Song of the Week! 2 November 2013

You know what I love about Taiko 3DS? It introduced a large chunk of brand new songs for the Game Music genre, with some of them still exclusive to it. Like today's song!

 Assault BGM1 (アサルト BGM1)

Version
All	x3 (115)	x5 (204)	x6 (350)	x8 (527)

Taiko 0 M, Taiko 3DS, Taiko Switch
 115
 none
 aslt


Among the seven new Game Music tracks in the first 3DS Taiko, this is the oldest of the bunch, coming from a 1988 multi-directional shooter arcade game called Assault. Running under the Namco System 2 arcade board, the game puts the player in control of an Assault tank, a futuristic vehicle with both high combat and moving skills, to free the homelands from the enemy invaders.

Like most of the older arcade tank games, the player controls the tank with triggers and two joysticks for moving the tank's tracks; unlike other games of the time, the four-way joysticks allowed the player to perform special actions, like dodging enemy fire with rapid rolls or launch grenades. This Namco arcade also became very peculiar for the visual impact: the use of sprite scaling and rotation, as well as many other graphical gimmicks, played a huge role for creating a more vibrant perspective for the gameplay. Assault was the first arcade ever to rely on these graphical innovations, seconded only by Ordyne, another Namco arcade that hit the scene some months later.

Shinji Hosoe (細江慎治) is responsible for all the game's music. This one on Taiko is the first track (hence the name 'BGM1'), which is played for the second stage of the game (oddly enough, the 1st stage is silent). Unlike other Hosoe music on Taiko games like Ridge Racer and Metal Hawk BGM1, this one is slow.

But don't let the title mislead you; this isn't as hard as the other, infamous BGM1 tune in Taiko! The slow tempo makes for an Oni challenge based more on pattern reading than physical limitations, with an array of several 1/16 clusters that can be handled easily by most Taiko players. Still, the cluster combinations can catch less experienced players off-guard (there are some tricky spots), making thisa worthy 8* Oni chart.

  Assault BGM1 (アサルト BGM1)

Version
All				x9 (761)

 Taiko Switch
 115
 none
 ???


Revived for the home console scene as an unlockable tune for the Nintendo Switch debut title, Assault BGM1 also checked in with a brand new Ura Oni for the occasion, missing out the oh-so-familiar Nam-Combo counter for a few notes while still bringing the tension that low-BPM songs progressively-filled to the brim with note clusters can supply.