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Drumming game Taiko no Tatsujin has become something of a poster child for Japanese video arcades over the years, with pretty much every piece of movie or TV footage which shows a Japanese game centre including shots of either smiling schoolgirls or wildly flailing pros thumping away on one of the game’s giant plastic taiko drums in time with the cutesy on-screen icons and J-pop beats.

Up until now, diehard fans of the series had to make do with flimsy miniature drum controllers for their phones and games consoles whenever they couldn’t make it to an actual arcade to challenge their top scores, but peripheral maker Hori has just unveiled the ultimate home taiko experience in the form of the Taiko no Tatsujin Controller Pro – an enormous drum controller being rolled out for the launch of upcoming Wii and Wii U title Taiko no Tatsujin: Tokumori!

And when we say this thing is enormous, we’re not kidding. Hori’s officially licensed taiko measures a whopping 36cm by 30cm by 12cm (that’s 14 x 11.8 x 4.9 inches for the metric-phobic). Still not sure how big that is? Here’s the new drum compared to one of the taiko drums that were released for the Wii version of the game a few years back.

▼ “Don” indeed.

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Furthermore, Hori’s new drum weighs in at a hefty 2.5 kg (5.5 pounds), so you can be confident that it’s not going to start sliding around as soon as you get into one of the Super Mario Bros theme tune’s many frantic drum rolls.

The controller is due to go on sale in Japan from December 4. Here’s what comes bundled in the box:

▼ The drum stand, featuring the game’s logo and trademark swirls

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▼ The stand, incidentally, allows for the drum to be placed at any of three possible angles

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▼ A pair of replica arcade taiko drumsticksScreen Shot 2014-11-12 at 11.45.22 AM

▼ A special non-slip mat to place your drum onScreen Shot 2014-11-12 at 11.45.30 AM

▼ And of course the enormous drum itself

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All of this taiko goodness comes at a price, however, so you may want to do some extra chores or ask Santa to consider this your main Christmas present this year. Would-be home taiko pros will need to lay down a cool 29,800 yen (US$258) to make the Taiko no Tatsujin Controller Pro their own, which is actually only about $42 less than the Wii U you’ll likely be plugging it into cost in the first place.

Still, your neighbours aren’t going to annoy themselves, right, kids? Get saving!

Source: Inside h/t Kotaku US
Images via Hori