Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! Collector's Edition (Nintendo Switch)

Taiko no Tatsujin Drum 'n' Fun is the latest instalment of the Taiko no Tatsujin series, a popular Japanese rhythm game series. Its release also marks the series debut in Europe.This time it comes in two different packages. A Switch version named Drum 'n Fun and a Playstation 4 version named Drum Session. Each game has different track lists so I recommend googling them and picking up the one with whichever set of songs strikes your fancy.If you're unfamiliar with Taiko no Tatsujin the gist is simple. You select a piece of music and then depending on what control option you've selected, you hit the taiko drum, swing the Joy-Cons or press buttons to correspond with the beats of the song. As you increase the difficulty of any song, the beats progressively become more frequent and complex in their patterns. Compared to other rhythm games, Taiko only ever uses two singular notes. Don (red) and Ka (blue), instead of needing to memorise patterns with three or four different button inputs, you'll only ever need two and yet Taiko makes the most out of them.Red notes require a simple tap on the face of the taiko drum, or the press of the B/Y buttons will count as a hit. Blue notes require a tap on the side of the drum, or pressing the A/X buttons will suffice. There are a few other combinations of notes to mix things up alongside them, including bigger variations of the don and ka notes that need both A/X or B/Y buttons pressed at the same time, and notes that require some button mashing or some good ol' fashion drum pounding to clear them. As you play, more and more things are progressively unlocked including new songs and taiko characters.The most important part of any rhythm game is the music, so how does Drum n' Fun stack up? I can't speak for everyone as we all have our own music tastes, but as this is a Japanese game most of the music included is from various Japanese pop culture. So stuff like anime theme songs like the iconic "A Cruel Angels' Thesis" from Evangelion, "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" from Dragon Ball Z, to more contemporary songs like "Alola!" from Pokemon Sun and Moon fill up the music selection.There are a few pop songs from Japanese artists, a bunch of original tracks produced by Namco, a few Vocaloid songs and even a handful of songs from videogames, including "Jump Up Superstar!" from Super Mario Odyssey. There's enough variety here that you'll be sure to enjoy a good size of the track list assuming you have an interest in Japanese music.Not only does the music standout but Taiko's presentation as a whole is unmatched and very distinctive, with colourful and bright visuals dancing and filling the screen. As you play through a song successfully, the background characters become more lively and animated. It's a little childish and cutesy, but there's no doubt that this is the charm of Taiko no Tatsujin.If I only had one gripe the Switch experience specifically, out of all the controller options the motion controls, in my experience, ranged from barely working to occasionally serviceable. Because you have no drum to hit, you motion with a swing forward for a red note and diagonally for a blue one. On easy and normal difficulty you can get away with occasionally missing a handful of notes because of input errors, but on harder modes the motion controls simply don't hack it. You're likely to tire yourself out long before trying the harder difficulties from how inconsistent the motion controls are. At best, the motion controls are a nice novelty but they can't replace the taiko drum or your button inputs.The drum quality itself is nice. It's made of plastic but it doesn't feel cheap. It has a weightiness to it that you'd expect of a small replica taiko drum. It'll create a fairly noticeable THUMP sound when you hit it so if that's a bother, or if you live in a household where you need perpetual silence then keep that in mind. It's not a loud piece of kit by any means, but you'll need to give it a fair wack otherwise it won't register inputs if your hits are too flimsy.Finally, there are touch screen controls for those who want to play in handheld mode. A taiko drum is displayed at the bottom of the screen and you can tap the surface or side of it to hit the notes and it works perfectly.Any song can also be played cooperatively which is a neat feature. There's also a surprisingly large amount of minigames. Of course, all of them are based around rhythm or timing, like hitting a baseball, cooking food or hopscotch. These are playable with up to 4 people. They are by and large pretty forgettable and won't keep you occupied for more than 30 minutes but their inclusion is a welcome one anyway.Taiko no Tatsujin Drum 'n Fun is a fantastic rhythm game and one of the best I've played in a while. If you like these sorts of games you'd be mad not to play it.

Didn't expect the item to come factory sealed. Excellent condition. The game itself is also very fun, although the drum is very loud as you might expect, so take this into account before buying. You can still play using joy cons if the drum is too loud, but the drum makes it so much more fun

If you like rhythm games then you will enjoy this. Can get very difficult on expert so there is always incentive to keep playing. There are plenty of songs in the game, but all of them are Japanese obviously and quite "weeb-y" so maybe stay clear if you don't like that. Playing with the drum controller is the most fun but it can get very loud sometimes so at night I will just play with the buttons and it's still enjoyable. Something I will mention though is that the game is currently available 10 and 20 pounds cheaper at GAME and Argos respectively. I only thought to check after purchasing it here.

This game will eat up your time, and push your coordination to its limits and beyond. Seriously though, this game is very fun.The drum is well built, and handles pretty well. It can be loud, and move about, so you should rest this on something like a towel to dampen the noise, and perhaps put a towel over it. This will require you to drum slightly harder, and effects the sensitivity a little, but helps if you need to reduce noise.A little tip, the DLC makes up this game by adding songs. The UK/EU and the US versions are the same game, so you should have an account for both regions to get all the DLC available.

This is a game i saw at an arcade and youtube and really wanted, i saved enough money to buy the game and it's really fun but also very hard, the product was perfectly wrapped and packaged. the only issue was just the arrival time was a week later than what amazon told me due to royal mail strikes.