The Games We Played: Becoming a Taiko Drum Master
by Omar (@siegarettes)
Between spending more time in the arcades of Yakuza 5′s Kamurocho, and a general renewed interest in Wii games, I finally returned Namco’s Taiko no Tatsujin series in a big way. Taiko is dead simple, a rhythm game in the strictest sense. There’s one lane, and only two ways to hit a note, inside or outside, red or blue. After all, it’s meant to imitate the performance of Japan’s traditional festival drums of the same name.
What’s less traditional are the music you’ll play drums to. There’s some taiko drum grooves, then there’s the suite of classical music, J-Pop, anime themes, and songs from other games, from Namco’s own Katamari Damacy and Ridge Racer, to Mario Bros. and Dragon Quest. It’s always an eclectic collection of tunes, no matter which entry of the series you end up playing. More importantly, there’s enough variety in the library to find something to play alongside your friends. Whether it was introducing my partner to the hilarity of the sole English entry’s tracklist, which sets the likes of My Sharona and Rock Lobster alongside taiko drums, or banging out anime and game themes with a group of friends, the Taiko no Tatsujin games always kept it lively.
It’s hard not to get caught up in its absolute charm. Each game carries the spirit of a summer festival, with mythical beings, hot street food, and confetti explosions abound. There’s not a color in the spectrum that goes unused, and Taiko himself delivers ever yell and deceleration with enthusiasm. It gets even better with the guest stars and costumes. Being able to kick out a rhythm alongside Dragon Quest slimes or dress up like a piece of sushi is absolutely adorable, and I made more than my share of excited yelps while playing. One of the Wii games even features a story that involves you playing beats to power up a robot, complete with boss battles that turn your drum friends into hair metal vocalists. It’s relentlessly upbeat and colorful.
That relentless energy is something I appreciated when I finally took the plunge and imported a taiko drum controller for the Wii games. The controller itself might not be more than yet another plastic instrument, but it turns out Taiko no Tatsujin is a very different game when you need to keep more than your thumbs on the beat. Suddenly I was using my whole body to play. I had to learn to keep my wrists locked, swing with my arms and shoulder, and tap out a metronome to stay on beat. Songs that I previously could simply react to required me to memorize their rhythms, breathe to them. As terribly void of natural rhythm I encountered a lot of dejection and disappointment trying to understand these new demands, but that relentless charm kept me practicing.
It hasn’t been a good year. Not personally, nor in the larger sense. There were plenty of times where the energy I put into my drum strikes was from an anxiety I wanted to leave behind for a moment. There were times where I maybe played a song just to wear myself out and keep from thinking about what was next. But that’s the beauty of the beat–it keeps going even if your heart’s not really in it. You just need to pick it back up and play.