Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Touch de Dokodon!
Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Touch de Dokodon is a rhythm game for Nintendo DS by Namco Bandai where you play a Taiko drum to the beat of several songs. There are optional button controls, but the main mode of control is to take two styli and tap on the touch screen, which shows the image of large Taiko drum. The two main gamemodes are Free Play and Daily Dojo. Free Play is exactly as one would expect, and Daily Dojo is a once-a-day challenge on a random song you've unlocked. There are four difficulties: Flower, Bamboo, Tree, and Demon. Demon difficulty, also known as Oni Mode, is initially hidden and must be unlocked. In addition to the actual gameplay, you can also dress up your Taiko character in silly outfits. This does not affect actual gameplay and is only a visual change. There is also a multiplayer mode available. It can be played in single-cart mode, but if an opponent has a copy of the game the outfit they have dressed their Taiko in will appear on whatever character corresponds to which player they are. The game comes with two "Bachi Pens", which are Taiko no Tatsujin-themed styli for use with the game, and is rated A on the CERO rating system (the Japanese equivalent of an E for Everyone on the ESRB rating system).
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the game itself is super cute, don-chan is adorable and charming and is given so many customization options here that i have only been able to start scratching the surface of. seeing his animations when on a run of hit notes just feels so good and makes the player want to try to keep up this intensity. as others have said though, there's definitely a bit of a lack in song selection, as there's a ton of fun stuff to play (especially liked the mario and namco medlys, the doraemon theme, and all the classical stuff) but it feels like there should be way more tracks here. this version has 35 tracks while (and this may be a bit of an unfair comparison) the arcade version released two years earlier, taiko no tatsujin 7, has 80 songs including tracks from chibi-maruko chan, lucky star, urusei yatsura, and fist of the north star as well as linda linda by the blue hearts and toxic by brittany spears (!?!?!?!). even the psp version that came out the year before this has 62 songs in the base game + dlc.
in any case, fr me i think this is a really good introduction to the series and i'm excited to try some more of these!!
Of the few Taiko games I’ve played, this one goes the hardest in every department — meaning banger music, duh. A thing about Taiko no Tatsujin is that it has a lot of reoccurring tracks throughout the franchise. Although it works as filler to easily make more out of the game, it also makes it feel more Taiko, and familiar if that makes sense(?). This Taiko takes one step back in bringing less classic Taiko tracks, but instead two steps forward in bringing a bunch of new tracks, each bopping harder than the other. Remember, I haven't played that many Taiko games, but to me a lot of the songs were new.
As one would expect, the ds touch-screen work like a physical Taiko drum would, and that's really cool. Really unfortunate that this gem never officially set sail outside of Japan. This is a game no Taiko enjoyer should miss out on.