The Rhythm series is developed by Nintendo and has been released on the handheld consoles for the past few years and the series has developed a strong following in Japan as well as in the United States ever since. The series is primarily made up of mini games that utilize hand eye coordination as well as the ability to pick up on a rhythm and press a button or button(s) in correlation with the beat of the music. Does the series hold up to the fun gameplay that its handheld predecessors contain or does it lack any and all Rhythm what so ever? Read on through for our review of Rhythm Heaven Fever.
Gameplay wise, Rhythm Heaven Fever is simple yet still interesting enough to keep players interested. When you fire up the game you are given a “Rhythm Test” that will orient you to the games controls and show you a very basic idea of what the levels the game contains are like. Initially you will only press one button at a time but as you advance and your skills get better you will unlock harder levels and challenges that will require you to press both the A and B buttons throughout the level in order to pass. When you finish a level you get a score based on your accuracy and if you did well enough you will unlock the next level or minigame. Additionally if you perform well enough you can earn medals that will be displayed on your level select screen.
Game Modes: Though when you first boot up the game it may not look like the game has much to offer Rhythm Heaven actually has tons of different modes, in fact the entire game is actually made up of Mini Games (there are 50 in all from what I have read) that you will unlock as you get better. There are games ranging from Golfing to games and a mini game based around building robots to my personal favorite one involving a crazy masked Pro Wrestler; so as you can probably tell there is definitely a lot of variety throughout the game. The game does suffer here a bit though in that first of all to start you only have one game unlocked and though it is easy to unlock the next one, if you aren’t particularly good at the game you may get bored at being forced to play the same mini games over and over for a while. Another fault is that at its core every game essentially is the same (you mash buttons to the beat) but usually the music and scenery are so unique to each level that they keep you interested. I am not going to try and claim that I am good enough at rhythm games to have unlocked everything but from what I have seen unless you are pretty good at this type of game it will take you a little while to unlock everything.
Multiplayer is really in my opinion the only weak point to the game and this is for a couple of key reasons. First of all there is no online just 2 person player vs player multiplayer and while I am not a big online player in 2012 online multiplayer is something that just about any game that has a multiplayer element should have. Another drawback to the multiplayer is that you can’t play every minigame in fact the selection is very limited.
Graphically Rhythm Heaven may not be the prettiest game out there compared to some other Nintendo titles but it does a pretty good job compared to other Rhythm and music games. The graphics are cartoon like and have just about every color you can imagine though it definitely tries to keep things bright and lively which is nice to look at and also adds a challenge as the pretty cartoons can distract you from listening to the beat. Each level is set in a unique and different area so the graphics do not repeat a lot which makes every level a little different appearance wise. The graphics were definitely made with kids in mind but adults will find them interesting and unique as well.
Audio is where the game truly shines and you can definitely tell it is an area where Nintendo puts a big emphasis on in any of its games but especially here. The music is fun and entertaining as well as catchy which makes the levels fly by (and if you are like me and not too good at these games then it makes failing the levels a little less painful). Each levels music is unique and has a sound all its own so it is nice to see that they didn’t simply recycle the same sounds and tweak them a little for every level.
Overall Rhythm Heaven is a great first foray into the home console market for the series as it shows of all of the things that are loved about the handheld entries to the series and serves as a great foundation for future entries to the series. Some things I’d like to see added in the future are online multiplayer, perhaps do something with motion (IE moving the remote in addition to pressing buttons) for advanced levels, and maybe have more mini games available at the start (even if its just 2-3) in order to give new players more variety as they get used to the controls. Rhythm Heaven is a great game for everyone looking for just a fun game, ranging from kids whose parents want to use the game to teach them about rhythm and hand/eye coordination to the people who love the music/rhythm game genre in general and are looking for something new and different from the Rockband/Guitar Hero games why have been done to death the last few years. I would advise anyone who is interested in this genre (or maybe anyone who is just curious about it) to give this game a try at the very least.
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