Customer Ratings & Reviews

Essentially an upgrade to Drum n' Fun with a proper story, more modes, different songs, and customization. There's also the option to get the monthly subscription song pass; I'm not a subscription guy but it is a nice way to draw parity with the song selection available in arcades. Plus, NA physical for Taiko is pretty rare!

Great packaging and came in a few days early!!!!!!!

A very fun game for the Nintendo switch very fun very very very very very very very very good game for the fam

I purchased this game for my 12 year-old daughter, & she absolutely loves it! My husband loves taking her to see taiko drummers at the Japanese Festival every year at our local botanical gardens, so I thought maybe it would be a fun game for them to play together. And it is, but she also loves playing it by herself just as much. She has always enjoyed rhythm games, & this one is particularly adorable with the cute little drum character Don-chan & some fun music as well. She has been playing it so much since she got it--it was definitely worth buying.

There's more songs in this one than the prior game, Drum 'n' Fun, at least if you factor in the optional subscription. As a package though, I think Rhythm Festival is a worse game. I feel like if you're reading a user review for a product this niche, you know what it is. But if you don't, Taiko is a simple rhythm game where you hit buttons corresponding to the displayed notes when those notes scroll into the center of a target. You get more points for better timing. Many portions of the game call for mashing the buttons to rack up points. While there are peripherals that more accurately simulate the drum controls of the original arcade games, buttons and the touch screen work just fine. When I said the game is niche, I mean it. The song list is unchanged from the original Japanese release. This means it has Japanese pop songs, theme songs from Japanese television shows, and background music from video games that are popular in Japan. If the fun of a rhythm game comes from recognizable songs, and you are not versed in any of the major categories of songs in this game, then do not bother with this game. (Classical is not.a major category in this context.) With that out of the way, what makes Rhythm Festival unique? Well, there's the optional subscription granting an absurd number of songs. In one sense, all those songs grant an infinite amount of playtime. That's pretty good if you want to pay extra. (If you don't like subscriptions, the traditional DLC model is available.) There is also the practice mode where you can play sections of songs, also with optional speed reducing modifiers, to get better at their difficult portions. Don-Chan Band is a fun four player co-op mode with unique charts where everyone has to work together to complete special notes. Additionally, the mode enforces use of the otherwise optional sound effect modifications, so it sounds and feels like being in a band or orchestra. This is where the good parts end. Now onto the bad. There's a story staring Don-chan and Kumo-kyun, the drum and cloud characters on the cover. It's not good, and that is mostly because of a translation that always feels clunky and awkward. There are never errors per say, but it always feels like it lacks a spark that a better translation would have. This story is tied to a reward track, which is completed by playing the game's modes. Said track will interrupt your gameplay sessions because there's a cap the amount of track you can earn at once before cashing it in, and dividing the story into chunks makes keeping track of the events of each chapter harder. The side modes aren't great. The Great Drum Toy War is a team building battler without enough characters to build diverse teams. Its campaign's achivements often force the player to use specific toys anyway. Ninja Run is a party mode where players who are ahead have their targets move up along the screen to make the game harder. But the leading players can play using the target of the worst player, since everyone's timings are the same. And there are only three different kinds of events, so it has low replayability. Don Chan Band's campaign has a terrible story because each part just switches out which character is the manager without changing any other plot elements. Lastly, this game has character customization for Don-chan, but in adding it removed the ability to play as different characters from Drum 'n' Fun. This means there are fewer character animations, making the game less replayable. For some reason, this change also removed a number of special powers that were available to the different characters of the prior game. I think in sum, while Rhythm Festival has more features than Drum 'n' Fun, it executes on those features poorly. Drum 'n' Fun is currently delisted online, so if this is the only Taiko game you can buy, then buy it. It's fine. But if you already have Drum 'n' Fun, stick to that game. It's the better package, with party games, separate playable characters, and even a The Great Drum Toy War equivalent in Don-Katsu Fight.

This new game includes many new pieces. I have a Nintendo drum to play Taiko games. Like the previous versions, it still took time to adjust audio/video synchronization. As long as the synch issue is resolved, this game is very fun to play.

Not a bad game by any means, but the original was better in every way. This game introduced a subscription service to access all of its best songs, and a good majority of said songs are just covers anyway. The case was in great condition though.

Fun game, definitely get the drums for the full experience

It’s fun, as every Taiko game is but I feel like you don’t get that much out of it unless you buy the subscription.

This game is so mich fun! More songs and modes to choose from with this addition of the Taiko no Tatsujin game!

A very nice rhythm game with the only downside is the subscription service to get more songs.

Great rhythm game! This game included a lot of songs my kids love this!

Fun ge to play, very challenging on some levels. Drum set possibly.

You’ll definitely enjoy if you like rhythm games with a lot of varieties. It has Hatsune Mike songs and vocaloid that I enjoy.

I really liked the first game so I was excited to get this game. I only wish there were more songs that came with the base game.

Great rhythm game, saw a friend play this and had to try it myself

Neat. Wish the controller would have come with it but it's not needed.

It is really good for young kid. My younger son loves this game.

i enjoy this when I need a little stimultion on a gloomy day

It is arm day when you play. Its fun but gettinf the blue outter is hard to figure out in the beginning.