January 02, 2005

New Game: Taiko Drum Master (US)

Title: Taiko Drum Master
Platform: PlayStation 2 (US)
Publisher: Namco

Where: Best Buy
When: December 30
How Much: $49.99 ($52.99 w/tax)

When I came home for Christmas break, I had no intention of buying Taiko Drum Master. I figured I'd be busy enough playing through all the new PSP and DS games, as well as Metal Gear Solid 3 and Dragon Quest VIII.

Of course, these things never go as planned. So far, I've spent about 85% of my time with Minna no Golf Portable (MinGol King status, everything up to Bronze Rank cleared 100% including the first eight characters), and the other 15% playing this, a game I picked up on impulse when shopping at Best Buy the other day. Go figure.

As of this morning, I've managed to clear all of the songs on Easy and Normal, and a few on Hard, but I think I'm about to hit a wall soon. Unlike Donkey Konga, which was ridiculously easy, this game requires some serious skill to clear songs on the Hard and Oni levels. Even if I can't clear everything on Hard though, I think I've gotten my money's worth; practically everyone in my family's been playing it, and so far, everyone's loving it -- myself included.

I do have two minor complaints, though. First, the drum is cheap. After playing Donkey Konga, it's really hard to come back to a drum that's got so many dead spots. You can't just hit it wherever you want -- you have to find the sweet spots and then stick to them for good, which can be really tough when you're trying to get big combos on difficult stages. You'd think they would've invested a little more time perfecting the thing, considering how important the issue of control is in a game like this. I can't understand what these companies are thinking sometimes.

My other complaint is really small: I wish they had more unlockable songs. Unless I'm missing something, I got all of the extra songs unlocked (and the extra difficulty level) in about an hour. It would've been better if they spread them out a bit more to give you more incentive to keep playing.

In any case, Taiko is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it if you're into music games like Bemani and DDR. If anyone out there comes across a better, third-party drum, definitely let me know!

Posted by john tv at January 2, 2005 01:57 PM