Should you get this game? “Yeah yeah yeah!”
Seeing as how I’ve spent the last four hours on a plane unlocking (almost) everything in the game, I figure I owe Rhythm Heaven a quick review. As espion4ge said in his impressions, Rhythm Heaven is a rhythm game filled with a bunch of mini-games. It kind of reminds of Warioware, Inc., one of my favorite Game Boy Advance games, not only because it has mini-games but due to the presentation and progression as well. There are a few things I have problems with, but all in all Rhythm Heaven is well worth the price of admission.
Why should you get this game?
If you own a DS and have enjoyed rhythm games such as Ouendan! (Elite Beat Agents in the United States), Rhythm Heaven will be right up your alley. All told there are 24 main “songs” that are broken up into short two minute mini-games. They are broken up into six groups, and after you have finished all the songs in a group you unlock a “remix” of songs that proves to be the most enjoyable part of the game. Part of the fun is figuring out exactly what the game wants you to do and matching the beats and rhythms.
After you beat the 24 main songs and 6 remixes, you’ve technically beat the game and the credits roll. It’s not the end though, and for me that was where the real fun began. After the credits the game unlocks hard versions of the main songs which are a lot more challenging (and a lot more fun). Better yet, you start unlocking super remixes that include more than four songs. The absolute pinnacle of greatness happens when you play the 10th remix, a compilation of half of the songs in the entire game. It’s like a mega mix, and I loved it.
On top of all of this there are a bunch of unlockables. You can get a gold medal on each song, challenges pop up asking you to “perfect” a song (incredibly stressful even on the easy ones), and you unlock various goodies and the soundtrack to the game. You also unlock “guitar lessons”, which have you playing along with the songs from the game. The only mode I haven’t unlocked is the “Battle of the Bands” mode, my hand started getting that feeling you get when you’ve been taking a standardized test for hours and I needed a break.
For some games I found it easier to look away from the screen and just feel the rhythm
What could have been improved in the game?
Some of the menu interfaces are a little janky in the game. For example, every time you complete a song, whether you pass it or not, it spits you back out to the main menu. Why not just have a simple “retry” option? You can’t restart in the middle of the song either, you either have to quit to the main menu or play through. Another annoying thing is the fact that you only unlock one song at a time. If you’re stuck on something, you are stuck for good until you figure it out or someone else figures it out for you. It would have been nice to have at least two options, but the game will only unlock one song at a time. I can see younger kids getting frustrated and putting the game down altogether, which would be a shame. I never got to the point where I had to throw my DS at the wall, but some of the hard versions of songs took me 12-15 tries.
Another potential problem that should be mentioned, though I didn’t personally mind, is the need to “guess” what the game wants you to do. Either you have to sit through a slow and boring tutorial, or you have to guess your way through each mini-game. To me that was part of the fun, but a couple games got pretty annoying. It’s definitely not as intuitive as Warioware, which is a shame.
Final Thoughts
The funny thing about my plane ride was that I was playing Rhythm Heaven right next to a kid who was playing Guitar Hero: On Tour on his DS. I wanted to tell him that I was playing the far superior game, but that probably would have been mean. Hopefully he took a peek and liked what he saw! Also, now that I’ve typed that paragraph out loud I’m kinda embarrassed. Oh well.
I give the game an A-. All the songs are catchy, but some are catchy in a bad way, and the menu issues frustrated me enough that I had to drop the score. I blew through this game in two days though which should tell you how addicting it is. If you own a DS and like music/rhythm games, you should get this game immediately. Guitar Hero: On Tour got nothing on this.
i think if you get stuck on a particular game, the barista lets you skip that particular game and continue. but the game is still pretty hard, i can still see people getting frustrated, even if it is really fun.
i’m having a lot of fun with the game, and it’s funny how i only got interested in the game after i saw the beyonce commercial. i thought it was funny when she imitated the glee club, and it looked like she was genuinely having fun, even if she wasn’t actually playing it correctly.
yay, marketing does work.
I just saw the commercial on the plane! Till then I hadn’t seen it at all. Also, I had no idea the barista let you skip songs. Instead I chose to bend the game to my will to succeed. Haha. Anyway, thanks for the tip!