-Taiko Drum Master Information-

[cj iwakura]

"Game comes with drum!
Drum comes with game!"

Taiko Drum Master is an American PS2 take on the Japanese arcade/console rhythm game Taiko No Tatsujin, and features a mixture of pop, rock, classical, and Namco original musics.

It's similar in premise to the previous endeavor by Nintendo and Namco's collaborative efforts, called Donkey Konga, only with an entirely different controller(aptly called a 'Taiko'): also played with sticks instead of hands, which the Donkey Konga bongos were used with.

The drum for TDM is rather large, and includes a stand for upright display. The player has to hit either the edges or center of the drum, each of which has a left and right section.

Notes appear to the beats of the song: blue denoting the outer edge, red the inner. Either can be hit as the player prefers, while large suggest(but don't require, strangely enough) the hitting of both sides. Also, there are free drumrolls for point scoring, and 'required' drumrolls which have a counter that must be completed before the next note arrives(generally done using the inner segment).

The difficulty level is organized similarly to Donkey Konga's, but TDM has a much more difficult(and on beat) arrangment of notes at times, and also has a fourth difficulty called Oni. While this is the same as Hard for most of the songs, in some cases, it is far more difficult than the ones before it.. and sometimes ridiculously so(level 5 jacked up to level 9, for example).

The licensed music is almost all done by cover artists, which mixed results: some sound really close to the originals, while some sound downright awful, and almost all are edited to a poor, abrupt fade out(even stranger considering how long the classics and originals can get).

Fortunately, the notecharts for every song are done very well, and follow a clear beat, and are almost all fun to play on some level or another.

Songlist/Difficulties

Pop
ABC
Easy - *
Normal - **
Hard - **
Oni - **

That's The Way (I Like It)
Easy - *
Normal - *
Hard - **
Oni - **

The Impression That I Get
Easy - *****
Normal - *****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Tubthumping
Easy - **
Normal - **
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Walking On Sunshine
Easy - ****
Normal - ****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Material Girl
Easy - ****
Normal - **
Hard - ****
Oni - ****

Love Shack
Easy - ***
Normal - ***
Hard - ***
Oni - ***

Toxic
Easy - **
Normal - ***
Hard - ****
Oni - ****

I'm A Believer
Easy - *
Normal - **
Hard - ***
Oni - ***


Rock
Slide
Easy - ****
Normal - ***
Hard - ****
Oni - ****

American Girls
Easy - *
Normal - *
Hard - **
Oni - **

Girls & Boys
Easy - **
Normal - ***
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Killer Queen
Easy - **
Normal - ***
Hard - ****
Oni - ****

Lady Marmalade
Easy - **
Normal - **
Hard - **
Oni - **

Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Easy - **
Normal - ****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

My Sharona
Easy - ***
Normal - ***
Hard - *****
Oni - *****


Anime/TV
Rock The Dragon - Dragonball Z Theme
[Tempo Changer]
Easy - ****
Normal - **
Hard - *****
Oni - ****

Bowling For Soup - Jimmy Neutron Theme
Easy - **
Normal - ***
Hard - ****
Oni - ****


Classical
Beethoven's Symphony No.5
Easy - ***
Normal - ****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

William Tell Overture
Easy - ***
Normal - ****
Hard - ****
Oni - ****

Carmen Prelude
Easy - ****
Normal - **
Hard - ****
Oni - ********

Foster's Medley
Easy - *
Normal - ***
Hard - **
Oni - **

Symphony No. 25 in G Minor
Easy - ***
Normal - ****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Hungarian Dances No.5
[Tempo Changer]
Easy - **
Normal - ****
Hard - ***
Oni - ********


Namco Originals
SoulCalibur II Brave Sword, Braver Soul
Easy - ***
Normal - **
Hard - ****
Oni - *********

The Genji and The Heike Clans [Unlockable]
Easy - ****
Normal - ******
Hard - *******
Oni - **********

Ridge Racer [Unlockable]
Easy - *****
Normal - *****
Hard - ********
Oni - *********

Taiko March [Unlockable]
Easy - ***
Normal - *****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Don Rangers [Unlockable]
Easy - ***
Normal - ****
Hard - *****
Oni - *****

Katamari On The Rocks
Easy - ***
Normal - ****
Hard - ****
Oni - *********

Dragon Spirit
Easy- ****
Normal - *****
Hard - *******
Oni - ********


Unlock Prerequesites

A song is unlocked after the passing of five separate songs in Taiko Mode, until all of them are. Oni Mode is unlocked soon thenafter(not confirmed as to precisely how yet), enabling the fourth difficulty.
Note that not all Oni charts are different; some are literally the exact same thing as the Hard, while some are actually easier.

Mini Games
Coming soon!

Characters
Coming soon!

Cinemas
Coming soon!


Keep an eye out for more info as it's integrated.