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.

Two of EA’s new IPs at once – very different, but both very enjoyable

Dead Space & Mirror’s Edge
I’m putting these titles together because I’m in a bit of a “try out EA’s new IPs” phase and I’m playing both games at once. I basically play Dead Space during the day and Mirror’s Edge at night. Right now, I’m really digging both games. Dead Space feels a lot like Bioshock in that there is obviously a huge backstory and you learn a lot of it through audio logs. I still think Rapture trumps the Ishimura in terms of an actual setting, but both games do a good job of setting up a creepy setting. Just like Bioshock though, I’m getting used to the scares in Dead Space so soon I’ll be able to play it whenever, ha.

I’m having a lot of fun with Mirror’s Edge as well. After I finished the first few chapters, I went back to 3-star one of the time trials. I definitely envision myself trying to get the 50-star rating for time trials, I enjoy punishing myself by replaying the same thing over and over again until I master it. The story seems like it’s going to be generic and short, but really I’m most excited about the time trials. As an added bonus, the music and art style are a real treat.

Halo Wars
This game is still taking up a lot of time for me. I STILL haven’t finished the single player achievements because I’ve been playing too much multiplayer. Now that my team’s skill levels are higher, we are batting about .500, win one lose one win one lose one. I’m interested if they really do a balance update, since I still feel that in general Covenant is at a bit of a disadvantage in the late game (although I plan on trying the Scarab + 5 engineers business!). Definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this title.

Rhythm Heaven (DS)
I blew through this game on the plane and am pretty much done with it although there is still a little fun to be had. Being out of town means I’m DS only right now, and between this game and Hatsworth I have my hands full (pun intended!). Once my hand got tired I wrote up a short review for Rhythm Heaven, so look for that later this week.

Flower (PS3)
I’m staying with a friend who owns a PS3 and I told him to go and download Flower back when it came out. He ended up hating it, so when I got here I finished the last 4 levels for him. The game is pretty fun, outside of one level it’s pretty relaxing and it looks beautiful in 1080p. I can see how this game isn’t for everyone, but for me it seems like a nice change of pace. If I owned a PS3 I probably would put a lot of time into this game unlocking all the trophies, some of them are pretty hard. Anyway, now that I’ve played it, I still recommend it!

Other Random Playstation 3 Miscellany
We’ve actually been playing a lot of games, so I also tried out the Rock Band 2 drums, which really are quite an upgrade, watched some NBA 2k9 (which scrolls realtime sports scores on the bottom, awesome), and played some Street Fighter. I must say the PS3 thumbstick was much easier to use for Street Fighter, it made me play a bit above my usual level. The PS3 really is a great system, but some of the menu things/friends list are a real turnoff for me just because I’m so used to the Xbox. I asked my friend how to drop back to the dash and he looked at me like I was taking crazy pills. But if it ever drops in price (significantly) maybe I’ll pick one up. I really want to play Fat Princess! (It seems like the type of game that would have worked better with the 360 community, but whatever).

Rhythm Heaven (DS) – I just started playing this game and I’m having a total blast. It’s so wacky and hilarious that I can’t help but love it. Unfortunately for me, the game really is about rhythm and my rhythm is terrible. I started writing about it here, but then realized I could write enough about it to give it its own impressions article. I will instead post it next week to give it its proper spotlight.

Halo Wars – Been spending most of my time on the multiplayer aspect of the game lately. What’s funny is that I’m discovering that 2v2 is the most difficult of the three types. Right now I’m 10 and 2 for 1v1 and I think I’m in the positive for 3v3, but I’m practically losing every 2v2 game I play in. I feel like for 1v1 I have a good feel for counters and strategy, so I can pretty much hold on my own against anyone, and 3v3 is usually about just massing. But 2v2 is a different beast altogether, because it incorporates some gameplay from both 1v1 and 3v3, but not completely so it’s difficult to figure out what to build. Plus it seems like all the good players are playing 2v2 or something! Oh well…I’m sure I’ll get better as I continue to play.

Ace Combat 6 -Oldie but I finally broke it out of its shrinkwrap since I was slightly interested in Tom Clancy’s HAWX game and told myself that I can’t pick that up until I at least beat Ace Combat 6. For those wondering, it very much is more of the same as its PS2 predecessors, for better of worse. I’ll get some detailed impressions out on it soon.

Street Fighter IV -Started tearing my way through the Challenges and playing my brother of and off. What’s interesting is that I’m starting to play other characters more nowadays, and I’m even starting to feel like Sagat is getting boring after coming back to him. But who knows how serious I’ll really get into this game. Still, I figure being able to use other characters will also at least allow me to get better at Street Fighter IV overall, since I’ll know more about how each character fights. I’m surprised though that I’ve almost logged 50 hours. The game is really good and keeps me coming back. That’s really rare for a fighting game these days.