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Overview

We (as in the "West") never got the "original" Rhythm Heaven (Rhythm Tengoku) but we did get its sequel, Rhythm Tengoku Gold as Rhythm Heaven (or Rhythm Paradise as it was known in Europe). While that's a bummer, Rhythm Heaven is still an innovative title with some of the quirks of the original ironed out and stands on its own. (Besides, there's nothing you really need to know before this game). It was released back in 2009, around the time when the WarioWare series was in decline but still had the special uniqueness and quirkiness that made the first few WarioWare games a joy to play.

Review

The way Rhythm Heaven works, much like its predecessor, is that there's pieces of music and animation that you have to tap along to at the right beats (or in this case, tapping, holding, and flicking with your DS stylus—to play the game, you hold the DS sideways like a book), and then after the song plays you're judged on how well you did. Well, initially I was quite terrible at it, but I improved somewhat, though some games still pose a difficulty for me. I was okay with the first game, "Built to Scale", but that's one of the easiest ones.

Some of the songs, however, are quite...touchy, in a different sense. "Moai Doo-Wop" is notorious for this, but others I just can't get the timing on ("Freeze Frame"...it's three beats and then three taps, but I've never been able to do it well).

Other than some rather lackluster localized voice acting, there's nothing I can really say that's especially bad about it. I should try to play it again.

Player Notes

I originally bought this in late 2018 during a pretty rough period of my life. I wouldn't say it helped me through it but it did distract a bit from the pain. Since then I've picked it up a few times including 2019 but I've never been able to master it.

Port & Rerelease Notes

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