Song of the Week! 30 April 2011

 

Well, after the continuous analyses of high difficulty Namco Original songs, it's time to give an intermediate song a chance. This was Yusri Khairi's request from a few weeks ago. Ready?

Kimi ni Touch lyrics

Artist: Oogami Masako (大上昌子)

First video of CHAOS RINGS

Obviously, this song - coming from the namesake online RPG game of Square Enix - doesn't have the special dancers featured in the Sonic medley. But, on the other hand, this 7* Oni bears a lot of BPM and scrolling variations. From Symphonic Motos with love!

Namco Taiko Blog (26 April 2011) - Taiko iPhone's new Song Pack

While all attention is focused on Taiko PSP DX right now, another song pack is released on the under-rated iPhone Taiko! A few nice surprises here. It's announced on the Taiko Team's blog today! More details and images about the new iPhone tunes are available if you click Read More.

First video of Sonic 4 Medley

One of the new iPhone songs. As for the recent medley of New Super Mario Bros.Wii, the Sega mascot is a special dancer, together with Dr. Eggman and the other enemies around him. But where are his allies? Tails? Knuckles?

Taiko goofs, take 3

After-easter days bring to this site more funny situation generated by programming mistakes! On our next stop, there is the Wii universe; some of those bugs affect all the three Taiko chapters!

What do you want to see from PSP DX? Speculate!

5 years is a long time in Taiko years. To put into perspective, the series at its...10th anniversary right? That means PSP has been out of the running for the greater second half, which brought to the table so many great songs and great series that would leave any console in the dust after just two years. And suddenly we're presented with this. Since then it's been a field day for all the Taiko fans especially those with PSPs. However, barring downloadable songs, there are way too many holes to plug in with just 70 songs on the list.

Because of PSP's long absence from the series, it is missing:

• The entire Angel Dream series (bar the unreleased 3rd one)
• The entire ac. series
• The entire SORA series
• The entire no Mai series
• Chikuzei ~GEAR UP~, Zeihen ~transformation~ and Shunyuu ~happy excursion~
• Tenjiku, EkiBEN, X-DAY and Hataraku 2000
• Kurofune Raikou, Hyakka Ryouran, Sengoku Sangen, Fuun Shishi, Hyakki Yakou
• The Carnivorous Carnival
• Samurai Rocket, Naked Glow
• Yumeiro Coaster and mint tears
• Metal Police, Total Eclipse 2035, Tokoyami no Mori
• Many wow bang!, Hello! Halloween, Yuugao no Kimi (though, the first two have fallen out of stardom long ago)
• Family Dondon and Okashi Deka no Uta
• Melt, World is Mine and Black Rock Shooter
• Kare Kano Kanon and Le Tombeau de Couperin
• Metal Hawk BGM 1
• And many other popular songs you can think of.

Granted, a lot of the impact of absence has been cushioned by PSP2's new download packs and the current lineup on PSP DX (Rotter Tarmination, DON'T CUT and Rumble Ranbu are there, along with heavily rumored Ura Oni mode), but there is still an enormous amount of ground left to cover, and we probably won't see all of our collective wishlists on the final product (again, barring downloads).

From the preliminary songlist, we already know 26 songs out of 70 (SMOKY THRILL and Angel Dream 3 being excluded since they're extra songs that don't make up part of the in-game list). Assuming the in-game list has as many J-Pop and Anime songs as PSP2 (probably a couple of extra Variety/Children songs too, give or take a bit), then that would be 11 songs more, bringing the total to 37.

That makes 33 unlockable songs not counting Ura Oni. Taking Taiko Wii as the general example of Namco Original-heavy songlists, which it looks like PSP DX is trying to have, the approximate ratio of secret Namco Originals to Game Music to Classic is 5:1:1 (remember, there have never been any in-game unlockable licensed songs. Ura Oni excluded from rule). So, following that line of thought we might have about 23 to 26 Namco Originals, and the remainder split evenly among Game Music and Classic.

Since Mulberry is on the songlist it's a safe bet that the newer Taiko songs should be unlockable, including the Taiko Wii 3 giants Black Rose Apostle, Doom Noiz and Joubutsu 2000, and those from Taiko 14, Taiko Time, probably Shunyuu, and Shimedore 2000. And probably a few other good ones thrown in (personally I'd really like to see someone mash the buttons on Ryougen no Mai XD). With the advent of download songs it might seem that in-game songlists lose their significance, but remember you still have a storage limit per memory stick.

Remember, this is all my speculation so it could go right as I expect, or completely the opposite. What do you think should be in PSP DX's in-game songlist? Would too many 10* Onis ruin the balance? Since Shimedore crosses the 999 barrier, do you expect PSP DX's new songs to cross that too? Do you expect to see new entries to current series (SORA-V? New Garyoutensei or no Mai song?)? Among the huge list of Namco Originals/Game Music/Classic songs not currently on PSP, which of them do you want or expect to be in the 23 to 26 slots in DX? Speculate away!