With the exception of the three big Wii RPG releases coming this year, European gamers often miss out on a whole series of games because publishers dismiss them as something that won’t work in Europe, or developers don’t even consider the market as a viable option.
Such is the case for the two rhythm-action games in particular – Taiko no Tatsujin and jubeat (pronounced “you beat”). While both are predominantly found in arcades, the former has received dozens of versions on the PS2, Wii, DS and PSP. These two series have largely been confined to Japan, with only Taiko no Tatsujin making a break with one PS2 game that was only released in the US as “Taiko Drum Master”. Both series are immensely popular in arcades amongst people who should surely be using their insane powers of hand-eye co-ordination for brain surgery or something equally fitting to their talents rather than bashing the sides of fake drums or poking cubes in their spare time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvzJcU4-5dw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCmz0DrWQAE[/youtube]
…actually I’d rather not have either of these two poking at my brain.
If you have access to an iPod Touch, iPhone or (ideally) an iPad, you finally have a chance to try out the respective iOS ports for these two franchises – Taiko no Tatsujin Plus and jubeat plus. I assure you, the experience you’ll get from each is worth persevering for. One catch, though – you’re going to have to set up a Japanese iTunes account. Don’t worry, though – the base games themselves are free, and they each come with free songs (five for Taiko, three for jubeat)!
While they are both rhythm-action games, each of them are rather different. Taiko no Tatsujin has you tapping either the centre or the side of a small taiko drum in time with classical, J-Pop, anime or game tunes. It presents itself in a cute, traditional Japanese style. The better you play, the more populated the background becomes. The menus are all in Japanese, but if you aren’t afraid of a little trial and error you’ll have figured the important stuff out in no time.
jubeat plus on the other hand is a very different beast altogether with its suitably darker, techno vibe. It’s considerably more fast-paced and frantic than Taiko no Tatsujin, and certainly less forgiving. You have to hit ever-increasing circles on a 4×4 grid before they fizzle out and you break your combo. Get used to the word “failed” – you’re going to be hearing it a lot! There aren’t any menus to speak of in this game, so no need to worry about not knowing any Japanese here.
If you want to extend each game’s song library you’ll have to purchase DLC packs for them. To do this, you’ll need to get some Japanese iTunes point cards. Taiko no Tatsujin’s are ¥600 for five songs, while jubeat’s are ¥450 for a pack of four. You can preview jubeat’s in-game, but Taiko no Tatsujin’s are much harder to decipher as they are all in Japanese. Therefore I recommend checking out Taiko Time’s comprehensive song list.
While you’re hanging around the Japanese App Store, you might want to consider picking up Pokémon Tap… or you could watch this video, as what you see is pretty much all there is to it. Still… Japanese Pokérap any time you want it!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gHihX-pGDM[/youtube]
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