Platform: DS
Players: 1
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Before I begin the review, here’s a disclaimer: this may be a music game, but I will stick to the normal end-of-review format, instead of judging setlist and somesuch. This goes above and beyond Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and is in no way a simulation of any usical instrument. Well, later on you get to play with a guitar. But never mind…..
These bloody music games always get to all the other countries before getting to poor old Australia. Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Rock Band 2, Rhythm Tengoku….Maybe it’s beause not a lot of good music’s come out of here, and not a lot goes in except for what comes on our so-called “friendly” radio stations. In any case, Australia is musically cursed.
But I’m ranting on about Australia when I should be talking about Rhythm Heaven. So, yeah, it’s a game on the DS where you poke, prod and flick your trusty stylus about the screen to sing, dance, plant food, play ping-pong, rock, punch, kick and even love! Aww!
It’s all obviously musically oriented. The games mostly involve rapidly tapping and occasionly flicking on cue to fulfill other music cues, such as a snare or crash hit in a rock song, or a loud trumpet blast, or vibrant vocal part. Every different game in Rhythm Heaven manages to almost be completely different, despite only having two or three possible functions for any game.
The game operates on a regular stage system. Beat one game, move on to the next. Beat 4 games,and you’ll get a remix of the past 4 games. Do that to unlock another tier. Pretty simple.
The game is looooong! Just when you think you’re done and the credits start rolling, you get another 4 tiers. After that, you get a Battle of the Bands. When you try to play that, you need to beat the guitar minigames. When you try to unlock those, you realise you need medals. To get medals, you need to do almost perfectly in a game. To get a “Superb” rank, you need to practice. Whew!
When getting your groove on has deadly effects on your spine…
Other extras in the game include the coffee shop, where you can talk to a barista and have him skip tough games for you, listen to music, read a funny letter, or practice the all-important flick. To get the music and funnies, you need to perfect a music game when it tells you to. You have to have gotten a rank of “Superb” first to get the opppurtunity.
Endless games and rhythm toys include punching a bag to create a beat, tapping wine glasses, moving through a dungeon, and more which will spoil the fun if I tell you. To get all of these, you need medals which you get by moving the cursor up a bit…
There are a few points at which this game almost crashes and burns,a dn the most important one is this:when you design a game meant for kids and newbies to music, you don’t make the first game one of the hardest and most unpredictable, and then pretend it never happened by making the next few super-easy. You just don’t.
The other major flaw is that sometimes the game’s flick mechanics become stupis. No. In fact, they are stupid to start with. For a flick to count, you must move the stylus and then take it off the screen. In games about precision, you’ll either time it wrong, or forget to take the pen off, meaning it didn’t happen.
Frustration abound, but you should get this game if you need more music to sink your teeth into. And there’s a lot of music made specifically for long teeth. Which is okay.
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Difficulty: 6/10
Pure Fun: 9/10
Glitch Factor: 8/10
Length: 10/10
Total: 8/10
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