Rhythm Heaven Review

Honestly? I never expected Rhythm Heaven to come out in the United States. Its predecessor–a game known as Rhythm Tengoku on the GameBoy Advance–never came our way. Now, part of that was simply down to timing; it hit in Japan as the GBA was on its way out in favor of the DS, and by the time it had gone through localization and planning for a release over here it would have been even later to the party.

There was another reason that it ended up becoming a must-have import title and not a game given to the whole world, however; the game was very Japanese.

Crafted by the same team that had given us WarioWare, Rhythm Tengoku was a new submission to the rhythm/music gaming genre, and felt, not surprisingly, like what you might expect if the team that had given us WarioWare crafted a new submission to the rhythm/music gaming genre. WarioWare’s micro-games were traded for mini-games, as a whole series of unique gaming ideas were based around rhythmic timing and pieced together to craft a surprisingly coherent whole. One game might have you hitting the A button to help a batter stuck in a room floating in outer space hit tossed baseballs in time to the music; another had you tap-dancing on stage with a pair of monkeys.

Rhythm Tengoku’s style and silliness were very Japanese in nature, but even more, a number of the games were specifically Japanese either in regard to the kind of music they relied on or overall cultural elements that might not fully be appreciated by a Western audience (at least one that had no real knowledge of such things). Some companies might feel that these elements would add a charm to be appreciated by a more niche market, but a company like Nintendo typically thinks on much larger scales. For a game that already had timing going against it, a lot of work would have had to go in to Rhythm Heaven in order to make it Western-friendly; work that probably, at that point, simply wasn’t justifiable.

While Rhythm Tengoku was sadly under-appreciated in its home country, its sequel, Rhythm Tengoku Gold, has been completely the opposite. (The game was originally released in July of last year, and as of the last weekly sales data for Japan, RTG was the 22nd best selling game for the week. That’s a game with long legs sales-wise.) Though it still retained the charm and simplicity of the original Rhythm Tengoku, this new DS version not only had a more polished and appealing look and feel, but also a more universally-friendly one. Even so, I still had this deep down feeling that it would end up joining the “lost cause” club along with other Nintendo titles like Mother 3 and Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland.

Well, here I am, proven wrong, and thank heaven I was. Nintendo announced the North American release of Rhythm Tengoku Gold—retitled Rhythm Heaven for our shores—and the game was released to the masses yesterday.

For this next part, let me break you folks out there down into two groups: the “have”s and the “have-not”s. I know, that may conjure up feelings of class superiority, but for our case, it’ll deal with those who have the Japanese release Rhythm Tengoku Gold, and those who will be coming to Rhythm Heaven with unbiased eyes. I promise you: in this case, there are no losers.

So, first, the have-nots. Why should you care about Rhythm Heaven? Do you have to like those wacky music games in order to appreciate it? Because it’s worth caring about, and no. Rhythm Heaven is a perfect example of the fun that video games can offer us in its simplest and purest form, and is undeniably one of the best DS titles ever to see release in that regard. WarioWare was a collection of quick challenges so basic in nature that anybody could accomplish them, but they were presented in a way that wasn’t friendly to everybody. Many games required you to attempt them before you even grasped the concept of what you were attempting, and stringing such tasks together in rapid succession always felt more like a game only for people who play games.

With Rhythm Heaven, interaction with the included challenges is still relatively simple; a tap of the touch screen, a held tap, or a flick of the stylus in a particular direction. Now, however, you’re invited to progress through what you’re presented at your own pace, instead of being asked to keep up no matter if you can actually do so. Every game in Rhythm Heaven starts with a detailed tutorial on what will be expected from you, and if you don’t get it right the first time, you just keep practicing until you do. Once a particular game is completely, you choose what happens next; either you go on to the next challenge, you replay what you just finished, or you can go back to that game you’ve already completed that still has its music stuck in your head.

What makes Rhythm Heaven the amazing experience that it is is that it is easily one of the best collections of mini-games that I can bring to mind. Just the words “mini-games” conjure up thoughts of collections of bite-sized concepts were a few are classics, a couple are enjoyable, but most are average at best. Heck, even with projects as carefully crafted as Mario Party, you’ll inevitably have some included mini-games that just don’t stand up so well over repeated play sessions. What Rhythm Heaven has accomplished, possibly even better than its GBA predecessor (a game I absolutely treasure), is developing concepts that would truly be enjoyable when played over and over and then seeing those concepts to fruition.

That step takes something really special–personality–and this is the key to Rhythm Heaven. Tapping in time to the music, stopping and starting the beat with the touch of your stylus, these are ideas that become lively or lifeless all dependent on the presentation. Every game in Rhythm Heaven doesn’t just have its own visual style and cast of characters, it has its own soul.

One of the games we are presented–“Big Rock Finish”–has you flicking the stylus up repeatedly in order to pull off a series of “big finishes” for a rock concert at which you are a guitarist. A ghost guitarist. Your bandmates? Ghosts as well. The drummer is overweight, and the lead singer wears glasses. The stage on which this mini concert is taking place is actually a table somewhere, and noting the size of the dinnerware, our ghost band actually seems to be a group of pint-sized spooks. Why exactly is this ghost band so tiny anyhow?

Details like that are what make Rhythm Heaven what it is. All of these games, which often may last a minute or so, or maybe less, exist in their own worlds, worlds crafted with only a minimal amount of graphics and sounds yet which convey so many things. Had this been a different game from a different company, Big Rock Finish would have had an awkwardly-crafted CG character with a standard-issue emo attitude and a guitar no doubt cover in flames or skulls or whatever. None of the elements of our ghost band are needed for the game they occupy; on a totally functional level, it could function without them. But we want them there; we want a reason to care.

Gameplay that seems so simple yet offers depth; audio and visuals that seem so simple yet offer personality. Those two elements create an experience in Rhythm Heaven that simply can’t be matched by so many other games. Yes, it will give you challenge if you want it, as simply clearing each game is only a temporarily solution until you go back to gold, and then perfect each. (Trust me, that is a challenge even longtime gamers will not find so easy.) But Rhythm Heaven can truly be enjoyed by everyone, and those who will have the most fun with what it has to offer are those who ask nothing from the game but the chance to relax, play a couple challenges, and have a smile put on their face.

No, I haven’t forgotten the “have”s out there, and I know what you’re asking: how well did Rhythm Tengoku Gold survive the translation to Rhythm Heaven? Pretty well, for the most part. Nearly nothing about the actual gameplay was touched, with the exception of a few small tweaks, such as the change in the outer-space soccer lifting game of the command to kick the ball from being a stylus swipe to a tap. (I’ve always been a tad iffy on the swipe controls in the game–a lot of them have felt completely unnecessary. So, this change was nothing but positive for me.)

Musically is where the major changes happened, as, not at all surprising, the tracks that originally featured Japanese lyrics now feature English ones. Here, I am happy (and relieved) to say that things went great for the most part, as we have been given songs in English that truly feel like they live up to their Japanese counterparts. “Most part”, I note, because two songs sadly did not fare so well, and what makes things worse is that they were my favorite songs in the original Rhythm Tengoku Gold. Pop Idol (now “Fan Club”) and Box Show (now “The Dazzles”) both have a female English-speaking singer that comes off with such a lack of enthusiasm in her voice that she sounds as if she lost a bet and had to sing these songs as her punishment. This problem is compounded by some very questionable lyrical choices for the English versions of these two songs. I also feel blasphemous for saying that, because the problem is the lyrics are too literal in their translation–and this comes from somebody who often wishes translations had been more literal. The problem here is that words and phrases are being sung in English that do not at all sound like they would be coming from the lips of an English speaker; our struggling pop idol’s cute catchphrase “kamo~ne” is now belted out as the somewhat awkward “I suppose”.

I am to understand that Tsunku, the infamous Japanese music producer that also handled both Japanese Rhythm Tengoku games, oversaw the songs as they were re-recorded in English. Part of me found this to be impossible, until I remembered that if there is one thing Morning Musume audition specials have taught J-pop followers, it is that Tsunku’s idea of what a “good” singer sounds like can sometimes border on the utterly insane.

Seriously; these two songs come off depressingly lame in English, and the importance of music to a music-based rhythm game is a little hard to ignore. Two hiccups in what is otherwise a completely fabulous game, however, are just that; two hiccups. I would have liked Rhythm Heaven’s English-language debut to have been 100% jawsomeness, but instead, it’s more like 97% jawesome, and really, that ain’t bad. If you own a DS, and you don’t own Rhythm Tengoku Gold, then you need to own Rhythm Heaven. I guess, you know, unless you hate things like “fun” and “happiness” and “joy”.

If you own the original Japanese version, you’ll either appreciate the ability to finally understand everything that’s going on, or you’ll find the English version to be just slightly less charming. Either way, if you do have an import copy sitting on your shelf, consider supporting the game’s North American release; especially since, maybe, just maybe, if the DSi ends up having some sort of “virtual handheld” set-up of its own, good sales for Rhythm Heaven may convince Nintendo of America to finally try giving the original Rhythm Tengoku a shot.

S Special	What makes Rhythm Heaven the amazing experience that it is is that it is easily one of the best collections of mini-games that I can bring to mind. Pair that with a plethora of fantastic music and ample amounts of charm, and this is one of my favorite titles to hit Nintendo's dual-screened handheld.
Rhythm Heaven was reviewed using review code, physical copies, or hardware provided by Nintendo. Scores are graded on a scale of E (Bad) to S (Special) in homage to Japanese video game grading scales, with the understanding that an S still does not denote a "perfect" score. Scores may have been adjusted from the original source to better fit my personal scale.