"Enjoyable to some extent"

Taiko drums DS game! I don't know much about this except that it is a rhythm, music and drum game. This game was popular with both adults and children at one point in the arcade centres, so it was a surprise to encounter this game for the DS when that special machine we love to visit and play for the fun occasionally were gone from there, replaced by other arcade machines.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. Even without an FAQ and knowledge of the Japanese language reading fundamentals, it was pretty much easy to guess what they wanted through the actions. You have the red and the blue dots. Red for centre drum, blue for the rim. Hitting the right spots at the right now, coordination skill is what you need.

Music wise, they have quite a good selection here, with Jpop and even game music (Super mario? Wow). I thought I heard some anime music here other than Doraemon too. There are also difficulty levels as well as score tracking so you can update yourself on your progress. They have examinations as well if I am not wrong which will upgrade your status from novice to 8 grade and so on.

After completing a game with decent score (normally with the silver/gold crowns), you may get mail from various sources and may come attached with gifts which you can use to dress up your taiko drum. Pretty neat stuff. You can also choose the colour scheme of your taiko drum character.

You can choose to play either with the buttons or the stylus. The stylus will be easy, but if you have two, it will be better.

A complain here is the difficult mode if you are using the stylus. The easy and intermediate mode is really manageable, but once you have seen difficult, be prepared for the real shock of endlessly flowing taiko dots. This also brings us to another complaint: This game is not friendly to your DS touch screen when you are constantly hitting the screen with your single/double stylus(es) as though you are playing the drum. Be careful not to spoil your touch screen. I will recommend that you get a protector film for the screens if you really want to play this game with the stylus.

Maybe playing the game with the buttons will be a better idea here if you don't really want to spoil the screen.

So, if you ever found this game on sale, you should consider buying it if you like to play rhythm games. If you don't like playing with buttons and really want to keep your DS touch screen intact, don't even play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/08

Game Release: Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Touch de Dokodon! (JP, 07/26/07)