bobbyconover said:
I hate to say it, since I'm a big supporter of Taiko and Konga, but if you're that good at Frequency and Amplitude you will absolutely CRUSH both Taiko and Konga. Using your scale, with Frequency and Amplitude as "normal" and Pop'n Music as "hard," Taiko and Konga are equally "ridiculously easy." Anyone with actual rhythm game experience will be able to at least pass, and possibly even full-combo before long, every song on the hardest difficulty within a couple of days. Trust me. Pop'n Music, the 9-key game you're thinking of, has a far higher difficulty level than both Konga/Taiko and Frequency/Amplitude on its harder levels. Pop'n Music, Beatmania IIDX, Drum Mania and other BEMANI games have quite a few songs that it could take months or years for even a seasoned rhythm game player to do well on.
Thing is, I'm reasonably sure that I'm not interested in that level of difficulty. It's like how I lose interest in fighting games once I get to the point where I need to count frames or something to get any better. Besides, aren't all of those import titles? I really have no interest in modding my PS2, especially considering how I'm always hearing how breakable they are. I'd rather do everything I can to keep the thing in running condition.
I also hate to say that the Taiko controller flat-out sucks compared to many other rhythm controllers. I can't tell you how many times people have asked me if their controller was broken right out of the box, simply because it misses every 20th note (or so) no matter how accurately you hit it. It's basically just a design flaw that can't be avoided, as far as I can tell. It's also made of a not-too-friendly firm plastic that makes a loud, unpleasant smacking sound every time you hit it. It's so loud that it drowns out the music being played and could very easily annoy your neighbors. That said, it's also one of the more affordable home rhythm controllers, and it gets the job done if nothing else. It's just painfully obvious that Namco put affordability over quality.
...and that's the other question I had been meaning to ask, and plain forgot about in my previous posts...
I was always curious how the drums for both games felt. I always figured that they'd both be made from that material that you see practice drums made from, a sort of hard rubber that doesn't really have a whole lot of give to it, but doesn't make a lot of noise when you hit it. It sucks to hear that hitting the drum makes that much of a sound. From what I could tell, the Konga drums were made quite well, had a good feel to them, and were pretty responsive.
And the fact that the Taiko drum just plain doesn't register hits sometime pretty much kills any chances of me picking it up, really. I don't want to have to worry about the drum randomly not recognizing any hits, while contending with the noise that hitting it makes. Heck, I get massively irritated with the occasional framerate drops in Amplitude, which tend to always mess up my streak, I don't want to think of the irritation caused by a crappy controller.
I'd still recommend strongly that you pick up one or both of the games, as they're both a lot of fun. It's just a more casual type of fun, not at all hardcore like the BEMANI games or Frequency and Amplitude. If you're interested in moving up to the big leagues of rhythm, though, you should definitely head in the direction of games like Drum Mania, Beatmania IIDX, Guitar Freaks, Pop'n Music, etc.
I'll probably end up sticking with the minor leagues of rythm games, actually. What else is out there, that's not insanely hard? I've seen clips of some game where you're a kid playing a guitar, and the gameplay screen is basically this little track-looking thing winding around in all these different directions, and I'm guessing you have to point the analog stick in that direction. Is that one Guitar Freaks?
