Review: Rhythm Heaven
There are good games and then there are the types of games that can only be described as infectious. These are the games that crawl their way into your subconscious and force you to look at the things around you a little bit differently, even if just for a moment. While I'm sure that a lot of people find this kind of experience in major releases like Gears of War or Killzone, these experiences feel so unrelatable to me for a variety of reasons. For a game to really reach me there has to be some real world connection in some form or another. While the quirky scenarios featured in Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven may not reflect my life directly on the surface (I don't work in a robot factory), the sense of rhythm the game drew out of me was something so unique that it made me see musical qualities in simple, everyday activities. It may not make some sort of deep, metaphorical comment on the meaning of life, but it never aims to anything more than a delightful experience that puts a smile on the player's face and does so in spades.
It's easy look at a basic description of Rhythm Heaven shrug it off as a musical WarioWare-wannabe, and for all intensive purposes that may not be an inaccurate description of the gameplay, but glosses over the subtle differences that make this game a whole other beast. The structure of the Rhythm Heaven is very similar Wario's own minigame collections. Each stage you get introduced to a handful of minigames that are played individually at first so the player gets a chance to master the base mechanics. Each individual test lasts two or three minutes, and usually involve using a single gameplay concept (i.e. hold for X number of beats, "Simon says" tapping, etc.).
After passing each individual test, players are presented with a special "remix" stage. Since their inception, there has always been music-rhythm games that attempt to include traditional "boss" experiences but none of them come off as well executed as the remix stages in this game. In a remix stage, the player runs through a song made up of all the individual tests of that stage in a quick fire smashup. Instead of feeling like a disjointed cluster of sound, these stages feel like real songs with each element complimenting the sound. The sensation of playing through one of these stages and mastering it is one that is rewarding as "five-starring" a song in Rock Band without the tedium.
Each individual tests and remix stage is evaluated with a perfect/great/ok/fail grade that starts in a forgiving manner and escalates with the player naturally. At no point during the game did I feel as though I was wondering into a Dance Dance Revolution inspired domain of never ending difficulty spikes, nor did I feel that any of the tests got too monotonous or too easy.
If there were two very small complaints I had with Rhythm Heaven, the first would be the game's "vocals." In a handful of instances, some of the songs that the player performs will include lyrics. I'm not sure if it's because the voice samples are so compressed, if something was lost in translation, or they are just plain bad, but I found myself wanting to mute them. For a quick point of comparison, I returned to my import copy of Rhythm Heaven (the import-only GBA title) and was a little more forgiving to the Japanese vocals. While the vocals/lyrics didn't detract from the experience too much, I can see why someone might be inclined to plunk down some extra cash and seek out the Japanese original. Also, those looking for a game to play on a commute or traditional "out of the home" handheld gaming environment may want to play at home before taking it on the road. On a positive note, playing with headphones on a recent plane ride didn't give me any troubles.
Even with that said, I cannot help but recommend Rhythm Heaven to nearly everyone with a DS. It's an experience that is so full of life and joyful that it's hard to resist its incredible charm. Quirks and all, this is a quality title that exudes class from beginning to end.
9 out of 10
Game-Boy
Posted to Reviews, Video Games on 6 April 2009
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: ds, dsi, hot stuff, music, nintendo, reviews, rhythm heaven
AUGH! Grammar police. "all INTENTS and purposes." You just made my head explode.
This guy is right about the English vocals. They are simply put, terrible and a pain to listen to.
This game is 100% fine in Japanese even if you don't know a lick of it you will have no trouble playing this game. The import copy sells for around $30 - $35 in Japan, so after shipping, you aren't paying much more than if you bought it in the U.S.
Versions of both English and Japanese vocals can be found on you-tube
Give Ebay or Play-Asia a try for the import version. You'll be glad you did.
I said it before and now I will say it again: The game works in japanese way better!
Anyways, I liked the GBA-one mmore, but the DS-version is a fine thing as well.
I can't grasp the mechanics of this game... Maybe I don't have rhythm at all =[
I played the demo for it on my DS, and sure enough I did think it was a less funny, less fun rhythm-based Wario Ware Wannabe.
And I have the same sentiments as everyone else about the English voices.