"Drum Away, be blissful."

I am a huge fan of rhythm games, let me tell you, a huge fan of the Bemani series. And of course, like any otehr Bemani game, this one caught my eye once I saw it. I actually was following the japanese version of this game, known as Taiko no Tatsujin, but of course, its expensive to import such a game that requires a special controller to have full experience. So then I got the game finally from gamecrazy and I was impressed, though not necessarily perfect, Beatmania IIDX is still perfection at its best.

Graphics: 10/10

Very nice graphics, childish at that too. Colorful, hi-res 2D Sprites makes the game to have a kind of atmosphere that this game is for the entire family and fun. Not many special effects to talk about, when you reach the bar full the drum at the top shines and everyone on the bottom are dancing. Very nice graphics for what it does, children would want to play the game over and over because of a playful atmosphere, and also for bemani fans such as myself.

Story: Manual - 1/10 Game - 0/10

Now, this is a weird one as far as story is concerned. Many people, when playing this game, would say that this game has no story whatsoever. Well, there is one, but it is located on the manual, not on the game itself. I've read the character bios and what is going on, but they are very childish and not much depth to it. Some bios are very weird, and the characters are bizarre. Very strange that this game has "a" story, but at least they should've put a Story Mode to see what is going on.

Gameplay: 9/10

Ahh, of course, this is where all music games shine. The gameplay is rather simple, but that is if you've been playing it for a while, becomes much simplistic, the learning curve I would say between 10-20 minutes, it becomes much harder but if you play alot (who doesn't?) You'll beat the songs. The Drum is confusing at first because you have no idea what to drum at.

The basics: the screen has a bar at the top, what you are trying to do is to fill it up at least to yellow to successfully pass the game. Notes move from right to left, and you have to hit the note with the drum when the note reaches a white circle to the left with timing. The Red notes you have to hit inside the drum either on the left or right side of it, the blue notes you have to hit the edges of the drum (left or right). Now, this is when it gets confusing with the Drum. In the package, it comes with a big drum (known as the Taiko Drum) and two thick drumsticks. The red note part is self explanatory, but the blue note part confuses you, you have to actually hit the top edge of the drum to hit, not the sides. For some odd reason, when you hit the middle edges, it doesn't recieve the hit.
The game has 31 songs, but you have to unlock the last 5 songs. The game has 4 difficulties (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Oni), but you must unlock the Oni difficulty. To unlock everything, it takes less than an hour to unlock everything. Pretty simple.

Sound: 10/10

Good sound effects, what I like is when you drum, drum sounds come out, this is also saying that the drum is pretty responsive. When you drum to the middle, it has a deep drumming sound, when you drum to the edges, it really sounds as if you were drumming the edge. Not to many sound effects, but I just like the druming sound.

Music: 8/10

Now, when it comes to music games (both Bemani and non-Bemani) I am very picky at the song selection, especially from a Bemani game, because if it doesn't have the songs I want, the songlist is pretty much flawed. But because this is a non-Bemani game, I decided to give it a little bit more consideration. The songlist mostly has pop songs, which I don't mind, but some of them are very annoying. What I like about the songlist is the classical and original songs, heh especially Katamari, love that. Classical, I always like Classical songs on music games, tends to have more "action" and "feeling" if you know what I mean. Good songlist but the fact that most songs are pop songs just blows me away.

Conclusion

This game is very addictive, fun game if you're going to a party or just family reunion. Perfect game for entry-level Bemani players, and children would love the game because of the fun atmosphere. The songlist was flawed (DDRExtreme US anyone?), but the classical and original songs make up for it. I recommend buying the game, renting it I don't think you can rent it with the drum, and playing it with the Dual Shock is no fun. I recommend buying another Drum for the full 2 player experience. My bro uses the Dual Shock and I use the Drum and we switch off, but it looks weird, I'll be buying another Drum soon.

Score:
Graphics: 10/10
Story: Manual - 1/10 Game - 0/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Music: 8/10

Final: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/06