TGS 2008: Taiko no Tatsujin Wii Hands-On

While it hasn’t received much attention in North America, the Taiko Drum Master series has been popular in Japan for years. Now the venerable rhythm game is coming to the Wii, complete with a new drum peripheral. We visited Namco Bandai’s booth at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show and tried our hand at the latest video game take on traditional Japanese drumming.

The taiko peripheral is about the size of a dinner plate, featuring a white pad surface and light-brown drum body. The built-in support props it up at about a 45-degree angle when placed on a table, and we were unable to tell if it could be easily removed for more convenient laptop drumming. It plugs into the Wii Remote, but all the menu navigation and gameplay is controlled by the drum itself. It comes with two light plastic drumsticks, each about a foot long. It is very reminiscent of the Donkey Konga drums for the Nintendo GameCube in both texture and appearance.

The drum registers two kinds of hits: one directly on the pad and one on the rim. Red and blue notes scroll across the screen to indicate which you should hit at what time, with your scored being based on your accuracy. In addition to varying sequences of normal hits, you’ll also perform rolls and double hits to spice things up. These are implemented in a few cutesy ways (like rolling to make your smiling drum icon blow up a balloon) that add some nice variety to the game.

The game has a clean cartoon style and vibrant color palette. As you drum each song away, headband-wearing dogs, cats, and turtles help keep the notes scrolling. At the same time, candied apples, suction-cup arrows, and balloon animals fly across the screen to indicate accurate hits. This all happens outside of the note-display area, of course, so it won’t distract you while you’re in the groove, but it provides some whimsical eye candy to any spectators.

We played slow a children’s song and a brisk Mario medley. We also overheard some rock and pop songs as well. Each song can be played on different difficulty levels, and though we thought that the drum didn’t register some of our hits on the harder track, it could very well be just our amateur taiko skills. Taiko no Tatsujin Wii comes out this December in Japan, and though no North American release has been announced yet, we’ll be practicing in hopes that this one comes stateside.