[NSwitch-West] - DonKatsu Fight Mode's Arrival... One Month On

Don-chan is ready for battle! A free update is coming to #TaikoNoTatsujin: Drum‘n’Fun! on Nintendo Switch, introducing the brand new DonKatsu Fight mode. Knock down your opponents in one-on-one fights with crazy Power-Ups! pic.twitter.com/2YyVWkS7lA

— BANDAI NAMCO EU (@BandaiNamcoEU) 9 agosto 2019

The free update to the Nintendo Switch Taiko game for the US and EU regions has surely taken its sweet time to make the overseas jump from the original version... and frankly, so did we in informing you of that, seeing how only now we caught wind of this month-old tweet from the European Bandai Namco account, documenting the addition...

While we apologise for this late discovery, let it be known that the DonKatsu Fight mode -alongside its theme song- have been released as part of a free update on August 9th.

First Video: Out and About with a Brand New (Maka-fushigi) Adventure

	Title
	Maka-fushigi Adventure! Dragon Ball 魔訶不思議アドベンチャー！／「ドラゴンボール」 より	★3	★5	★6	★7 (418)

It is very natural to expect a complete revamp of the whole set of notecharts when the last time we saw this song in Taiko no Tatsujin was AC4 which was 16 years ago. Good that they also fixed that unexplained pitch change in the old cover.

The new Oni notechart, for instance, took ideas similar to Monkey Magic (★7 in 3DS2) with closer percussion hints, with the introduction of newer threats like 2-2-1 patterns and hanging streams like kddddd (kat + 5 dons) and dddddddk. (7 dons + kat).

For our western readers: happy to relay that Europe (BNEI official Twitter for UK, Italy and Spain) and Australia (thanks jdenm8 from comments at our last post) are getting this and the rest of the pack.

[NSwitch/PS4 West] - Early-April's EU Taiko DLC Updates

Today is a great day to pick up the tempo in #TaikoNoTatsujin: Drum Session! The Donder Pack 17, Expansion Pack 2, Popular Song Pack Vol. 1, HATSUNE MIKU Pack and Namco Classics Pack are available today on PS4, totaling more than 40 new songs! pic.twitter.com/C411sgLu1F

— BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe (@BandaiNamcoEU) 2 aprile 2019

As notified by a tweet from yesterday, European Taiko players have picked up the pace on their DLC game for (almost) good!

Not only the latest licensed packs (as well as the first Popular Song Pack) are now available to purchase for the Old Lady's players, but a brand new Expansion Pack purchase bundle is available as well, packaging 30 of the already-released tracks for the price of 29,99 Euros. Which songs are included in this deal, however, were not shown at all on its related Ps Store entry, so we're out of luck for now from knowing which songs are included. Rest assured we'll try to look into it, though!

...at the very least, we do know what the newly-worded Namco Pack has inside: all of the pre-order exclusive Game Music songs from the JP version of the game (Burning Force Medley, Tower of Babel, Mappy Medley, Taiko March, Dragon Spirit Medley and Mojipittan Medley), as reported on its own PS Store page.

We're also taking advantage of this post to notify the latest NSwitch song delivery which we failed to address this past month, notified by chatbox user Dondy. The Vocaloid Pack 2 has received a simultaneous release worldwide, with March 7th being the release date for both JP, US and EU versions of Nintendo Switch Version/Drum 'n' Fun. Below is a mirrored source for the EU version, while news bulletins on the US DLC front, sadly, were only broadcast through the US eShop News section and thus, unlinkable by us here.

Nintendo EU Weekly Downloads - March 1st Week (outsourced from Gonintendo.com)

[NS1][PS4-1] Western Release Launch Window Update Post

Turns out we need a Launch Window Update Post because there may not be just one or two obvious updates we should be aware of.

NS1 Song List / PS4-1 Song List
Last update: November 3 2018
No. of Updates: [NS1] 2 / [PS4-1] 6

[NSwitch-PS4/West] - Base Song List Confirmation and Available Bundles

We're pleased to announce that Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! for Nintendo Switch will be available digitally and physically in Europe with the Taiko Drum Set! Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! for PS4 will be available digitally.

Plus, check out the song lists for each game! pic.twitter.com/nwFwEaagrQ

— Bandai Namco UK (@BandaiNamcoUK) 9 agosto 2018

Dispelling all the not-sourced fluff from general-gaming-media websites from the last few days, we finally have some official word on the localized Taiko no Tatsujin game releases from Bandai Namco itself! The first aspect to talk about is the games' song list, which has just be confirmed to be the very same one from the original JP/General Asia release of the respective games! This is also confirmed to be the case for the US versions of the games (sources for Taiko PS4 and Taiko NSwitch).

The tweet from the company's UK branch also lets us know the available versions of the two games in Europe as a whole: Drum Session!/Session de Dodon ga Don will only be available as a digital title, while the Nintendo Switch's Drum 'n' Fun! will be released both digitally and physically, complete with the dedicated Taiko drum set peripheral as well! For the time being, nothing about the US version of the Switch game's release variants seems to have been stated as of now.

EDIT: We forgot to mention in the main news body that some tracks are not being listed for both game releases' US/EU tweets; more specifically, Game Music track Theme of Ryu for Drum Session is not appearing... Are those infographic mistakes or are the higlighted tracks not coming at all for the West? Also minor mistake that the "~GEAR UP~" subtitle is wrongly put to Carnation/Oranda Nadeshiko in the Switch song list.

For the time being, thanks to Taiko Discord user Yuuyatales for the find!

[PS4/West] - Taiko PS4's Playstation Blog Introduction(s)

Just as we first learned about this game last year, when it was under the Session de Dodon ga Don name for the Japanese audience, today's Western localization reveal was followed by a an official announcement for both the American and European versions of the Playstation Blog, giving some slight feature confirmations with a side of... not exactly rosy announcements.

Twitter Snippets (27 July 2018) - Western Taiko Game Releases: Now It's Official!

Test your drumming skills against friends with Taiko no Tatsujin, the classic Japanese rhythm game, coming to Europe for the first time!
Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! for Nintendo Switch and Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! for PS4 available on November 2nd. pic.twitter.com/ANKHXKM4zs

— BANDAI NAMCO Europe (@BandaiNamcoEU) 27 luglio 2018

The title says it all: the most recent Taiko console game releases are actually going to be officially released for the Western market! This claim comes from social feeds sent by different Bandai Namco branches (pictured above is a reveal tweet coming from the BN Europe branch; other branches such as UK and USA have also posted the very same notice).

Both the debut Taiko titles for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch are going to be released with the English names we already knew about from other General Asia releases or former data leaks: Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session! (PS4) and Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! (NSwitch). There's not that much to talk about how the games will be distributed as of now (or how much will they differ from the original JP versions), but the promo video embeded above showcasing the Anime song We Are! makes us believe that some of the Japanese licenses might be salvaged for the international versions (possibly the ones that are related to Bandai Namco-shared IPs for media handling, to the very least).

According to the tweet, both games are scheduled to be released on November 2nd, this year. Mark your calendars!