Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local, Online), 2-4 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is the fourth Nintendo Switch entry in Bandai Namco’s family-friendly taiko drum Music-Rhythm series, coming after the initial release of Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum ‘N’ Fun! and the follow-up games Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1 and Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 2 (these latter two being combined into the bundle Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack). While I felt like these earlier games had their ups and downs, the core gameplay and presentation remained fairly consistent throughout all of them, with the biggest changes being the included features and how the gameplay was presented to the player. The same remains true with Rhythm Festival, which once again touts the same core gameplay and presentation style, and is only really different in its song list and its features.

For those who missed the earlier Taiko No Tatsujin games, these games are built around the use of a drum accessory that will set you back $40-$100, depending on which version you get and where you get it. As you might expect, this makes playing the game in its intended form extremely pricey, especially since the only games this accessory is really designed to work with are the Taiko No Tatsujin series of games… and of course this controller is specific to Nintendo Switch, so you can’t even bring it over to use on the other platforms with Taiko games on them.

Previously, I reviewed these games without this accessory, making use of the other control methods to play the game. However, for Rhythm Festival I have taken the extra step of buying an actual taiko drum accessory (I got the Armor3 Taiko Drum Accessory, for those wondering) so I can play the game as intended. And having done so, I have come to the conclusion… that I don’t really like playing Taiko No Tatsujin using an actual drum accessory. Yeah, fans of the series may find what I’m saying to be blasphemy here, but I found this accessory to be imprecise, and while there was a visceral fun in playing the game this way, I felt frustrated that it seemed like my hits weren’t being detected correctly. Perhaps this is due to this specific brand’s drum, or maybe it’s the game, but I’m not about to buy another taiko drum accessory just to test it out.

However, as per usual, players have access to multiple other ways to play this game – the game can be played using standard button controls, it can be played using the Joy-Cons’ gyroscopic motion controls, and there are also touch-screen controls for those playing the game in handheld mode (the game makes no mention of this anywhere, and the menus don’t even seem to support the touchscreen, but the gameplay supports it just fine).

Once again, I find that most of these control schemes are a mixed bag. As with prior Nintendo Switch entries in the series, the motion controls in Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival are atrociously bad, detecting drum strikes when you don’t make them, not detecting them when you do, mixing up red thumps and blue rim taps, and all-around being so unreliable that it’s simply not feasible to play the game this way. On the other hand, the gamepad controls here work fine, though playing the game by tapping buttons almost feels like missing the point of the game (though it’s still fun).

Once again, the touchscreen controls are the absolute star of the game here, perfectly conveying the feeling of rhythmically thumping on a drum without losing any of the precision of the more traditional gamepad controls. For those unaware, where you tap the screen determines what type of beat you’re playing – tap the left or right sides of the screen (roughly 25% on either side) and the game will interpret it as a left or right rim tap. Tap the middle of the screen and the game will detect it as a left or right drum thump, depending on whether you’re left or right of center. And naturally you can do both left and right sides at the same time for stronger versions of these. It’s all simple, feels natural, and works wonderfully… but only if you’re playing in handheld mode.

Second in importance only to the controls is of course the music here, and Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival features a mostly Japan-centric tracklist, although Westerners will find some songs they’re familiar with here too. This game includes a library of J-Pop, anime themes (including songs from a few super-popular animes), the Japanese versions of some Disney themes, a few classical songs, and even some Nintendo themes. The core game includes 80 songs, with additional songs available to purchase via paid DLC. In addition, the game has a subscription service that costs about $4/month that allows access to roughly 600 more songs. I do wish that all of these songs were offered for purchase as well, but even this much is still a pretty good selection of options for ways to expand your music library. It’s just a shame that they didn’t take this opportunity to expand the variety of types of music available as well.

When it comes to the other elements of the presentation, Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum ‘N’ Fun is very Japanese-y. Cutesy Japanese-style cartoon characters and odd animals fill this game to the brim, complete with high-pitched Japanese cheers and greetings. The saccharine level is extraordinarily high. For some, this will be a part of the game’s charm, but for others, it will be something to tolerate to get to the gameplay.

In terms of game modes, you have standard Music-Rhythm play that supports only two players in competitive mode both locally and online, a downgrade from the 4-player support we saw in Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum ‘N’ Fun!. What’s more, despite only being a year old, the online servers seemed abandoned when I looked for an opponent, so if you want to play this game in multiplayer, you’ll need to bring your own friends.

In addition to this, you have some unlockable cosmetic elements you can earn by completing goals in the game, as well as a Party Game mode, which is sadly nowhere near as good as the one included in Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum ‘N’ Fun!. There’s a competitive 2-player mode where players can send attacks at each other while competing for the best score. There’s also a co-op mode for 4 players that’s actually pretty good, but is rendered largely superfluous due to the fact that this mode only works with roughly a half dozen songs.

Given how major a part of the experience the Party Games in Drum ‘N’ Fun! were, and the lack of four-player support throughout most of this game, Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival feels like a downgrade compared to that title in nearly every way. And while I appreciate the inclusion of different options to expand the music list in this game, I can’t very well say that makes this a better game when the core game simply doesn’t have as many features as Drum ‘N’ Fun! did. I suppose at the very least this release isn’t the terrible mess that the Rhythmic Adventure games were. However, while Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is still at its core a good game, there already exists a better take on this formula on Nintendo Switch, and unless you’re enticed by the paid subscription service in this game, you’re better off sticking with Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum ‘N’ Fun!.

tl;dr – Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is the fourth Nintendo Switch entry in Namco’s family-friendly Japanese taiko drumming Music-Rhythm game series. Once again, this game was designed for the proprietary taiko drum accessory, the Joy-Con motion controls are terrible, the traditional gamepad controls are good but seem a tad bland, and the touchscreen controls are secretly the best way to play this game. And once again, the cutesy, Japanesey presentation won’t be for everyone, but otherwise the gameplay is great. However, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about this game when Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum ‘N’ Fun! did this formula better on the Nintendo Switch in 2018, and is still the best game in the series on this platform. This is still a good game, but it feels like it’s lacking important features compared to Drum ‘N’ Fun!, and I think most players are better off going for that game instead.

Grade: B-

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