Taiko Time: Taiko Time 7th Anniversary Quiz Answers

Question 1: Screenshot Quiz
(a) Ans.: Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou -Taiko no Tatsujin Mix-

(b) Ans.: Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP)

(d) Ans.: Dance My Generation (Ura, 2P notechart)

(e) Ans.: Angel Dream (The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls ver.)

Question 2: Coming for Seconds

(a) Taiko no Tatsujin Session de Dodon ga Don/Drum Session (PS4-1) is hailed simultaeously as the second English-, (traditional) Chinese- and Korean-language Taiko console game. Name one difference each from their respective firsts, excluding the ones that are also newly different in the Japanese version, as well as the obvious things like song choices and visual design.

Ans.: All reasonable answers are correct, with some examples here:
　　　English: Oni is renamed Extreme, customization
　　　Chinese: Same-console 2-player gameplay
　　　Korean: DLC support

(b) We all know which song is the first to have the famed Nam-combo. Which one is the second one then?
Ans.: Scroll Mika

(c) There is one big difference between the second place Donder in the Taiko no Tatsujin World Championships 2016 compared with the other winners. What is it?
Ans.: The second place winner did not have the chance to be the first ever in the world to play any new song. The champion was the first ever to play Amaterasu as exhibition play, and the 3rd and 4th places winners were the tied first to play VICTORIA for their 3rd-place match.

Question 3: Time-waster of the Day
Only counting running times of songs, what is the longest time a credit of 3 songs can take in these arcade versions? Consider their status as at August 15 2017.
(a) Taiko no Tatsujin 14 Plus
(b) Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo ver.
(c) Taiko no Tatsujin Yellow ver.

Ans.:
For AC14, the longest credit possible is Haikei, Gakkou ni te... (Ura) / Fuun! Bachio Sensei (Ura) / Hikari no Kanata e (Ura) which takes 12 minutes 7 seconds.

The situation on the HD arcade would be trickier due to possible song removals, but the current longest credit possible on Yellow ver. is Juumensou colorful ver. / Geragera to Warau na / Senbonzakura which takes 9 minutes 38 seconds.

Because Senbonzakura is no longer available on cabinets that stayed at Sorairo ver., we have to replace it with Jinsei Reset Button instead, and the longest time would be 9 minutes 25 seconds.

Question 4: Audio Deka, Taiko Time 7th Anniversary Special
Audie and Professor Marvy are again in action to investigate a suspected case of foul play. The victim was found unconscious in a downtown arcade room, in front of a HD Taiko no Tatsujin cabinet, just as staff returns to business from a Marine Day 2017 break. The said cabinet was still running on Kimidori ver. firmware because the owners claims "upgrading is too expensive". The victim's medical records reveals that due to a chronic illness looking at objects flying past at extremely high speeds may cause him to lose consciousness. While our two intrepid protagonists proceeds to unravel the mystery, they must first decide whether that cabinet is related to the case anything more than just the location. What is the highest speed (in terms of equivalent BPM) that can be produced by that cabinet in a note, and which song is it?
Ans.: Depending on your perspective to the question, there can be two possible answer we have thought of. The actual highest scroll speed possible on a currently-still Kimidori ver. cabinet is from yellow drumrolls in Suuhaa 2000, at a 7.65-times speed on a 280 BPM base making for equivalent 2142 BPM.

You might also argue that a yellow drumroll at that speed is seen only like a strip of yellow appearing and don't necessarily count as a high-speed object, in which case the next contender would be the last note in Swan Lake ~still a duckling~ (Ura), clocking at 8-times scroll speed on a 240 BPM or equivalent to 1920 BPM.

Question 5: Dairantou SSB ~All-star Taiko Brothers~
The last Super Smash Bros. games (3DS/Wii U) have had such close relation with Namco (mostly its in-house composer) that we have done more than the fair share of feature posts for a Taiko no Tatsujin blog. What is the percentage of the playable characters (excluding Mii Fighters and costumes) in the whole Super Smash Bros. series that have song inclusions in any of the Taiko no Tatsujin games? Count all songs already released and/or announced to future inclusion as of August 15 2017, including those coming to PS4-1 for example.

Ans.: To answer this, we break out a complete list of the playable characters from the whole Super Smash Bros. series, and so happens the one on the series' Wikipedia page is conveniently sortable by franchise. From here we'll just tally the two sides:

Franchises with song inclusions (brackets are number of SSB playable characters)

Animal Crossing (1): Animal Crossing New Leaf Medley
Final Fantasy (1): The Navel Extreme
Kirby (3): Kirby's Dream Land Medley / Revenge of Meta Knight Medley
Mega Man (1): Dr.WILY STAGE 1
Pac-Man (1): EAT'EM UP / L・O・V・E
Pikmin (1): Ai no Uta ~ Pikmin Theme
Pokémon (9): Pokemon game medleys
Sonic the Hedgehog (1): Sonic 4 Episode I Medley
Street Fighter (1): Theme of Ryu
Super Mario (9): Super Mario Bros. (two versions) / New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Dr. Mario (Fever) (incl. the part in Famicom Medley)
Legend of Zelda (6): Legend of Zelda Theme (Soul Calibur II) / Legend of Zelda (original medley) / Legend of Zelda BotW Medley

Franchises withour song inclusions (brackets are number of SSB playable characters)

Bayonetta (1)
Donkey Kong (2)
Duck Hunt (1)
EarthBound (2)
F-Zero (1)
Fire Emblem (6)
Game & Watch (1)
ROB (1)
Ice Climber (1)
Kid Icarus (3)
Metal Gear (1)
Metroid (2)
Punch-Out!! (1)
Star Fox (3)
Wii Fit (1)
Xenoblade (1)

And that bring us to 34 characters with song inclusion and 28 without, giving a percentage of 54.8%.

PS. Note that while the Tekken series and Tower of Druaga does have representation in the latest 3DS/Wii U Super Smash Bros. game (and of course have so many songs in Taiko no Tatsujin), they are only costumes for Mii Fighters and hence are not counted here.

Question 6: Ranking Dojo Gaiden, Taiko Time 7th Anniversary Special
If we take the favourite songs of nigelliusnitrox, Lokamp and pikaby and put them as a Ranking Dojo Gaiden trial (use the highest possible difficulty, in that order), what is the ceiling score attainable?

Ans.: Knowing our favourite songs is the easy part. We have spoken of them fondly in the past and the last time we checked they are still our favourites. For the purpose of this question, the three songs should have been Samba Alegria (Ura) / Chiriyuku Ran no Tsuzuru Uta / Kimi no Akari (Ura). We have also already talked about the concept "ceiling score" in our feature article on Score Fixing, but the problem might be that until now we did not fully touch on how scoring works in a Ranking Dojo trial.

Long story short, each song in the trial still uses its original scoring formula, but because combos are continued between songs, the combo increment would have been maxed out at the start. Assuming getting all Greats, it is just simple maths of how many each kind of notes there are (normal and large notes, and both under Go-go Time) times the highest per-note score, plus the 100-combo bonuses incurred:

Songs	Ceiling Score
サンバアレグリーア Samba Alegria	1,099,100 + drumroll (same as normal)
散りゆく蘭の綴る詩 Chiriyuku Ran no Tsuzuru Uta	1,160,400 + drumroll
Normal notes	1370	× 390
Large notes	2740	× 21
Normal notes in Go-go Time	1640	× 276
Large notes in Go-go Time	3280	× 14
100-combo bonus	10000	× 7
きみのあかり Kimi no Akari	1,114,860
Normal notes	1320	× 381
Normal notes in Go-go Time	1580	× 343
100-combo bonus	10000	× 7
Total	3,374,360 + drumroll