Katamari Damacy music in Taiko no Tatsujin 4 (ps2)!

B

bobbyconover

Member
It's true - "Katamari on the Rock," the main theme of Katamari Damacy, is a playable track in the just-released 4th Taiko no Tatsujin game for PS2. Other rad game tracks include a Dragon Spirit medley and a tune from Ridge Racer, though obviously neither is as important as the insanely awesome Katamari song.

I captured a video if anyone wants to check it out. You can grab it (20mb) here.

Edit: Here are some more videos from Taiko no Tatsujin 4, by request:

Intro Movie [12mb]
Drum Sound Gallery [3mb]

Song Play:

Karu ("Curl") Snack Food Song [8mb]
Rare Hero (Ridge Racer) [18mb]
Thunder Ceptor GET [18mb]
Katamari Damacy ONI [19mb]
Ridge Racer ONI [18mb]
Ridge Racer [18mb]
Dragon Spirit Medley [19mb]
Yappari Sarugetchu (Ape Escape 2 Japanese theme song) [13mb]
Scroll Mika [20mb]
Funikuri Funikura [15mb]

Mini-Games:

Watermelon Eating Contest [7mb]
Fireworks [9mb]
Stack-Up [12mb]
Restaurant [11mb]

I've added yet more links. One is a newly unlocked second song from Ridge Racer called "Rare Hero." The other is apparently the commercial/theme song for a Japanese snack called "Karu," complete with little curled snack puffs flying all over the place.

And I updated the original vid. It's now a full combo, just for Belfast. :D
 
Since I'm about to get my first Taiko-game, is this a good one to start with or is there any other to prefer as a beginner?
 
they're all about the same, though the mini-games can be different. I personally like the little jankenpon mini-game. My friends and I reference it all the time.
 
That was awesome. I wish we got the cute Japanese voiceovers in the American version but I dont expect it to happen.
 
Hey nice! I'm assuming that's you play bobby, in which case, nice job!

As much as a I like music based game, I suck at them. I have no rhythm :(
 
Belfast said:
they're all about the same, though the mini-games can be different. I personally like the little jankenpon mini-game. My friends and I reference it all the time.
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Me need more H!P songs in music games. How many hello project songs are on it now

Screw what i just said. Where can i get this game and i need more Katamari Damacy music now wow thats some good music damnit. Does Taiko no Tatsujin work with HD loader?
 
Belfast said:
Errr....well, you can import both Taiko and Katamari.....
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yeah i know i was gonna wait for The us release of both but if i can import them i would. Only way for me to play them would be HDloader at the time being. Is there a set of all of the drum games? And is Donkey Konga better by any chance? Lots of good stuff so much druming.
 
The Katamari song sold a copy of 4th edition to me. I've only played Donkey Konga before, but this looks more fun and I guess I have to get Katamari Damacy as soon as I have the money.
 
Taiko beats the pants off of Donkey Konga, IMO. Both aesthetically and in music selection. For DK, the only real draw seems to be the Nintendo-themed songs. There's no collection of all 4, sadly, you'll have to get them separately.
 
What's the cheapest way for someone to get into Taiko?

And slightly off-topic, but I haven't been able to stop listening to Lonely Rolling Star from the Katamari soundtrack since I downloaded it. Can't figure out why.
 
Probably just wait for the US version in October.

Otherwise, its really not that expensive, import-wise. Its a much better price (70/80, I think, with drums) than most rhythm games.
 
Thanks for the video, looks very fun

And it was refreshing to actually see a video where someone is kicking ass instead of sucking
 
Wario64 said:
Thanks for the video, looks very fun

And it was refreshing to actually see a video where someone is kicking ass instead of sucking
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But, but, he broke his combo like 2 or 3 times!!!!!! LOSZAR!!!!
 
It's better than a video from IGN or some other site where they can't even sustain a combo in the double digits :P

*remembers watching those painful videos of Amplitude
 
That was awesome. I hope that I can get as good as you one day, bobby. Please tell me you'll be around to give us Katamari n00bs helps when the US version hits. :)

Does anyone know what Taiko no Tatsujin game the US version is based of. I hope its 4, cause I would love to finish a game of Katamari Damacy and then play a few games of Taiko Drum Master and get to hear that sweet sweet music. I LOVE NAMCO. Bless them for bringing these games to America.
 
Cheers for the video!

VERY tempted to order my first Taiko no Tatsujin game now. Katamari drum-action is impossible to resist ...
 
Belfast said:
But, but, he broke his combo like 2 or 3 times!!!!!! LOSZAR!!!!
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Don't rub it in! He was nervous about that before uploading and making this thread.

I told him to cheat for the video but he would have none of it!

(The above post was an over-dramatization of actual events.)
 
Grizzlyjin said:
That was awesome. I hope that I can get as good as you one day, bobby. Please tell me you'll be around to give us Katamari n00bs helps when the US version hits. :)

Does anyone know what Taiko no Tatsujin game the US version is based of. I hope its 4, cause I would love to finish a game of Katamari Damacy and then play a few games of Taiko Drum Master and get to hear that sweet sweet music. I LOVE NAMCO. Bless them for bringing these games to America.
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Yeah, Namco's been on a roll lately. They seem to be having a lot of luck with/banking on the success of franchises/games that probably wouldn't normally fly here.

I mean if Tales of Symphonia is any indicator, Taiko/Katamari might have a good chance of success, too. Or, at least, they'll have enough sales to warrant more of this kind of thing.

As for Katamari, it isn't that hard of a game. ;) Well, except the special levels, I suppose. Those can be a real pain in the ass. Its still a lot of fun, though. And Taiko isn't that hard, either, compared to most rhythm games. Taiko has a lot of character, though, and an innate appeal to it much like Katamari -- they're just both generally grin-inspiring games. My only real complaint about Taiko other than difficulty (but to be fair, there's not much they can do to jack it up and it'll be tough enough for people without rhythm) is the song selection - it just needs more!

How many songs does 4 have, btw? I hope its more than the average 20-30.

Edit: you should make more videos, too. By that, I mean of other obscurish/Japanese game series, maybe some of the Bemani besides DDR? It would seem that you have a knack for creating interest in these sorts of things and it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a few more fans on-board for some of these franchises.
 
Hmmm, yeah, I guess so. Should've paid closer attention. I could for an edition in the ~50 range, though. I guess I'm just spoiled by Bemani games. :\


Also, chicks dig Taiko and Katamari, just so you know. I got my girlfriend a plush taiko drum for her birthday and its absolutely one of her favorite things. Even I have to admit they're just too darn cute!
 
Belfast said:
Yeah, Namco's been on a roll lately. They seem to be having a lot of luck with/banking on the success of franchises/games that probably wouldn't normally fly here.

I mean if Tales of Symphonia is any indicator, Taiko/Katamari might have a good chance of success, too. Or, at least, they'll have enough sales to warrant more of this kind of thing.

As for Katamari, it isn't that hard of a game. ;) Well, except the special levels, I suppose. Those can be a real pain in the ass. Its still a lot of fun, though. And Taiko isn't that hard, either, compared to most rhythm games. Taiko has a lot of character, though, and an innate appeal to it much like Katamari -- they're just both generally grin-inspiring games. My only real complaint about Taiko other than difficulty (but to be fair, there's not much they can do to jack it up and it'll be tough enough for people without rhythm) is the song selection - it just needs more!

How many songs does 4 have, btw? I hope its more than the average 20-30.

Edit: you should make more videos, too. By that, I mean of other obscurish/Japanese game series, maybe some of the Bemani besides DDR? It would seem that you have a knack for creating interest in these sorts of things and it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a few more fans on-board for some of these franchises.
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Taiko kinda looks hard to me, and I've been playing DDR for about 3 years. I guess I just don't see how it works exactly. I know you have a drum...but thats all I've gotten so far. That video kinda made it more clear though, I suppose there are times when you hit the top of the drum and then times when you hit the sides. Red = Top, Blue = Side? The only question I do have is, does it matter what side of the drum you hit? I noticed that mainly the right side of the top flashed. Are there times when you might have to hit just the left side or just the right side?

All I know for sure that I'm getting both Donkey Konga and Taiko: Drum Master, I've just always wanted to play these games. And Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat seems to have great potential. They all seem like awesome party games.

And it looks like a song from Ridge Racer is on Track #33, very yummy.

I would also love to see more videos, bobby. If thats not too much trouble of course. :)
 
Taiko isn't as hard as it looks (and I've chiefly played it on a controller, which is harder). Yeah, Red is hitting the top, while Blue is hitting the sides. Yellow streams are basically just go nuts and the "balloons" make you count down hits from a certain number (usually 10). It doesn't matter which side you hit, unless you see a big Red or Blue, in which case you hit both sides at the same time.
 
Does anyone know what Taiko no Tatsujin game the US version is based of.
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From what I could tell at E3, it definitely seems to be based on 4. This is a very good thing as it means the US version will have the same high-res graphics (the earlier games had a pretty crunky look to them - the improvement is massive) and also increases the chances of US Katamari Song inclusion. Since they're supposed to come out around the same time here (aren't they?) I could see it happening. Now if only they'll toss in Stepping Wind from Klonoa 2 and Susume Driller from Mr Driller G/Drill Land (both of which were in the original ps2 Taiko), we could end up with the best mix ever!

You should make more videos, too. By that, I mean of other obscurish/Japanese game series, maybe some of the Bemani besides DDR? It would seem that you have a knack for creating interest in these sorts of things and it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a few more fans on-board for some of these franchises.
Click to expand...

This is actually a sort of test-run for that. I used to run a playstation fan site way back in the day (97-99) and have been on a several year hiatus here, but I think I'm about ready to start putting up some stuff again. I figure if I can spend the time passionately defending/pushing games like Mr Driller Drill Land on message boards, I might as well just focus that energy into capturing nice videos and doing write-ups for an actual site instead. I haven't done much with videos before, so I'm putting this (and others, hopefully) up to kinda test what kinds of bandwidth gets used up from forum posts and word-of-mouth alone.

As for videos from Taiko though, I'm thinking of doing some for songs like Yappari Sarugetchu (the awesome Japanese Ape Escape 2 theme song), Tower of Babel (from the classic Namco game) and the aforementioned Dragon Spirit and Ridge Racer songs.

But, but, he broke his combo like 2 or 3 times!!!!!! LOSZAR!!!!
Click to expand...

Don't rub it in! He was nervous about that before uploading and making this thread.
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Aku:jiki is right! I'm a bit of a bemani/rhythm game freak and didn't like the idea at all of uploading a video where I kinda suck it up, but I really just wanted to record my first decent take and slap it up there as fast as possible. The main problem is that I don't have a very good surface to put the drum down on in the middle of my jerry-rigged video capture mess, so I had to use the normal gamepad.. Which seems like it'd make things easier, but it actually made it harder to do some of those double-note jams. Still, as you can see I screw up in really easy spots and then nail the whole end section, so it's not a total lack of skillz - I just didn't wanna waste time doing 4 or 5 takes just to get the perfect run. :D

To those of you who complimented my playing, though, thanks! Rhythm pros like Belfast can tell I kinda suck, but I'm still happy to get a kind word here and there. :)
 
Thats the first movie I've ever seen of that game, looks like fun, I liked the dragon spirit song at the very beginning (even though it was only 1.5 seconds of it).
 
Videos of games are great. A great way to sell someone on a game by showing an actual run through. Most videos on big sites are either chopped up into annoying little pieces, show little of the game, company supplied videos, etc. Use bittorrent to help on the bandwidth loads.
 
Spent the whole night playing this 2P at my friends house - I was pleased to have katamari, urusei yatsura songs, and probably my favorite - funitari funitara I think it was
called? that oldschool italian song - you know the one - but it busts into this heavy guitar
and it just sounds so awesome - we earned 3 new songs, I really liked them all, the thundercepter (I think, trouble reading the font in the game) was pretty good as well.

Wish it had a splatterhouse mix like technic beat! :)
 
Speaking of which, I hope a soundtrack for this comes out, should be pretty easy since the song playback doesn't really change.. I want that great song where the dog serves you the food and you have to press the buttons the way the food is said :)

I should also prolly look into the original games since this is the first game in this series I played..
 
Eh, don't worry about it, bobby. A 98% rating still isn't bad at all. I was just teasing, anyway. I'm pretty good at picking up on rhythm/music games, but I'm not the uber-god I might act like, either. Like I said, I have to play Taiko on a dualshock (a friend has a drum, but I don't always have access to it), I also only have a regular PopN controller as I can't afford the big, arcade one (though if I ever get the money, I've been looking into one of the custom-built ones which are a bit cheaper). Still, it keeps me from fulling realizing my PopN potential. Also, I suck at IIDX, well....I'm better than my friends, anyway. The point is, I'm probably an above-average player, but nothing special. :)


It helps to have a few friends into music/rhythm games, though, because then you don't have to buy everything yourself, but I'd love to be able to fill out my personal collection properly these days.

However, like other people have mentioned in this thread, videos/media from games like Taiko and Katamari would normally be very hard to find. I've found that, even more than positive impressions, these can make or break a person's interest in these games. As someone else said, major sites like IGN or Gamespot have teeny, tiny little videos, often broken up and kind of blurry. You never get a really GOOD impression of what a game looks/plays like. Honestly, the decision to bring Katamari over to the US was likely NOT a completely random one. Suffice it to say, I do believe the interest that you and others had created on this forum (as well as whatever spread to different forums) played a part in persuading Namco to port it over. Providing the soundtrack probably sealed the deal for a lot of people to import the game and its STILL impressing more new people today who will surely pick it up upon its US release. And now, I think more people will likely buy Taiko when it comes out, too.

And as for music/rhythm games and quirky titles like Katamari, while there is a small contingent of people on this forum that like them, there are many which are still completely unaware of the appeal of said games. Videos and some knowledgable people go a long way towards convincing them, I'd say. So keep up the good work!
 
Belfast said:
Eh, don't worry about it, bobby. A 98% rating still isn't bad at all... The point is, I'm probably an above-average player, but nothing special. :)
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Yeah, me too. In fact, I'm probably being way too modest - I've been playing these games since the original Beatmania for psx (if we're not counting Parappa, in which case it has been even longer), and I own pretty much all of them, so I'm pretty good at most of them by now. The only reason I hesitate when saying so is because last I checked, in certain social circles, "pretty good" is supposed to mean that you can full-combo every single song on the hardest setting. And "good" means you can do that and hit 99% perfect notes, to boot. So these days I don't know whether I'm good anymore, compared to most of those folks, since I haven't really been involved in the 'scene' at all in a few years. It just became really unfun for me when the entire focus shifted to ridiculous high scores, playing for 10 hours a day trying to one-up each other, etc. I just wanna rock out and have fun!

That said, I was pretty much the reigning champ of Guitar Freaks and especially Drum Mania around these parts for a few years, but more or less stopped playing when the home versions stopped coming out. I really miss them. :(

As for the Taiko videos, though - check the topic post! I'm adding more links up there.

OH - and I unlocked ONI mode a couple of hours ago. I had thought Expert mode would be the top difficulty level, but this blows it away. I actually can't even pass a lot of the songs, Katamari on the Rock included. It's really cool! None of the older Taiko games have had anywhere near this level of difficulty. I might have to put up a vid or two of me getting obliterated by Oni songs so you guys can see what it's like.
 
Wait.. Did they fix the mixing?

My main complaint with the early one I tried (2, I think?) was that the drums completely drowned everything else out when playing. It became so monotonous and boring hearing only DON-DON-DA-DON and nothing else. Watching the Saru vid, though, it sounds so much nicer!
 
I'd totally love to see Taiko in Oni Mode (put in the US release please NAMCO!!!). As I've pointed out, its pretty easy for me to at least pass just about every song, except the most insane ones, which are almost impossible on the controller (I can do them with the drum), but Oni would give the series the difficulty that it needs.

Honestly, though, I completely agree about the "scene." The one in the US has pretty much degraded into just that, a bunch of high-score whores who look down on anything less. Its a noble goal to be able to do perfect runs in these kinds of games, but that should be a personal goal, not one you use to lord around your faux-superiority to all the other players. After I got over all of that and realized I'd probably never be THAT good, I pretty much resigned to priding myself on being able to simply pass songs. In games like IIDX/PopNMusic that alone can be quite a feat for most people.
 
Yeah we got the demon mode unlocked too.. I thought hard was scary...

Man, I hope someone does a soundtrack rip if an official soundtrack doesn't come out.. :)
 
I hope I can resist looking at the fireworks mini-game until I get the game. I'm a sucker for anything with fireworks.

It's too bad about the difficulty though. I wanted to pick up a second one for my girlfriend's little sister as a Christmas present. I know if she sees me playing this she's going to freak out once she sees me playing with the drum while the cartoon characters are hopping around. Then again, she and all her friends are nonconformist little monsters and they'll probably have more fun making their own beat anyway.

Good luck with the site by the way. I hope it comes up soon.
 
Belfast said:
The one in the US has pretty much degraded into just that, a bunch of high-score whores who look down on anything less. ...After I got over all of that and realized I'd probably never be THAT good, I pretty much resigned to priding myself on being able to simply pass songs. In games like IIDX/PopNMusic that alone can be quite a feat for most people.
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Well, it might be possible for you to be that good, but it would take a huge investment of time. I remember reading that LISU would practice a single song over 100 times a day to master it. Since most IIDX songs are about 2 minutes long, that's about 3.5 hours a day, playing the same song over and over! That would be torture for me. I think I'm okay at IIDX, and I once wanted to get as good as the people in the Tatsujin videos. But after learning what it would take to reach the expert level, I realized I just wasn't willing to commit that much of my life to mastering it. Like you, I'm satisfied with just clearing songs. :)

bobbyconover, I noticed that Katamari on the Rock is almost 3 minutes long. Is that normal for Taiko songs? Most Beatmania songs are only ~2 minutes long, so a game with longer songs might be nice. I'd like to try 4th Generation; do you think it would hold my interest? I played 3rd a bit in the arcades, which was fun for a while, but I thought that the simplicity of the controller really limited the pattern variety and challenge. If Oni mode really is difficult, I'd love to see an Oni playthrough of Katamari on the Rock for comparison :)
 
Wow, I really want that game after seeing that video. Im sure I would suck badly at it, though, as I do with all music games. Still, im tempted to get it.
 
Johnny Konami said:
Man, I hope someone does a soundtrack rip if an official soundtrack doesn't come out.. :)
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We're in a pretty bad position as far as that's concerned, just like with Technic Beat. It's pretty unlikely that a soundtrack will come out - I don't think one has come out for any other Taiko game, anyway - and on top of that the tracks are really hard to rip. Since there's no sound test (that I know of), it means having to perfectly perform each song "live" while recording them, which usually ends up sounding horrible. So yeah, we're probably out of luck. :(

It's too bad about the difficulty though. I wanted to pick up a second one for my girlfriend's little sister as a Christmas present.
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I don't understand.. Are you thinking it's too difficult for her? It's not, it's just that these videos are all recorded on the expert difficulty level. There are two other, much easier, difficulty levels that you can also play. Not to mention the much harder Oni/Devil mode. It covers the spectrum pretty well, unlike the older Taiko games which were way too easy.
 
...it's just that these videos are all recorded on the expert difficulty level. There are two other, much easier, difficulty levels that you can also play. Not to mention the much harder Oni/Devil mode. It covers the spectrum pretty well....
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I think that calls for yet another "awesome" in this thread. Thanks.
 
bobbyconover said:
We're in a pretty bad position as far as that's concerned, just like with Technic Beat. It's pretty unlikely that a soundtrack will come out - I don't think one has come out for any other Taiko game, anyway - and on top of that the tracks are really hard to rip. Since there's no sound test (that I know of), it means having to perfectly perform each song "live" while recording them, which usually ends up sounding horrible. So yeah, we're probably out of luck. :(
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Yeah, agreed - But on the part of an official soundtrack, all they would really have to do is add the drum track - there's no variations like in technic beat, really, where you can make the songs sound radically different by doing different things. Oh well. Maybe I'll just pick up the game eventually, had a lot of fun with it..
 
Bobby - Do the one that starts with thunder- can't remember the whole name, but it's one of the earnable songs, if you've gotten it (we got it before we unlocked the demon mode so I figured so did you :))
 
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