Taiko: Drum master (U.S. title) or Taiko no tatsujin (太鼓の達人;　Taiko master) is a drumming game for arcade and PlayStation 2. A drum simulating the taiko is played in time with music. It is made by Namco, and Japanese and American versions are available.

Symbols moving horizontally along a timeline show what to hit and when. Home versions distinguish single and double strikes, arcade versions hard and soft strikes.

In the Japanese version subtitles under the symbols give the pronunciation of the sounds (for example, "do don do don") using a traditional system called kuchi shoga.

Successful play builds up a life meter, and if the meter is past a certain point by the end of the song, the song is passed.

The home version can be played with a TaTaCon, a special controller which looks like the face of a Taiko drum.

Music in the Japanese version includes Jpop, anime music, western classical music and traditional Japanese festival music. The american version removes some of these genres trading them up for american Cartoon themes, a few NAMCO originals and mainstream american hits like "Love Shack" by the B-52's and "Toxic" by Britney Spears. It is assumed they are covers but "That's the Way(I like it)" sounds like the original (except for of course, taiko drum key sounds of course)

The graphics are 2-d with a cute, childish, cartoon-like feel. Cut scenes show the adventures of animated Taikos and their friends.

The home version also has two mini-games, the "100 meter dash", played by drumming as quickly as possible, and the "boston marathon", where the player must keep a regular beat in order not to tire out the taiko athlete.

The US Home Version and upgraded japanese home versions include a few more games.

See also

List of drumming games

External links

• Gamespot review of Japan version
• Gamespot review of US version
• Namco page (in Japanese)