When it comes to Taiko no Tatsujin video games, I absolutely love this game series. It’s fun and it’s for those who are casual or hardcore players and different skill set (especially those who aim to defeat Oni mode). May you be a beginner or wanting to play a more challenging skill segment, it’s wonderful in that aspect.
And while I raved about the Nintendo Switch version of the game, the past games are something that one may want to look into.
With each game, something was introduced or a song that was representative of that time, “Taiko no Tatsujin” are games that you can always come back to.
One such version I wanted to come back to is “Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX” for the Sony PSP. A game released back in July 2011.
As the PSP and Vita is having a resurgence of video game fans are finding out that the large number of games never released in the USA are worth checking out. I do recommend “Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX” for the Sony PSP which was the first game to introduce Detarame (Random) and Kimagure (S-Random) modifiers and modifier stacking. The bell note was replaced with a yam note, but that is not a big deal.
The base game came with a solid set of 70 songs and 110 DLC’s (paid and free), but of course, with the PSP being defunct for so long (2014 is when they were officially ceased), you’re not going to find these DLC’s anywhere legally.
I’m only going to focus on the main base game and not the DLC’s and one can find the import of this game easy to find on eBay. Also, it’s friendly for those who can’t read Japanese. Aside from song titles, the main thing that people will see is “do you want to create a save file?”. And each time you come back to the game, while it does auto-save, once in awhile, it will ask if it can overwrite the previous save.
The first thing that I love about these games as mentioned, the song list is representative of that era in time.
Songs such as “Heavy Rotation” which was the hottest song in Japan from AKB48, drama theme songs such as Ikimono-gakari’s “Arigatou” or Bump of Chicken’s “Tentai Kansoku”. But you also have songs which remain constant staples for “Taiko no Tatsujin” such as Whiteberry’s “Natsu Matsuri”.
You also get Ikimono-gakari’s “Joyful”, 9mm Parabellum Bullet’s “Punishment”, NYC’s “Yoku Asobi Yoku Manabe” and EXILE’s “I Wish For You”.
Surprisingly, you also get J-rock classic “Kurenai” from X Japan included in the base game.
And of course, hot anime at the time. You get 7!! (Seven Oops) song “Lovers” from “Naruto Shippuden”, Rootless’ “One Piece” theme song “One Day”, the popular “Lion” which is the “Macross Frontier” theme song by May’n and Nakajima Megumi.
Remember when Kara was the first K-Pop group making waves in Japan? Their song “Mister” was included.
And for video games, you had “Yakuza Dead Souls” song “MachineGun Kiss”, “Monster Hunter” theme song “Monster Hunter Medley” and songs from “Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion”, “God Eater Burst” and “Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd” to name a few.
You get numerous classical songs.
But as always, the largest offering in a “Taiko No Tatsujin” game is always the “Namco Original”. So, songs that appeared in past “Taiko no Tatsujin” games show up on this game. Songs from the original “Taiko no Tatsujin”, “Taiko no Tatsujin” 8, 10, 12 and 14 plus other games as well are included. And of course, a good number of new songs for this very game.
Please visit this site for the complete song list.
And going back further to these games that you have consoles that are not region-locked, makes things a lot more enjoyable.
Of course, today, you can purchase “Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival” (or the Japanese version “Donderful Festival”) for the Nintendo Switch and enjoy a plethora of songs via game pass. But for me, there is something about being able to play these past versions of “Taikou no Tatsujin” via arcade machine, older consoles on portable consoles.
With the Sony PSP and Sony Vita not being region locked (DS wasn’t, 3DS was), it makes it a lot easier to enjoy these “Taikou no Tatsujin” games not released in the US, now that prices have become much more cheaper to obtain them.
“Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX” for the Sony PSP is recommended!
