Rhythm Heaven review. Nintendo brings challenging music-based mini-game fun to DS
Rhythm Heaven is a collection of rhythm/music-based mini-games from Nintendo for the DS. While the game is essentially just a mini-game collection, all games are based on rhythm and music, which makes them very unique in play-style. This also means that some of the games can be played without even having to look at the screen, as long as you can get the rhythm down or use the audio cues to help you.
Rhythm Heaven is based on a popular Japanese game known as Rhythm Tengoku Gold for the DS. Which was the sequel to the original Rhythm Tengoku that was originally released for Game Boy Advance in Japan (and was never released elsewhere).
I am very happy that they finally did bring the game over though as Rhythm Heaven, like Elite Beat Agents before it and even the WarioWare series, is custom-built for play on DS. Making it work great as a portable title because it can be played in short bursts or in longer sit-downs. It also shares similarities with the above two games, so if you have played a game in that vein, then you’ll be familiar with Rhythm Heaven.
So how does the game play, what is it, and how does it ultimately stack up?
System: DS
Also On: None
Release Date - USA April 5, 2009 - EUR May 1, 2009 - JAP July 31, 2008 (as Rhythm Tengoku Gold)
Genre: Music Game (Rhythm Action), Mini-Game Collection
Players: 1
Controller: Played entirely with the Stylus and Touch-Screen
Save: 3 Save Files. Game saves automatically after clearing a mini-game. There is no button to take you back to the File Select Screen, simply turn the system off and you’ll be there when you turn it on again.
Developer: Software Planning & Development Group No.1 Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Origin: Japan
Rated: E for Everyone (Contains: Comic Mischief)
Rhythm Heaven is a simple game, although it’s a game that has to be seen to be fully understood. As its charm and zany-ness simply do not translate well to text. Hence lots of screenshots and videos will be added to this review to give you a full representation of the game.
As stated above, Rhythm Heaven is a essentially a mini-game collection. Genre-wise though it falls under the “Music Game” umbrella, and is specifically called a “Rhythm Action” music game due to the emphasis on rhythm (noun - movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like.) and music over visuals. It can be considered “Action” because of what goes on in some of the mini-games, such as shooting aliens on-screen in one of the mini-games.
The entire game is played using three simple techniques, all of which are done using the stylus and the touch-screen on the DS while holding the DS vertically, like an open book. These techniques are “Hold” (simply press and hold the stylus on the screen), “Tap” (tap the stylus on the screen by quickly touching the screen with the stylus then lifting off) and “Flick”.
Flick deserves a mention all its own because it is essentially the core technique of Rhythm Heaven that makes the game as difficult as it is and gives it another layer of complexity that it wouldn’t have otherwise.
To “Flick” you press and hold the stylus to the screen and then quickly and forcibly “flick” the stylus in an upward motion, as if you were quickly writing check-marks in empty boxes on a school test. and they were timing you to see how quickly you could check a column of 100 boxes. That same motion where you would quickly flick your wrist to draw the tail of the check-mark, is the same motion you use in this game during many of the mini-games. And in order for it to register on the screen you MUST do it quickly and forcibly.
The Flicking technique is very hard to master and even when concentrating hard to do it right you will often-times even STILL, do it without enough force, thus messing you up. As stated above, the Flicking is what elevates this game to another plane of greatness.
Of course, the game would die if it wasn’t for interesting mini-games. Because it is a mini-game collection after all.
There are no less than 20 mini-games in Rhythm Heaven (much more actually, but you’ll have to find out just how many there are yourself by giving the game a spin) and each one of them is ingeniously designed. As you’d expect from Nintendo, who have been kings of interesting and unique mini-games with past games ranging from WarioWare to Brain Age to Elite Beat Agents. And like the latter game, these mini-games can be about as long as a song (3 minutes, although that would be a long one) and thus are NOT “micro-games” like in WarioWare, but full-fledged mini-games.
The game starts you out with a column and a single game. You will need to pass that game in order to unlock another new game in the column for you to play. Eventually once you move up the entire column you will unlock the next mini-game in the next row and then proceed up once again. To play a mini-game you will click its box, which will show you your status upon completion, as well as give you a description of how it’s played. When you complete a mini-game the box will also be surrounded by a border of either silver or gold.
Gold comes when you score high enough on a mini-game to get a “Superb” ranking. The ranks are “Superb”, “OK”, “Just OK”, and “Try Again”. You must not get the latter in order to pass and unlock the next game. In addition, once you pass a certain number of games you will unlock a “Remix” Mini-Game stage that combines all of the previous mini-games into on rapid-fire version, each with a different theme.
Here are a few examples of the first collection of mini-games and how you play them. This will give you a good idea of what the game is like while avoiding spoilers of later mini-games.
Built To Scale: This is the first mini-game you play. The game takes place in a factory where you are making boxes. In order to make a box you must flick a long peg through the holes on two square blocks as they come rolling down the conveyor built in front of you. The square blocks will roll down the conveyor built starting at opposite ends, and you must flick the peg when the square blocks meet each other at the middle. Flick correctly and you’ll shoot the peg into the square hole, creating a block. Of course, that isn’t the interesting part. The interesting part is that the blocks role down the conveyor built in tune to the music as they do “do-re-mi” you must flick the peg at “sol”. This actually means that you can play this game by ear, and using the sound effects of the do-re-mi-sol to figure out when to flick. During the actual mini-game the blocks will start rolling faster or slower in time with the music, and eventually your visuals will even be hampered . . . Although this is one of the first mini-games and one of the easiest, it is also one of the funnest. The game also has a cool visual style.
Glee Club: In this mini-game, you play the roll of a choir boy who must sing along with the other two choir boys next to you. What’s interesting about this game is that it is played by “holding” and releasing the stylus. Holding will keep your little boys mouth shut, while releasing will cause him to make a monotone yell that when combined with the pencil-outline look of the boys and the way the other two look at you out of the corner of their eyes provides a hilarious effect. This game is challenging, not only will you need to sing along to the music and rhythm of the other two singers, but you will also need to let out a scream every now and then by Flicking, in time with the instructor’s voice. Something that isn’t told to you during the demo.
Fill Bots: In this mini-game robots will be assembled to your right and then, once they are complete, come rolling down the conveyor built to their left. In the middle of the screen is a filling machine, when you tap the screen the machine will come down. If a robot is directly below it, you will attach and start filling that robot up (with color). The goal is to Hold only so long as the robot is filled completely but not overfilled or under-filled. Some robots will come down faster in time with the music, while you will also need to fill larger robots whose fill-time differs from the others. This game is simple and one of the easier ones.
Shoot-’Em-Up: This mini-game resembles Elite Beat Agents. In it you have a gun at the bottom of the screen that you can shoot by tapping the screen (it’ll shoot as fast as you tap). “Aliens” will appear on the screen in “beats” and then come at you. You must tap the screen in time with the alien’s beats, in order to shoot them all. Although the game isn’t necessarily hard, it is quite difficult to hit all of them, particularly if you aren’t so good at following a beat. This game is really fun and one of my favorites. Then again, I loved EBA as you can read in my Elite Beat Agents review.
Crop Stomp: The last game I’ll give an example of is Crop Stomp, one of the later games you will unlock on the third row. This game is also one of the more complex ones. In this game you are a farmer who will hum to himself as he “stomps” beets with his shoe, knocking them into the air. Stomping is performed by tapping in time to his humming. The beets will appear directly after each other in rows and sometimes will be sporadic. In addition to this, once you tap to stomp on them, they will fly into the air. You then must perfectly time a Flick in order to toss the Beets into the basket on the farmer’s back. So not only will you be tapping and flicking with abandon (but perfectly timed, of course) but you will also have to deal with moles. Although they are “stomped” up like Beets, the timing for “knocking them away” (as opposed to tossing them into your basket) is different and quicker than with the Beets. So once you stomp on a mole you must immediately Flick in order to knock it away.
As you progress in Rhythm Heaven the games will get more challenging and interesting. One of my major problems with the game however is that the demo often does not give you all the information. Oftentimes a certain aspect of completing the game successfully (usually performed by flicking) is left out. And you are left to your own to figure it out in order to successfully complete the mini-game. So unless players know to experiment with flicking on each game, they may be confused as to why they can’t pass a particular mini-game.
Thankfully though, you don’t have to pass ANY of the mini-games to unlock a new one. That is because if you fail three times, then Barista, the owner of the coffee shop which you can access by pressing the coffee icon on the bottom right corner of the mini-games screen, will allow you to simply skip passed the mini-game and onto the next. This is actually a great feature. Otherwise you would be stuck on a mini-game that you may not be able to pass, and would not be able to see what other fun games Rhythm Heaven has to offer.
Thankfully the game also has a number of unlockables for you to get by achieving Superb scores on mini-games. Doing so will earn you medals. You will also occasionally be able to go for a “Perfect” score on a mini-game which will unlock a song for that game in the Cafe. Harder version of certain mini-games will also become available as you progress in the game.
The Cafe is basically where you can kick back and play with other diversions from the mini-games or buy new ones. The game will even tell you to take a coffee break if you’ve been playing for too long.
In the Cafe you options of: Talking to Barista, Listening to Music, Reading Something and Practicing Flicking.
Talking to Barista will give you random information, music to listen to can be unlocked by achieving Perfect scores at certain points, while stuff to read can be unlocked by earning Medals or Achieving perfects (including lyric sheets to songs and character bios), finally the Practice Flicking section is basically a tutorial teaching you how to flick that you play when you first fire up the game.
In addition to the Cafe which appears in the bottom right-hand corner of the Mini-Games Screen, you can go to the Medals section by clicking the Medals button on the bottom left. Here you can buy “Endless Games”, “Rhythm Toys” and Guitar Lessons, which are all pretty much self-explanatory and simply fun extra games for you to play around with. These have no bearing on the main game and unlocking mini-games, and most are purchased with Medals. These are basically here to give you something to work towards by using the “points”, if you will, that you earn by completing mini-games. Which is really nice and helps to round out the package. If you need help to unlock all Rhythm Heaven songs, lessons and extra mini-games check out our guide.
Overall Rhythm Heaven is a fun and challenging game that anyone can pick up and play. However like all great games, it is very difficult to master. The cool thing about Rhythm Heaven is that everyone will have certain mini-games that they find easy and others that they will find hard. For this reason the game is great for casual players. And girls in particular seem to love it.
It’s interesting because from person to person, the mini-games one likes, doesn’t like, finds easy or finds challenging will likely differentiate, simply based on how some people are better at Rhythm than others.
For example there are a few games that I found nearly impossible, and others that were simply confusing. While others I beat on my first try. Often times however you will need to replay the games dozens of times before you are able to pass them. And some of them you may replay multiple times before you even “get” what you are supposed to do.
And therein both lies the beauty of Rhythm Heaven and the rub. Depending on the type of person you are, you will either get way into Rhythm Heaven, or you will find it as a nice distraction, but it won’t hold your interest.
I fall into the latter category, and like Elite Beat Agents before it, I can picture myself playing Rhythm Heaven for a long time to come. But you truly can’t tell until you give the game a try. In that case it makes a perfect rental. And for some, an easy purchase.
FUN FACTOR: 8.0
An excellent, fun, unique and crazy collection of mini-games based on rhythm. Everyone will have their own tastes, their own likes, their own dislikes, and their own opinion on the product as a whole. But either way you shake it, the game is a lot of fun for those who like these types of quick mini-games. And that definitely includes me.
Graphics: 8.0
Rhythm Heaven graphically is exactly what it needs to be. A range of styles, colorization and effects are used, and they differ drastically from one game to the other. But as you’d expect, much like the WarioWare series, a lot of times the graphics are very simple. But it all “fits” perfectly.
Music & Sound: 8.5
As a music game, the music and sound better be great. Rhythm Heaven’s is as perfectly quirky as you can get. Some audio bytes can be annoying and people may be turned off by it, but overall you can’t deny that it works well.
Ingenuity: 8.0
It is hard to make a mini-game collection in a way that hasn’t really been done before. But thanks to the emphasis on rhythm and the technique of Flicking the DS Stylus successfully in sync with the rhythm of the music, Nintendo has done just that.
Replay Value: 9.0
There are a ton of mini-games that range in difficulty, harder version, perfect scores to achieve. As well as quite a lot of Rhythm Heaven songs and lessons to unlock. If you get into this game, you will likely be playing for a long time.
19 May 2009 02:19Victor
This is fun! 
Based on what I’ve known, there are 10 sets of stages with 5 sub-stages per set. Each set consists of 4 original sub-stages and a final remix sub-stage that combines the mechanics of the previous sub-stages in a new visual context with new music. And in stages 7 and above, the game has second versions of most of the earlier stages with a higher difficulty level. Thrilling … 
Thanks for the comment Victor! It really is a great game. Somehow Nintendo did it again! 
I put the game up there with Elite Beat Agents as the best use of the DS and a game every DS owner should have in their library. 
