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[Baron Aloha]

Well I've had Konga since the last TRU 3-for-2 sale and I just bought Taiko at CC last week. I finally sat down to play both of them today. I spent about 2 hours with each game and while that may not be a ton of time I believe it is enough to make some observations.

Which game has the better presentation? Taiko. Definitely.

Which game has the better song list? Taiko. Definitely.

So why is Konga better? I'll tell you why. The Taiko drum is a piece of crap. Its so unresponsive that it makes playing the game damn near impossible. You litterally have to slam on the drum to make sure that all of your hits register. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to hit the drum and have the game pretend like you didn't. This happens roughly 5% of the time and while that may not seem like a lot its 5% too much. What's the point of playing a game like this if the controller isn't any good? I couldn't believe Namco would put out something so cheap/broken so I drove to CC and exchanged for another copy. I thought for sure that my drums were just broken. I got home, hooked up the new drum, and it was the same.

I switched to Konga. The presentation blew and the song list isn't as good as Taiko's, but the Konga's were great. They literally never miss a beat. In the end I find myself, almost regretfully, prefering Konga. I mean its obvious that Taiko is so much better than Konga in a number of ways but the busted interface negates all of them. Its a damn shame.

 

[lexi]

Konga's presentation is so laughably bad that anything else would be better by default. Am I missing something or could a game like Konga be programmed over the weekend?

Props to the actual Kongas though, this game proves that Nintendo QA on hardware is still top notch.

 

[Deg]

I read something about this ages ago on gamefaqs i think. Some posters said hits werent registering.

 

[GDJustin]

JC I agree 100%. Taiko was fun for about a week and I've literally never touched it since, because of the unresponsive drum. It makes getting gold crowns (no misses) not even worth trying.

 

[Bristow]

Konga's presentation is so laughably bad that anything else would be better by default. Am I missing something or could a game like Konga be programmed over the weekend?

Props to the actual Kongas though, this game proves that Nintendo QA on hardware is still top notch.

Yeah, Konga's presentation really is awful. You could make the excuse that it's not really needed in a game of this type, but even then I'd have to argue due to it being as piss poor as it is in Konga.

However, I don't mind the song list. It's got some great songs that are fun to play as well as some songs I don't really care for, but are great for my 4 year old son. Konga is just one of those games that follow Nintendo's 'We make games for everyone' mantra to a tee.

Looking forward to the sequel.

 

[Deg]

Konga is stupid aswell however. They made it so limited, addictive still but it should have had more. Konga 2 better deliver.

 

[Mama Smurf]

Would the Konga drums work with Taiko with an adaptor?

 

[Community Forum]

Wahhh wahhh wahhh....
I can't hit the Taiko hard enough, so I miss 5% of the time, the Taiko is so unresponsive... whaaaaaa!

Wahhh... Taiko's interface is better than Konga's, but the Taiko is a piece of crap, how could Namco do this... whaaaaa!

Wahhh... I like Bongos better than Taikos, but I like Taiko's songs better than Konga's songs, but I want to play Taiko with the Bongos, and I want an adapter... whaaaaa!

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

I have the exact opposite complaint about the sensitivity of the controllers in the respective games. Donkey Konga is too sensitive for my liking. For instance if the controller shifted while playing, and I tried to gently readjust it, it would register my grip as a clap.

While the taiko drum was far more cathartic and, in my play time, I had no troubles having hits register. Although I felt kind of bad beating the hell out of my friend's wife's taiko drum pwnzerizing ABC.

What ultimately killed me on DK was Ditty Kong's Ditties. I reviewed the song list for both Taiko and Konga before making my purchase, and I felt for certain that DK had the least offensive track listing. Unfortunately I was wrong. The few children's songs peppered throughout the soundtrack really kill my enjoyment of the game.

That said - you can find my like new copy of [uurl=http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?t=34915&page=2DK for sale here[/url].

 

[Deg]

I have the exact opposite complaint about the sensitivity of the controllers in the respective games. Donkey Konga is too sensitive for my liking. For instance if the controller shifted while playing, and I tried to gently readjust it, it would register my grip as a clap.

You can change sensitivity.

What ultimately killed me on DK was Ditty Kong's Ditties. I reviewed the song list for both Taiko and Konga before making my purchase, and I felt for certain that DK had the least offensive track listing. Unfortunately I was wrong. The few children's songs peppered throughout the soundtrack really kill my enjoyment of the game.

Should've got the superior euro version

 

[Miburou]

.

 

[Bristow]

There's also 32 songs. Only 3 of them are geared towards children unless you count the Pokemon theme song and Nintendo mascot theme songs. It's not THAT bad, but I can understand people being put off by the awful rendition of Bingo and Diddy's Ditties.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

You can change sensitivity.

Oh hell.

Well, whatever. I had to sell my Gamecube to make my credit card payment last month. :X

Yeah, I toss the Nintendo themes in with the childrens themes much to the chagrin of the "Nintendo is not kiddy" camp.

I also really didn't much care for the remixes of the familiar Nintendo themes. It fit with the mood of the game, but really fell flat for me.

 

[bobbyconover]

I told you so, over and over again. Glad to see people are finally seeing things my way!

 

[Argyle]

I dunno, I think Taiko crushes Konga like a grape.

For one, Taiko is actually challenging (and I'm not talking about "because you're fighting the dead spot" - Konga is way too easy)

 

[Bristow]

I dunno, I think Taiko crushes Konga like a grape.

For one, Taiko is actually challenging (and I'm not talking about "because you're fighting the dead spot" - Konga is way too easy)

Konga is hard as hell on Gorilla mode for me. I guess my reflexes are just diminishing.

 

[AniHawk]

I remember becoming a master at Konga on Gorilla mode's Oye Como Va. I could play it over and over because it was so fun.

Taiko has better songs, but I just can't bring myself to take the drums out every now and then and actually have a go. The drums at E3 were so much better.

 

[atomsk]

i've heard the redoctane drums are loads better, but havent plopped down the 25 bucks to find out yet

 

[Alcibiades]

I haven't played Konga solo in quite a while (like since October or Nov. probably), all I play is 4-player at the student center here on campus or at home with my brother/sister and cousins, and for that reason alone I think Konga is way better, cause you can't beat the 4-player fun...

I've only played Taiko 1p though, so don't know how it is as a multiplayer game, but the "jam session" mode of Konga what sets it apart from other music games and really elevates it to one of the best multiplayer titles of this gen. It's not competitive, but rather you work to make your sound actions (right/left/both bongo hits, claps, & bongo rolls) fit smoothly with the rythm of the music in the game. The mode is 2-4 players, and it's the ultimate party game for both hardcore music-gamers or non-gamers (even though who don't like music games)...

I have seen Donkey Konga played by just about ANYBODY, and I'm always finding random people, even people that have never touched a videogame in their life (not even arcades or handhelds) sit down and enjoy the session...

I think Donkey Konga is as defining a moment for Nintendo as were Smash Brothers and GoldenEye. It may not share the popularity, but probably one of the most approachable videogames since the likes of Tetris, Pac-Man, etc...

 

[Unison]

I agree with the Konga supporters... The peripheral is key, and the Drums stomp all over the Taiko Drum.

The existence of DK: Jungle Beat just tips the scales further in Konga's favor.

Certainly presentation is a factor, but it's a pretty small one in a game like this. Taiko's cuteness can't overcome all in this instance.

 

[Drakken]

I haven't played Taiko, but I definitely want to get it. Is the drum controller really that unresponsive? If so, perhaps I should look into a third-party controller. Can anyone recommend one?

Donkey Konga is fun, but the dumb timing problem is really annoying. The symbols are a little bit ahead of the music, so to hit it perfectly you have to hit early. It's so simple; I don't know how that got missed...

And no, it's not just me. I've talked to a bunch of people who say the same thing. I'm a percussionist & DDR player, so I would know (had to say that just because there are always people who say, "There's no timing problem; you must just stink!").

 

[VariableTerry]

I like taiko so much better than konga. I like the songs better and the drum is so much more fun to hit. It's also a lot more challenging. As far as drum sensitivity, it did bug me in the begining but after several hours I had no troubles whatsoever with having it registering my hits. You just need to get a good technique for hitting it. It's so much fun getting totally caught up in the rythm of a song on oni difficulty and just banging away rapidly at the drum in perfect harmony with the song. It's a blissful experience.

 

[Alcibiades]

There's no timing problem; and before people say otherwise, I play with many others and they have no problems getting a bunch of greats, some goods, with zero OK/miss...

I think the key is trying to hit it not when the circle reaches the clear circle, but when the small white circle reaches the little clear circle in the middle, that's usually my strategy...

that said, I've never heard a timing compliant from anybody that I've played with, and it must be at least 50 people (probably way more but I'm not counting)...

 

[Kobun Heat]

The arcade version of Taiko still rules everything.

...

...anybody want to sell me one? :_:

 

[LakeEarth]

There are a few songs that have a few akward beats in Donkey Konga. The worst is the "itsy bitsy spikder" part in the campfire one. It's like a step behind the beat.

 

[Meier]

Yeah the drums for Taiko at E3 sure felt more responsive. I felt absolutely robbed after getting it for my PS2 and finding out how bad these ones are..

 

[sc0la]

the worst part about taiko is that fucking drum voice:

"NORMALLL SELLLECTEEEEEEED!!!!!!! 111!!!"

DIE MOTHERFUCKER

 

[Kobun Heat]

Yeah the drums for Taiko at E3 sure felt more responsive.

I think the reason for that is the E3 ones were bolted to a colossal, immovable hunk of metal. Meanwhile the Taiko drums are slipping and sliding all over your floor/coffee table/kotatsu/what-have-you and that's what causes the inaccuracy.

 

[impirius]

"NOW, LEEET'S BEGIIIN!" Waah.

I love both games despite their significant flaws. I bought an extra pair of bongos instead of another taiko because DK has more multiplayer options and a higher upside. You can fix problems with presentation and song selection in a sequel; you can't fix problems with the controller.

 

[Unison]

I think the reason for that is the E3 ones were bolted to a colossal, immovable hunk of metal. Meanwhile the Taiko drums are slipping and sliding all over your floor/coffee table/kotatsu/what-have-you and that's what causes the inaccuracy.

No, the drums have definite dead zones... It's nothing that you can fix by holding it differently or weighing it down... :-/

You can learn to live with it, though...

 

[JackFrost2012]

I like taiko more than konga because I'm NOT SIX.

Taiko is more challenging, more fun, better songs, fun all around for all! And I don't have any trouble with drum sensitivity - you just need to give it a good healthy whop.

I was able to clear most every song in Donkey Konga on the hardest difficulty on the first try. A few might have taken a second try, but none a third. I also don't like the controller. Also it killed my dog.

Konga is just simple and boring and zzzzz whereas Taiko is a drum-hitting FUNSPLOSION!

 

[bobbyconover]

I was able to clear most every song in Donkey Konga on the hardest difficulty on the first try.

Yeah, but the difficulty argument is kinda moot, since both games are painfully simple compared to pretty much any Bemani game, Technic Beat, Cool Cool Toon or you-name-it. The choice ends up being between ridiculously easy and even more ridiculously easy.

I'm a percussionist and DDR player, so I would know.

 

[john tv]

Agreed on the drums. The Taiko is absolute shit, whereas the Kongas rule. Sadly, Taiko is a MUCH better game than Konga. It's not just the songs and presentation, either; the drum patterns in Taiko make much more sense and are tons more challenging than the stuff in Konga. Some of the songs in Konga sound like they're not even trying to go with the beat.

Too bad Namco F'ed up with the controller. Playing Taiko in the arcade is like a dream... playing it at home is just disappointing.

 

[Alcibiades]

How much better is Konga 2 than Konga 1?

I'm wondering if Konga 2 in the US is just going to take stuff from both Konga 2/3 in Japan since they are being released close together I think...

hopefully presentation and song selection improve, but I'm really happy with the jam session hit/clap/roll rythm's in the jam session part of Konga...

they really make sense (at least in 4 player) and when you have 4 really good players it sounds and plays like a dream and you'll have bystanding staring and laughing in amazement at how awesome the whole thing is, everybody just doing their part at exactly the right time, it's like a mini-bongo orchestra-game more than a traditional music game...

Stuff like Rock Lobster, Zelda, Mario, Dacing in the Street, man just about every song is a dream, I don't know what you guys mean when you say it doesn't go right with the rythms/beat, but maybe they focused more on the multiplayer stuff than 1p perhaps...

 

[Robert-GCA]

So I guess all you who think Konga is boring have completed the Jam session modes (CHimp, Monkey, Gorilla) where the beats show as blank barrels and you have to have the beats memorized to beat it.

No, I haven't played Taiko, so I'm not going to comment on it.

 

[JackFrost2012]

So I guess all you who think Konga is boring have completed the Jam session modes (CHimp, Monkey, Gorilla) where the beats show as blank barrels and you have to have the beats memorized to beat it.

No, I haven't played Taiko, so I'm not going to comment on it.

Memorizing a song has nothing to do with the ease/difficulty it can be performed. I mean, professional orchestras use sheet music. I'd like songs that are actually challenging to play, not artificial difficulty jumps unrelated to the song itself.

 

[LakeEarth]

I don't know what you guys mean when you say it doesn't go right with the rythms/beat, but maybe they focused more on the multiplayer stuff than 1p perhaps...

I already said, the Itsy Bitsy Spider song in either the Diddies or the Campfire one on Gorrila. It's fricken blatantly off.

 

[Foobar]

Wow, the Highlander mentality has finally hit drum games. Gaming really is doomed, isn't it? Personally, I didn't think it could get more retarded than the Halo vs. Metroid debates, but go on and knock yourselves out, kids.

 

[SickBoy]

How much better is Konga 2 than Konga 1?

I'm wondering if Konga 2 in the US is just going to take stuff from both Konga 2/3 in Japan since they are being released close together I think...

Is it maybe a bit premature to be expecting Konga 2, or has it been confirmed? I'll probably get it if it is.

I've played Taiko, but briefly -- Christmas, we bought it for my wife's brother. I thought it was pretty solid. I had some issues with the drum, but I sort of anticipated that I'd be able to work those out with a bit of practice... the big thing is the song list (not to mention the song performance) is considerably better than Konga, IMO

I'd say over a third of the Konga soundtrack is weak, and I think I'm probably being generous there (it's probably closer to half)... still, it's a fun game. I've played it with a bunch of different people and no one has disliked it yet. Even my mother-in-law played (which was pretty hilarious).

If all things were equal, I'd probably rather have Taiko, but the unavailability of additional drums kills it for me.

 

[Drakken]

Is it maybe a bit premature to be expecting Konga 2, or has it been confirmed? I'll probably get it if it is.

I've played Taiko, but briefly -- Christmas, we bought it for my wife's brother. I thought it was pretty solid. I had some issues with the drum, but I sort of anticipated that I'd be able to work those out with a bit of practice... the big thing is the song list (not to mention the song performance) is considerably better than Konga, IMO

I'd say over a third of the Konga soundtrack is weak, and I think I'm probably being generous there (it's probably closer to half)... still, it's a fun game. I've played it with a bunch of different people and no one has disliked it yet. Even my mother-in-law played (which was pretty hilarious).

If all things were equal, I'd probably rather have Taiko, but the unavailability of additional drums kills it for me.

Donkey Konga 2 comes out in the US in April (I think). It's already out in Japan (they're getting DK3 next month).

 

[Alcibiades]

I already said, the Itsy Bitsy Spider song in either the Diddies or the Campfire one on Gorrila. It's fricken blatantly off.

ok, perhaps you are right, but those rarely get played, I know I've played them at most 2-3 times if at all...

still, even other "kiddie" songs are popular some with college people my age, they know about Pokemon and Kirby and will want to play those songs...

I pretty much (when preparing a new batch of 4 people that have never played) always make them do Bingo as I think it's the perfect difficulty to start off with...

also, I disagree the song selection sucks, overall I give it a B+, the only problem is not enough songs, but other than that it has great diversity I think, and perhaps it's only because they haven't seen Taiko selections, but most everyone I play with love the songs in Donkey Konga, especially the classic oldies stuff... The only 4 miscues I see are the 2 Donkey Kong-related and 2 kiddy songs, the Nintendo-related stuff actually gets a lot of play even though I recommend against it because of the difficulty sometimes...

 

[worldrunover]

I really enjoyed Taiko at E3 and thought about getting it over Konga (didn't because of DKJB). But this is interesting I didn't know about these drum problems.

 

[Meier]

Yeah they're pretty horrible worldrunover. Anihawk and I played Taiko at Namco's booth for honestly like 2-3 hours on one of the days and I was in love with it but the drum's that shipped with the retail version are just terrible.. it's so damn frustrating to KNOW you've hit the drum correctly but it just not register (the rimshots were the worst culprits).

And I think in this case Vestal is just praising a PS2 game over a Cube one out of bias -- there's no way you could not notice the blatant problems unless you have a Japanese drum and Namco did a better job in the production of those units or something.

 

[SickBoy]

I think the better question about the DK soundtrack is what chunk of the songs are getting repeat play?

Diddy's Ditties, Campfire Medley, Pokemon, Kirby, Like Wow (what the hell is this song? of all the songs, I understand its inclusion the least), On the Road Again, DK Rap and the Donkey Konga Theme are all completely disposable, IMO.

And that's just to start... there are others that are songs that seem to merit inclusion but aren't really well arranged.

On the Nintendo stuff, I can see the merits of Mario and Zelda, but even they're not ideal for a percussion game, IMO... 8-bit game music's generally not known for its beat.

 

[evilromero]

JC I agree 100%. Taiko was fun for about a week and I've literally never touched it since, because of the unresponsive drum. It makes getting gold crowns (no misses) not even worth trying.

Same here. But I must say the Konga presentation and song list improves greatly with Konga 2. There are quite a few fun little modes that you just dick around in. Taiko has had the pleasure of having more sequels than I can count on my two hands to improve its presentation.

 

[Alcibiades]

Here is a list of songs I think have excellent replay value and are very recognizable so non-gamers will want to try them again and again:

Rock Lobster
We Will Rock You
Mario
Zelda
Dancing in the Streets
You Can't Hurry Love
Busy Child
Locomotion
Whip It
I Think I Love You
Hungarian Dance No.5 in G minor

others like, Stupid Cupid, On the Road Again, Pokemon, etc... are good I think but don't get as much repeat play maybe cause they are not as well known or the people don't like them as much...

btw, Like Wow is a song from the original Shrek Soundtrack sung by Aaron and Nick Carter's little sister, Leslie Carter. at least I was told she was the sister, but either way it was one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack, and I like pop music so maybe that's why. also I don't play it much on Donkey Konga but the Shrek soundtrack version is great

 

[evilromero]

Nobody likes Pokemon? Are you kidding? It still stands as one of the best Saturday morning cartoon themes ever. And the fucking Kirby theme is goddamn infectious.

 

[Alcibiades]

well, I did say

still, even other "kiddie" songs are popular some with college people my age, they know about Pokemon and Kirby and will want to play those songs...

personally, I love the Kirby song from having listened to it on some Nintendo DVD promo a couple of years ago in a preview to the game Kirby's Air Ride...

but among casual audiences (non-gamers and 30+ yo.) they are not really popular, so they don't get a lot of playtime, but definitely among children and college-age kids they are cool...

I did say I thought they were cool but did not get "as much playtime", NOT that "nobody likes them"

 

[LakeEarth]

I don't know why, but the Pokemon song and Like Wow are so much fun. I mean the songs are lame, but the beat to it rocks on Gorilla.

 

[Alcibiades]

I don't know why, but the Pokemon song and Like Wow are so much fun. I mean the songs are lame, but the beat to it rocks on Gorilla.

i think i think the opposite, I love those songs on their own, and while I do enjoy them on Konga, I prefer other stuff for using the bongos...