Taiko no Tatsujin Forum

Namco- Bandai seem to want to give their Wii version of Taiko no Tatsujin a chance in the West, on the evidence of a patent they have recently listed. 
 
The Wii game in Japan comes bundled with one well made Taiko drum, the problem is doing the same here in the West for a game that's never been popular among the masses, may be too much of a risk given the costs of manufacture and distribution.
 
 
So, they're considering a inflatable one instead - Siliconera is reporting that it's essentially a soft cushion that you'll pop your remote inside and tap away to send drum tap data to the Wii.   Now as a fan of the series when I first heard about this I thought it was hair brained idea, but after looking at the diagram below, I suppose it could work just fine if the touch panels are hard enough, and if it's using thick plastic sheeting.
 



 Any fans of the DS games or older PS2 games on Giant Bomb?   
 
Taiko no Tatsujin, Wii  ! 
 
    

I think I played one of these games last year at MCM. Must have been a PS2 version. Pretty fun, and waaaay japanese. I don't know if I could handle the soundtrack. I'm hearing some Perfume in that video, a guilty pleasure of mine.  I did like the tactile feeling of bashing the sticks against a hard plastic surface, and i'm not sure if this inflatable drum could recreate that.

@erinfizz said:

" There was a PS2 Taiko released here in the US with a drum ages ago. I wish I had known how awesome this game was at the time.  There is a Taiko 10 machine at the local Gameworks and it RULES. I would LOVE to see another one of these games given a shot in the US. "

 
Me too, I think it could prove far more successful now given the success of the Wii and it's well known audience. The arcade games are cool, great fun and very satisfying to play from the little I have played.  Sadly I've only been able to them overseas in Japan when visiting my little bro. I would be stoked if they had a machine locally in London.
 
You should definitely play the first DS game if you can, it's pretty darn cool, the song list it has is awesome, it's so quintessentially Japanese!. I cannot even speak Japanese like my brother can, but I still know all the words lol... If it ever comes to the West they had better not touch the Japanese song list!, they will ruin the game if they do. I have in fact told a Namco rep the same thing last year.  A Namco rep visited another site for an interview and asked me for some feedback about the series coming to the West, so I naturally gave them some detailed thoughts as any fan would. I told them if you were to ever change the songs into Western ones, the game would immediately lose much of the charm that appeals to Western gamers. I also pointed out how Westerners preferred the J Pop found in "Quendan" to EBA. the Western version. Funnily enough, I also mentioned the amazing success of GH on Wii and said the same was achievable if they created a Taiko Wii game, which they have now!. It must have been in production when they asked me, but I like to think I had a role in Taiko coming to Wii :)
 
 The DS game comes with two cute stylus's
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

@erinfizz said:

" Yes, the Taiko DS games are on my totally imaginary "Import Games I MUST Own" list along with both Ouendan games.  Someday I will have more money than sense and they will be mine! :) "

 
 If you have a "special cart",  you could zap the game into it at no cost ;).  I think you should have one if you don't already.