Ah, a true classic of music history…The song ain’t bad either.

Throughout its 18 years in the game centers of Japan, drumming game Taiko no Tatsujin has continued to be a crowd favorite. And over the years many gamers have taken the game to whole new levels with acrobatic feats, whereas some gamers have simply taken the game…

But we won’t dwell on the bad times here. Instead we’ll look at the often-pondered question of how well these games translate to actual musicality, with this latest piece of empirical evidence from Aya Kaburaki (@kapocchi726).

Kaburaki explains in her tweet that in the following video, the principal percussionist for an undisclosed orchestra in Hamburg, Germany, kills it on Taiko no Tatsujin with some insane drum rolls.

https://twitter.com/kapocchi726/status/1152592112099008512

Ah Belissimo! This rendition of the final moments of Gioachino Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” on the Taiko no Tatsujin video game console was so beautiful I nearly shed tears on my manga copy of Effi Briest.

While lacking the showmanship of previous notable players, the speed, smoothness, and precision of this particular performance are incredibly mesmerizing and downright soothing to watch.

At first you might think modesty was causing Kaburaki to not mention who this is in the video, but it seems Twitter’s character limit had more to do with it. Japanese media has reported the player to be none other than Thomas Schwarz of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

Needless to say, Japanese netizens heaped well-earned praise on this performance.

“He’s more accurate than the machine lol.”
“As expected. He even gets a beautiful tone out of the fake drums.”
“I love it.”
“Not like those other extreme players. This is a true pro.”
“That’s an easy song. I want to see him try something more difficult.”

Okay, I guess not everyone was impressed. Of course, Schwarz probably wouldn’t be as tight playing something like AKB48’s “Koi Suru Fortune Cookie” without any preparation, especially having been trained on sheet music rather than floating red and blue happy faces.

On that note, here’s a Japanese pro percussionist Yuto Shimazaki attempting to get a flawless run on one of the game’s most difficult songs, Kemu’s “Haikei Doppelganger,” on its hardest difficulty. However, rather than using the screen, he transcribed it into sheet music and played from that instead. Even after two hours of practicing he was only able to get his number of misses down to 29. It wasn’t until the next day that he could get it all.

▼ If you want to just see the flawless run, skip ahead to 8:14, but the entire journey is highly relatable to any gamer stuck on a difficult part, even in Japanese.

So, whether its classically trained experts, modern performers, or the God of Akihabara, Taiko no Tatsujin is a game that continues to deliver fun and challenges, and may never stop.

Meanwhile, if you were also impressed with Schwarz’s drumming and want to known when Norddeutscher Rundfunk Elbphilharmonie Orchestra is coming to your town, just Google their name for details. You have to type the whole thing out yourself though, or everyone will know you’re ein poseur.

Source: Twitter/@kapocchi726, My Game News Flash, Big Globe
Featured image: Twitter/@kapocchi726
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