This isn't the first time that the Taiko no Tatsujin series has appeared on the PC. Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master appeared in 2022 on the Windows Store, which is perhaps the least popular online store on the platform. For many players, this game's appearance on Steam marks the debut of the series on the PC, and if the Switch iteration is anything to go by, those picking up Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival are going to have a very good impression of the latest entry in one of the longest-running rhythm game series.

The core game mechanics are going to be very familiar, even if you've never played a rhythm game. There's a note highway situated in the middle of the screen with notes coming from the right side to the left. Red notes mean you hit the center of the drum, while blue notes mean you hit the outer rim of the drum. The drum itself recognizes the left and right sides separately, and while you can hit either side and have the note count, larger versions of the notes encourage you to strike both sides simultaneously — even if that isn't absolutely necessary. Beyond those, there are yellow notes that come in three forms: a balloon to inflate, a long note bar, and a golden hammer. In all three cases, you'll simply need to drum roll by striking any part until the note line ends or the required number of hits is met.

In terms of controls, the game provides the option to use either a gamepad or keyboard in lieu of a drum. Both options work fine, especially on the lower difficulty levels, but you'll need to exhibit some skill if you're playing at the higher difficulties. The release of the game on Steam means that there is an official taiko drum controller by Hori made for both the PC and Xbox Series X|S. Unfortunately, the controller won't arrive until the second week of December, which makes this a strange release since the game and controller should be released simultaneously.

However, this is the PC we're talking about, which means that there's the possibility of using other USB drum peripherals in place of the official one. I happen to have two such options at my disposal. The first is the wireless drum kit from Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360, along with the Xbox One adapter that was licensed by Harmonix to make the old instruments playable on the Xbox One systems and beyond. While this would've been cool to use, the controller wasn't recognized by the Steam client. It might be possible that the old, wired controller for the first Rock Band works, and perhaps the wireless Rock Band 4 kit could also work if you have the Xbox One wireless controller adapter for the PC, but no one online has confirmed that yet.

The second option is Hori's taiko drum for the Nintendo Switch. When plugged into the PC, the Steam client recognized it right away, but the buttons still needed to be configured. The navigation panel and buttons work, and the drum face and rims can be mapped to any button except for the d-pad directions. This is problematic, as the drum doesn't actually work in-game if you select that option, so you still have to select a regular control pad as your drumming option. It's also problematic because you can't map the drumming to any button you want, so you could lock yourself out of using one side of the drum's face for the drumming action. Fortunately, Steam Input is versatile enough to fix this, and after some tweaking by doubling up button actions, you can get the Switch version of the drum to work on the PC. The controller is responsive with no sign of lag, so even though the setup can be tough, you can still play the game as it was originally intended if you have this drum and don't want to wait for the official one.

Taiko mode is the mode you'll play the most, as this contains the traditional rhythm game for one or two players. The lineup consists of initially 76 songs that span a few genres, including Anime, Classical, Pop and Vocaloid, albeit with a more J-Pop/K-Pop preference. You might get a few English songs such as "Into The Unknown" from Frozen II, but you should expect something more in line with Blackpink's "DDU-DU DDU-DU" or "Ao to Natsu" from Mrs. Green Apple. You should also expect shortened versions of the songs instead of the full ones, a staple of the series that some people immediately had an issue with.

Of course, the game is missing the lineup of Nintendo songs that the Switch version had, but it has some good replacements to keep the song count high. The replacements are the opening theme to Spy X Family, two songs from Persona 5, a Monster Hunter medley, and the Dr. Wily Stage from Mega Man 2. New to the series is the ability to practice sections of songs, with pointers and assists to help you conquer any song's tricky parts. For a game that is predominantly a two-note affair, the note charts can get surprisingly tricky, but these assists ensure that you'll get better at the game.

Just like the Switch version, there is a Song Pass that costs $3.99 for a 30-day version and $9.99 for a 90-day version. There is no free seven-day trial pass anymore, but they do offer a 30% discount if you're buying a pass for the first time. Having a subscription might rub some people the wrong way. The DLC option is still available, but the number of songs in the DLC pales in comparison to the subscription. Over 700 songs are available via the Song Pass, which is way up from the 584 offered when the Pass was first introduced on the Switch. It's a good sign that songs aren't being taken away due to licensing (at least not yet). The one knock is that you can't preview the song list, so you don't know what's on offer unless you find a site chronicling the monthly options.

Aside from the main two-player mode, Rhythm Festival contains a few minigames for up to four players. The first is a band mode, which lets you and three other local players play one song together. Each person is in charge of their own note highway, but there are moments when you'll cooperate in hitting one long note string or have to all hit one note at the same time to make it count. It's a nice enough diversion from the standard versus mode, but it's not something you'll play all of the time.

The second mode is a more ambitious one named Great Drum Toy War. This is limited to two players and initially plays out like a standard versus match, where both players play to one song in the hopes of beating their opponent. The twist is that you're trying to fill up meters to place your toys on the field first to outnumber your opponent's toy count by the end of the song. Toy selection becomes important, as each one has their own abilities, such as giving you more energy per note hit, placing a toy on the field faster, putting fake notes on the opposing note lane, blocking their hit area, and outright destroying a toy on the field. Thanks to the ability to get new toys and arrange your loadout before each match, the mode becomes addictive, so players have a second campaign to keep them busy if they tire of the standard taiko mode.

The final minigame is a ninja-themed racing mode, which was added to the Switch version via a patch. Initially, it's the same thing as the standard versus mode but made for four players instead. The game quickly throws in a few twists to keep things interesting. For example, your hit streak determines how far along in the race you are, but the more you lead, the shorter your note highway becomes. Successfully hitting certain notes gives you abilities like blocking your opponent's view of their own note highway or making the movement pattern go in waves instead of a straight line; this is all activated automatically instead of being done manually. Compared to the band-themed minigame, this is more exciting to play thanks to those powers and the fact that everyone gets an equal amount of notes. The one drawback is that only the first player is allowed to customize their own taiko avatar, so everyone else has to be fine with being limited to colors and being called a Guest instead of having their own identities.

Online mode is fine, but don't expect a large pool of players to compete against unless you're playing in Ranked mode. You can select your preferred song for versus or co-op play , and you can do the same for Great Drum Toy War. You meet up with your opponent and play whichever song gets randomly selected. You can play at your own preferred difficulty level independent of what your opponent does, so you're never at the mercy of a match where notes are too fast or things are too slow due to too few notes to hit. However, during our test period, we noticed a few instances where the game hitched and sent the notes backward instead of forward. It's  something to keep in mind, as it'll certainly make perfect online runs more difficult to maintain.

Tying together all of this are two different progression systems in charge of very different things. Completing almost any mode gives you coins to spend in the in-game shop. Unless you're into customizing sound effects, your player profile, or taiko character, you're not going to be interested in most of the stuff. If you're a fan of Great Drum Toy War, you'll spend all of your coins buying up the different toys to expand your arsenal.

The actual character leveling system is more important, but it only activates when you're playing the normal Taiko mode or Great Drum Toy War. Exceptions are given to other modes when you're playing them for the first time. Most of these level advancements grant you more coins and other cosmetics, but this is also where you can advance the story of DON-chan and Kumy-kyun. The story is fine, and the cut scenes aren't that exciting, but they do sometimes afford the opportunity to perform new songs and unlock them for play elsewhere.

Those who aren't interested in the story can skip them all, which simply plays all of the scenes in fast-forward. The good news is that you decide when to initiate the leveling, but you'll automatically get this to occur whenever you boot up the game with any unclaimed levels.

The graphics for the series have always looked good thanks to its bright color palette and nice character designs, and this PC incarnation is no different. The actual note line is easy to read, and the colors are distinct enough there that there's little chance of you making a mistake about what button or drum side to hit. The rest of the environment is a cacophony of chaotic glee, as your performance causes more dancers to appear before a full-on crowd starts bouncing to your success. The scene by the end of a good performance is lively, and the joy it brings is infectious enough that you'll want to immediately play another song to see it all happen again, even if you aren't a big fan of the spoken Japanese that repeats when you unlock a plethora of rewards. One major advantage to the PC is the fact that the frame rate can go beyond 60fps, so those with high refresh rate monitors will enjoy the smoothness and won't need to fiddle with the settings too much to configure the audio sync.

Steam Deck users will be happy to know that the game works just fine on Valve's handheld device. The game does run at 1280x800, but it still goes with a 16:9 aspect ratio for the game area, and it fills in the black space with decorative borders. The borders are subtle, but it is a novel approach. Gameplay is locked to 60fps on the LCD version of the Deck, but those with the OLED version will no doubt get to 90fps thanks to the higher refresh rate of that screen. Battery life on the LCD version of the Deck hits around four-and-a-half hours, which is plenty of time to knock out a plethora of songs.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is a very good game with a solid PC port. The base mechanics are classic, and they still work well, just like they did before. The song list is meaty enough, but the presence of both DLC and a Song Pass gives everyone the chance to expand their song library. While the drums give you the more authentic experience, the PC's natural ability to use a wider variety of control methods allows for the game to be more entertaining, if only to see what other odd peripherals people will use to play the game. Provided you're not averse to the lack of Western songs, you'll have a fun time with this game.

Score: 8.0/10