"Downloadable songs add so much value"

I just got this game yesterday, but so far my fiance and I have been playing non-stop. DJ Max is still my favorite PSP music game, but Taiko is certainly worth owning. The game is very addictive with an overload of cuteness, and some great music. The only song I would warn anyone to stay away from is the horrible rendition of the already lame Brittany Spears song "Slave 4 u" Other than that, the songs range from cutesy and even some indie sounding Jpop, original Namco songs (Katamari intro song!!) traditional Japanese festival music (of course...Taiko drums!) and some good classical pieces that everyone will recognize. There is also a halfway decent cover of "We will rock you" which is fun to play.

The gameplay seems way too easy at first but the harder songs will have most people tripping their fingers up over just two buttons. The default control, which place the rimshots (blue taiko's) on the R and L buttons, and the red taiko's on the face/directional buttons is a bit clumsy feeling for the harder songs but can be changed to a much more natural feeling setup where you can set the red's to Up/Right/Square/Triangle, and the blues to Left/Down/X/O. Extra options also include different sounds for your drums that can be unlocked as you play. There are also 3 minigames that are fun, but won't keep you interested for too long.

This game is 100% in Japanese, every text (even name entry), menu item, song name and voice clip will mean nothing to you if you don't know the language. However, there are some very good menu translation sites around that will help you to learn your way around and it doesn't take long to memorize where everything is.

Finally, one of the most promising aspects of the longevity that this game has to offer...downloadable music. So far there are already over ten extra songs to download and play, and they're all fun! There are also some very well written tutorials online about how to access these songs and save them on your memory stick. This feature alone adds TONS of replay value and will hopefully last for a while.

My only gripe is that it can seem a bit on the way too easy side at times, and the repetitive drum sounds can sometimes over-power the music. Other than these small problems, the game adds up to one very fun and addictive title, give it a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/06