING FIRE
Δ→Low
| Game | Genre |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC Nijiiro (Y6) NS2 (MP) |  | ★4 187 | ★6 312 | ★7 496 | ★8 700 | ★10 1022 |
300
rgfire (RAGING FIRE)About one year ago, we've seen the victorious-at-last exploits of the nicknamed TAKIO, managing to have one of his original works published on Taiko no Tatsujin as one of the judge-elected winners in the 2024 Columbia Makes contest after consecutively not making the cut in every single official contest since the 2016 one on CreoFUGA. Curiously enough, this also happened to be the story for another of the 2024 competition winners: the nicknamed bermudaΔ/Δ→Low (Twitter/X; YouTube), who also took part in every single other edition of the music-recruitment events since 2016 before the triumphal result!
This time around, the WayBackMachine overseers have been generous to us, as one of the few archived pages from the final CreoFUGA contest shows us (one of) his entries in name only -Qrazy Beater- which was also worth a honorable mention. Far more tracks have been uploaded for the later contests since the Faith-Creation-hosted, some persisting after the contest's end like Gabarashiki Kono Sekai. (ガバらしきこの世界。) and Qrazy Qlimax (both archived, as the FaiCre contest pages are no longer operative) and others being removed from the respective contest listings for a reason or another like Zuzuzu (卆卆卆) from the same year, which managed to get a Bronze award from steμ. Other Taiko-versed competition entries being released across the years are 2021's Etou Silver honorable mention Ao (鏖), 2022's accolade-less Hexenprozess and Komi Kamakura (黄泉竈喰) and 2023's Bad Trip Party. Not to mention, he's also competing in this year's contest edition, with the song Outf0x7D0! Inbetween the four-year contest gap starring the arcade Gen3-to-Gen4 jump, Δ→Low also got one of his songs -demonic juggernauts- playable in C4Cat's mobile music game Dynamix (link).
The "accepting speech" for RAGING FIRE from Licht Tsuboi of the 2024 judges' board is a testament of the song's selection for its uniqueness rather than participation persistance alone. The unique genre choice -dubbed by the same creator as "Jungle Terror"- paves its own way with irregular percussions and animal sounds without the need of a main melody, making it both for a strikingly immersive song to listen to and a unique charting challenge to mash your bachis with. It speaks volumes when the following is a (translated) direct quote from Tsuboi himself on the judge comments section, upon hitting the Play button and feeling an electric shock coarsing through his body:
"Humans have evolved to groove to this kind of rhythm since ancient times." (※There are various theories.)
Licht Tsuboi was also eager to bring RAGING FIRE live on stage for 2025's AMUSEMENT MUSIC FES concert, lighting up the crowd with a peculiar take on the song that replaces the percussions with squeaky hammer sounds and flashing images of the same Tsuboi on the background, while playing with one of Bandai Namco's old arcades based on hitting gators with such a toy (Wani Wani Panic)! The same composer was no shy in singing his creation's praises online, with Δ→Low posting a launch-day 1-million point simul-clear with the nicknamed Ponchi♪ (link), an official MV release of the song on his YT channel earlier this year and a long version which made its debut for M3's Autumn 2025 edition, as part of the BURN OUT album.
If the starting hitballoons are popped and every single note is hit with perfect accuracy, RAGING FIRE's Oni mode performance (only on arcade titles) will end with a flat 1 million points score, the second song accomplishing such a feat across Nijiiro Version debuts since the Pops tune Show Time. It's even less intimidating than how the doubled-up base BPM might lead to assume, considering the 1/16-dominant charting and the scrolling speed value being halved for the whole play a-la Phantom Rider. The gloves went off, however, when this became one of the 2024 contest winners to receive a 'Weekend Warrior'-styled Ura oni, like KA.MA.SE and Extreme End. You get the 300-BPM-scrolling real deal, a Kat-leading chart that strives to put a single Don marker every two beats and all the irregular cluster trickery you'd expect from a strict-to-the-song musical notation for its charting approach! Walking away with Full Combos for Banapassport arcade goers, however, will result into channeling your inner Party 4U line spaz, with the regular Oni Full Combo bringing you the 'ミ( ﾟдﾟ )FIRE!!( ﾟдﾟ )彡' originally made by Δ→Low online and the Ura Oni's Full Combo handing out 'ミ(＃ﾟДﾟ)ミRAGING!!彡(ﾟДﾟ＃)彡' instead!
