Day 1 of the IAAPA 2024 trade show is in the bag, and one game is getting more questions thrown my way than any other so far, being Bandai Namco Amusements’ Taiko No Tatsujin USA Version. Let’s dig in.
Taiko No Tatsujin USA Version – Available With A Caveat
The biggest piece of news is that TnT began shipping this past Friday. However, there’s a big caveat or asterisk there that needs to be addressed. The first run of the game is “extremely limited” in numbers and they have all been accounted for (mostly by Round1USA, who have apparently bought up 100 units already). The next batch of cabinets won’t be available until early Spring 2025. So while the game will be out there, not everyone who wants one will have one, for now.
But… don’t let that stop you from pre-ordering one. The price will vary depending on the distributor, but it should be around or under $15,000. Also, while the game has a Bandai Namco Passport requirement (meaning it is also online-only, unlike Mario Kart), there should be no monthly fee nor a separate kiosk that needs to be purchased for it to operate from what I was told.
There is, however, a per song fee of 20¢. The game has a huge library of licensed songs, including some American pop music, and plenty of popular anime. Given that most card games out there have around a 25¢ cost per card, I don’t imagine this will be much of an issue for locations, especially where you don’t have to buy something like the cards in the first place.
What About Europe?
The other big question I keep hearing is the same as the header above, and I have good news for some on that front – yes, Europe seems to be on the map for Taiko. There’s no firm date yet, or confirmed location it will pop up in first there, but from the conversation I had with a couple of managers at Namco, it sounds like it is coming sometime next year. Hang tight friends!
Impressions
Today was actually the first time that I ever got to try the arcade version of the game, though I do already have TnT Rhythm Festival on Switch. That’s fun, but I imagined that it is better with the actual giant drum set. It is, even if it takes some getting used to. I tried Normal difficulty to start and got wrecked, so it’ll be easy for me until I can genuinely get good at it.
I can see where the game could be a little challenging for newcomers to get, as not everything about what to do is obvious. You have to take a few moments to read the instructions, instead of just jumping in and going with it. I also think it would help if the marquee that says ‘Taiko No Tatsujin’ in English were in a much larger font. It’s so small that it is easy to miss (I first noticed it when I was asked “what’s this game called?” while chatting with a reader about it).
It also throws you off a little to have a game like this with a smaller screen, but in some ways that’s welcome – we keep complaining about how huge games are getting, so it’s not a bad thing to have a game come with restraint (not saying that we need phone sized screens though). This certainly helps to lower the price on it too; $15k is pretty competitive in this day and age of the arcade market.
BTW, it was awesome today where we had a little impromptu Arcade Heroes get-together with NSM, BemBlake, and Antoine. It’s always better to see readers in person. Thanks a ton to NSM for serving as my ‘model’ for the video above here; he is far more fun to watch than myself playing it.
If you have also got to play Taiko No Tatsujin USA Ver. whether on the location tests over the past couple years or here at IAAPA, what do you think about it?
