This latest gimmicky peripheral-based rhythm game is just as Japanese as the people who pronounce the full title want to be: very. Picture a pair of stout drums hopping around in a bed of flowers. Picture a chorus line of dogs dancing. Picture a 100-meter dash with a rocket-powered robot. It’s hard to describe, but Taiko no Tatsujin is just one of those bizarre games you have to experience at least once.

The gameplay is as simple as you’ve come to expect from a music game. Hit the drum when the beat circles pass the hit circle, either on the face of the drum or on the sides. Mix this up with rapid, overlapping circles that require fast drumming, and yellow bars that require you to just wail on the thing as much as your wrists (or annoyed neighbors) permit. Several difficulty levels are available, ranging from “My mom actually beat something in a video game” to “That one made me work” to “Oh, okay, I just fractured my forearm.” The game is much harder than anything PaRappa has offered, but more akin to Gitaroo-Man’s (still my all-time fave music game) later levels, so it isn’t exactly impossible.

If you generally were turned off by making the full-price-tag-purchase for a music game just because it’ll be beaten and 100%’ed in 20 minutes (very obvious glare at Parappa the Rapper 2 - thanks again to the fine employees at Gamestop for allowing me to plow through that in one sitting on my first try), Taiko sidesteps that worry by offering dozens of popular hits to choose from. My top picks are the Gatchaman theme, a couple of classical pieces that include Pomp and Circumstance, the one with “Love” somewhere in the title, and best of all, the snowboarding level from Klonoa 2. It smokes.

As if the J-pop weren’t enough reason to adopt a copy, just look at the character art. It’s the epitome of charm, something most games these days fall short of delivering. I shudder every time I tear open an American mag and see some frizzy animal, grinning behind green goggles and kicking a snowboard in the face, all the while chugging a power drink and sucking up a toad into his ear. There have been some poor designs going on lately and the heroes at Namco have done their part to remind us why we like games with characters.

The cast of Taiko looks like a bastard wedding between two Japanese commercials. We’ve got a flock of chicks, rice ball things with sauces coating them and horns poking out of their heads, a squadron of big and small bells on one side; and a cat with a kabuki mask, paper lanterns, Chinese dragon dancers, squid that look like penises, a turtle with a fan, and a pack of wolves wearing hoods on the other side; all cheering on our two protagonists, a pair of red and blue drums. I’m sure there’s some meaning or importance to each of these bright little faces staring at me from the box art that I’m missing, so I hope the creators forgive my ignorance. Suffice it to say, I like the art and bought the game on that alone.

The only think irking me about the game is the noticeable lack of animation. Each character has a few frames that they use the best they can, but a few isn’t really enough for me in these days, post-Metal Slug 3. Oddly, the bells have been given much attention and actually do move like a bell should, with copious amounts of animation. Maybe they should’ve shared with the rest of the gang.

Since the game is a Japanese import, there isn’t much English, but after some trial and error you’ll figure out where the save screen is and where you can find the practice mode and all that. Though, it would be nice if someone were to translate the text from the endings you earn; some of the best (if by best I mean completely weird and sometimes unsettling) the industry has to offer. Besides the intimidating Kanji, there really is no reason to stop any game music fan from picking this one up. You did good, Namco!

. . . Kaneda