I think I have always been acutely aware of the Taiko games since Donkey Konga 1 on GameCube. It was one of my first imports so I read up a bit on it before/after I bought it and most people compared it to Taiko and said it was based off of Taiko, but I didn't really look much further into it than that.
I kept at the Donkey Konga games and thoroughly enjoyed them but eventually lost interest in them for single player, but I still bust out the Kongas (I ended up with 3 or 4 of them) for some multiplayer every so often.
Um, then I think last year sometime, on a forum I visit I saw someone selling a copy of Taiko no Tatsujin Portable, and I remembered about the comparisons to Donkey Konga etc and thought I'd pick it up and give it a go. Initially I was a little hesitant as usually the peripheral based games aren't that much fun without the peripheral, but the reviews were very glowing and I gave it a go and loved it! I was extremely impressed with the download songs that Namco consistently were releasing, and for free too.
As much as I enjoyed Taiko no Tatsujin Portable, I was a little hesitant initially about picking up Taiko no Tatsujin 2, as I was at the time still playing through the first one trying to beat oni songs etc, and I thought that it mightn't be worth it, or it would be too samey, but when I did finally grab it I was very impressed again... awesome song list, amazing download song support again and just so much fun to play.
The additions and changes to the interface were more than welcome too, stuff like having a combo counter for the number of hits you get in a drum-roll, how much each note is worth score wise when it gets added to your total score, L/R to scroll further in the song list, and being able to hear what the download songs are like when you hover over them !
Anyway, our video-game arcade situation here in Australia is pretty poor, and in the state I live in especially poor, so if you can find an arcade it tends to be filled with a really limited selection of stuff, Daytona you'll typically find in every arcade, a light gun game or two, and then the rest tend to be ticket machines
so I'd never seen a Taiko arcade machine up until last year in November when I visited Tokyo, it was awesome fun playing, and a real shock to see such
massive Taikos that you drummed away on.. I had a ball wandering from arcade to arcade and seeing it and many other music games all over the place! I wasted many yen in Taiko machines!!
I wondered initially how my skills woudl translate across from being on the portable version with my thumbs, to being on an arcade machine with sticks and a drum! Surprisingly I fared pretty well! At first I was a little scared, I didn't want to hit the machine too hard, but after seeing some Japanese players going at it I had a better idea.. and gave them a pleasant surprise when they saw me play... I guess it's fair to have expected a westerner to be not so good !
After I returned from Tokyo I kept playing my portable Taikos and thoroughly impressed with the arcade units made a point to order a home version, and not too much later grabbed Taiko 7 & drum, which I have been playing avidly since then!
I'm still yet to buy some additional Taiko discs but I think I'll pick up the Taiko double pack soon, and find out which Taiko has DADDY MULK as I thoroughly enjoy that song, and from memory that disc has quite a good song list on it..